Improved Potato Variety and Training Support Improving the Livelihood of Eritrean Farmers

Medhanie Mehari, Rahwa Abdela, Fitsum Ghebreyohanes
National Agricultural Research Institute, Eritrea
Vita/EIDP, Eritrea

Background

Potato is one of the most important and widely grown vegetable crops in Eritrea for its nutritional benefit and a source of income for farmers. Potatoes grow well in all the high altitude, midlands, and lowlands in the cool months under various soil types by subsistence and commercial farmers both under rainfed and irrigated conditions often in small parcels. Potato is one of the priority crops selected for its economic, food and nutrition security value in Eritrea. The production is mainly concentrated in the highlands of the country, more particularly in the central and southern region. It is a key component in the livelihood systems of small-scale farmers in these regions.

The production and productivity have been low due to several factors but mainly due to unavailability of adequate seed potato supply. The Ministry of Agriculture of Eritrea has launched different projects at different times to alleviate the shortage of seed supply and improve productivity in the country. The only solution to this national problem was the multiplication of good seed potato locally using both good seeds of the best/promising varieties and good techniques so as to satisfy the demand. In 2015 it initiated a new seed potato multiplication project coordinated in partnership with Teagasc, Vita and National Agricultural Research Institute to ensure quality and adequate potato seed supply to the farmers.

 

This community-based project, since its initiation it was funded and supported by different entities mainly IrishAid and EU. The overall objective of the project is to improve the food security and income levels of the beneficiaries through improved potato productivity and increased availability of the potato at household level in Eritrea. It facilitates quality seed production by the farmers and promotes farmer to farmer sharing and redistribution of the quality declared seed potatoes. The project intervenes in all the value chain of seed potato production. It supports research on potato, improves capacity building of farmers on seed potato production, provision of seed potato, maintenance of communal seed potato storages and market facilitation. It strengthens the farmers technical skills on different topics of seed potato production through in-door and on farm trainings, distribution of booklets and guidelines, and experience sharing visits. Furthermore, it trains frontline extension experts to improve their knowledge to support the farmers efficiently. The project has introduced climate smart potato varieties such as Electra a Teagasc-bred IPM variety. This variety has been found to be a high yielding and early maturing which is suitable for the prevailing shortage water in the country due to erratic rainfall.

Results

The overall yield of the potato seed is improved by more than 50% to the baseline which was 13ton/ha. In 2023 the national average productivity was 16 ton/ha which is a promising outcome as compared before the intervention. This in turn has increased the production and availability of potato in the country, improved income of the farmers and reduced the market price. The key outcomes of the multistakeholder collaborative intervention are:
It has distributed 2,585 tonnes of quality declared seeds to 3,510 farmers in all the project sites
Formal and informal training to 960 farmers have been given and more than 350 professionals received trainings
Three potato production guidelines for farmers and experts on local language have been produced and distributed. The “Growing of the Potato Crop” book of John J. Bruke (Nov. 2017) and its shorter version in local language Tigrigna meant for use by extension agents and farmers were observed to be extremely useful and widely applied.
Suitable high-altitude area for seed production have been identified and established for seed production
Farmers and experts conducted experience sharing visit to potato companies, institutes and farmers in neighbouring countries and Ireland. These include potato seed producer cooperatives in Arba Minch-Ethiopia, CIP, KALRO(Kenya), KEPHIS(Kenya), Teagasc (Ireland) and Potato Companies in Kenya, which improved farmers’ knowledge on group dynamics, cooperative establishment and potato production.

Partners

1. National Agricultural Research Institute: Project coordination, research, and training
2. Agricultural Extension Department of Ministry of Agriculture: Coordination and organizing of farmers, inputs and seed supply, trainings and extension service.
3. Regulatory Service Department of Ministry of Agriculture: maintaining the standards, inspection and supervision of seed potato farms
4. Vita (Irish NGO): Fund souring, linking with organizations and management of the project
5. Teagasc (Irish Food and Agriculture Development Authority): Capacity building of the professionals and farmers
   The project has benefited several farmers in improving their livelihood and their communities. Mussie Sielu is one of the many farmers who have benefited from the project interventions.

