1. Controlling Wheat Rusts and Ensuring Food
Security through Deployment of Resistant
Varieties in Ethiopia
A. Atilaw, Z. Bishaw, F. Eticha, S. Gelalcha, Z.
Tadesse, O. Abdalla, A. Fikire, S. Ahmed, S. Silim

2. Introduction
• Wheat is grown by ~ 5 million
smallholders
• Area under wheat increased steadily ~ 2
million ha
• Wheat production has reached ~ 4.5
million MT in 2014
• National average yield increased three
fold (0.6-2 t/ha); 5–6 t/ha by good
farmers
Major wheat growing areas
Minor wheat growing areas

3. Wheat diseases and pests
• Three wheat rusts
• Septora blotches
• Fusarium head scab
• Insect pests (RWA)
Major wheat production constraints

4. Weak seed delivery system
• Limited availability of basic seed
from NARS
• Limited certified seed availability
from suppliers (demand vs supply)
• Limited range of varieties (>50% of
seed supplied was Kubsa-
susceptible to Yr)
• Limited capacity for quick response
to shifts in demand due to disease
epidemics
-
200,000
400,000
600,000
800,000
1,000,000
1,200,000
2005/06
2006/07
2007/08
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
Demand
Supply
Major wheat production constraints…

5. Two Major Events…..
1. Emergence, spread and potential threat of Ug99
• Accelerated seed multiplication to control threat of stem rust
in wheat: ICARDA and CIMMYT

6. Regions
Zones Districts
Area affected
(ha)
Area
sprayed (ha)
%
sprayed
Oromia 13 118 292,866 123,357 42.1
Amhara 8 77 161,348 26,579 16.5
SNNP 15 94 137,376 32,089 23.4
Total 36 289 591,590 182,025 30.8
Source: MoA, 2010; Kubsa and Galama are varieties most affected
• Rapid deployment of yellow rust resistant varieties to
achieve food security in Ethiopia: ICARDA & EIAR
Two Major Events…..
2. Yellow rust epidemics in 2010 crop season

7. Rapid Deployment of Rust Resistant Wheat
Varieties for Achieving Food Security in Ethiopia
Main Objectives….

8. Fast track testing
and release
Accelerated seed
multiplication
Popularization
/demonstration
Scaling-out of
technologies
Strengthening NARS
Capacity
Farmers
Framework for Fast Track Variety Testing and
Release and Accelerated Seed Multiplication

9. Establishing functional platform of
project partners and stakeholders
Increase productivity
Ensure food security
Improve livelihoods
NARS (EIAR
& RARIs)
MoA (BoA &
DoA)
Donors
Farmers
Seed
producers
International
collaborations
(ICARDA and
CIMMYT)

10. Project Achievements

11. USAID Famine Fund (2009-March 2012): Ethiopia
1. Number of wheat rust resistant varieties released:
Eight with high yield & combined Ug99 and/or Yr
2. Sr resistant varieties produced and distributed in
subsequent years: 758, 5,622 and 27,000 MT
3. Popularization and promotion of rust resistant
varieties reaching over 500 farmers per year
4. Provide critical equipment and organized training
courses to strengthen capacity
5. LAID GROUNDWORK FOR RAPID DEPLOYMENT
PROJECT
Project achievements…

12. 1. Supporting NARS in fast track variety
testing and release
– Evaluated international nurseries from ICARDA
and CIMMYT (40 sets of 6523 entries)
– Evaluated segregating populations from NARS
breeding program (41 sets of 3504 entries)
– Identified five rust resistant promising lines for
verification and potential release in 2014
Project achievements… Rapid deployment 2001….

