Green Revolution Technology Takes Root In Africa The Promise and Challenge of the Ministry of Agriculture/SG2000 Experiment with Improved Cereals Technology in Ethiopia
May 1, 1999 - Julie A. Howard, Valerie Kelly, Julie Stepanek, Eric W. Crawford, Mulat Demeke, and Mywish Maredia
Print
EmailIDWP 76. Julie A. Howard, Valerie Kelly, Julie Stepanek, Eric W. Crawford, Mulat Demeke, and Mywish Maredia. 1999. 64 pp. Green Revolution Technology Takes Root In Africa The Promise and Challenge of the Ministry of Agriculture/SG2000 Experiment with Improved Cereals Technology in Ethiopia
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Ethiopia’s food insecurity will increase unless it can dramatically boost agricultural productivity.
In 1993, the Sasakawa/Global 2000 Program (SG) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) began
a joint program to demonstrate that substantial productivity increases could be achieved when
farmers were given appropriate extension messages and agricultural inputs were delivered on time
at reasonable prices. The program provided credit, inputs and extension assistance to participants
willing to establish half-hectare demonstration plots on their own land. In 1995, the MOA/SG
demonstration program reached more than 3,500 farmers. During the same year MOA launched
the New Extension Program (NEP) based on SG principles but managed independently. By 1997,
NEP was managing the bulk of the demonstration plots (about 650,000).
Although the MOA/SG program is widely considered to be a success, no formal analysis had been
carried out to determine its profitability. In September 1997 MOA/SG agreed to collaborate with
MSU to answer the following questions: (1) Is improved technology financially profitable for
farmers? (2) Is it economically profitable from a national perspective? (3) What factors limit crop
response to improved technologies? and (4) What challenges does the government face as it scales
up the NEP program?
