20091228
allafrica

Farmers and farm fields with SLM are enhancing technical practice as well as improve agricultural productivity.

The Sustainable Land Management (SLM) project of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) is expecting to see an aid inflow of 38 million dollars from Finnish and German sources in 2010.

The project, which is owned by MoARD was officially launched in October 2008 with a budget of 55 million dollars, of which 8.8 million dollars was provided by the government while the rest was contributed by the World Bank, Global Environmental Facility (GEF), and German Technical Cooperation (gtz).

The project is being implemented in six regional states of the country in weredas with the potential for food security, according to Tesfai Mebrahtu (PhD) deputy director of the GTZ-SLM Programme. He says that the SLM project will begin to undertake soil and water conservation activities in January 2010 at watersheds in all regions. The German Development Service (DED in German) and gtz provide technical support for the Ministry.

The German Bank for Reconstruction (KFW) and the Government of Finland will offer a combined sum of 38 million dollars before the end of 2010 for projects in different areas. KFW's financial support to MoARD will help the implementation of the project in 20 of the weredas in Amhara, Oromia and Tigray, while that of the Finland Government will be for the implementation of the land administration component of the project in the Benishangul Gumuz Regional State and for providing technical support to MoARD as well.

More development partners are expected to support the ministry to implement the project in 177 watersheds of the country for adaptation and mitigation of the effects of climate change, Tesfai said. He added that the money provided by all the donors would be used for the purchase of equipment and materials to train and pay farmers who will be involved in the implementation of the project.

The development objectives of this SLM project are to reduce land degradation in agricultural landscapes and improve the agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers.

The project will last for five years until the end of 2013. It is being implemented in a total of 62 weredas of the Oromia, Gambella, SNNP, Benishangul Gumuz, Amhara, and Tigray regions. The german organisation, gtz is also working with regional bureaus and offices of agriculture and rural development as well as land administration and environmental protection. Over 700,000 people on 500,000ht of land are expected to benefit from the project.