Process And Experience Of Agricultural Modernization In Ethiopia

Agriculture plays a fundamental role in Ethiopia's economic development,mainly including planting,animal husbandry,forestry and fishery,and it is dominated by planting and animal husbandry.The Ethiopian Government has attached high importance to agriculture and related fields,and because of its policy support and technology input,the agriculture of Ethiopia has moving toward to modernization and sustainable development progressively.The agricultural modernization in Ethiopian has a long and rough process.A weak foundation in agriculture was made in the period of military government,because of military focused,nationalization and collectivization blind.And it was not until the transitional period that the government turned its attention to economic construction,meanwhile the new agricultural technology promotion plan was implemented,thus the agricultural modernization in Ethiopian began to emerge.From then to the next two development period,the government has always working hard in agricultural modernization with the aim of poverty reduction and economic transition respectively,and great progress has been made in the diversification,commercialization and sustainability of agriculture.The measures adopted include establishing agricultural technique extension system,constructing Gary eco-agriculture demonstration zone,launching agricultural vocational and technical education,carrying out international cooperation and so on.Current achievements are:(1)At present,Ethiopia has the largest agricultural technology extension system in sub-Saharan Africa,and its scale ranked third in the world,which only second to China and India.In the construction of agricultural technology extension,the Ethiopian Government took individual measures in different regions across the whole country,which in accordance with the principle of "overall planning,adapting to local conditions,and paying attention to the basic and practical".The information methods used is Farmland International Broadcasting Project,Agricultural Information Center of Ethiopia,Ethiopia's agriculture transformation Bureau and other information public projects,etc.(2)Ethiopia has built Gary eco-agriculture demonstration zone.The main measures are to control soil erosion and supply soil organic matter.The Ethiopian Government wants to develop eco-agriculture in the zone through a combination of soil fertility and biological technologies.Now in Gary eco-agriculture demonstration zone,the geography and landscape have been greatly improved;all the cultivated land can be non-full irrigated.Based on this,the grain production will be greatly improved,and the farmers in demonstration area will get rid of poverty gradually.(3)Ethiopia has made great achievement in agricultural vocational and technical education.The Ethiopian Government has put a lot of manpower,material and financial resources to this system,and a special agency has established to in charge of agricultural vocational education project,including project planning,the recruitment of teachers,course design.The agricultural vocational education system mainly provide formal academic training and on-the-job short-term training,although it is far from perfect,a prototype is formed.(4)Ethiopia conducts international agricultural cooperation actively.In order to learn from the technology and experiences of agriculture in other countries,the Ethiopian Government has carried out fruitful international cooperation of agricultural vocational education with China,India,Cuba and other countries.The Chinese government has also bring agricultural technologies to Ethiopia through a variety of channels,such as sending agricultural vocational education teachers and senior agricultural experts,promoting agricultural technology demonstration center and so on.In the process of agricultural modernization,Ethiopia has provided some valuable experience:attaches great importance to the agricultLural policy;pays special attention to scientific research and institutional settings;increases agricultural expenditure improves agricultural infrastructure construction;and actively improves the agricultural credit system.But there are also some problems,such as eager to success,export low value-added products and so on.So Ethiopia should follow the rules of agricultural development and seek truth from facts to choose their own road of agricultural modernization.