Brainstorming Questions for Passage 1

You are going to read a text on “the benefits of mechanized agriculture. Before reading the text, answer the following questions.

1. Name at least three countries that you know practice mechanized agriculture?
2. How does that benefit the countries?

3.What do you say about the development of mechanized agriculture in Ethiopia?

Benefits of Mechanized Agriculture

Agricultural Mechanization is an essential input not only for crop production, but it also has a crucial role to play along the entire value chain. It is applicable at all stages of production. At pre-harvesting stage, it is needed for land preparation, crop establishment, weeding, fertilization, irrigation, crop protection and harvesting. At post-harvest and storage, it is applied for drying, grading, winnowing, cleaning and storage. At the processing and marketing stage it is needed for chopping, milling, grinding, pressing, packaging and transport.

The changing agricultural sector and the challenges smallholders have faced call for farm mechanization. The demanding market has made the farming operations very tense. On the contrary, labor market situations, capacity to utilize machines, and availability of complementary technologies are not accessible for smallholders. The benefits of mechanization could be also sustained by the availability and use of other complementary inputs such as improved seeds, fertilizers and water resources.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in goal number twelve (SDG12) provides a strong case for sustainable crop production escalation that will protect natural resources while producing food for the global growing population. In order to achieve this, there is need to sharply improve labor and land productivity in the smallholder farming sector. The smallholder farming sector produces up to 80% of the food in developing countries. This would not only require improved access to essential crop production inputs including quality seed, fertilizer and irrigation water, but also would necessitate increased access to machinery.

As smallholder agriculture becomes more commercial and modern, and agricultural value chains get more intricate, there is need to promote diverse types of mechanization along these value chains. Vast mechanization opportunities for small to medium scale farmers and other entrepreneurs lie in agro-processing, transport or other off-farm activities. In identifying farm operations that should be mechanized, priority ought to be given to tasks where labor productivity is low and/or where labor drudgery is high.

Agricultural mechanization is highly capital intensive, compared to the usually manual inputs, but is very essential to agricultural production. It has also consequences on the efficiency of all other inputs used in crop productions including seeds, fertilizer, water, and time and labor. It can also have very detrimental effects on the environmental sustainability of farming. It is also much more complex and demanding in its application, requiring not only correct use, but also a service infrastructure for maintenance and repair. However, climate smart agriculture such as conservation agriculture, safe and efficient application of pesticides, precision application of fertilizers, soil compaction management, efficient harvesting, and natural resource conservation ensure sustainable and safe production.

Brainstorming questions for Passage 2

You are going to read a text on “Modern Poultry Farm“. Before reading the text, answer the following questions.

1.Do you know someone in your area who raises chickens at home?

2.Do you think that he/she is benefiting from it? How?

3.What are the contributions of poultry production to families in Ethiopia and to the national economy?

Modern Poultry Farm

Poultry farming is one of the oldest most common house hold productions both in rural and urban Ethiopia. When higher level agricultural education research and extension were established in Ethiopia in the early 1950’s, poultry production was one of the programs. Jimma Agricultural Technical School, Alemaya College of Agriculture and United State Operational Mission Agricultural were the first institutes dealt with poultry farming projects. Jimma, Alemaya, Debre Zeit and Shashemene were the first four experiment stations. At the beginning, the projects dealt with the appraisal of the country’s indigenous chicken varieties, utility and their productivity. Later, four breeds of exotic chickens, Rhode Island Red, Australorp, New Hampshire and White Leghorns, were imported from Kenya, Denmark and the United States to Jimma and Alemaya. Trials and experimental activities were done in the areas of poultry housing, feeding, brooding, management, and disease and parasite control.

The experimental stations played key roles in the establishment phase of the current modern poultry sector and [in] the national poultry extension. They served as sources of improved verities and fertile eggs along with reliable information about the best methods of housing, feeding, management and marketing of poultry. The activities of the experiment stations were further strengthened with the establishment of modern poultry farms. The modern poultry farms were involved in the distribution of exotic genotype to urban poultry producers. The Ministry of Agriculture established seven more multiplication centers in different parts of the country to enhance the national poultry extension activities.

Comparatively larger scale intensive poultry production is also practiced at government poultry multiplication and distribution centers located in various regions such as Adama, Bedelle, Hawassa, Bonga, Kombolicha, Andessa and Mekele breeding and rearing centers.

The Ethiopian higher education and research institutions run a number of modern poultry farms with the objectives of training and research. The institutions distribute fertile eggs, baby chicks and pullets and cockerels for MoARD, NGOs and individuals. The MoARD operates a total of 14 modern breeding and/ or rearing centers. Some of them have hatchery units, brooder and layers houses, and veterinary clinic and feed processing units. The centers directly import fertile eggs and day-old chicks of dual purpose chickens as a parent stock. Prior to February 2006, the centers suffered from shortage of financial resources, lack of replacement breeding stocks and periodic disease outbreaks.

Currently there are more than 20 private large scale commercial poultry  production farms located in and around Addis Ababa, particularly       in and around Bishoftu. ELFORA, Alema and Genesis are the top 3 largest commercial    poultry   farms    with modern production and processing facilities in Ethiopia. Established in 1997,

ELFORA has large scale poultry farms at 4 different locations and sub-locations. ELFORA has modern broiler processing and packing units. It produces table eggs, broiler meat and day old chicks. The slaughtering service has a capacity of 500,000 kg/year. ELFORA annually delivers around 420,000 chickens and over 34 million eggs to the markets in Addis Ababa. Alema Farm is the second largest enterprise delivering nearly half a million broilers to Addis Ababa market every year. It has its own parent stock from Holland, a feed processing plant, hatchery, slaughtering plant, cold storage and transport facility at its sites of operation. Genesis farm is the third most important private poultry enterprise with over 10,000 layers and its own parent stock and hatchery. Genesis farm is the major source of breeding stock and commercial feed for the modern private poultry sector.

Eight modern poultry farms, ELFORA Agro Industry, Alema, Almaze, Genesis, Kalehiwot, Sinkinesh, Tseday and Bora chicken farms have formed a poultry farmers association known as “The Ethiopian Poultry Farmers Association”

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