Research focus of Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR)

Research focus of Ethiopian Institute of
Agricultural Research (EIAR)
Fentahun Mengistu, EIAR
12/14/15 EIAR Research Focus 2015-2020 1
Ethiopia - CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs)
Country Collaboration and Site Integration Meeting,
Addis Ababa, 11 December 2015

Research Priorities: guided by the Agricultural /agro-
industry Sector goals
Ethiopia’s Development trajectory
• Agricultural Development Led Industrialization
• Climate-Resilient Green Economy strategy
Ethiopia: 2025 low middle income country
Agriculture a major sources of growth:
Food security; employment, income
Raw materials for industry
Adequate supply for export
Macroeconomic stability

Smallholder farmers'/herders’ central to
agriculture growth; increase contribution of
Private sector
NRM- based irrigated agriculture
Development Zone based agricultural
development
Basic directions of the Agriculture sector

Ensure agricultural Development is aligned
and contributed to Green economy strategy
Scaling up of best practices
Increase income of growers; shifting towards
high value commodities
Ensure youth & women are benefited from
RD
Improve livelihood & resilience capacity of
people in the arid & semi-arid areas

Rural socio-economic & environmental dynamics
affecting R&D activities
• Aggressive NRM activity; Ecological restoration
• Agricultural productivity at increase; seen as a business
• Input use (fertilizer, seed) & management practices are at increase
• Technological/technical change - farm implements
• Technological demand increased
• Infrastructure(road, transportation, water, electricity, telephone, etc)
Education, health expansion
• Urbanization

Capacity improved:
•Farmers’, extensionists , policy makers, etc;- knowledge, skill,
awareness, planning & management and analytical capacity
improved
•Social capital and interaction improving
Development focus areas changed
•Agro-industry, export
•Nutrition
•Value addition, production/value chain
•market
•Specialization/diversification
•Social inclusiveness- women, youth
•Climate change

Challenges related to agricultural technology supply
Knowledge and Technology availability related to:
•Yield stagnation/lack of improved varieties
•Improved animal breeds
•Biotic and abiotic constraints
•Irrigation technology
•Farm implements/ mechanization
•Technologies for Industrial and export commodities
•Product quality; Nutrition quality
•Post-harvest technologies; value addition
•Climate change
•AEZ complexity; too many priorities

Challenges related to agricultural technology supply
• Less addressed
segments/customers:
• Commercial farmers
• Youth & women
• Herders
• Trade
• Industry
• Less addressed AEZs:
• moisture stressed
• Dry lands
• Frost prone highlands
• Pastoral, semi-pastoral areas
• western humid-hot lowlands
• urban/ suburbs

EIAR’s Key Functions

Breeder
Crop protectionist
Agronomist
Economist
Etc.
Multidisciplinary team
Multi-institutional team
Research execution: Commodity as a planning unit

• Food Security & Nutrition, income generation
• Agro-industry & Import substitution
• Market (Export market)
• Environmental & livelihood resilience;
Climate Change
Thematic areas

• Horticulture
• Livestock
• Biotechnology
• Irrigation
• Mechanization
• Climate change
Relatively new commodities & areas of focus:

Food Security & Nutrition
•Productivity with desirable
quality
•Vertical Yield enhancement
•Technological Change-
hybrids, GMOs
•Nutrition, processing, safety
Pests, diseases, weeds
•Agro-technics & practices
•Sustainable intensification
•post-harvest loss
•Farm mechanization
•Biotechnological methods

Industrial raw materials/
Import substitution
•Wheat(DW)
•malt barley
•oil crops (soy, Noug, etc)
•energy crops, etc
•Hides and skins
•Meat, Dairy
•Fruits

Market/export/
•Coffee
•livestock & L.
products
•Pulses (CB, CP, L)
•oil seeds (sesame,
etc)
•High value
commodities:
Fruits, veg., spices
•Value addition

Natural Resource Management
Water management
•Irrigation, WUE
•Land and water conservation
•IWM, landscape re-
construction
•Integrated soil fertility
management
•Acidity, salinity, vertisol
management

Research on:
•CSA: Adaptation,
Mitigation, productivity
•Conservation Agriculture
•Climate information
•resilient commodities
Climate Change

Livestock:
•Breed improvement:
indigenous; exotic (milk,
beef)
•Feeds
•range land management
•Value addition; post-
harvest

Farm implements
/mechanization
Pre-harvest:
•plough, row planters, weeders,
•Enhancing horse power- tractors,
tractor appendages, etc.
Harvest, Post-harvest :
•Harvesters, threshers, hullers,
driers
•Storage facilities

Agricultural Economics & Extension Research
• Farming Systems Dynamics
• Technological adoption, innovation and impacts
• Production economics
• Agricultural Value chains
• Sub-sector analysis of agro-industrial commodities
• Agricultural technology transfer
• Agricultural innovation through stakeholders' R&D platforms

Comments on NARS-CGIAR partnership

• Increased focus and commitment of the Government for
economic and agricultural R&D
• The country’s diverse AEZ, socio-economics dynamics
presenting diverse opportunities and challenges
• A relatively, strong, robust, responsible NARS/AKIS
• Existence of 11 CGs
• Successful experiences and impacts of CG-NARS
collaborations
Opportunities

• Inadequate alignment to the national priorities
• Inadequate synergy among the different CGs Centers
• Lacking uniform working modalities with NARS
• Task overlaps between CGs and CG-NARS
• Less visibility; inadequate impact with some
• Inadequate focus on building the capacity of NARS
• Clear role at national, regional and global mandates
• Program organization differences with NARS
• Inadequate finance mobilization & allocation to NARS -
commensurating with the work
Bottlenecks

Possible areas of NARS-CGIAR collaboration
1. Germplasm enhancement and exchange
2. Collaborative research; research alignment
3. Help adopt/adapt technologies, production techniques, practices
4. Capacity building: How can NARS make a catch up?
• Science capacity of NARS to catch up; contribute to the world
- Labs facilities, cold stores, vehicles, etc
- Technological infrastructure: Common use research facilities
e.g. Cutting edge sciences
- Getting NARS access to CG facilities
• Technical backstopping; training, mentoring, etc.
4. Research financing: adequate mobilization, transparent allocation

• Non-research activities
• Visibility at higher layer institution
• Overlaps/ redundancies among CGs; CGs-NARS
• Short term objectives
• Piece-meal funding
What needs to be improved?

Research focus of Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR)

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