Six Tigrayan agriculture experts in Mekelle call for international pressure on the Ethiopian government to allow in necessary agricultural inputs.
Agriculture is the lifeblood of Tigrayan society. Nearly three-quarters of the people in Tigray are farmers and agriculture comprises more than a third of the region’s economic output.
Over the last three decades, Ethiopia’s federal government and its partners took the need for agricultural development seriously and viewed it as a matter of survival. Among other achievements, these concerted efforts greatly increased crop productivity.
A dire consequence of the civil war and government-imposed siege on Tigray has been the purposeful destruction of the region’s food systems and other economic sectors.
In fact, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appears to be withholding seeds, fertilizer, and other essential agricultural inputs from Tigrayans as part of his wartime strategy.
Steady growth
Average crop yields improved from less than one metric ton per hectare (t/ha) before 2000 to around 1.2 t/ha and 1.9 t/ha during 2000-2009 and 2010-2019, respectively.
The use of inorganic fertilizer also increased from less than 10,000 tons per year (t/y) before 2000 to around 16,000 t/y and 48,000 t/y during 2000-2009 and 2010-2020, respectively.
This was driven by the promotion of improved agricultural inputs, such as inorganic fertilizers, improved seeds, pesticides, and herbicides, and also the expansion of irrigation.
These improvements also resulted from expanding the agricultural extension system and building more research and demonstration sites, farmer training centers, and model farms.
Owing to a conservation-based agricultural development policy and various initiatives, such as the Productive Safety Net Programme, the agriculture sector produced diversified and sustainable progress for smallholders.
Because of these accumulated efforts, production increased from 400,000 metric tons in 1991 to 2.1 million in 2019.
Between 1991 and 2018, vulnerability to hunger decreased and poverty declined from 48 to 29 percent. This period saw impressive human and economic development along with improved food security and advancements in social welfare.
Consequently, agriculture contributed to the steady development of other economic sectors that are directly or indirectly related to it.
Wartime catastrophe
Farming in Tigray has regularly been subject to natural and manmade disasters.
Natural hazards include recurrent droughts from 1985 to 2005, plagues of desert locusts in 1958 and 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020.
The manmade hazards include Mengistu Hailemariam’s policies to use starvation as a weapon of war against Tigrayans during the 1980s, thus exacerbating the environmental crisis that produced the 1984-85 famine.
The most recent manmade catastrophe is the devastating war in Tigray that started in November 2020.
Ethiopia’s federal government and its allies launched the war partly in a concerted effort to destroy the region’s economy. Among the crimes against humanity targeting Tigrayans, agricultural inputs have been blockaded and used as a weapon of war.
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Re: Tigray’s once-thriving agriculture sector has been purposely destroyed (Ethiopia Insight)
Soon you will get old and die.
And many of your generation will do.
One day the Tigrian youth will be free of toxic old men like you who are addicted to conflict and other people’s money.
One day the Tigrian youth will be free of people like you and they will devote their time and energy to work for a living with dignity. They will say no to war and no to other people’s wealth. They will create their own wealth without stealing.
And many of your generation will do.
One day the Tigrian youth will be free of toxic old men like you who are addicted to conflict and other people’s money.
One day the Tigrian youth will be free of people like you and they will devote their time and energy to work for a living with dignity. They will say no to war and no to other people’s wealth. They will create their own wealth without stealing.