Horticultural Crops Production in Ethiopia

Girma Abera Jibat

Associate Research Officer/Horticulture Research Division, Oromiya Agricultural Research Institute Introduction

Ethiopia is a country located in the east of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Kenya in the south, Somalia, in the east, Djibouti in the north east, Eritrea in the north and Sudan in the west and north west. The country is one of the largest in area coverage and population holdings (65 million). Ethiopia experienced wide altitudinal variations from 1000 to 3000m. There is also wide climatic variations like high rain fall areas in the central, western, southern and south western parts of the country, though there is only two distinct seasons dry and rainy seasons which is common to tropical counters of the of the world. To the contrary, there are dry or arid areas in the northern, north eastern and eastern parts of the country. The country is governed by Federal State System, where the President, Prime Minster and Parliamentary System are the ruling system. Under this system the country is decomposed into nine Regional States operating. There are more than 100 ethnic groups in the country; as a result more than 100 languages are spoken in different localities of the country. Nevertheless, it is one national language called Amharic is used for the Federal State and for some regional states, while some other regions also have their own regional official language used for operating in their respective regions. Agriculture is the main stay of Ethiopian economy, contributing 50% share in the gross domestic product (GDP). About 85% of the population is engaged in agriculture; about 75% of the Ethiopias industry is engaged in processing of farm products (Yohannes, 1991). From the total area in the country, 69% is estimated to be suitable for agricultural purposes. The

potential for irrigation in Ethiopia is estimated to be about two million hectares. Due to limited experience in water management and control, limited capital available for investment and the diverse climate and disease vectors characteristics of the lowland areas (where most irrigation potential is located), irrigated agriculture is far below its potential. Thus production is heavily dependent on rainfall and uses little capital and technology. Consequently, the average productivity of both land and labour is extremely low and variable from season to season. Despite these favourable resource endowments, agricultural production has remained mostly close to subsistence level (Solomon, 1989). Horticultural crops are rich in vitamins, carbohydrates and other nutrients that contribute to a major portion to an Ethiopian daily dish mix. Some nutritional deficiencies like vitamin A and C, and iron can be corrected by use of selected vegetable and root crops as well as fruits. In some areas of the country, root crops particularly potatoes and sweet potatoes are used as staple food for considerable portion of the population. Root crops in general and sweet potato in particular are drought resistant and serve as security food crops in drought prone areas. Further more, vegetables and root crops generate foreign currency earnings in the country. Horticultural crops play a significant role in developing country like Ethiopia, both in income and social spheres for improving income and nutrition status. In addition, it helps in maintaining ecological balance since horticultural crops species are so diverse. Further, it provides employment opportunities as their management being labour intensive, production of these commodities should be encouraged in labour abundant and capital scarce countries like Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a country with great variety of climate and soil types that can grow diversity of horticultural crops for home consumption and foreign markets. Currently, the majority of the horticultural crops product comes from the peasant smallholder farms. However, their areas of production and their contribution to the country's total agricultural output were not known much. Based on the survey per capital consumption of the annual fresh production assorted vegetables is about 2.86 million tons. From the total

volume of horticultural products 95% is fresh vegetable production. There is no processing of vegetables in the peasant smallholder farm. Production of canned and bottled vegetables is mainly in the Ministry of State Industry (MSI) and Ministry of State Farm (MSF). Table 1. Meteorological data of some Ethiopian towns.
Town Addis Ababa Latitude 09O02 Longitude 38O44 Altitude (m) 2408 Average annual RF (mm) 1179.6 Average daily Temp. (OC) 17.35

