Study on Identification of Gaps and Intervention Needs of Smallholder Organic Farmers in Ethiopia

Summary

A study on identification and analysis of the major gaps of smallholder organic farmers of Ethiopia in terms of technical, technological, institutional and financial is conducted in year 2011 in order to develop strategic programme that fill the gaps of organic producers. In order to make the study both primary and secondary information were collected through questionnaire, desk review, field visit, key informative interviews and group discussion. The study covered 80 respondents from 14 cooperatives that include 12 districts, 44 kebeles and 3 regions. The study revealed that in Ethiopia, there are certified, in-conversion and non-certified organic farms producing for export and local markets. Whereas certified farms produce for the export market, the non-certified farmers produce for the local market.
Currently (2010) Ethiopia has 136’436 hectares of certified organic land, managed by 123’062 certified organic smallholder farmers and three large processing companies. The total certified organic production was79’231.18 metric tons which has increased by 47 percent and 50 percent respectively, compared with 2008 and 2009. The total organic export was 12’342 metric tons which has an increase of 43 percent compared with 2009 and by 164 percent compared with 2008 where the country earned a total of 33.9 million US dollars from exports, which is double the amount earned in 2009 (16.92 million US dollars), due to an increase in production and price.
The Study revealed that most of the challenges were technical and technological which are differing at different organizational levels. Among the list of the challenges identified at producers levels : limited skills and information on market, shortage of technical support providing institution on training, shortage of logistics and infrastructure development, limited access to credit, improved technologies and farm equipments, shortage of clean and fair price transporting services and packaging materials were the prominent. Analysis of these gaps and need of interventions along with suggested activities and strategies were also discussed in this report