The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned further spread of swarms of desert locust as some continue to mature in Oromia, Somali and Southern regions.

A parliamentary report on the assessment of the socio-economic impact of the persistent desert locust in Ethiopia indicated that at least 1.3 million people are in danger of food insecurity.

The Deputy Mayor of Addis Ababa City Administration, Takele Uma (Eng.), has told city officials to take immediate action in granting farmers, who possess farming lands in the city’s surrounding area, with a legally binding land title deed.

The Enterprises Holdings and Administration Agency (EHAA), has floated Abaya Agricultural Farm for auction whereby potential buyers are offered full acquisition of the farm.

The first foreign-owned leasing company, Ethio Lease, yesterday signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) enabling it to lease agriculture machineries to ATA sponsored farmers’ mechanisation centres.  

Advisors at the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) are proposing a separate entity for the management and administration of land resources in Ethiopia, a recommendation prominent experts in the field have been forwarding for many years.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), one of the three Rome-based UN agencies, has agreed to provide USD 40 million as part of the USD 305.7 million co-financing needed to back the Rural Financial Intermediation Program the Government of Ethiopia is about to implement.

In a bid to supply a total of 600,000 metric tons of wheat to the Ethiopian government, two firms have given the lowest total offer of 3.88 billion birr, The Reporter has learnt.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has financially backed Soufflet Malt Ethiopia – a subsidiary of the French-based Gruope Soufflet – with EUR 20 million to help expand the company’s malt production and for its role involving some 40,000 smallholder farmers in the value chain.

The first quarter of the fiscal year [2012/13 EC] has fetched some USD 723 million in export revenue, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.