Bahir Dar Debere Zeit Dire Dewa Jimma Bako

II. Production

11 36 08O44 09O45 07O39 09O06

37 25 38O58 41O52 36O50 37O09

1802 1850 1160 1740 1650

1393 800.1 638.70 1477 1244

20.4 20.15 24.65 20.1 20.6

Horticultural crop production in Ethiopia is scattered through out the country on patches of land in peasant smallholder farm. Whereas large scale production and processing of fruits and vegetables is carried out only by state organisations, predominantly by the Horticulture Development Corporation (HDC), which has been carrying out production and marketing development activities since 1980 (Yohannes, 1992). This commercial production is concentrated in theeastern parts of the country, rift valley areas. Horticultural crops production in the peasant sector is under mixed crop-livestock farming system. Cultivation of land is made traditionally either by means of labour or draft animals. Horticultural crops production of individual peasant farm is mainly for self-sufficiency in food and income. Nevertheless, state organization and currently few private sectors get their land mechanised for commercial purposes.

Ethiopia has a variety of fruits, leafy vegetables, roots and tubers adaptable to specific locations and altitudes (Table 2). The major producers of

horticultural crops are small scale farmers, production being mainly rain fed and few under irrigation. Shallot, garlic, potatoes and chillies are mainly produced under rain fed conditions. Tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, beetroot, cabbage, spinach and swiss chard are usually restricted to areas where irrigation water is available. Table 2. Recommended root crops and vegetables varieties in different production areas, 1983 - 2002. Crop type Varity Yield Altitude (t/ha) (m.a.s.l) Onion Red Creole 19.8 1700-2200 Bombay red 14.0 1700-2200 Tomato Marglobe 27.7 500-2200 Mney maker 24.6 1700-2200 Roma VF 31.4 500-2200 Cabbage Copenhagen 27.5 500-3000 Early drum head 15.8 500-1700 Cauliflower Glacier 21.6 1700-3000 Beet root Cross by Egyptian 24.8 500-3000 Detroit dark-red 20.58 500-3000 Swiss chard Long white ribbed 31.0 1700-3000 Ford hook grant 15.9 500-1700 Carrot Nates 21.0 500-3000 Chantey 24.7 500-3000 Pepper Bakolocal 20 1400-1900 Marekofana 30 1400-2200 Sweet potato Koka 12 13.95 1400-1800 White star 13.39 1400-1800 Cemsa (Bako) 22.16 1400-1800 Cemsa (Awassa) 24.32 1400-1800 Koka 18 28.7 1400-1800 375 24.96 1400-1800 AJAC-1 23.27 1400-1800 Tis1499 21.98 1400-1800 Awassa-83 20.7 mid and highland

Ethiopia has got an immense potential to develop intensive horticulture on small scale as well as on commercial scale. Some of the favourable factors that contribute to an over all investment are: 1. Proximity to lucrative markets, 2. Agro-climatic suitability and rich water resources for diversified irrigated agriculture, 3. Growth/rise of demand for horticultural crops, particularly in urban areas, 4. Diversified agro-climatic conditions that facilitate the diversification of the crops, 5. The high productivity of horticultural crops as compared to cereals, 6. Export possibilities of these crops are very encouraging and 7. If fully exploited, these crops are highly remunerative and would be undoubtedly help to improve the standard of living of small scale resources poor farmers.

Despite an enormous potential and a favourable environmental and Socioeconomic advantage, horticulture is relatively under developed. The margin of the current achievements, in terms of area and out put is a small development compared to the possible level that can be attained. The average annual area coverage and the estimated annual production level are as given below (Semeret, 1992).

Table 3. Average annual area coverage and estimated annual production level of horticultural crops. Crop type Area (ha) Production (tonnes) Vegetables Roots Potatoes Sweet potatoe Others Total 90,000 150,000 70,000 40,000 10,000 360,000 6,700,000 15,200,000 7,200,000 4,000,000 800,000 23,900,000

