The Ministry of Agriculture announced on Wednesday that it is planning to consume 1.7 million metric tons of fertilizer in the 2020/2021 fiscal year in a bid to increase agricultural productivity.
Aynalem Nigussie, State Minister of Agriculture, said that supplying and distributing agricultural input is vital to scale up productivity and production in the agricultural sector. Due to this, the Ministry has been working to scale up farmer’s utilization of fertilizer and in this fiscal year. While the Ministry purchased 1.4 million metric tons of new fertilizer, it will add the remaining from the store.
She underscored that the Ministry has been working in collaboration with Ministry of Transport and Shipping and Logistics Service Enterprise in order to speed up its delivery system. The State Minister also noted that the Ministry has supplied 1,280,807 metric tons, or 71.6 of the year’s target plan.
He stated that the farmers’ utilization of agricultural input has been increasing by 17 percent in every year on average. (The Ethiopian Herald)
HPR Considering Postponement of Election 2020
The House of People’s Representatives (HPR) has referred the proposal of the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia for the postponement of Election 2020 for further scrutiny to the pertinent standing committee.
Briefing the House, National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) Chairperson Birtukan Mideksa said that it is impossible to conduct the election as planned because of COVID-19 which necessitated the imposition of a state of emergency.
Since the state of emergency in turn affects the works of the board that has domino effect from beginning to end, NEBE proposed the postponement of the election, she added.
After deliberating on the issue, the House of People’s Representatives directed it to the Legal, Justice and Democracy Standing Committee for further scrutiny.
The term of the House of People’s Representatives ends early October 2020.
It is to be recalled that the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia has assessed the situation in the country and globally passing decision not to conduct the election in August 2020. (ENA)
Ministry adopts tourism recovery strategy
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has adopted national tourism recovery strategy to help the industry cope with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
Minister of Culture and Tourism, Hirut Kassaw (PhD) said on Tuesday that the strategy is amid at mitigating the impact of the pandemic in the tourism industry of the nation.
The strategy was referred to different stakeholders for discussion, and incorporated recommendations of the tourism committee and regional offices, she noted.
The strategy helps international tourists to adjust their visit plans to Ethiopia, and have clear view of tourist destinations after the novel coronavirus is contained at the global level, Hirut said
She said the strategy is adopted in compliance with recovery measures recommended by United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to mitigate impacts of the coronavirus pandemic in the world tourism economy.
It is to be recalled that Hotel owners and tour operators recently announced that they are seeking assistance from the government to withstand the severe impact of COVID-19. (FBC)
Desert locust destroy over 3.5 mln quintals
Desert locust has consumed over 3.5 million quintals of agriculture produce in Ethiopia, according to Ministry of Agriculture.
Agriculture State Minister Sani Redi told journalists Tuesday that the country has managed to control the worst case situation which could have caused food security crisis.
Though the collaborative works have generally brought results, the locust has hugely affected specific kinds of crop, he added.
Sorghum, maize and wheat on about 198,000 hectares of land were damaged by the desert locust.
According to him, the desert locust has affected 170 Woredas in six regional states and a city administration.
The state minister underscored that the Coronavirus pandemic has created double burden in controlling the locust as it has been forecasted to continue till October.
To avert this, the ministry has deployed three helicopters that assess the movement of the swarm, it was learned.
Furthermore, the ministry has been working to get about 63 million USD from the World Bank to ease the burden caused by Coronavirus, Sani revealed. (ENA)
