Could you give an introduction of the agriculture sector in Ethiopia and its current management?

The country's economic strategy is know as ADLI, Agricultural Development Lead Industralization. This implies that agriculture is the most important sector of the economy but our goal is not agriculture our goal is industry but the way to the goal is through agriculture. The reason is Ethiopia has got a lot of natural resources, ample natural resources, untapped resources around agriculture. 85% of the total population is engaged in one way or another in agriculture so the wisdom of the people and the experience that the people have around agriculture is quite considerable. Thanks to resource and the labour, we believe that we still have a comparative advantage in agriculture. Currently our agenda in agriculture is to underscore what priority we have. We are in the process of transforming agriculture from its subsistance level to commercial and business type. So this is what we are aiming at particularly and currently.

What are you doing to change it?

There are several ways of doing it. Of course, one has to identify the most important problems and areas to be tackled. The issue has two faces: the supply and the demand side of the question. The supply side is those activities to be done at farmers level. This may include the capacity building of farmers, the technology transfer process and also other areas like infrastructure development and other things which lead to make farmers competitive on the international market. The other side of the question is the demand side, that is to say the marketing side of the process. When we talk about transforming subsistance agriculture to business, the first and the most important thing is to change the attitude of farmers. They need to think as businessmen, they need to survey what their customers would like to get and they need to know for whom they produce and what to produce, when to produce and this requires some sort of knowledge, education, information and other things. So the existing traditional farmers could contribute to that by having more information, more skill oriented training but the idea is that agriculture is to be done by educated people in the long run. In order to do so, we have to produce as many as possible educated or would-be farmers who are skilled, capable and educated and who would understand what the world is looking for as far as demand, quality standard and other things are concerned.

Could you develop on the main assets of the Ethiopian agriculture in terms of potential?

Several commodities and items can be considered as front products for export, for diversification. Currently our export capacities are limited to coffee, and other things. We have divided the country into different agricologies based on their potential for export marketing. So the northern, eastern and southern parts could specialise in different things based on their agricology, natural resource capacity and proximity to markets. In the northern part, there is a potential of oil crops like sesam, even honey production and also non-woody and forest products like gums, incence. There is also a capacity of dairy production and also small ruminants like sheeps, goats and farmers in this area can specialise in this production. In the western and south western part, the main production is spices and coffee, spices like cardamome, white pepper, black pepper, which requires humid and sufficient rain. In the eastern part vegetables are quite attractive. In the southern part coffee is the most important crop. The central part of Ethiopia, including the western southern part, is mainly a food basket for cereals production like wheat.

What are you doing to attract investors in this sector, to ease investments and what are the investments currently?

There are several measures under process and to be taken to attract investment. I think the most important thing is what sort of investment we are looking for, we really want to have partners in this sector all the way from production to consumption. There is a capacity for production so any investor who would like to invest in production can easily come. And we want to enable our farmers to produce competently, so that investors who would like to invest in the market and agricultural processing industries can easily get confidence on the supply of raw production from small farmers.

So, by making our small farmers competitive, investors in agro-processing industries will be confident that they can get enough raw materials from this process. Also investors can come on supplying inputs like fertilizers and other tools for small farmers. Investors who will be able to export under their patent and good will can also get enough product from this process, so that they could supply these products on persistant basis to the international market. So it is a kind of win-win process between small holders and big investors that we are aiming at.
Have you eased the laws to attract investors?

It has been under progress, under prevision. Definitely the idea is to attract investors to come here to do it for themselves first and to contribute to the country and the people.

Are you working with international institutions such as the World Bank and NGOs to develop agriculture?

We are open to anything to do partnership with World Bank, IFAD and any other multilateral donners and financial organisations and UN agencies but the most important relationship we have is with international research centers, we call them CG centers, they are 16, they do research on policies and commodities, all of these CG centers are very closely working with us and we are in collaboration with this system to develop our national research system as well as in the process of fetching new technologies to be transmitted to small and commercial farmers.

Are there a lot of private investments in this sector?

Not a lot, compared to the resources and potential the country is endowed with. But things are in progress, currently many investors have shown interest to invest on high value crops like floriculture, horticulture and organic grown products.

Could you talk about your background,your professional experiences?

I am an agriculturist, I have studied agriculture economics as a first degree and then rural development and agriculture extention as second degree. I have been developing my career in the ministry since my graduation, that is 17 years experience. I have been a Vice-Minister since 1999, over 4 years. Currently, I have two positions since the ministry has no minister in the office.

What is your message to the potential investors?

Let's come and work together, win-win process. It is a country with untapped resources, particularly it is the center of origin and center of diversity for several flora and fauna. This a capacity for research, capacity for technology development, capacity for organic production process. By investing here you also contribute to the effort that the world is exerting in aleviating and ameliorating the poverty level. So this is really an area to invest. We believe we have conducive policies and political environment which support investment, of course, there might be several things to be amended, several things to be improved, but we can make it together, we need to crossfertilize with you good ideas and experiences. So this is a good potential for investors who would like to do business in Ethiopia.