Ethiopian agricultural engineers have called for greater investment in the local manufacture and assembly of agricultural machinery, arguing that continued reliance on imported equipment could undermine efforts to modernise the country’s agricultural sector.
The Ethiopian Society of Agricultural Engineers (ESAE) and the Pan African Society of Agricultural Engineers (PASAE) made the call during their eighth conference in Addis Ababa, where experts discussed the development and use of agricultural technologies.
ESAE President Dr Debele Debela told Capital that the government’s growing attention to agricultural mechanisation, from the Prime Minister’s Office to the Ministry of Agriculture, was encouraging. However, he stressed the need to strengthen domestic manufacturing capacity and combine local expertise with international technologies.
He said efforts to establish agricultural-machinery manufacturing facilities began during the final years of the Derg regime, including production at the Adama Agricultural Machinery Manufacturing Plant. However, he said the initiative had not continued at the pace required.
“The failure to continue Ethiopian agricultural machinery manufacturing and assembly with the enthusiasm and effort that existed has cost us as a country. We cannot continue importing machinery from abroad,” Debele said.
He called for the expansion of modern machinery-manufacturing and assembly centres, adding that Ethiopia should develop technologies suited to its agricultural conditions rather than attempt to compete immediately with advanced producers such as Japan.
“We need to link indigenous knowledge with international technologies,” he said.
Abera Lemma, an adviser to the Ministry of Agriculture, said the government had given greater attention to transforming Ethiopian agriculture from traditional farming methods to modern production systems following policy reforms.
He said duty-free imports of agricultural machinery had contributed to changes in the sector, while the government was also strengthening institutions involved in developing and adapting agricultural technologies.
According to Abera, the availability and use of tractors and combine harvesters have increased significantly over the past five years. He added that imported machinery was being introduced for different crops and farming systems.
He said mechanisation does not require every farmer to purchase expensive equipment individually. Instead, the government is promoting rental services and collective arrangements, particularly for smallholder farmers with limited land.
Farmers producing similar crops are being organised to access machinery through shared services, while traders and importers are being encouraged to supply more equipment.
Shimelis Tsegaye, Chief Executive for Agricultural Mechanisation at the Ministry of Agriculture, said research conducted since 2020 had identified more than 500 agricultural technologies, while 168 types of machinery had been imported into the country.
He said the number of agricultural tractors had risen from about 1,300 in 2020 to more than 27,000. Companies including Adama and Kegna were importing and assembling tractors in Ethiopia.
The number of irrigation water pumps has also increased from around 5,000 to more than 800,000, while agricultural spraying equipment has grown from approximately 5,000 units to more than three million, Shimelis said.
He added that the number of combine harvesters had increased from 448 to more than 10,000. Meanwhile, the supply of hermetic bags used to reduce post-harvest losses had exceeded 10 million, helping farmers preserve grain for longer periods.
Despite the progress, agricultural mechanisation continues to face several challenges, including the high cost of machinery, limited access to spare parts, shortages of technicians able to repair imported equipment, financing constraints for farmers and foreign-exchange shortages affecting importers.
Some agricultural machines cost as much as 30 million birr, making them unaffordable for many smallholder farmers without financing or shared-use arrangements.
Shimelis said the government was working to address these challenges by expanding machinery assembly centres, increasing the number of repair facilities and exploring ways to improve access to finance.
