In 2022, Ethiopia ranked 104 out of 136 on the Global Hunger Index. While the number has decreased over the last two decades, there are still an estimated 20+ million people suffering from food insecurity in Ethiopia. Alongside the chronic poverty that prevents locals from purchasing and having reliable access to nutritious foodstuffs, climate change has exacerbated the effects of droughts and famines on agricultural production.

Given almost 80% of the Ethiopian population lives in rural areas, for many, food security depends on the crop yield of their farms. Failed or low crop yields will result in a lower food supply which in turn impacts diet diversity, a factor especially vital for children’s development. Moreover, these smallholder farmers are economically reliant on what they produce as they will sell surplus once having provided for their families.

A significant contributing factor is that many of these smallholder farmers are using local, low-quality seeds and are unaware of efficient agricultural practices; as a result, they are vulnerable to adverse climate conditions, loss of crops due to pests and diseases and are battling to ensure food security. Hence, intervention projects have ranged from targeting the lack of education in agricultural practices such as crop rotation to supplying tools and high-quality seeds. 

Farmers’ access to high-quality seeds suitable to their specific growing conditions is based on seed technology methods that involve assessment of the quality and adaptability of seed varieties developed by academic research, government programs and specialized seed companies. Use of high-quality seeds that are adapted to specific agro-climatic conditions and local farming practices, have increased shelf-life and are resistant to locally prevalent pests and diseases, can yield high volumes of quality crops and can reduce post-harvest losses. Accordingly, advanced farming practices involve growing crops from high-quality seeds in order to maximize production.

With a unique approach that combines seed technology and education, Fair Planet is a nonprofit organization tackling food and nutrition insecurity and poverty in Africa. Established in 2012 by Israeli seed experts – Dr. Shoshan Haran and Dr. Alon Haberfeld – together with an operation research expert Amnon Tamir, the organization is primarily focused on Ethiopia and Tanzania and has also recently launched a project in Rwanda. 

In Ethiopia, Fair Planet operates in the regions of Butajira, Haramaya, Dire Dawa and Harari, in collaboration with Haramaya University and regional offices of agriculture. The project focused on implementing seed technology through addressing the lack of high-quality seeds and education on sustainable agricultural practices. The Fair Planet initiative comprises a three-part program: a) trialing high quality seed varieties provided to the NGO by global seed companies and comparing them to local seeds to select the best local performers; b) training farmers and local extension staff how to use the selected seed varieties through weekly extension visits to farms by trained volunteers throughout the first production season; and c) development of crop production protocols tailored to smallholder farmers and demonstration of useful practices such as crop rotation, fertilization and irrigation practices among others. These tools are grounded in Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). 

Benefits of seed technology extend beyond ensuring personal food security and into enabling economic independence. With the use of the selected high quality seed varieties such as tomato, hot pepper, onion and potato, farmers in Ethiopia have tripled their food production and are able to provide nutritious food for their personal needs and also sell their produce in the local markets, thus generating an income for their families and enabling economic independence. An evaluation study of Fair Planet’s impact performed by Hebrew University found that 96% of the impacted farmers’ household members, more than 485,000 people, benefitted from improved nutrition and almost all with school-aged children used their additional income for school education.

However, there are several challenges that Fair Planet and other food security initiatives face such as funding and community dynamics. While the latter is addressed by Fair Planet through working closely with community leaders, funding is the biggest inhibitor of launching and implementing further projects in other countries that are also facing dire rates of poverty and malnutrition. This is even with only ~20% of Fair Planet’s expenditure going towards variety trials with the remaining resources invested in farmers and extension staff capacity-building programs. With more funding, more projects could be launched, including a greater budget for the variety trials that would expand the range of high-quality seeds available as well as the required budget for capacity building at scale, leading to improved nutrition and higher income. 

Despite this challenge, Fair Planet stands determined in its mission to alleviate and reduce food insecurity and poverty. By adopting a defined “exit strategy” for each project, Fair Planet achieves a mindset of empowerment and independence rather than creating dependency and reliance. This allows communities to become self-sustaining without continuous external support. This approach is exemplary not only in its contribution to communal morale, pride and welfare, but also in allowing organizations such as Fair Planet to shift its focus into other regions without negative consequences for the local communities. 

Fair Planet: https://www.fairplanet.ngo/

REFERENCES:

1. ‌Global Hunger Index. (2022). Global Hunger Index Scores by 2022 GHI Rank. Global Hunger Index (GHI) - Peer-Reviewed Annual Publication Designed to Comprehensively Measure and Track Hunger at the Global, Regional, and Country Levels. https://www.globalhungerindex.org/ranking.html

2. Why should Ethiopians care about urbanization? Jobs, infrastructure, and formal land and housing. (n.d.). Blogs.worldbank.org. https://blogs.worldbank.org/africacan/why-should-ethiopians-care-about-u...

Dr. Shoshan Haran & Tanya Hoshovsky