Wednesday, October 1, 2025
Home Blog Page 1157

Unforgettable, forgotten: Enset- a remarkable crop of East Africa

admin
-
0
Unforgettable, forgotten: Enset- a remarkable crop of East Africa

Agriculture isn’t just a means of producing food; it’s also an art form. When dedicated farmers tend to their farms, the resulting produce is just as beautiful. This is especially true for the Enset Plant, which has been cultivated for over 10,000 years in Ethiopia. It’s the only edible species of its kind in Africa and possibly the world. Today, this crop serves closet of life yielding multiple purposes, providing food and nutrition security, cash crops, and environmental conservation for over 30 million people in the South, Southwest, Central, and Oromia regions, expanding towards the Northern parts and that of East Africa as a whole.

Our homeland Ethiopia is luckily enriched with abundant natural resources that gears our development. What is needed is seeing things with opened eye and giving due consideration if we must dump poverty and ensure development. It is a trend oftentimes being said that Ethiopia is full of resources. But those resources had not been utilized fully for growth and development. Still we have remained with unleashing the potential in different aspects for example agriculture, mineral etc.  One and untapped aspect is crops, plants, animals, and others. Among all, enset is a crop for which less attention given comparing to its diverse purpose as a means of food source with different nutrients. Other indigenous plants, animals or crops might be lost due to different disasters especially weather, but enset resists drought and sustains for the harsh time of consumption both for human and animals.  

So far enset was not known that it is such significant crop which benefits both for human and animals.  Even there was an instant to mentioned it as useless with no advantage and disadvantage because due attention was not given by concerned bodies; but now a days it is being studied and tremendous results are being released on its sustainable agro ecosystems resilience, agronomy and variety improvement, enset processing technology, value addition and marketing of indigenous food products and other aspects.

Traditionally, people have wondered how a single plant like Enset can feed thousands. Some have even used lyrics to celebrate Enset as a wonderful, all-purpose plant given by Almighty God to humanity and when the governors know about its uses, they will never refrain to reward the farmers. Enset products, along with its different Ethiopian cultural food counterparts, for example, in the Kembata area (Atakana, Bilambilo, Mucho) and the Sidama area (Bursame, Chukame, Omolcho), and other areas, are very unique in their kind and nutritional content. They are used as a main dish. All Enset cultural food counterparts in the Kembata, Gurage, Hadiya, Silte, Wolayita, Sidama, Sheka, Gedeo, and Oromia areas are not only mentioned as a food, but also as a rich source of carbohydrate starch, fat, and unique amino acid proteins that satisfy for a long time once eaten.

Enset is much more accessible to the stallholder in the area than other crops due to its various food alternatives. Currently, teff is extraordinarily priced at over 10,000 birr per quintal, while a single enset costs up to 1,500 birr and provides an abundance of products such as kocho, bu’la, ha’micho, leaf for sell and animal feed, fiber and composting. This affordability enables the farmers to access enset products and also profit from selling them. Additionally, from existing data sources, enset makes a substantial contribution to the national agricultural GDP, as illustrated in the table below.

Generally, enset is needlessly neglected that would never have been neglected, with too much high economic and nutritional value in east Africa. Therefore, immediate concern by all stakeholders should be given to rescue Enset from an epidemic (Enset bacterial wilt) that has been tearing farmers. It is also mandatory to enhance the productivity of enset since it is a crop that competently answers the quest of our food security. If all stakeholders give it due attention as a result different efforts that are being done on enset could be scaled up. These efforts are, for example, encouraging value additions of enset products like making processing enset flour for the bakery to prepare cake, cookies and best bread serving as a delicious diet for diabetic patients with low glycaemic index or gluten-free bread as comfortable as bread baked from that of the ‘teff’ flour.  It is recently succeeded and other similar achievements from enset would take enset to the role of being a super food both for Ethiopians and foreigners.

