Dr. Waktola Wakgari is featured in an op-ed published on Devex, as part of their #FeedingDev campaign, discussing the success of building a network of Farm Service Centers in Ethiopia. These stores serve as “one-stop-shops” for smallholder farmers by providing a complete range of inputs, services, information and output marketing linkages.
On June 1, people around the world celebrated World Milk Day, which originally kicked off in 2001 to focus attention on the importance of milk and the milk industry. The USAID – US Agency for International Development-supported Agricultural Growth Program-Livestock Market Development (AGP-LMD) project worked with Ethiopia’s Ministries of Agriculture and Health to increase awareness of the nutritional benefits of drinking milk and consuming dairy products.
AGP-LMD sponsored a “Question and Answer Quiz Show” featured on Saturday, June 7 on Ethiopian TV (ETV) where participants were asked questions related to milk and world milk day. More than 400 men, women and children watched the filming of the show.
AGP-LMD is part of the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative to improve smallholder incomes and nutritional status in Ethiopia through investments in the meat/live animals and dairy value chains.
The Commercial Farm Service Program (CFSP) recently held a ribbon cutting for one of the six Farm Service Centers it aims to open in Ethiopia’s Oromia regional state.
The Commercial Farm Service Program (CFSP), funded by USAID and implemented by CNFA, launched its first Farm Service Center today in Bishoftu, Ethiopia. This is one out of six centers that will be up and running by the end of this two-year pilot project. Aimed at improving smallholder productivity, food security and incomes, the FSCs are a “one-stop-shop” that provide smallholder farmers with agricultural inputs, services and technologies to help them produce surpluses and become better linked to end markets. CNFA has developed farm service center networks in Afghanistan, Georgia, Moldova and Romania.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), today kicked off the first of 14 events known as “School Milk Days” at the Wushawushign Primary School in the Amhara Region. The purpose of these events is to increase the awareness and knowledge of school age children, parents, and teachers about milk.
Read USAID Agricultural Growth Program – Livestock Market Development Chief of Party Marc Steen’s blog post on how this project is helping improve the nutrition and livelihoods of Ethiopians.
This short video provides an overview of two agreements that USAID signed with Project Mercy, a not-for-profit development and relief agency, based in Ethiopia. USAID’s Livestock Market Development project, implemented by CNFA, is supporting Project Mercy’s dairy farm in Chacha, Ethiopia.
On June 4, 2013, the Commercial Farm Service Program (CFSP), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by CNFA, hosted a signing event between USAID and six grantees. The $240,000 grant will support entrepreneurs and farmers’ cooperative unions in Ethiopia to establish six farm service centers (FSCs) in the Oromia State. The program, funded through USAID’s Innovation Fund for Ethiopian Agriculture (IFEA), seeks to develop innovative projects and opportunities that diversify agricultural sector production and markets, while promoting enterprise development along entire value-chains. The FSCs to be established through the grant will provide a complete range of inputs, services, information and output marketing linkages to Ethiopian smallholders, allowing them to make the step from subsistence to commercial production.
The grantees, who are expected to match $1.5 million in matching funds, will take a direct role in transferring knowledge and technology to smallholder farmers.
The event, which took place at the Jupiter Hotel, hosted 35 participants including Partner International NGO’s, Ethiopian Government Officials and input suppliers. Chief of Party, Tim Bergstrom, along with USAID/Ethiopia Officer Chief of Economic Growth and Transformation, Gary Robbins and Furo Beketa of the Oromia Bureau of Agriculture spoke at the event before introducing the six grantees. The Deputy Chief of Party, Waktola Wakgari, introduced the six grantees to begin the signing ceremony.
After the signing ceremony, the grantees answered questions from the press and indicated that the technical insight and financial support extended to them by USAID and CNFA will help them in achieving agricultural growth objectives in their communities.
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