Wollega: A Hub of Untapped Agricultural Potential

BY GIRMA MIRGISA

Eight years have elapsed since the author has traveled to Wollega, a place in western Ethiopia, Oromia regional state. With tantalizing natural beauty carpeted with greenery and colorful natural wild flowers, Wollega is the most fertile land that gives all kinds of products enough to feed million.   

The writer recalls the breathtaking lush green fields and panoramic landscape which would certainly captivate the eyes of a visitor or a person on duty to the Wollega. Wollega boasts its diverse landscape, fertile farmland with various types of crops, expansive forested areas, and undulating hills and a range of mountains. Endowed with exotic flora and fauna, the area is listed as one of the sources of forest and cultivated coffee, spices, honey and abundant livestock resources. Wollega has vast mineral resources including gold, platinum, iron ore, coal, granite and marble. 

With their smiling faces and welcoming gestures, the people of Wollega Zones are well known for their incredible hospitality, generosity and spirit of peace and friendships. Agriculture is the mainstay of the local economy, with crops such as teff, maize, sorghum, and coffee as the main cash crop major products.  If you happen to travel to Wollega, you would certainly be invited to dine on traditional foods like Chumbo, Anchote and a host of other fresh food stuffs that fill your mouth with saliva.

However, over the last few years, Wollega has experienced devastative security problems that prevailed both in the rural and urban settings of the zones. These security problems caused a sort of insecurity among those who travel to the area on business and other activities they wish to accomplish in the zones. Moreover, a number of development programs and projects launched by the federal and Oromia Regional governments were stalled due to security problems that also resulted in the delay of projects planned for the development of the zones in Wollega. 

The government and the people of the areas have been exerting efforts to bring peace. Now things are improving with a restoration of peace and tranquility in the zones in Wollega, development programs launched by the federal and Oromia regional Governments were reinvigorated while farmers in the zone have started to cultivate their lands exploiting the favorable rainfall in the area. Once again business in the zone is flourishing with improvements in safety on transport networks. Students are back to school and getting ready for final exams while local merchants are busy transporting various types of commodities badly needed by the population in the zones. 

Recently, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed addressed a huge rally staged by residents of Wollega drawn from four zones in Nekemte where he told them the government will remain committed to addressing the various development and social needs of the population in the zones. The residents on their part expressed their strong support for the multifaceted efforts that are being undertaken by the government.

Last week, a delegation led by Oromia Region Agriculture Bureau, Head Getu Gemechu conducted a working visit to various agricultural development activities being carried out in the East Wollega, West Wollega and Qellem Wollega Zones.  I have joined a team of journalists who were deployed to the zone to cover the multi-sector development programs. 

As we arrived at each zone officials and representatives of farmers in the zones offered us a warm welcome.  The hospitality and warm welcome accorded to the officials and our team is typical of the population in the areas we visited and shows the extent to which peace and friendship has become a cultural heritage of the people which had transcended from generation to generation.

Over the course of one week, the writer was able to cruise through a cluster of maize, coffee, avocado, pig breeding and fattening farms and other agricultural development activities across the zones. The writer of this article has noticed the commitment, tenacity, diligence and enthusiasm that the farmers have shown in improving their production and productivity in the various areas of cluster farming at this critical period of farming season in the respective zones.

They have been implementing cluster farming on various crops including maize, coffee, barely and others. Cluster farming involves grouping small-scale farmers together to create economies of scale, coordinate production, and share resources and infrastructure. This model was identified as a means to enhance the productivity, efficiency, and market access to smallholder farmers in Wollega. Therefore, the cluster farming approach in Wollega represents an attempt to leverage the benefits of collective action and economies of scale to support smallholder agricultural development in the zones.

The government has been intensively introducing various initiatives to enhance agricultural productivity with a view of ensuring food self-sufficiency and import substitution. These initiatives have also brought significant changes in the production of various fruits such as avocado, bananas and papaya in the zones visited by the author and other zones in Oromia Regional State. The technical and administrative support provided to the cluster farmers by agricultural experts in the zones have immensely contributed to the enhancement of agricultural production and productivity. The author had the chance to talk with farmers, regional and zonal officials, each with a unique story to tell about the challenges they had faced and the successes they have registered in the agriculture sector. For instance, recently, avocado has become an important cash crop for smallholder farmers in the Wollega, contributing to increased income generation and export earnings for Ethiopia.

Jirenya Abera is one of many farmers who are benefiting from avocado production in the East Wollega Zone. He said “I have been engaged in avocado production over the past four years as the government has paid attention to transform the sector.” Now he has been able to own 380 avocados and 250 coffee trees and he is expecting a bumper harvest very soon. He is planning to export the products to other countries. Farmers in the region are aware of the economic advantages of avocado; as the result production of the fruit has been rising steadily.

The farmers in Wollega who talked to the writer are not simply growing crops; they are producing coffee seedlings, honey production and are engaged in pig farming. 

Coffee is a major economic and cultural pace setter in the zones the author has visited. These agricultural activities have supported the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of farmers. Coffee plants thrive in the highlands and mountainous terrains of Wollega where smallholder farmers cultivate both Arabica and Robusta coffee varieties. The coffee industry remains a vital part of Wollega's economy and cultural identity and provides livelihood opportunities for millions while also shaping the area’s unique cultural traditions also being a major export commodity at the global market from the region.

Traditional, shade-grown coffee farming methods are commonly practiced, intercropping coffee plants with other crops and trees. Over the years scaling up coffee production in Ethiopia has been a pivotal focus with the objective of enhancing the competitiveness and quality production of the country's coffee sector. It is also critical to improve the productivity and quality of Ethiopian coffee, ultimately benefiting the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers.

Oromia Regional Agriculture Bureau Head Getu Gemechu said Wollega has immense untapped agricultural potential given its favorable natural endowments. Various initiatives are being implemented to improve the livelihood of farmers by carrying out agricultural development activities across the zones in Wollega and other zones in the Oromia region.

The author reports that throughout his stay in the zones in the Wollega area, I was thrilled by the commitment and unshakable resilience of the farmers. The writer of this article was able to closely observe efforts underway by the farmers in the zones to improve their livelihood and play an active role in transforming the agriculture sector. It is important to provide agriculture imputes for farmers on time including fertilizers and improving seeds. By simultaneously addressing these multiple agricultural activities, smallholder farmers in Wollega need to be further empowered to become more productive, profitable, and integrated into lucrative agricultural value chains.

Some global commercial media outlets and social media houses have always been busy misinforming the local and international community and politicizing the situation in the zones in Wollega. Despite the shortfalls and challenges the zones have faced, the farmers in the region are emerging victorious as the result of the peace and stability that has been restoring in the areas visited by the author. It is inappropriate to commercialize the plight of the people in the region while it is possible to document the reality on the ground. 

The people in the four zones of Wollega are striving for prosperity while as the same time addressing the challenges of instability in the areas. ‘Wollega is the Land of Peace and Greenery.’