FAO.org

The Investment Centre and the World Bank are working with the Government of Ethiopia to make the country’s livestock and fisheries sector more productive, inclusive, resilient and profitable. 

The USD 170 million project is targeting four priority value chains – poultry, red meat, dairy and fish – to help 1.2 million households in the highland areas whose livelihoods depend on livestock and fisheries boost the volume and quality of their production and earn more money.

“Dairy subsistence farmers could increase their milk production by 1.5 times and dairy cooperatives could triple the volume of milk they collect and sell, while more specialized farmers could double daily egg production and cultivate five times more fish,” said Carolyn Turk, World Bank Country Director for Ethiopia.

Given the country’s unstable institutions, low capacity and poor health and food safety services, the project is also focused on developing the long-term capacity of the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries – an off-shoot of the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, created in 2013 – and other key public and private actors and livestock and fisheries cooperatives. 

To link farmers to markets and help them be more profitable, the Investment Centre introduced productive alliances into the project, drawing on its experience with the approach in Latin America and the Caribbean. Through this arrangement, small-scale producers connect with commercial buyers and the public sector through business plans that focus on productive investments, technical assistance and business development.  

Multi-stakeholder commodity platforms, facilitated by the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), and public awareness campaigns are helping ensure the productive alliances’ success by bridging demand and supply and identifying potential partners. FAO contributed to forging this partnership between ATA and the Government of Ethiopia, which was a major project breakthrough.  

Thanks in part to FAO’s efforts, the Government is increasingly engaging with the private sector, seeing the business opportunities identified in the livestock and fisheries sector as crucial for achieving the country’s priority goals and the SDGs – from reducing poverty and improving food security and nutrition to stimulating overall economic growth.