http://www.fao.org/globalsoilpartnership This presentation was made during the workshop 'Managing Living Soils' that took place at the FAO HQ, Rome, Italy from 5-7 DEC 2012. This presentation was made by Sam Gameda, and it has the objective to present Overview of the ATA and Priorities in the Soils Program. ©FAO: http://www.fao.org

1. Overview of the ATA and
Priorities in the Soils Program
Sam Gameda
Managing Living Soils
Dec 5-7, 2012, Global Soil Partnership, FAO, Rome

2. Content
2
Overview of ATA and the Soils program
Overview of the Ethiopian soil sector
Priorities and Challenges

3. The creation of the ATA is the result of a process that lasted
nearly two years
Jan ‘09 Sep ‘09 Aug ‘10 Oct ‘10 Dec ‘10 Aug ‘11
Prime Minster Meles meets with
Melinda Gates and requests
review of Ethiopia’s agriculture
extension systems.
Recommendation of extension
diagnostic endorsed by PM. PM
requests support for additional
diagnostics in seeds, soils, irrigation,
agricultural finance and key value
chains
Seven Diagnostics and
integrated report submitted to
Prime Minister.
Council of Ministers pass
federal regulation establishing
Agriculture Transformation
Agency
Government decision to
create an independent
organization modeled after
Taiwan and Korean
“acceleration units”
First Board meeting
with Prime Minister
and Transformation
Council
3

4. Public sector
• Federal partners
• Regional partners
Civil society
• Local / intl. NGOs
• Local/intl. Research &
academia
Private sector
• Inputs,
outputs and
service
providers
Dev’t Partners
• RED-FS
• Multi /
bilaterals,
foundations
Ministry of
Agriculture
• Strengthen the Ministry of Agriculture as the
ATA’s primary partner
• Identify and strengthen the institutional
capacity of partner organizations
• Align objectives with national targets for
poverty reduction, food security and growth
• Ensure a strong and equitable regional focus in
strategies and implementation support
• Act as a high performance change agent
defined by strong analytics and stakeholder
engagement
• Seek scalable solutions with tangible
improvement in productivity and livelihoods of
smallholder farmers
• Ensure an integrated approach to gender and
the environment across all work areas
ATA’s principlesATA’s partners
ATA fits within a set of complex partnerships
4

5. Integrated approach to the work
Summary points
• Focus on systems change but must
be grounded and benefit specific
crops that are important to
Ethiopia’s farmers
• Integrated approach will facilitate
integration and coordination to
achieve sectoral transformation
• Prioritized focus areas to ensure
long term effectiveness and
achieve sustainable results
• Key issues such as Gender and
Technology Access & Adoption
must inform, influence and
catalyze all program activities
5

6. Content
6
Overview of ATA and the Soils program
Overview of the Ethiopian soil sector
Priorities and Challenges

7. 7
Type Partner Name Role
Federal
Ministry of Agriculture
Over all guidance, planning monitoring,
evaluation and technical support
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and
affiliated research centers
National Soil Testing Centre
Regional
Regional Bureaus of Agriculture (RBoAs)
Planning, monitoring, implementing and
evaluation in the respective regionsRegional Agricultural Research Institutes (RARIs)
Regional Soil Testing Labs (RSTLs)
Higher
Learning
Institutions
Different Ag- centric universities
Research support and supply of human
resources
Dev. partners
IFPRI Studies on key topics (e.g., fertilizer value
chain improvement)
ILRI/IWMI Research on soil and water resource
management
AGP Financing inputs
IFDC/AFAP Fertilizer blending plant consultancy
Other private sector Potential implementation partners
Soil sector stakeholders and roles
There are various stakeholders related to the soils sector in
Ethiopia

8. 8
There are two major types of bottlenecks related to improving
soil health and fertility in Ethiopia: soil-level and systemic
SOURCE: Team analysis
Soil-level
bottlenecks
Systemic
bottlenecks
Bottleneck
to achieve
soil health
and fertility
in Ethiopia
Description
 There are major physical, chemical and
biological issues in the current Ethiopian soils
against health and fertility that need to be
addressed
 Apart from the soil itself, there are also
bottlenecks in the system (e.g., knowledge
management, policy support) that requires
interventions for resolution

9. Physical Chemical Biological
SOURCE: ATA, Expert Input
The soil-level bottlenecks have different levels of
negative impact on the physical, chemical, and
biological condition of soil health and soil fertility
Organic matter depletion
Soil erosion
Salinity/sodicity
Waterlogging
Physical land degradation
Acidity
Nutrient depletion
Soil-level bottlenecks
Limited biomass coverage
Low moisture availability
Negative impact to soil health
Overall
Higher negative impact
Negative impact
to soil fertility
Soil fauna/flora depletion
Soil compaction
Direct influence with high magnitude of impact
Direct influence with medium magnitude of impact
Direct influence with low magnitude of impact
Relative magnitude of impact

