By Beletu Bublula
Climate change has already been imposing a significant impact on ecosystems, economies and communities. The rising average temperatures do not simply mean balmier winters. Some states will experience more extreme heat while others may cool slightly. Flooding, drought and intense summer heat could result because of the alarming climate change problem.
Almost all effects that scientists had predicted in the past would result from global climate change are now occurring. Loss of sea ice, accelerated sea level rise and longer, more intense heat waves are becoming visible globally more than ever before in history.
Being part of the globe, Ethiopia also couldn't be free from impacts of the climate change. In more naturally arid areas, droughts and rain inconsistency is being intensified. Effects of such climate change are also being visible in terms of diminishing of crops in some areas, which is also making millions vulnerable food shortage.
The same is true for the current drought being noticed in some areas of the country which resulted in crop failure. This phenomenon has been attracting attention of development partners and non-government organizations across the world to contribute to the solemn efforts of the government in tackling both short and long term impacts of the drought.
According to the information released by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), some organizations operating in Ethiopia, USAID, and CIMMYT partner for rapid help to drought-hit farmers.
According to this source, as government and external agencies marshal food relief for millions facing hunger from Ethiopia's worst drought in decades, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) is leading a major, one-year push to provide drought-hit maize and wheat farmers in Ethiopia with urgently needed seed to save their next harvest.
With a 3.97 million dollar grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and its Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, CIMMYT is rapidly procuring emergency supplies of maize and wheat seed for free distribution to more than 226,000 households in 67 drought-affected counties of Ethiopia, benefiting more than 1.35 million people who have lost their seed from the lack of rains.
According to the information, building on pre-existing efforts funded by USAID under the U.S. government's global hunger and food security initiative, Feed the Future, and involving CIMMYT to strengthen maize and wheat seed production and distribution systems in Ethiopia, the project will obtain seed from areas favoured by recent good harvests.
Therefore, it is planned that needy farmers will receive enough seed to sow from quarter to half hectare of land - a quarter or more of the typical farmer's landholding along with instructional materials about the varieties and best farming practices.
Likewise, for maize, the project will distribute seed of high-yielding, broadly adapted, drought tolerant varieties developed by CIMMYT and partners in Ethiopia as part of another, long-running initiative whose seed production and marketing efforts are being massively scaled up with USAID support.
According to press release distributed by CIMMYT, the wheat seed for distribution is of high-yielding varieties able to resist Ethiopia's rapidly evolving wheat disease strains. According to Dr. Bekele Abeyo, CIMMYT wheat breeder/pathologist for Sub-Saharan Africa, who is also coordinating the seed relief initiative, procurement will benefit from recently begun CIMMYT led work, also with USAID support, to multiply and spread improved wheat seed.
"While addressing the pressing need to have seed before the spring rains, when many families sow, the work also promotes more widespread awareness and use of the latest improved varieties and farming practices," said Bekele, who added that all the varieties had been developed using conventional breeding and that most of the seed was being sourced from Ethiopian farmers and seed enterprises.
Why wheat and maize to meet rising challenges and demand? According to the source, maize and wheat are strategic food crops in Ethiopia, grown on more than 3 million hectares by nearly 14 million households.
High yielding, resilient wheat varieties from CIMMYT and the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), along with supportive government policies and better cropping practices, have caused Ethiopia's wheat production to more than double in just over a decade, rising from 1.6 million tonnes during 2003-04 to around 3.9 million tonnes over the last few years.
"Food security has measurably improved in households that have taken up the improved wheat technologies," according to Bekele, who also cited rust resistance research led by Cornell University and involving CIMMYT, as instrumental in developing and spreading disease-resistant improved varieties in Ethiopia and in supporting the creation of a global wheat disease monitoring and rapid-response system.
Similarly, maize was originally a subsistence staple in Ethiopia, but government policies and research investments have pushed it to become the nation's second most-widely cultivated crop and the most important source of calories in rural areas. Average national yield has doubled since the 1990s to surpass 3 tonnes per hectare, the second-highest level of productivity among nations in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Having worked in Ethiopia since the 1970s, CIMMYT has contributed many improved varieties, including maize with enhanced protein quality that can increase height and weight growth rates in infants and young children. Seed of this maize will also be distributed through the relief initiative.
Seeding a food-secure future
"The partnership with USAID for future food security, livelihoods, and nutrition in Ethiopia perfectly fits CIMMYT's mission and the aims of long and valued collaborations in the country," said Martin Kropff, CIMMYT director general. "With partners' help, we will monitor the uptake, use, and impact of the maize and wheat seed distributed through the initiative."
"Through years of USAID support and most recently through the U.S. government's Feed the Future initiative, we've worked hand-in-hand with the government of Ethiopia and partners like CIMMYT to build the country's capacity for lasting food security and resilience to recurring drought," said Beth Dunford, Assistant to the Administrator for USAID's Bureau for Food Security and Deputy Coordinator for Development for Feed the Future.
"As the current crisis outstrips Ethiopia's ability to cope on its own, USAID is committed to helping the country meet immediate needs as well as protect hard-won development gains and speed recovery through efforts like this emergency seed support."
According to the release, partners involved in the seed relief initiative include: Amhara Seed Enterprise, the Agricultural Transformation Agency, Ethiopia, Regional Bureaus of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Ethiopian Seed Enterprise, Farmer cooperative unions, Federal and regional research institutes, Oromia Seed Enterprise, Private seed companies, and Southern Seed Enterprise.
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