| Sumario: | Increasing food production and sustainable management of the natural resource base
are key global challenges facing our world today and will continue to be so in the future.
This is primarily due to population growth, increased urbanisation and higher incomes.
Ethiopia has a land area of about 1.2 million Km2
and human population of about 80
million. The highlands, where integrated crop-livestock production systems dominate with
varying intensities, occupy 35 % of the land and house 88 % of the human population and
74 % of the livestock resources. In the past, government support to subsistent production
system with focus on cereal crops targeting household food security led to erosion-induced
land degradation and plunged millions into poverty trap and food aid. In recent years,
the Government of Ethiopia has taken a policy decision to transform subsistence mode of
production into more market-oriented systems, and as a result the Improving Productivity and Market Succes (IPMS) project has been testing different options of knowledge
management, capacity building and crop and livestock commodity development strategies
in support of market-oriented agricultural development in 10 pilot districts in four Regional States. These districts are ecologically contrasting and represent production systems
ranging from extensive pastoral to varying intensities of integrated crop-livestock systems.
Systematic and step-wise approaches were employed to assess the production systems and
implement various interventions in production technologies, input supply system, marketing and support services such as extension and credit. Technological interventions coupled with appropriate organisational and institutional arrangements are critical factors for
successful and sustainable intensification of production systems through efficient use of
resources (land, water, nutrient and labour). A shift in policy is required to ensure participatory decision making based on available resources, technological options and choices,
functional input and output markets, efficient and effective service delivery and farmers
capacity to respond to climatic and market changes and their capacity to produce, process
and market products. This paper explains the IPMS approaches, methods and processes
used for effective system integration and intensification. The lessons learned provide valuable information for scaling up to other areas with similar potential for market-oriented
agricultural development.
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