Deployment of Malt Barley and Faba Bean Varieties and Technologies for Sustainable Food and Nutritional Security and Market Opportunities in the Highlands of Ethiopia

There are the unavailability of improved technologies to farmers, poor extension systems for transferring available technologies, lack of sufficient policy support for the input and output markets of these crops, limited promotion, popularization and demonstration activities for these crops compared to wheat and other crops and critical shortage of basic seed from the public seed enterprises in Ethopia. To address these issue, ICARDA, in collaboration with Ethiopian NARS has developed many technologies (24 faba bean and 13 malt varieties and integrated crop management practices) that have been validated with farmers and are now available for scaling up/out in the highlands of Ethiopia. The new varieties and management practices have the potential of doubling the current malt barley and faba bean yields.

There is real demand for the two commodities and that productivity enhancing technologies are available. The missing link is to create awareness, develop and deliver seed to farmers in affordable and sustainable way and develop linkages to the market to create a sustainable pool for technologies including seed. So Project will will employ popularization and demonstration of improved malt barley and faba bean varieties and associated agronomic practices coupled with accelerated seed multiplication. These activities will engage formal and informal seed innovations and involve a wide range of stakeholders from federal (EIAR-Holetta and Kulumsa Research Centers) and regional agricultural research institutes (ARARI-Adet, Debre Berhan and Sirinka), federal and regional public seed enterprises, emerging private seed and inoculant producers and farmer seed producers, federal and regional and district bureaus of agriculture and extension services, and NGOs to increase production and productivity of Malt Barley and Faba beans.

The project will scale up the existing malt barley and faba bean varieties and will introduce improved varieties and integrated crop management practices to the farmer groups, research institutes and seed enterprises. Its aim is to create awareness, develop and deliver seed to farmers in affordable and sustainable way and develop linkages to the market to create a sustainable pool for technologies including seed. Project components include conceptual framework of malt barley and faba bean seed road map, accelerated seed multiplication, early generation seed production, large scale certified seed production, farmer based seed production and sustainability of seed supply system. Project will popularize improved seed varieties and rhizobium inoculants, farmer and enterprise level seed production. It will reduce yield gaps through effective agronomic practices and will also produce diverse nutrient-rich food. Thus, sustainable increases in the productivity of crops will help farmers to increase their access to food and generate more income for farmers and new market opportunities for enterprises. In this process, it will create a comprehensive database on demand and supply patterns in malt barley and faba bean seed and gain markets, it will be used in accessing productive assets. Besides, seed production and distribution, it will focus on strengthening human resource capacity of NARS, farmer groups and partners in basic seed production, crop management and seed/inoculum technologies which will increase capacity for innovation in partner development organizations and in poor and vulnerable communities. Finally the project will contribute to four of the CGIAR system level outcomes: reducing rural poverty, strengthening food security, policies and institutions and capacity development.