Table. Trends in enset contribution to national agricultural GDP

YearNominal Agricultural GDP (Billion Birr)Value of enset produced (Billion Birr)Share to the nominal Agricultural GDP (%)
2012/2013251.80110.7543.98
2013/2014267.8033.6912.58
2014/2015274.00227.4283.00
2015/2016573.10241.2142.09
2017/2018600.90295.7349.21
2018/2019624.00335.4953.76

Source: Estimation adopted from data of Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia

During my trip to the Guraghe zone (eastern and western parts), I was invited to attend an innovation platform organized by EIAR and Wolkite Research Center. There, I learned about the enset plant and farming system, which are endangered by Enset Bacterial wilt infections, where a farmer lost up to 150 matured enset plants- which is a great economic loss after nurturing the crop by a farmer about six to seven years (pictures in below). The occurrence of the disease on enset has been well established since 1938 in Ethiopia, according to professionals. Despite many efforts to maintain the natural balance under control, the disease pressure has reached its climax since 2000. As a result, this strategic crop and its natural farming system are observed to be in a diminishing state. It is necessary to give urgent attention to the farming system and productivity, as it is threatened by the rival bug. The government is currently striving for several development actions, in which enset is considered a strategic commodity that opens windows of opportunity to invest in the enset-based farming system. It appears too late and much efforts are untapped and forgotten in promoting this golden commodity.

China, India and the Global Economy

admin
-
0
China, India and the Global Economy

According to the World Bank and IMF, China and India are both now growing much faster than the West. Their greater populations mean that their output will overwhelm the West’s well before 2100. The global economy history book indicated that their brutal realism about international economic relations, so similar to the attitudes of Britain in 1815 and the United States in 1915, will ensure their success.

Martin Hutchinson, a renowned British author and market analyst, asserted that  just as the 19th Century belonged to Britain and the 20th Century to the United States, so the 21st Century will belong to China and India, with no other obvious claimant to the 22nd century. He noted that China and India’s assertiveness, in both economic and geopolitical spheres, is reminiscent not of the hesitant Britain and United States of today, but of their activities in the period when they were rising to global hegemony, around 1815 and 1915 respectively.

According to history, around 1815, Britain claimed the right to seize neutral merchant ships, prevent them from trading with France and collect any British citizens who might be serving on them. Its effective closure of United States trade through the 1807 Orders in Council was the main cause of the War of 1812. Around 1915, the United States maintained massive protective tariffs against the world’s trade, far higher than others’. It also built the Panama Canal and invaded Mexico and Haiti, asserting its rights in the Western Hemisphere much as Vladimir Putin does in neighboring countries today.

Martin Hutchinson stated that, India follows the relatively benign model of Britain 1815 and the United States 1915 fairly closely. Indeed, India is not yet quite as assertive in foreign policy as was either previous emerging hegemon. China on the other hand is in many respects more like the Kaiser’s Germany, claiming disputed areas of ocean by building artificial islands thereon. They are also building a navy that, like the Kaiser’s High Seas Fleet, can be aimed at only one other power, the existing hegemon.

Economically, the case for China and India’s emergence is rock solid. According to figures by Price Waterhouse Coopers earlier this year, even if there is considerable slowing in growth after 2020, by 2050 China will have a GDP of $61 trillion to the United States $41 trillion. Meanwhile, India with GDP of $42 trillion will also have surpassed the United States to become the world’s second largest economic power. In practice, Price Waterhouse Coopers’s estimates are likely to be too conservative. Certainly its estimate of growth for the United States between now and 2050 is higher than has been achieved in the “recovery” from the 2008-9 debacle. Its estimates of growth for India and China both look low.

That is not to say China and India will be as rich as the United States in per capita terms by 2050, even if they grow faster than Price Waterhouse Coopers estimates. Nevertheless they will be considerably richer than they are currently, especially in India’s case. With total GDPs larger than the United States they will be able to project force more effectively than will the United States, even with the help of its NATO allies. Russia, fading from sixth place in GDP (on a purchasing power parity basis) in 2014 to eighth place in 2050, less than one tenth the size of China, will also be a declining force internationally, even if it has managed to annex a few neighboring economic basket cases.

