By Andualem Sisay
Gadissa Hunde, 51, is a farmer in Telecho, a small village located 55 kilometers from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. He raised all his 14 children farming mainly wheat and barley on two hectares. This season he covered all his land with wheat but four different varieties – Bonde, Seba-and (71), Ejersa and Tikur sinde.
“After we saw failure of improved wheat seeds last year, we don’t depend on one or two types of seeds even if they are improved,” he says. “Last harvest season, I was expecting some 30 quintals of wheat production per hectare from the improved seeds, Galama and Kubsa, unfortunately it was all hit by a disease called ‘wag’, while the old farmers’ wheat variety we planted resisted the disease. Now, I mixed the old farmers’ seed variety and the new improved seed.”
On its, 1,600 hectares of land size, Telecho has 546 households who are primarily engaged in farming wheat and barley like Gadissa. Here, one household owns from half up to five hectares of farming land. one has to walk at least an hour on foot from the main road to meet these farmers. They are used to it. Carrying their stuff on their backs, even children and mothers move up and down from and to the nearest town- Erob Gebeya.
Praising their lord for saving the new improved wheat seed from the last year’s disease, all Chelecho farmers are now engaged in harvesting activities. These farmers have gone through many episodes, from filling their pocket planting improved wheat varieties such as, Kenya-sinde, Engliz during the previous regimes up to losing their harvest by drought, untimely heavy rains and frost.
Today the main challenge for Telecho farmers is to get the appropriate and affordable seed variety on time. “We are in short of seeds; whether it improved seeds or farmers’ varieties of wheat or barley,” says Beddada Leta, Chairman of Telecho Kebele (district).
Improved (hybrid) Seed Vs farmers’ Varieties
According to the chairman of Telecho Kebele, of the 546 total households, only six farmers got improved wheat variety, while another two obtained improved barely seeds last year in.
Researchers estimate that Ethiopian agriculture requires over 700,000 tons of seed each year to grow cereals (such as teff, maize, wheat, sorghum, barley, and finger millet) and pulses (such as faba beans, field peas, haricot beans, and chick peas).
One of the means in which farmers in Ethiopia acquire seeds is by saving from their crops and use in the next planting seasons or buying and selling informally. While, the other is the formal means where farmer cooperatives, input suppliers, and other venues sell improved seeds with better yield than normal seeds to farmers.
Over the last five years, on average some 12 million hectares of land is cultivated by major food crops in Ethiopia. Out of this around 11 million hectares was covered by non-improved local seeds. Of the total annual arable land coverage by major food crops, 96.5 percent is covered by farmers’ variety seeds and 3.5 percent is by improved seeds.
Who’s in Charge?
According to Genetic Resources and Community Knowle4dge and Community Rights Proclamation of Ethiopia, all genetic resources including farmers’ variety seeds are the property of the people and the state. Meanwhile, such proclamations don’t seem to save some of crop varieties of the country from being smuggled and patented by other companies of other countries such as the case of ‘teff’ by a Dutch company.
On the other hand, most commercial seed production in Ethiopia has been dominated by the government institution the Ethiopian Seed Enterprise since the late 1950s. According the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) working paper of July 2010, approximately 80 percent of all commercial seed was produced by the government in 2008.
“We need laws, which do not impair the control of seed at the local level,” says Mellese Damtie, a scholar who is conducting his PhD on seeds. “Our laws must strike the balance between high-level of productivity and diversity of seeds. Long term benefits should never be compromised for short term needs,” he noted in one of his paper, Reflections on National and international legal provisions on seeds issues, presented this week here in Addis at Ghion Hotel workshop prepared to share views with Ethiopian Parliamentarians on generic seed, ecological agriculture and farmers’ rights.
Sustainability
The farmers in Telecho remember that Tikur Sinde, lakech, Kenya sinde and Engliz are some of the farmers’ wheat varieties vanished from area. Now the farmers are searching for these farmers’ varieties in other parts of the country. 
Gadissa Hunde, 51, a farmer in Telecho,Oromia Region Ethiopia- Phot: newbusinessethiopia.com
These are the seeds that most Chelecho farmers confidently expect something from at the end several months of hard work to fill their belly and their family’s’ as compared to the improved varieties, which are full of uncertainty with expensive inputs, which can’t be affordable at most Ethiopian small-hold farmers’ level.
“After the improved seeds we used last year failed to resist disease, we are now returning back to our old farmers’ variety seeds,” says, Mulugeta Taffa, another farmer of Chelecho.
That is why Movement for Ecological Learning and Community Action (MELCA- Ethiopia), a local non-governmental organization, has begun supplying some of these varieties to Telecho farmers after testing the productivity and diseases resistance of the seeds on their farms last year.
MELCA- Ethiopia has now provided 11 quintals of farmers’ variety seeds of wheat to 20 Telecho farmers. “We have started distributing these seeds to the farmers to expand their options of seed,” says Shimelis Tegegn, project coordinator of Suba-Sebeta areas project of MELCA- Ethiopia.
The seeds distributed by the organization came from Chefe Donsa area of Oromia Region where another non governmental organization, EOSA has been teaching the farmers in the area on how they can traditionally hybrid different farmers’ varieties of seeds and save them in community seed banks.
“Farmers need to have as many options as possible in seed selection because some improved seeds are failing to resist plant diseases in the face of climate change, as witnessed in Telecho area, a year a go. In addition, improved seeds productivity declines every year by nature and costs the farmers more and more chemicals and fertilizers if they have to use that seed again and again,” Shimelis says.
It was after the 1984 drought and famine in Wollo area of Ethiopia that EOSA has come up with the idea of establishing community seed banking realizing that the farmers have no seed at hand when the rain comes back.
“In a country where the agro-climate and the soil types vary in few kilometers distance, participatory seed variety development practices, where farmers and scientists work together, are proven to be useful strategy,” argues Regass Feyisa, Director of EOSA. “We need to invest more on improving productivity of farmers’ (existing) seed varieties”.
New Intervention
Unlike the activity of MELCA-Ethiopia and EOSA, recently the Ethiopian government has established a new institution Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (EATA), which mainly focuses on improving farmers’ access to hybrid (improved) seeds through formal marketing channel.
The road to Chelecho- Phot- newbusinessethiopia.com
Seed Policy, Biotechnology, General Land Policy, Pastoral Land Policy, World Trade Organization Accession and Foreign Bank entry to Ethiopian market are listed as the broad intervention areas of Feed the Future program of the United States Government in Ethiopia.
According to the statement the US embassy in Addis Ababa dispatched to the media following the U.S. State Department Acting Special Representative for Global Food Security Jonathon Shrier visit to Ethiopia last week, FtF in Ethiopia’s program focuses on agricultural and pastoral livelihoods, the use of hybrid seeds, commodity markets, the role of the private sector and water resources.
The program plans to invest some 100 million US dollars within five years in 83 Agricultural Growth Program woredas plus an additional 17 woredas for greater strategic geographic coverage, representing approximately 13 percent of Ethiopia’s administrative woredas.
Now the question is, “will the latest intervention of United States government in Ethiopian agriculture sector through EATA provide farmers like Gadissa more options on their seed selection or push them to stick only with hybrid seeds that could be less disease tolerant and more agro-chemicals consuming as compared to farmers’ variety.