Table 4. Recommended and released potato varieties for different agro ecological adaptation. Center of release Al-1 Alemaya Al-100 Alemaya Al-148 Aelmaya Al-560 Alemaya Al-624 Alemaya Bedasa Alemaya Chiro Alemaya Digemegn Holetta Gorebela Adet Guwassa Sheno Jallene Holetta Menagesha Holetta Tolcha Holetta Wechecha Holetta Zemen Alemaya Zengena ADet Key: NM=not mentioned *=On -station recorded yield Variety Year of release NM NM NM NM 1987 2001 1997 2002 NM NM 2002 1993 1993 1997 2001 2001 Yield* (t/ha) 8-10 30-40 25-30 30-40 30-40 40.59 32-40 46.7 30.1 24.4 44.8 27 33.1 21.8 37.18 30-35 Altitude (m.a.s.l) 1500-2500 1500-2500 1500-2500 1500-2500 1500-2500 1700-2000 1600-2000 1600-2800 2700-3200 2240-2630 1600-2800NM NM NM 1700-2000 200-2800 Rain fall (mm) 700-900 700-900 700-900 700-900 700-900 700-800 700-800 NM NM NM NM NM NM NM 700-800 1000-1500

Compared to the annual average area and the yield obtained from the food crops, the share of horticultural crops is 10% and 34% respectively, calculated on the basis of annual average estimate of 600 million kilograms from total food crops harvested in the year; the incompatibility of the percentages 10 versus 34 is owing to the high rate of productivity of the horticultural crops as compared to the food crops.

III. Seasonality of supply

Since most vegetables are grown under rain fed conditions the supply fluctuates seasonally. The season of lowest vegetable supply is the main rainy season between June to mid September when also prices are the highest. Between October and January there are moderate supply of fresh vegetables but starts to rise in February and reaches its peak level in April and May.
IV. Packing, transport and storage

The loss of vegetables between production and consumption is estimated to be 25-35%. The purpose of packing, transport and storage is to mitigate the post harvest loss gap between producer and consumer , and or reduce the time interval between harvesting and consumption. The peasants have no storage facilities at their disposal and the products they harvest are usually exposed to the influence of the weather until they are collected by the end users. The trade also does not operate any intermediate storage system for carrying ever supply to obtain better prices. In general several types of transportation means are used to market horticultural crops. These include the human labour, donkeys, mules, some public transport, rented pickups, mini trucks and large trucks. At the farm level, limited availability of the means of transport pages serious problems to the peasant producers. Packaging, which is extremely important in the marketing of fruit and vegetables, is rudimentary in Ethiopia. The shortage of containers causes serious problems especially for the peasants and often their crops are loaded on to the transport vehicles loss their quality and weight. The type of containers used by the general trade includes baskets with no uniform size for kale, lettuce, carrots, jute sacks for marketing onions, shallots, potatoes but also for cucumbers, melons and cabbages (Bekele, 1989).
V. Food consumption in Ethiopia

Ethiopia is the second highly populated country in sub-Saharan Africa. Owing to this fact the population contains several ethnic groups with varied cultures and eating habits. According to Yohannes (1989) report Hormann and Shawel categorized the general eating habits in the country in four

types.

- The predominant food of injera and wat which is especially consumed in the urban centres, - The high consumption of root crops-potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams and the root of the false banana called enset (Ensete ventircosum L.), which is predominate in the south central part of the country, - The diet of the livestock-raising low Landers which is mainly based on dairy products with some maize and or sorghum, and - The eating habits in the big towns and their surroundings which is the mixture of foreign dishes and the high landers staple food, injera and wat. These eating habits create very poor consumption preferences for most of fresh fruits and vegetables. The average annual per capita consumption of horticultural crops estimated to be 48 kg for the rural and 37 kg for the urban population (Bekele, 1989). The same study estimated the rural per capital expenditure on vegetable as 12 birr per annum (1 birr= 0.48 US$), only 6% of the total annual expenditure on food. The expenditure of the average inhabitants is 29.4 birr on vegetables about 12% of the per capita annual expenditure on food. This low level of per capita consumption is accounted by: - The traditional eating habit of the population, - The low level of per capita income of US$ 110 - The generally high price level of fruits and vegetables - The lack of knowledge about certain types of vegetables - The supply shortage of some preferred vegetables.
VI. Marketing

Because of their high perishability and quality loss horticultural crops require more complex marketing systems.