According to Martin Hutchinson, looking beyond 2050, it is difficult to see what might dislodge China and India from their hegemony. Price Waterhouse Coopers estimation revealed that, of individual countries in 2050, in economic terms, the fourth is Indonesia, with a GDP about 30% of the United States and double that of the largest European country, Germany. In terms of population, China and India are several times the size of the next largest country, and will remain so, increasing their geopolitical clout accordingly.

They will still be much poorer than the United States in 2050, and so they will presumably enjoy some further catch-up in terms of wealth and living standards and hence increase their lead in terms of raw GDP. India’s year 2100 population is projected as 1.6 billion by the United Nations and China’s at 1 billion. This compares with a mere 450 million projected for the United States.

Martin Hutchinson noted that it is possible of course that other countries may combine, in much the same way as the EU has attempted so painfully to do. Nigeria’s population is projected as 752 million in 2100. Africa’s population as a whole is projected to approach 4 billion, since fertility rates will remain much higher there than in other regions throughout the 21st century. The world’s population overall is now projected in 2100 to be a grossly overcrowded 11.2 billion. China and India together will represent only 23% of the total compared with today’s 31%, thus be theoretically vulnerable to a new competitor.

An African federation, if one could be formed, would have four times China’s population and 2½ times India’s in 2100. It might have approached those much richer countries in terms of total GDP, while remaining much poorer per capita. That would suggest that the 22nd Century might well belong to such a federation, if it came into existence. But consider the difficulties that have been faced by the European Union.

As it is obvious, most of those African states share a common history and culture, if not language. It seems very unlikely that Africa’s 54 countries will be able to form themselves into a federation tight enough to act as one superpower. It is of course possible that a subgroup of those countries may do so. However it would probably still lag China and India in terms of GDP, even if not in population.

Martin Hutchinson stated that, in any case, if there is to be another geopolitical transition taking place after 2100, it will be for China and India to worry about, not for us inhabitants of what will then be second-class powers. In general, we can anticipate a transition to Chinese/Indian hegemony philosophically, if not without regret. The main difficulty will be that of having two hegemons whose emergence will not be simultaneous.

China is emerging already, whereas India requires another 20-30 years before its economic clout is sufficient to bring top-level geopolitical power with it. This staggered emergence clearly has the potential for conflict. With today’s technology, that could greatly damage the rest of us, even if we stayed out of it directly.

Transition between hegemons does not have to result in war. Britain handed over peacefully to the United States, for example. But it brings risks higher than in periods of hegemonic stability. Politically, both China and India are at present reasonably benign, much more so than the 20th Century Soviet Union. We should also remember that China has a history of global hegemony and one which does not look much like European hegemons.

Name: Mahlet Azene

admin
-
0
Name: Mahlet Azene

Education: MSc in Speech & Language Therapy

Company name: Jaziel Speech & Language Therapy Clinic

Title: Owner, Manager & Therapist

Founded in: 2022

What it does: Speech therapy for both children and adults

Headquarters: Addis Ababa, Megenagna Siti Mall 3rd Floor

Startup capital: 100,000 ETB

Current capital: 100,000 ETB

Number of employees: 5

Reason for starting the business: To provide speech therapy services for children and adults with communication and swallowing disorders

Biggest perk of ownership: Being my own manager

Biggest strength: I am relentless in pursuing my goals, no matter the challenges

Biggest challenge: People’s negative attitudes and lack of awareness

Plan: To build the biggest speech therapy clinic in Ethiopia

First career: Speech therapist

Most interested in meeting: My childhood friend

Most admired person: My dad and mom

Stress reducer: Going to church

Favorite book: Religious books

Favorite pastime: Going to monasteries

Favorite destination: Jerusalem

Favorite automobile: Ford

Economic impact of environmental issues

admin
-
0
Economic impact of environmental issues

In this interview, we speak with Melkamu Ogo, a seasoned private law practitioner and part-time lecturer at Addis Ababa University. Melkamu is the founder of Melkamu Ogo Law Office (MOLO), established in 2016. With over seven years of experience as a legal advisor, department head, and litigator for both governmental offices and prominent private business corporations, he brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his practice.

