Government of Tigray, Bureau of Agriculture & Natural Resources Emergency and Recovery Plan

The following document, prepared by the Government of Tigray’s Bureau of Agriculture & Natural Resources, outlines a plan for emergency support and recovery response to rebuild the region’s agricultural system. The total budget of the plan is not provided, but itemized tables from the document appear to show a requirement of more than 20 billion Ethiopian Birr or around $371 million. 

The plan is extremely comprehensive and includes a detailed statement of need, preliminary assessments of damages incurred to each area of Tigray’s agricultural system, and an itemized budget divided into seven sections with an appendix.

Section 1: Irrigation and Horticultural Crop Development

Damage Assessment:

• 18,000 Hectares of cultivated land not in production due to damaged or looted irrigation schemes.
• 81% of fruit nurseries non-functional due to damage and looting
• Vegetable farms now using only 30% of total irrigable land, down from 70% pre-war level

Broad Objective: Provide farmers with access to quality horticulture inputs and irrigation facilities.

Specific Objectives: To create farmers’ access to quality agricultural inputs and irrigation facilities; support seed-insecure households to resume and enhance horticulture production and productivity; capacitate woreda and zonal experts, extension agents, and farmers on technics of horticulture production; have efficient and effective extension support to farmers at all levels; supply horticultural products to the market.

Needs/activities:

• Vegetable seeds, cereals, and pulses for 28,322 (197,263 beneficiaries)
• Fertilizer for 85,707 hectares (224,450 beneficiaries)
• Farming tools for 121,675 beneficiaries
• Fruit seedlings for 1,461 hectares (7,627 beneficiaries)
• Irrigation repairs for 2,503 damaged schemes supporting 49,536 beneficiaries.
• Strategic crop training program
• Institutional support, training programs, and monitoring and evaluation programs.

Section 2: Seed Development Sector

Damage Assessment:

• The best resources have been looted, burned, and mixed with sand in rural areas.
• Farmers in Tigray have been blocked from accessing improved seeds from the federal government.

Broad Objective: Sustain and support seed supply to smallholder farmers.

Specific Objectives: Create access to improved seeds for smallholder farmers, improve the production and productivity of major cereals and vegetables, encourage and capacitate private organizations to produce improved seeds, and improve the skill and knowledge of producers to implement seed laws of the region/country.

Needs/activities:

• Crop seed multiplication support for 102,220 farmers
• Vegetable seed multiplication support for 123,200 farmers
• Fruit seedling multiplication support for 300,000 farmers
• Forage seed multiplication support
• Rehabilitation of damaged fruit nurseries

Section 3: Crop-Production

Damage Assessment:

• Lands damaged by tanks and other vehicles
• Matured crops used for shelter and bedding
• Immature maize and sorghum stalks looted and consumed
• Matured crops looted from Adiabo, Tselemt, and T/Adiabo Shiglina (Kunama area)
• Many farms destroyed, crops burned or looted, farm equipment looted, livestock slaughtered
• Around 2.5 million people displaced, primarily from farming areas.
• Farmers banned from harvesting crops
• Farmers forced to plant using local seeds, without fertilizer, leading to low yields
• Lack of proper pest management

Objectives: Create agricultural inputs for vegetable farmers, improve yield productivity and production, improve farmer livelihoods.

Needs/Activities:

• Provision of organic/chemical fertilizer (highest priority)
• Provision of cereals seeds, pulses, and seed multiplication
• Provision of crop protection equipment and farm tools
• Extension services for soil fertility improvement and agronomic management options

Section 4: Livestock

Damage Assessment:

• Losses, slaughters, lootings, migration of considerable number of livestock populations, 
• Huge losses and/or scarce of animal feed and forage resources, 
• Destruction of nursery sites, livestock and wildlife park infrastructures, honey and feed processing plants, livestock breeding units, Begait breeding and conservation ranch 
• Interruption of almost all input supplies, cooperatives and markets, 
• Significant reduction in production and productivities of livestock,
• Cessation of veterinary service delivery, 
• Destruction of 176 of 198 existing rural veterinary clinics

Objectives: To restock and rehabilitate the damaged animal feed source, livestock, poultry, and apiculture resources and their systems; reinitiate the veterinary, feed and milk processing plant, AI, abattoir and other services; address and provide emergency feed, drug and breed supplies for immediate responses; and reconstruct the destructed veterinary clinics, AI breeding units, slaughter house, Begait ranch, feed and milk processing plants, honey processing plant and forage nursery sites.

Needs/Activities:

• Restoration and revitalization of veterinary service delivery system
• Reinstatement of stationed clinical services to implement animal disease prevention and control
• Implementation of mobile clinical service delivery
• Purchase and distribution of veterinary inputs (drugs, vaccines, medical supplies)
• Reconstruction and maintenance of damaged veterinary clinics
• Training and psycho-social support for veterinary staff
• Rapid chemical toxicity and food safety investigation capacity building
• Restoration of livestock slaughter services
• Emergency and recovery support for animal breeding services
• Reconstruction of damaged artificial insemination infrastructure and facilities
• Livestock and poultry restocking
• Recovery of feed grains and raw materials
• Emergency support for grazing forage resources
• Emergency recovery of apiculture (beekeeping)
• Emergency response plan for aquaculture and fisheries

Section 5: Natural Resources Development

Damage Assessment:

• Most rehabilitated and development watersheds have been damaged or destroyed
• 4,300 community micro watersheds have been destroyed or damaged.
• State-run seedling production sites with potential output of 200 million seedlings per year are nearly all destroyed or looted.
• Increased deforestation from conflict
• Most tools have been looted.

Objectives: Create awareness for forest protection and management, rehabilitate forest nurseries, conduct water harvesting interventions.

Needs:

• Primarily tools and forest seeds

Section 6: Agricultural Extension

Damage Assessment:

• Farmer Training Center and facilities destroyed
• Burning and looting of crops and livestock
• Violence targeting farming families, including murder and rape, creating fear amongst farmers to avoid cultivation activities

Objective: Strengthen resiliency of households both in rural and urban areas through intensive Emergency Extension Training and Innovative Extension Delivery Services

Needs/activities:

• Rehabilitation, outfitting, and strengthening of Farmer Training Center

Section 7: Agricultural Mechanization

Damage Assessment:

• More than 40% of the 1.9 million draft oxen stolen or slaughtered
• More than 90% of the 1,990 farm tractors in Tigray were looted or destroyed
• Traditional farm implements burned or broken

Objectives: Establish agricultural mechanization service, maintenance and spare parts supplying firms to support smallholder farmers in the war-affected zones and provides package of agricultural machinery and tools also equally important; provide tractor-based agricultural mechanization service to smallholder farmers who lost their draft animals as an immediate solution to gabs resulting due to the war and siege thereby enabling them to perpetuate agricultural activities; provide oxen based agricultural mechanization service to smallholder farmers who lost their draft animals as an immediate solution; provide emergency financial support to war-affected smallholder farmers 

Needs/activities:

• Establishment of 18 farm equipment service and support facilities
• Procurement of 1,014 tractors to cover 286,000 hectares of land (22 of cultivated land)
• Procurement of 2,000 water pumps to irrigate 54,000 hectares of land
• Procurement of 200 solar pumps to irrigate 2,000 hectares of land
• Provide mechanized services to 80,000 poor household farmers
• Supply traditional farming tools

Duke Burbridge prepared the summary for Tghat.

The entire document can be read below.

Final-BOANR-Emergency-and-Rehablitation-plan