Whole sale markets The whole sale markets of horticultural crops often interwoven with the retail markets are mostly located in the centre of the city scattered in a number of areas. In the big cities like Addis Ababa few private whole sellers who deal with less sensitive vegetables like garlic, onion and potato have monopolistic power.

Retail Markets There are several types of retailers supplying vegetables to different to segments of the urban population. According to Harman and Shawl (1985), the retail markets can be grouped into: - Road side and open markets (gullets), supply low quantity vegetables. - The central market place, the Mercato is the important centre where retailers sale larger quantities of vegetables. - Private retail stores (Kiosks), sell relatively better quality of produce. - Few government super markets in big urban cities. - Hawkers also sell vegetables which they carry around the streets in the baskets. The Ethiopian Fruit- and Vegetables Marketing Enterprise (ETFRUIT for short) is a state trading organisation established in April, 1980 under the Horticulture Development Corporation (HDC) of the Ministry of State Farm Development. ETFRUIT is a wholesale institution dealing with domestic and export trade of fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, processed horticultural products and some slice crops. The marketing operation of the enterprise includes the collection of products from production sites, transportation, storage, grading and quality control, packing and distribution of these horticultural, floriculture and spice crops (MSDF, 1984).

1. Local development In the marketing chain of vegetable the sequence of intermediaries involved are of various types and the distinction between the stages of the trade is often blurred. Generally, the following trade channels have been identified: -Where the individual farmers produce and pack themselves and transport all by animals to the nearest market and sell to collecting whole sellers, retailers or consumers. - The traditional practice, where a broker, on the behalf of the assembling wholesaler, moves around the individual farmers and fix verbal contracts, advance money, packing sacks and organise the transporting. 2. Export development Out of the exports of all agricultural commodities the contribution of fruits and vegetables export from Ethiopia accounted for 11% in quantity and 1.6% in value in 1986 and again 11% in quantity and 3.7% in value in 1987 Bekele (1989).

Table 5. Export of horticultural crops during 1997-2002. Volume of export net weight (kg) 60, 963, 127 41, 869, 995 49, 321, 829 39, 906, 300 95, 218, 104 131, 971, 761 value of export (Eth. Birr) 157, 574, 759 106, 571, 263 147, 836, 179 113, 680, 425 246, 907, 823 353, 185, 313

Year 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Source: CSA.

The major market of the horticultural crops exports of the country have

been the republic of Djibouti, the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, Yemen, etc.) and the European countries (UK, Italy, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Denmark, etc.) The average annual share of Middle East has been increasing rapidly from 1,682,249 kg (2.76 %) to 66,124,633 kg (50.11%) between 1997 and 2002 in quantity of net weight export while that of European share was declining significantly in change between the same periods from 28.86 to 14.37% (Table 5). The share of the Djibouti market also showed a decreasing trend from 34.48% for1997 to 17.91 % for 2002. Other than those mentioned markets, several countries were exercised as destination or importers of Ethiopian horticultural products like U.S.A., Somali Morocco, Sudan, Fiji, Republic of Korea etc.

Table 6. Average annual quantity share of export markets, 19972 - 2002. Destinatio n Djibouti 1997 1998 1999 17,353 509 15,940,20 5 7,131,762 2000 2001 24,248,0 38 21,359,9 50 32,807,5 83 95,218,1 04 2002 23,634,200 18,963,797 66,124,633 131,971,761

21,022,440 17,750,4 79 Europe 17,596,389 14,397,2 94 M. East 1,682,,249 1,506,50 0 Total 60, 963, 41,869,9 127 95 Source: CSA