MOLO provides comprehensive legal services across a broad range of sectors, including media, business and investment, human rights, civic society organizations, criminal defense, and civil cases. Melkamu is dedicated to offering in-house legal consultation services for clients in various business sectors, alongside his extensive litigation and alternative dispute resolution experience.

Beyond his legal practice, Melkamu is committed to social responsibility, focusing on environmental issues and public interest litigation. He has co-founded several Human Rights Civic Society Organizations (CSOs) and voluntarily serves other existing CSOs, addressing the needs of marginalized and disadvantaged communities.

In this interview with Capital, Melkamu discusses the impacts of environmental issues on Ethiopia’s economy, the main contributing factors to these issues, the effects of urbanization and population growth, and the objectives and achievements of his organization, Defend the Environment. Through his insights, Melkamu sheds light on the critical intersection of environmental protection and economic development in Ethiopia. Excerpts;

Capital: What are the impacts of environmental issues on the economy of a country such as Ethiopia?

Melakmu Ogo: Ethiopia, a nation with a burgeoning economy and a population exceeding 110 million, faces significant challenges from environmental problems that directly impact its economic prospects. The interplay between environmental issues and economic performance is particularly pronounced in developing countries like Ethiopia, where agriculture, which accounts for a substantial portion of the GDP, is highly susceptible to pollution. Agricultural productivity and food security are affected by such issues. According to the findings of recent research conducted by various individual researchers and national and international organizations, including the World Bank and FAO, agriculture is the backbone of Ethiopia’s economy, employing about 70% of the workforce and contributing around 34% to the GDP. However, environmental problems, including deforestation, soil degradation, and pollution of water, soil, air, sound, deforestation, climate change, and similar issues, severely affect agricultural productivity.

Health costs and labor productivity are other areas that are affected by environmental problems. Problems such as pollution have dire implications for public health, which in turn affects labor productivity and economic growth. Air pollution, particularly in urban areas like Addis Ababa, leads to respiratory diseases, cardiovascular problems, and other health issues. The healthcare costs associated with treating these conditions are substantial, diverting resources from other critical areas of development. Moreover, pollution-related illnesses result in lost labor hours, decreased workforce productivity, and increased absenteeism. The economic burden of healthcare expenditures and reduced labor efficiency diminishes the overall economic output and growth potential.

Similarly, environmental issues directly affect tourism and natural resources, which contribute to the economy of the country. Ethiopia’s rich natural heritage, including historical sites, diverse ecosystems, and unique wildlife, is a significant draw for tourism, contributing to foreign exchange earnings and local employment. Environmental issues, such as deforestation, land degradation, and pollution, threaten these natural assets. The deterioration of tourist attractions can lead to a decline in visitor numbers, reducing tourism revenues and adversely affecting local economies that depend on this sector.

Capital: What are the main contributing factors for environmental issues, including pollution, in Ethiopia?

Melakmu: Ethiopia is not an exception to the world. Factors contributing to environmental issues in various countries have also been contributing to the environmental issues occurring in Ethiopia. Insufficient institutional capacity is one of the primary reasons for the lack of effective environmental regulation in Ethiopia. Regulatory bodies often lack necessary resources, such as funding, skilled personnel, and technological tools, to enforce environmental laws effectively. This resource deficiency hampers the ability of these institutions to monitor, regulate, and take serious administrative measures in a manner that deters and controls wrongdoers against the environment.