13. 2. Accelerated seed multiplication by NARS
– 6,021 MT early generation seed (breeder to
basic) multiplied by federal and regional research
institutes
– Main and off-seasons (irrigation) used including
both nationally/regionally released rust resistant
varieties
– All seed provided to commercial seed producers or
used for on-farm seed multiplication, variety
popularization and technology scaling-out
Project achievements…

14. 3. On-farm seed production with farmers
• 45 AGP and non-AGP districts in four major wheat
producing regions
Project achievements…

15. 3. On-farm seed multiplication with farmers
- Farmers identified, clustered, provided with seed and
trained to produce and distribute seed informally or
formally supervised by WBOA
- Achievement
• Seed distributed to 13,296 farmers (7% women) and
producing 15,100 MT seed sufficient to plant
100,668 ha
• Average wheat yield reported was 3.5 MT (range
2.5 to 4.2 MT/ha)
• Estimated average net income from rust resistant
varied from $50-$200 depending on land size
Project achievements…

16. 4. Popularization/scaling-out of technologies
– Variety popularization and demonstration using
FTC, seed production fields
• Demonstrations in 41 districts (field days with
attendance of 3,895 farmers ~ 10% women)
• WBoA and Administration conducted additional
field days
– Support EIAR’s pre-scaling out of wheat
technologies in four major regions
• 3,110 farmers (8.2% women) supplied with seed
and producing 2,626 MT seed/grain sufficient to
plant 17,506 ha
Project achievements…

17. 5. Emergency seed relief
– Immediate response to areas highly affected by
Yr in Gedeb & Ambo districts, Oromia region
– Distributed seed to 3,471 farmers (8.8%
women farmers)
– Produced 1,912 MT seed/grain sufficient to
plant 12,825 ha
Project achievements…

18. Project achievements…
6. Partnering with public and private sector
and farmer seed producers associations
– 276 MT seed provided to 8 seed associations
and 3 commercial seed suppliers producing
5,526 MT sufficient to plant 36,840 ha for
seed multiplication
– In 2013/14, formal sector distributed a
combined 85,943 MT seed of rust resistant
varieties sufficient to plant 572,956 ha of
wheat area at national level

19. Project achievements…
7. Strengthening capacity of NARS and
partners
– Infrastructure for NARS and partners:
vehicles, farm machinery, mobile cleaners
– Human resources
• Two regional courses (9 staff); several
in-country courses (125 technical staff);
and (250 SMS and DAs (10.4% women)
– Workshops
• Two workshops on wheat rusts with
participation of 134 stakeholders

20. Summary
• NARS (federal & regional) produced 6,021 MT seed
and successfully distributed for different purposes
• About 815 MT seed was distributed and planted on
5,660 ha producing 19,637 MT sufficient to plant
127,377 ha
• About 19,877 farmers (7.3% women) reached
benefitting 119,262 hhs through on-farm seed
production, technology scaling-out and emergency
seed relief
• Public and private sector distributed a combined
85,943 MT seed of rust resistant varieties
sufficient to plant 572,956 ha of wheat area at
national level

21. Key lessons learnt
• Effective interventions with long-term impact to
ensure sustainability
– project investment enabled sustainable source (basic)
seed supply by NARS
• Long-term strategy in controlling wheat rusts
– Diversification of cropping systems (durum wheat, mono-
cropping, expansion of irrigated wheat)
– Recent outbreak of stem rust (constant reminder “Rust
never sleeps”)
• Strong and effective partnership among NARS (EIAR +
stakeholders), IARCs (ICARDA, CIMMYT) and donor
support (USAID)

22. Some Issues
• Is variety release lengthy and a hurdle for
normal or emergency situation?
• Is rust resistance alone sufficient for adoption
of new varieties?
• Are farmers less responsive to new varieties?
• How best we can avoid mega-varieties in the
future?
• How we can reconcile advise on fungicide uses
and withdrawal of susceptible varieties?

23. Acknowledgements
• NARS partners at federal and regional levels
• Development partners at federal, regional and
district levels: MoA, BoA and Woreda
Administration
• Wheat projects: Famine
Fund, EAAPA, AGRA, DRRW
• International partners: CIMMYT, ASARECA
• USAID for providing financial support to Famine
Fund and Rapid Deployment projects

24. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9sNLa-sCHM
Thank You