Policy and Institutional Analysis for Vegetable Commercialization in Ethiopia

It directs the efforts towards improving farming skills, disseminating improved agricultural technologies, amending land use policy, creating marketing systems, promoting and strengthening cooperatives, improving and strengthening the participation of private sectors in agricultural marketing, strengthening the linkage between private investors and smallholder farmers, and enhancing rural infrastructure development.

The strategy prioritized encouraging and supporting smallholder producers to use scalable and feasible market-oriented horticulture production and marketing with strong financial backing and professional assistance. Vegetables are one of the horticultural crops that are given special consideration in the strategy due to their productivity per unit areas of land and nutrition values.

The strategy also aims to improve seed supply, establish efficient irrigation systems and postharvest management, enhance market information systems, promote contract farming, establish quality and food safety laws and regulations, and enhance transportation services.

The strategy targets smallholder farmers to enable them to become strong economic drivers with control over and access to resources, financial services, and extension.

It also intends to increase food security and income for smallholder farmers and their organizations by providing them with increased access to sustainable market systems and production technology, backed by the right type of public and commercial funding as well as regulatory frameworks.

It also aims to initiate a farmer-to-farmer knowledge exchange and build local capacity; smallholder farmers create and manoeuvre their own self-help farmers groups and these groups develop into local-level institutions and organizations.

The Strategy has designed the key strategies to support the establishment of horticulture nurseries and demonstration sites, strengthen the link between agricultural input suppliers and farmers to produce nutrient-rich crops, promote the use of appropriate irrigation systems, promote farmers' skills, and knowledge and attitude towards postharvest management and food safety and develop and integrate the traceability of system of agricultural produce into agricultural extension services.

The existence of a strategy with special attention towards production and productivity improvements is a potential opportunity for the commercialization of vegetable crops. These strategies help to empower smallholder producers to actively participate in the production and marketing of vegetable crops.

It aims to improve the delivery, performance, and sustainability of irrigation schemes focused on smallholder farmers, by strengthening government policies and institutions to effectively transform the irrigation and drainage sub-sector.

It is designed a major strategy for horticulture to modernize the input supply system, encourage area expansion in horticulture production, expand the participation of the private sectors, strengthen the development of modern nurseries in strategic areas, organize marketing centres in areas close to the smallholder farmers, and facilitating cold chain infrastructure with the private sector should be given attention.

It also targets the smallholder producers to improve their capacity of utilizing improved inputs and technologies to enhance production and productivity that enable them to meet local and international market requirements.

The program targets two vegetables (onion and tomato) in its ten years operational plan

It aims to increase the yields of these vegetable crops and enhance commercialization of them within the program period.

The proclamation encompasses guidelines on leasing agreements, sharecropping, inheritance, donations, collaborative development, using land as collateral, obligatory clustering, required consolidation of holdings, and sharecropping are also included in the draft proclamation.