He is a 39-year-old young farmer from Eritrea, has made significant strides in improving his livelihood since he began farming 11 years ago. Residing in the village of Amadir within the Dubarwa subzone, Mussie lives with his wife and their four children. He is a participant in a seed potato project aimed at enhancing potato production through the distribution of high-quality, climate-resilient seed varieties. This initiative commenced in 2015 to boost productivity and improve the living standards of local farmers through the multiplication and distribution of quality declared seeds.

Mussie cultivates 1.5 hectares of land, dedicating half of it to potato farming. Since 2017, he has been receiving seed potatoes and was one of the 141 farmers supplied with seeds in 2023. Reflecting on the benefits from this project, Mussie reported an increase in productivity from an average of 8 tons per hectare with older varieties to 20 tons per hectare with the new seeds. This remarkable improvement has allowed him to enhance his income and overall quality of life. In addition to selling his potato harvest, Mussie stores up to 2.5 tons of seeds, which he sells at a favorable price of 35 Nakfa per kilogram (approximately €2) to nearby farmers. His hard work has led him to diversify his income sources; he noted, “I built a two-room house with a kitchen, purchased an animal-drawn cart for transporting my produce to market, and acquired 12 beehives.” His beehives yield an average of 50 kilograms of honey annually, which he sells for 200 Nakfa per kilogram (around €10). This combination of direct and indirect income streams has significantly improved his family’s livelihood.

Mussie emphasized that the seed potatoes sourced from Adi Keih, the main project site, are superior in quality and yield compared to those from other locations. Adi Keih was selected as an elite seed potato production site due to its altitude of 2300 meters above sea level and its previous lack of potato cultivation before the project’s intervention in 2018. Over the past four years, this area has transformed significantly, now featuring 1154 hectares cultivated with vegetable crops by 203 farmers. The project has fostered increased participation in seed multiplication and improved storage facilities, resulting in greater productivity.

He concluded with a recommendation: “The variety introduced and supplied by the project is high-yielding, disease-resistant, and favored in the market; it would be beneficial for the project to continue supporting more farmers.” In the first half of 2023 alone, the seed potato project provided 2287.52 quintals of seed potatoes for both multiplication and ware production to 861 farmers, including 6% women. Overall, this initiative has positively impacted more than 4787 subsistence farmers by providing over 6779 tons of quality seeds and enhancing their yields by 50%, increasing from an average of 13 tons per hectare in 2015 to 20 tons per hectare in 2022 through extensive training and supervision.

“I am able to improve my livelihood, bought farm cart and others from improved potato production”. Farmer Mussie Sielu

Conclusion and lessons learned

The key outputs and progress outlined is attributed to the clean seed provided and the increased knowledge of the farmers in handling and management of seed potato. Some of the key lessons learned and recommendations for further strong support of farmers and the system are:

• Creating a strong platform both local and international for collaborative work is a key to success. The World Potato
• Congress is one of the big global initiatives that is bringing all the scientists, industry experts and farmers and suppliers into one platform and facing the challenges collaboratively, improving market linkages and a key learning platform. The Irish Potato Coalition (Now African Potato Initiative) is another platform working to bring the science, industry and farmer to a collaborative one platform. Such platforms are a good example that we can learn from and create a national platform for better structured collaborative work to improve the potato production value chain.
• Rooted apical cutting has seen to revolutionize potato seed sector in several countries. The national agricultural research institute is conducting a promising trial on technology. It’s expected that these new low-cost techniques will boost the availability of seed potatoes to the farmers.
• Even though the intervention had created a good collaboration, a structural arrangement that would be used as a model for future works, it still needs a lot of work to institutionalize the system of collaboration and diffuse it properly to national priorities and authorities.
• The variety used in the project is mainly one Electra. Even though the productivity, adaptability and farmers preference of the variety is high, it needs more variety to be included. Depending on one variety throughout the country decreases the diversity of the crop for different purposes. Moreover, having one variety could lead to devastation in case of a disease outbreak and could leave the population at stake.