A weak legal framework on environmental issues is another contributing factor for environmental issues. The existing legal framework for environmental protection in Ethiopia is often criticized for being weak and fragmented. Although there are laws and regulations intended to safeguard the environment, they are frequently outdated, poorly drafted, and lack comprehensive coverage. Because of this, individuals committing environmental crimes are escaping criminal liability due to weak environmental legislation. Moreover, there is often a gap between legislation and practical enforcement. The legal provisions may not be stringent enough to deter polluters, and the penalties for non-compliance are often insufficient to compel adherence to environmental standards.

Prioritizing economic growth over environmental interests is also contributing to environmental issues. Conflict between environmental interests and development presents one of the challenges that affect the environment. Industrialization, urbanization, and infrastructure development which help in the country’s growth can sometimes lead to environmental issues. As a result, the current focus of the government on development and urbanization has been contributing to environmental issues in the country, though it is not as significant compared to other factors.The technicality of the environmental matter is another factor that contributes to environmental issues by reducing public participation. Lack of sufficient knowledge and information about environmental regulations, governance, and the importance of environmental protection restricts the public from challenging industries and government bodies to enforce environmental standards and act in conformity with relevant laws. Moreover, there is often limited community involvement in decision-making processes related to environmental policies, which can result in regulations that do not adequately reflect local concerns and needs.

Capital: How does urbanization and population growth contribute to environmental issues, especially pollution?

Melakmu: In the majority of the world, urbanization and population growth have been key factors contributing to environmental issues, including various forms of pollution. These factors primarily cause deforestation, generate industrial and other emissions, produce waste pollutants, and increase the need to consume more natural resources, all of which have a negative impact on the environment. However, without these practices, achieving economic growth and urbanization would be challenging and hardly possible for many countries.

As strategies to minimize the negative influence of urbanization and population growth on environmental issues, I advise implementing stricter environmental regulations, promoting sustainable urban planning, enhancing public transportation systems, promoting renewable energy sources, improving waste management practices, implementing green building standards, and encouraging community involvement and education.

Capital: What are the main objectives of ‘Defend the Environment’ regarding environmental protection?

Melkamu: Our organization, Defend the Environment, is a registered board-led Civil Society Organization (CSO) established by young and vibrant professional volunteers. Our main objectives are to promote and protect the environment, climate, biodiversity, natural resources, fundamental rights, and freedoms through advocacy, legal monitoring, capacity building, awareness creation, public interest litigation, and other related mechanisms.

In line with this, Defend the Environment is a leading CSO in Ethiopia, specifically known for practicing public interest litigation in courts to defend the rights of marginalized, disadvantaged, and economically weak groups, societies, and sometimes the entire public of various parts of the country. We have achieved high results in such court cases and have directly benefited a significant number of communities. Moreover, we are an organization that coordinates professionals who want to contribute to environmental issues and fundamental human rights through volunteerism. It is an honor to be a part of the service by supporting Defend the Environment, which works for the benefit of the public.

Capital: Finally, what are the success stories and achievements of the organization, Defend the Environment?

Melkamu: Since its establishment, our organization has achieved various success stories in different forms. Currently, we have won six successful court cases through public interest litigation against environmental polluters. These decisions have protected victims of environmental pollution from further harm by freezing the polluters’ actions. Another success story is organizing successful awareness creation and capacity-building programs for people from different walks of life. Environmental issues are technical in nature and require knowledge to understand the causes and their impact. Through our programs, we have seen positive reactions and increased awareness among environmental actors and community members. Additionally, our court cases have served as inputs for research conducted by individual researchers, scholars, policymakers, and academic institutions. Furthermore, our success stories have inspired professionals, scholars, students, and citizens from different communities to voluntarily defend environmental and human rights for the common good of the public and their communities.

1...1,1561,1571,158...4,123Page 1,157 of 4,123

EDITOR PICKS

POPULAR POSTS

POPULAR CATEGORY

ABOUT US

 

Capital is the longest-established private English newspaper in Ethiopia

Contact us: info@capitalethiopia.com

+251911637862 | +251944732300 | +251116183253
 

FOLLOW US

© Newspaper WordPress Theme by TagDiv