14,124,6 27 14,7127 53 5,836,47 0 49,321,82 39,906,3 9 00

Table 7. Average annual percentage share of export markets, 19972 - 2002. Destinat ion Djibouti Europe M. East Total 1997 34.48 28.86 2.76 66.10 1998 42.39 34.39 3.59 80.86 1999 35.18 32.32 14.48 81.98 2000 35.39 36.87 14.63 86.89 2001 2547 22.43 34.46 82.36 2002 17.91 14.37 50.11 82.39

Source: CSA
VII. Processing

There are two vegetables and fruits processing plants with in the Ministry of State Farms Development, other than some privately owned small scale processing units. These are Melque Wondo and Merti plant processing factories located in different administrative regions and corporations as described below. They are located in towns far away from the sources of raw material supply. Table 8. State owned processing plants. Plants Merti Melque Wondo Corporation HDC ELMICOR Administrative regions Arsi Sidamo

Production capacity of the plant: The major products of the plants are mainly based on tomato and orange products. Most of the time, all plants operate below 50% of the attainable capacity. The major botleneck, in all cases has been the problem of supply of raw materials and to a lesser extent the distribution/sale of the finished products. The untimely delivery of packing materials has also contributed to the problem (MSDF, 1986).
VIII. Current Development in Horticultural Crops Production

Growing System Ethiopia used to grow horticultural crops under uncontrolled growing system i.e. in the natural field condition using classical means of propagation or multiplication, seed production and breeding activities. No tissue culture or biotechnology activities were so far undertaken in the country. However, understanding the importance of these new technologies for micro propagation and virus disease clean up, the infrastructure

facilities are under construction in few selected research centers.

Machinery Similar to all cultivated crops production in the country, except land preparation by using tractor by commercial and state farms, horticultural crops production activities of small scale farms are solely done using oxen plough. It is also significant to note that all horticultural crops management and harvesting activities are practiced manually. Seed Production

The most bottleneck of horticultural crops development of the country is lack of improved seed in required quality and quantity. This is because of there was and is no governmental or non-governmental organization responsible for the multiplication and distribution of horticultural crops seeds. Consequently, farmers were restricted to use local horticultural crops seeds which are supposed to be low in yield potential and prone to most of the diseases and insects.

Major Diseases and Pests Horticultural crops produced in the country experience the most common world diseases and pests, for instance Solanaceous family suffers from late blight (Phythopthra infestance), bacterial wilt, early blight etc. Particularly, potato is damaged by potato tuber moth whereas sweet potatoes mainly attacked by sweet potato weevil sweet potato butter fly and beetle. It also gets attacked by blights, soft rot and virus diseases. However, to control diseases and insect pest so far the country was mainly concentrated in use of cultural control methods as well as use of resistant crop varieties. In general, Ethiopia exercises of superior and resistant/tolerant horticultural crops variety development through introduction, adoption and rigorous selection. To achieve this anticipated goals she used to introduce different crop species from different international, regional and national sister organizations

IX. Conclusion

Although the potential is enormous the development of horticultural crops production is still infancy. However, during the last few years, tomato production in Ethiopia showed a marked increase. This is mainly due to the raw material requirement of the new processing plant at Merti Jeju (Nura Era Enterprise) and relatively better demanded in urban. As indicated by the per capita annual consumption of the rural and urban population, extremely small quantities of horticultural crops are daily consumed in Ethiopia and the consumption of processed products are almost nil. This low level of consumption is accounted by (a) the traditional nutrition habits of the population with poor consumer preferences for vegetables, (b) the low level of per capita income, (c) the generally high price level of the products, (d) the absence of educational and promotional activities to influence consumption habits of the people and (e) the supply shortage of some relatively preferred horticultural crops. In general, the production, processing and marketing systems of horticultural crops in Ethiopia were found in sufficient and rudimentary. Thus, calls great attention to raise the countrys food self-sufficiency and increase export earnings via diversified production of horticultural crops.
X. Future prospects

