ETHIOPIA – Ethiopia Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI), the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Industry recently partnered to host the National Soybean Market Linkage forum.
The forum sought to strengthen the economic sustainability of smallholder farmers by addressing upstream and downstream market access challenges across the value chain.
In the forum, the ATI Analytics team presented the potential growth trajectory of soybeans, challenges, and ways forward to develop the soybean sector study.
The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI), formerly known as the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), is a strategy and delivery-oriented government institute created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of Ethiopia’s agriculture sector.
ATI was established in 2010 to promote agricultural transformation by supporting governmental, non-governmental, and private sector partners to effect change
Soybean is a prominent commercial legume crop in Ethiopia. The crop plays a vital role in foreign currency generation.
The crop has penetrated the global market due to its substantial source of protein for both humans and animals and has gained popularity in Ethiopia as a source of raw material for edible oil companies, fortified food production, and as a major source of feed, especially for the poultry sector.
Because of its ability to fix nitrogen in the soil, soybean plays an important role in improving soil fertility. The crop is seen to be useful for the sustainability of the major cereal-based cropping systems in the world.
Following this, a panel discussion brought together representatives from farmer cooperative unions, the edible oil processors industry association, the industrial input supply enterprise, the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, and the Development Bank of Ethiopia to discuss challenges and forward possible interventions.
According to stakeholders, though immense effort has been made to enhance production, the market linkage has not received enough attention before, and there has been limited engagement in creating sustainable partnerships among smallholder farmers, agro-processors, and exporters
This, according to the agency has resulted in very low market prices and low interest for uptake by processors during the 2015 EFY crop season.
The forum finalized with signing a sales contract agreement between smallholder farmers/cooperatives, and processors for purchasing this year’s production crop and fostering future partnerships.
The ATI’s work is centered on improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers (SHFs) across the country, for improved income, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability.
