Abstract
Participatory rural appraisals (PRA) were conducted in July 14 to 30, 2016 in AGP-II project target districts: Erar waldiya and Dire Teyara in Harari region of Ethiopia. PRA exercises were conducted using various PRA tools which included review of secondary data, focus group discussions, field observations (Transact walk) and pair-wise ranking. The tools were used to identify the biophysical and socio-economic constraints, opportunities and developments within the kebeles. Agricultural and animal productions are common in the surveyed Kebeles of the AGP-II target districts. Mixed farming is widely practiced in the kebeles of both districts. Staple food crops like maize and sorghum, and cash crops like vegetables and khat (Catha edulis Forsk) are commonly produced across all targets of AGP-II districts and also as region as well. Growing maize and sorghum in khat alleys is another cropping system practiced in both districts. The PRA work has also identified various categories of constraints to increasing crop production in the areas. The major bottlenecks include lack of improved crop varieties, low soil fertility, deforestation, moisture stress, disease and insect pests, and lack of awareness on soil fertility crop management. In most of the PRA Kebeles, it was found that continuous cropping, complete removal of crop residues from farm lands, soil erosion, deforestation, absence of fallowing, and inadequate soil fertility management practices are the major causes for low soil fertility and crop yields. In most cases, farmers apply Di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), urea and farmyard manure to improve soil fertility and crop yield. However, very few farmers use integrated application of chemical fertilizers and farmyard manure for crop production. In addition, no scientifically formulated and recommended fertilizer rates are available for the specific soils and environments. Thus, due to the lack of scientifically recommended rates of fertilizers and high costs of mineral fertilizers, farmers often use smaller rates of mineral N and P fertilizers based on haphazard estimations.
Highlights
In Ethiopia a majority of the rural livelihoods depends on subsistence farming based on low external input systems
Identification of crop productivity constraints and relevant opportunities are very important to design interventions aiming at improved agricultural productivity and related to that improved livelihoods
The Government of Ethiopia is committed to scaling up best practices through its Agricultural Growth Programme (AGP-II)
Summary
In Ethiopia a majority of the rural livelihoods depends on subsistence farming based on low external input systems. In most households no surplus of food will be available and even during normal rainfall years around 40% of the farm households structurally depend on food aid (pers.com staff Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development) Food aid in such cases might have become part of the livelihood strategy of farmers in Ethiopia [2]. To address the various community problems, it is imperative to design technically sound, economically feasible and culturally acceptable research, extension and development strategies. To this end, Fadis agricultural research center initiated a participatory rural appraisal (PRA) study in Harari Region, eastern Ethiopia. The main objectives of the study were to assess the farming systems, determine major biophysical and crop production constraints and opportunities for farming communities and identifying, documenting best practices and innovations with respect to environmental, socio-economic and agricultural production constraint conditions for further testing and possible scaling up
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