In view of the existing deficit of food crops due to the adverse weather condition and high population pressure the need of developing new commodities and technologies to increase production and productivity in both the high and low potential areas is paramount important. Food selfsufficiency is can only be brought about through diversification of production and consumption. Thus, horticultural crops production are some of key alternatives to improving the countrys deteriorating food supply situation and alleviate malnutrition and under nourishment; particularly in the rural areas. Local and foreign market demand of both fresh and processed horticultural crops can be maximised by increasing both main season and off-season

production using rain fed and irrigated agriculture, and certified seed production, maintaining good market condition for both producers and consumers and by improving transportation facilities. All year round production under controlled environment can also increase consumption of horticultural crops. Since Ethiopia exist in a good geographical location to the Middle East countries, horticultural crops export is lucrative provided that good quality standard products are produced to compute the world market. In addition, wise planned market oriented production of horticultural crops to supply them for European markets when they are out of production needs due attention. There is shortage of trained manpower on horticultural crops in general and on specific fields in particular. Therefore, the manpower development should be given due attention to develop the sector. Ethiopia is a country with high population in sub-Saharan Africa being with poor food self-sufficiency. Therefore, the expansion of horticultural crops cultivation, which are high yielder and labour intensive, can mitigate the existing challenging problem. It can also be an important employment opportunity for the majority of jobless citizen. In the past several years, extension priority has been given to cash crops commodity and cereal crops. Therefore, extension system of the country should give due attention for horticultural crops even to sustainable the agriculture contribution to the countrys economy. The establishment of more agro-industries and expansion of existing ones is also a factor to be taken into account as it will make easier to reach distant regions with finished products.
XI. References Bekele Wolde. 1989. Horticulture marketing systems in Ethiopia. First international symposium on horticultural economics in developing countries (A. de. Jager and A.P. Verhaegh eds.) Acta. Horticulturae. 16 - 23 July 1989. Alemaya, Ethiopia. PP. 21 - 31.

Horman, D. M., and Shawel, H. 1985. The domestic market for fresh and processed fruits and vegetables and its supply in important urban centers of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. Ministry of state farms development (MSFD). 1984. Vegetables, Fruits and Meat processing state farms sub-sector review (in five volumes) volume V.Agroindustry -Sept, 1986 Addis Ababa Ethiopia. Ministry of state farms development (MSFD). 1986. Vegetables, Fruits and Meat processing state farms sub-sector review (in five volumes) volume V.Agroindustry -Sept, 1986 Addis Ababa Ethiopia. Peter, H. and Ayele, O. 1985. Development of tomato production in Ethiopia, Vol. II pp 148-152. Proc. First Eth. Hort. markshop (Godfrey-sam-Aggrey, W. and Bereke Tsehai Tuku eds.) February 20-22, 1985, ILCA. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Semeret K-Yesus. 1992. Horticultural development in peasant agriculture. Second Eth. Hort. workshop (Edward Herath and Lemma Dessalegne eds.). Horticulture research and development in Ethiopia. 1 - 3 December 1992. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. PP. 29Sawi, H., and Hormann, D. M. 1989. Horticultural production and marketing in Tanzania. First international symposium on horticultural economics in developing countries (A. de. Jager and A.P. Verhaegh eds.) Acta. Horticulturae. 16 - 23 July 1989. Alemaya, Ethiopia. PP. 33 - 38.

Yohannes Agonafir. 1989. Economics of horticultural production in Ethiopia. First international symposium on horticultural economics in developing countries (A. de. Jager and A.P. Verhaegh eds.) Acta. Horticulturae. 16 - 23 July 1989. Alemaya, Ethiopia. PP. 15 - 19. Yohannes Agonafar. 1992. Contribution of horticulture to the national economy Second Ethiopian Horticultural Workshop (Edward Herath and Lemma Dessalegne eds.). Horticulture Research and Development in Ethiopia. 1-3 December 1992. Addis

Ababa, Ethiopia. PP. 8-18.