With an estimated more than 4 million people, Adds Ababa is one of the most congested cities in the country and in Africa. As a result the cost of land per square meter is very expensive and is difficult to find adequate space to run agricultural businesses which naturally require wider area of land. Hence, it has to rely on the products of rural areas to feed the large number of residents.
But the Deputy Commissioner of the City’s Urban Agriculture Commission, Melese Ashebo argues to the opposite. What the city needs to diversify urban agriculture is not a wide area of land but a change of attitude or perception.
“Urban agriculture enables residents to work on animal husbandry and growing of vegetables and fruits with the already available small plots of land. By producing animal and plants in their door steps residents can consume fresh supplies and generate income by selling the surplus.”
According to Melese it is possible to run agriculture that can supply significantly to the needs of the residents with the already available patches of land. He says if people modify the small spaces in their homes, the rooftops and backyards they can grow vegetables on vases, cans. They can also rear poultry on small cages that can fit in to the edges of balconies. Others who have small plots of land can also rear dairy cattle in their backyards.
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Accordingly, Melese noted that currently the city produces over 2 million eggs and over 100 thousand liters of milk per day. He however disclosed that despite having a potential to engage in fishery in the city, the sector is just in the adventitious level.
In general, he noted that the primary work to expand urban agriculture in the city should be raising the awareness of the residents regarding the potential as well as the possibility of utilizing the available small spaces in their residential compounds.
“When people understand this they can exploit all available opportunities in their houses. They can repurpose their rooftops and walls. They can also install chicken cages that can be as high as the wall so that they can keep more hens,” he explained.
To shore up residents awareness and skills of urban farming, the commission works on training participants as well as providing seeds, seedlings, and other technical support to residents. Through the Farmers and Urban Agriculture Demonstration Center at Yeka Sub city, the commission organizes all the necessary support to participants of urban farming in the city.
“The center is working to multiply agricultural inputs and supply them to the community on affordable price,” says Abdeta Deme, General Manager of the center.
The center tests the effectiveness of the vegetable seedlings before distributing them to the community so that they growers can get the best outcome. Through applying various technologies like grafting and pruning, it adapts the plants to serve the best needs and outcomes of the participants in the urban agriculture.
In the way the center has so far developed and distributed about 17 species of fruits and vegetables which highland coffee is underway. Annually we distribute up to 2 million seedlings throughout the city” said Abdeta.
The General Manager explained that in order to reach to more participants the center works with the sub cities in the metropolis. Because of the extension works carried out so far most of the sub cities’ urban agriculture offices are now able to duplicate and distribute the seedlings and seeds to beneficiaries in their catchments.
Therefore, the demonstration center can now focus on high-level research and introduction of better species from domestic and foreign sources, Abdeta indicated.
According the commission, the urban agriculture is a new industry in the city that was launched about five years ago. Throughout the years, it has scored commendable achievements in raising the productivity both in animal and plants streams.
Accordingly, throughout the years the commission is able to involve more than 1 million people in the city in various fields of urban agriculture works. In terms of production, the participants have reaped about 280 thousand tons of products from both streams.
Yet, Melese says the overall potential of the city is untouched and far more than the figure stated above. To garner the maximum benefit from the sector the commission is working on alleviating the challenges observed.
Among such challenges is scarcity of animal feed, which often tends to be very expensive as agricultural items are obtained from farms located far from the city. Poultry also needs massive supply of chicks to maximize profit.
In the future, construction of infrastructure residential houses and other building need to consider how they can support urban agriculture so that the residents can utilize them in the future.
He further noted that there is a need to work more on introduction of new and modern technologies that facilitate the effectiveness of urban agriculture. At this moment, the center is working with the China-Ethiopia Agricultural Technology Training Center. The center is established as part of the China Africa over all cooperation through the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) platform.
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Chinese Agricultural experts that are deployed by China Aid under the FOCAC initiative have been working in the center for the last three years. The center has been working on fruits, vegetables, crops, mushrooms, agricultural machinery, and technological training for local farmers.
“For vegetables and other crops, we take our varieties and compare them with local ones. Then we choose the best one to distribute for the whole country,” says Liu Shou Yun, one of the experts working in the center.
“After the introduction of the new technology production and yield has increased. For instance Addis Ababa does not grow apple. Now through using grafting technology we are able to produce apple in the city. Since the price of apple here in Addis Ababa is very high people can produce more here,” he added.
The deputy Commissioner, Melese on his part indicated that the urban agriculture has so far created jobs for about 23 thousand people. There are hopes of further expanding the outreach of the centers works through the strong awareness raising and advocacy works upto the lowest administrative levels, woredas in the city.
