Agricultural Sector Playing Crucial Role to National Economic Dev’t : PM Abiy
The agricultural sector has been playing crucial role for the overall economic development of Ethiopia, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said.
The premier made the remark in his response to queries raised from the members of House of People’s Representatives in their 4th regular session today.
In his briefings regarding Ethiopia’s economic situation, the PM noted that the nation has registered a 6.4 percent of economic growth during the concluded fiscal year in which the agriculture takes the lion’s share.
The premier mentioned various development activities being undertaken to strengthen the agriculture by exerting efforts to tap the available resources of the sector.
In this regard, he said wheat farming activities are very much encouraging stressing the need to expand this experiences into other potential crops too.
According to him, the country has now been working to strengthen the production of rice, maize and fruits beyond its domestic needs, he added.
The nation has now giving a great deal of attention to the production of rice as the Ethiopia imports rice despite the nation has vast potential to harvest rice by its own, the premier stated.
The premier said that during the previous Ethiopian fiscal year the nation had imported 5 million quintals of rice.
However, this fiscal year, the nation expects 8 million quintals of rice from Amhara, Oromia and South Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ regional states.
This demonstrates the fact that Ethiopia has the potential to substitute rice import by strengthening domestic productions and even start export.
Ethiopia has also been able to harvest maize beyond its domestic demand, he added.
Furthermore, the nation has planted 4.7 billion new coffee seedlings to increase the coffee production of the country, he said noting that this fiscal year Ethiopia planned to produce 20 percent higher coffee than the previous year.
Ethiopia is also working to export fruits to international market as it has been able to register encouraging results in the sector.
If the current efforts strengthend further with in collaboration with all partners, it is possible to make Ethiopia a breadbasket, he said.
It is to be recalled that Ethiopia is making preparations to export wheat to international market starting from this year. The wheat harvest, Ethiopia expects by early July 2023 will surpass a record 160 million quintals.
The produce is expected to bring much needed relief for the country that shells out between 700 million and a billion USD every year for the purchase of wheat from the international market.
Source: Ethiopia News Agency