Finland supports promising initiatives in Ethiopia

Thursday, March 11, 2010

"The initiative will benefit a large number of farm families directly to improve food security and farmers’ incomes,” said the Ambassador of Finland to Ethiopia, Mr. Leo Olasvirta. “Subsistence farmers in remote locations will be able to enter into commercial markets through their own organisations."
 
Finland works through the Central Union of Finnish Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK). MTK  cooperates in AgriCord’s Farmers Fighting Poverty programme with farmer organisations under the umbrella of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP). In 2009, the Farmers Fighting Poverty programme supported 153 farmer organisations in 61 countries.

The 3-year project is co-funded by the Finnish government together the Government of the Netherlands and implemented through Agriterra and SNV-Ethiopia. A technical intervention, which has been proven by SNV’s pilot project, introduces high quality inputs through seed multiplication. The project will establish a training unit, which provides continuous extension and training in cooperation with the Ethiopian government agricultural extension service. Operations of the farmer organisations will be strengthened by management and financial training.

In addition to the new initiative, Finland already supports organic coffee production by the Sidama Coffee Cooperative Union. Additional projects are currently planned for dairy cooperatives in the Selale area and for forestry producers’ organizations in the Amhara region.