10. 10
The systemic bottlenecks can be grouped into five categories, from information
management to organization and management systems
1
Soil information management
 Lack of up-to-date information on soil fertility
 No shared soil information database
3
Input value chain
 Limited accessibility/affordability to inputs (e.g., fertilizer, soil amendments)
 Inefficiency in distribution and marketing of fertilizers
 Other inefficiencies in the value chain
 Limited financial support to farmers’ adoption of practices
2
Technology generation and dissemination, and linkage
 Lack of soil test-based fertilizer recommendations
 Lack of soil fertility and health management technology registry and release mechanism
 Low emphasis to soil fertility focused extension system
 Limited research emphasis on soil health and fertility
 Limited lab capabilities and capacity
 Inadequate use of, and inappropriate management for, irrigation
 Limited coordination between research, extension, and academia
4
Strategic and regulatory framework
 Limited quality control mechanisms and regulatory system for inputs
 Lack of proper agricultural land use management strategy and implementation
5
Organization and
management
systems
 Absence of an
independent
national soil
research
institute
 Lack of
coordination
among
research
institutions
 Limited
coordination
among soil
laboratories
SOURCE: ATA

11. Content
11
Overview of ATA and the Soils program
Overview of the Ethiopian soil sector
Priorities and Challenges

12. 12
Soil information management is a key bottleneck: Ethiopian soil maps are
outdated, lack detail, and have limited use in supporting soil conservation and
land management interventions
 The world soil map was
published in 1970s by FAO
and UNESCO at a resolution
of 1:5M, which was then
focused to 1:2M for
Ethiopia by 1984
 The soil map is based on
soil surveys conducted in
the 1930s to 1970s
 The map is generated using
soil information and
technology from the 1960s
- spatial information
technologies were not used
Extracted for Ethiopia at a scale of 1:2M from the world soil map of FAO/UNESCO
SOURCE: Team analysis; FAO

13. Surveying the 97 lat-long confluence points will provide the granularity and
detail needed to generate a comprehensive soil map for all of Ethiopia
13SOURCE: Team analysis
37°E35°E 39°E 41°E 43°E 45°E 47°E
15°N
13°N
11°N
09°N
07°N
05°N
03°N
 Each of the 97 confluence
points will need to be
surveyed to create a
systematic grid system that
covers the country
 ~16,000 sites will be visited
within these confluence
points and ~120,000 soil
samples taken
 The results of all 97 points
will generate a map with
100 meter resolution

14. The digital soil map combining soil survey and remote sensing
will provide a variety of soil properties and characteristics
14SOURCE: Team analysis
Data/Map Layers
Vegetation
– Above surface vegetation
Texture
– Erosion risk (wind and water)
– Soil particle size: % silt, sand, clay
– Infiltration Capacity
Organic Matter
– Nutrient Amount Present (N, P, K,
Sulfur, etc.)
– SOC
pH and EC
– pH
– EC
Mineralogy
– CEC
– Minerals

15. 15
Ethiopia’s investment in fertilizer has not paid off; growth in fertilizer use has not resulted
in commensurate increases in yield
1817161615141313
08/09 09/1007/0806/0705/0604/0503/04 10/11
44
3435
393634
2522
04/05 05/0603/04 08/09 10/1106/07 07/08 09/10
Annual Growth
Rate (CAGR)
2003/04-
10/11
≈ 10%
2003/04-10/11
≈ 5%
Total cereal yield
Qt/ht from 2003/04-2010/11
Total fertilizer applied for cereal crop
0000’ tonnes from 2003/04-2010/11
Source: CSA; Agricultural Sample Survey 2003/04-11,
• Blanket application of
DAP and UREA is not
considerate of crop
need, soil nutrient
dynamics and agro-
ecological factors
• Recent soil tests show
deficiencies in 6-7
nutrients, but DAP and
Urea only supply 2
nutrients
• The government has
resolved to address this
issue by building
fertilizer blending
plants that can create
blends specific to
Ethiopia’s soil needs
Annual Growth
Rate (CAGR)

16. 16
Various partners are interested to collaborate with EthioSIS to conduct
additional surveys covering about 150 high potential woredas
• As much as possible, the 150
woredas will be allocated on
non-CP covered areas
• The woredas will split
between partners as follows;
• CASCAPE: 30 woredas
(22 AGP and 8 Non-
AGP)
• Partner 1: 61 AGP
and 22 Non-AGP
woredas
• Partner 2: 37 Non-
AGP woredas
(concept note to be
sent soon)
Partner 1 AGP
Partner 1 Non-AGP
CASCAPE AGP
CASCAPE Non-AGP
Partner 2
CASCAPE – 5 AGP not yet decided

17. Key organizational and management bottlenecks in the research and
extension system require reorganization and capacitation
17
Limited
capacity
Ineffective
collaboration
• Shortage of highly-qualified experts
• Historically, research budgets for soil issues have been a fraction of
those for crop and livestock research
• Limited capacity at soil laboratories
• Regional and national research institutes often fail to coordinate
• Soil laboratories across the nation often fail to share data
• Research and extension are housed in separate organizations and
often fail to collaborate, preventing new technology from being
accessed by farmers
• A central independent soil research institute would ensure proper resources are
dedicated to soil issues and ensure coordination between researchers
• New information sharing systems, equipment, and personnel will capacitate
laboratories to conduct in-depth soil analysis

18. Innovations to help our country grow