The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in a bid to improve food systems in Ethiopia has launched two new agricultural projects worth $86.5 million to help boost farmers’ incomes and food nutrition for millions of people in the country.
The two projects which were launched early last month by USAID Economic Growth and Resilience Office Director Amber Lily Kenny and State Minister Dr. Meles Mekonin from the Ministry of Agriculture include $77 million Feed the Future Ethiopia Transforming Agriculture and $9.5 million Feed the Future Ethiopia Seed Systems projects.
The two projects will increase incomes and reduce the rate of malnutrition in Ethiopia.
Transforming Agriculture is a five-year project that will support Ethiopia’s agriculture and food system actors to sustainably improve the diets of 7 million people, particularly women and children. The project targets 132 woredas across the country.
The project includes an Enset (false banana) processing machine production scaling-up initiative that would assist Enset producers to improve their yield and reduce food loss and poor product quality.
Ethiopia Seed Systems is also a five-year project that will increase quality-assured seed supply in local markets so that smallholders can have access to quality seeds of their preferred crop-varieties. The project will be implemented across 20 woredas in eight regions.
The two new projects work with agribusinesses, universities, and other agricultural partners to develop and strengthen resilient, inclusive, and sustainable agricultural and food systems.
For 120 years, the United States and Ethiopia have partnered in health, education, agriculture, food security, science and innovation technology and the environment, and many other areas to improve the lives of all Ethiopians.
