Friday, February 10, 2012

Ambitious plans for Ethiopia

ZDF, the German TV has just brought a documentary on Ethiopia's ambitious plans. A great documentary that shows urban life, in Addis and Nekemte and shows more about the coffee trade. http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/beitrag/video/1556844/Afrika-ganz-anders!-Aethiopiens-Plaene
It basically focuses on the fast moving cities, the economic boom, the growing international (coffee) trade, the Chinese... interesting...
But Ethiopia could be so much more that the cheap producing shoes country and a coffee exporting nation as shown in the documentary. In the highland farmers produce about 10% from the full potential, of which 30-50% is lost in post-harvesting. There is a huge potential to become a major player on the world food market, if supply chains are developed, agriculture mechanized, improved varieties and livestock breeds combined with fertility management (fertilizer, and erosion control).
But somehow no one has yet understood how to get there and make use of the potential gains. Nor NGOs, nor extension services (government), nor the foreign investor (land grabbers), have managed to make use of these potential gains...

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