{"id":284032,"date":"2019-08-13T14:30:01","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T18:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CAIiEE7n-L77c7FINSWgzyZ0FKsqGQgEKhAIACoHCAow4OH9CjCg6_UCMJ-42gU?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-10-18T11:31:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T15:31:01","slug":"agp-ii-irrigation-arsi-potato-yields-world-bank-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/284032","title":{"rendered":"World Bank-backed irrigation helped Arsi farmers multiply potato yields under Ethiopia’s Second Agricultural Growth Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Farmers in Koko Ashabeka, in Oromia's Arsi Zone, multiplied their potato yields after an irrigation upgrade under the World Bank-funded Second Agricultural Growth Project, the World Bank reported in August 2019.<\/p>\n

\"Farmer<\/figure>\n

Farmer Dawit Moni beside an irrigation canal built by a Tr\u00f3caire partner in Ethiopia, photographed on January 7, 2013. (Tamiru Legesse \/ Tr\u00f3caire via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0) [file photo]<\/em><\/p>\n

Askale, a widowed farmer, used to harvest 25 to 30 quintals of potatoes on her half-hectare plot. With a stable water supply, improved potato varieties and fertilizer, she harvested as much as 120 quintals on the same land, selling 100 and keeping the rest for her family, the bank said.<\/p>\n

The local farmers' cooperative had built an earthen canal that irrigated about 15 hectares. The project paid for 500 meters of lined canal, expanding irrigated land to 52 hectares, and the water users' association then built another 300 meters with members' contributions. Members' yields rose from 70\u201380 quintals per hectare to 250\u2013350 quintals, according to the World Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cPreviously, I had nothing. Now I have a family, a nice house with a corrugated sheet and a motorcycle,\u201d said Abu Aberra, a once-unemployed young man who inherited a quarter-hectare and now rents another 1.25 hectares for potatoes.<\/p>\n

Askale said the farmers were in talks to sell directly to Senselet, a potato chip manufacturer in Addis Ababa, in hope of better prices.<\/p>\n

The project, known as AGP II, is a Ministry of Agriculture flagship building on the first Agricultural Growth Program, which ended in July 2017. It covered 157 woredas in Amhara, Oromia, the Southern region, Tigray, Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella and Harari, plus Dire Dawa, and nearly 1.3 million smallholder farmers, the bank said.<\/p>\n

Agriculture accounted for 35 percent of Ethiopia's output and nearly 70 percent of its labor force, according to the World Bank. Task team leader Vikas Choudhary said the bank's investment had drawn in funds from Global Affairs Canada, the European Union, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, USAID and the Food and Agriculture Organization.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong> World Bank via ReliefWeb<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Farmers in Koko Ashabeka, in Oromia’s Arsi Zone, multiplied their potato yields after an irrigation upgrade under the World Bank-funded Second Agricultural Growth Project, the World Bank reported in August 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":837952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7911,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ethiopian-farmer-irrigation-canal-trocaire-2013.jpg?fit=1280%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1bTa","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284032"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837964,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284032\/revisions\/837964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}