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at the Handing-over Ceremony of Fertilizer to the Ethiopian Government |
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Your Excellency Ato Wondeyerad Mandefro, State Minister of Agriculture, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, |
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Good morning. Endemen aderachehu. It is a great pleasure for me to be here at the Ethiopian Agricultural Inputs Supply Enterprise warehouse to attend this handing-over ceremony of nine thousand tons of urea fertilizer to the Ethiopian Government, based upon the Exchange of Notes signed between our two governments in March this year. This fertilizer has been procured at a cost of 490 million yen, equivalent to 110 million ETB at the current exchange rate. It is provided through Japan’s grant-in-aid scheme for the food security program for underprivileged farmers, better known as KR II. This assistance is aimed at helping Ethiopia promote food production with the supply of fertilizer. As a key sector in Ethiopia, agriculture is featured in the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP), with a projected average annual growth rate of 8.6% for five years from 2010/11. In order to facilitate such agricultural growth, a 10-year program named the Agricultural Sector Policy and Investment Framework (PIF) was adopted in August 2010. Under this PIF, comprehensive and consistent policies for agriculture have been formulated. These include identifying priority areas for investment, estimating the financial requirements, as well as elaborating specific objectives, goals and means of utilization. However, this ambitious program requires huge investment. Therefore, ensuring financial resources for the PIF will be a big challenge for the coming years not only for the Ethiopian Government but also for its development partners. This year one more initiative was taken regarding agriculture. The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition launched here in September will focus on reviews of key policy issues and encourage private sector investment in agriculture and its related industries. Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, Agriculture has continued to be a priority sector in Japan’s ODA policy toward Ethiopia in view of its dominant role in the Ethiopian economy. 84% of the population lives in the rural areas, and about 43% of the GDP is created by agriculture. Food security, which includes agricultural and rural development as well as water supply, is one of the two main pillars of our ODA policy in Ethiopia. We will continue to extend our grants and technical cooperation to Ethiopia in order to help smallholder farmers increase productivity in agriculture. For this purpose, modern agricultural inputs are important, in particular fertilizer. Data shows that the annual fertilizer requirement has gone up substantially in Ethiopia, amounting to 1.75 million tons in 2011. This will require the Ethiopian Government to spend additional foreign reserves for fertilizer imports due to its limited domestic supply capacity. Therefore, we are pleased to play a modest role in mitigating the existing supply-demand gap of fertilizer through our Grant-in-aid Scheme, KR II. By the way, the total amount Japan has provided to Ethiopia through KR II since 1985 amounts to 15.6 billion Japanese Yen, which is equivalent to 3.5 billion ETB at the current exchange rate. I personally believe that assistance to help increase crop production is more valuable than food assistance itself. Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, In concluding, I would like to share some of my wishes with you regarding this assistance. I strongly desire that the fertilizer handed over today will be distributed in an appropriate manner and reach underprivileged farmers so that it will contribute to improving their livelihoods. I also hope that, overall, the fertilizer will be used effectively so that it will complement the Ethiopian efforts under way to achieve the agricultural targets stipulated in the GTP. Finally, I would like to remind you that Japan is always with you for the agricultural development of Ethiopia. If we can be of any help, we are ready to work with you. Thank you for your attention. Amesegenalehu. |
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