Improving Productivity and Market Success (IPMS) of Ethiopian Farmers Project
የኢትዮÉያ Ñu_­‹ U`ƒ“ U`T’ƒ TdÅÑ>Á “ ¾ÑuÁ eኬƒ ýaË¡ƒ
TEFF VALUE CHAIN DEVELOPMENT
INTRODUCTION: Teff (Eragrostis tef ) is a cereal crop widely grown and used as food grain in
Ethiopia. The IPMS project used value chain approach to development of Teff commodity to make
farmers more competitive and increase economic benefit and increase Teff productivity in one of the
project sites in Southern Ethiopia, Alaba Special district. Teff is the second largest crop (rain fed) in
terms of land cover (20% of arable land) growing as source of cash in the area. The average land
allocation per HH is 0.5 Ha and improved teff varieties have been introduced by OoARD in the woreda.
PROBLEMS: Major problems identified from value chain perspective in teff commodity development are
low productivity (8 qt/ha), poor access to improved seed and poor agronomic practices, inferior seed
quality due to poor threshing practices, inadequate and untimely supply of inputs and absence of collective
marketing.
SOLUTIONS: The project organized farmers’ seed multipliers (Fig. 1), capacity building effort (Fig. 2).
Intervention in input supply focused on establishment of private crop protection (Fig. 3) introduction of
thresher (Fig. 4) and input shop (Fig. 5). Marketing intervention focused on market data collection and
dissemination (Fig. 6) and collective marketing (Fig. 7) to Ethiopian and South Seed Enterprise.
PRODUCTION
SEED MULTPLYING FARMERS GROUP FARMERS CAPACITY BUILDING: VISIT
Fig. 1- Farmers grouping Fig. 2 -Farmers and OoARD stff visit to Deber Ziet
INPUT /SERVCIE SUPPLY
PRIVATE CROP PROTECTION CROP THRESHER INPUTSHOP
Fig. 3- Crop protection to reduce crop loss Fig.4- Teff Tresher for quality seed Fig. 5- Inputshop to supply inputs
MARKETING
MARKET PRICE DISSMINATION SEED COOPERATIVE AND MARKETING
Fig -6- Teff market price dissmination with billboarad Fig -7- Progress with Teff Seed Producers for Marketing
CONCLUSION: Teff seed multipliers increased from 57 HH in 2006 to 362 HH in 2010 as result of
Capacity built to strengthen the informal seed system, proper supply of inputs and technologies like
(Thresher machine, improved seed). The total seed sale increased from 0.05 million to 1.75 million
Birr to Ethiopian Seed Enterprise and South Seed Enterprise. Average yield has increased from 8qt/ha
to 12 qt/ha leading to establishment of seed cooperative.