Agricultural innovators in Ethiopia: Lessons from the food security and Rural Entrepreneurship Innovation Fund
This publication (PDF) by AgriProFocus, ICCO Cooperation, The Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Fair & Sustainable (F&S) Ethiopia, and The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) introduces the Food Security and Rural Entrepreneurship (FSRE) Innovation Fund and explains how it contributes to rural innovation in Ethiopia. The fund supports ideas that have the potential to become scalable innovations that improve food security and strengthen rural entrepreneurship. The FSRE Fund takes into account the following factors when deciding whether an innovation has the potential to be upscaled: technical feasibility; farm economics; access to markets; organizational set-up; food security; rural entrepreneurship; and gender, environment and social-cultural aspects. Some innovators worked with improved seeds, amongst other for wheat, potato, chickpeas, tumeric and ginger. One company experimented with harvesting chickpea with a wheat combine harvester, which was the first time chickpea was harvested mechanically in Ethiopia. Another example of an innovation are plastic liners installed, which can be welded to any shape, to cover the inside of a grain store to reduce grain losses. Another example is the Hundee’s innovation project to test promising upgrades for the dairy sector. Cooled milk collection centres were installed for two cooperatives. In addition, youth groups were organized around specific business opportunities, such as fodder production, veterinary services and bull services.