Genetically modified maize dubbed ‘Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA)’ has been planted at Melkassa Agricultural Research Center on a trial basis and if successive trails bring about good results it will be commercialized. Currently the Maize has been planted on one confined hectare. The plants are being supervised by the National Biosafety Advisory Committee. There are plans for more trails over the next five years.
The GMO seed which came from, Monsanto an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation will also be planted in Bako Agricultural Research Center located at Wellega.
WEMA introduced its first TELA brand white maize hybrids developed using biotechnology in South Africa in October 2016 to address insect pest challenges. Insect-protected maize has been grown widely in other areas of the world for about two decades. TELA brand hybrids are intended to be introduced (pending regulatory approvals) in other African countries within the next few years.
Getnet Worku, an expert at the National Biosafety Advisory Committee told Capital that the main aim of the trail is to how well the GMO maize resists drought and the insects.
“We need to upscale our maize production and the best way is to use a better seed which both resists water shortages and insects. If we get positive results on the trail we will carry out more over the next five years. If the seeds don’t have a problem with the environment and soil we will used them commercially.”
Drought TEGO hybrids have positively impacted the lives of approximately 250,000 sub-Saharan African farming families and more than 1.5 million people.
Conventional WEMA varieties already have been introduced onto the market in target countries, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa and Mozambique except.
In 2016, South Africa became the first project country to commercialize GMO maize for use by smallholder farmers. Mozambique hopes to release the WEMA maize as the country’s first genetically modified organism
Maize is one of Ethiopia’s most important cereals in terms of production; grown by about 8 million farmers. A primary challenge of the Ethiopian maize value chain is access to quality improved maize seeds, which substantially impacts the productivity of smallholder farmers. Also, once harvested, maize is extremely vulnerable to significant postharvest losses due to mold, vermin and theft. Over 17 million quintals of maize are produced annually from about a million hectares of land since 1985
Water Efficient Maize in Africa is led by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
GMO corn test starts in Ethiopia
DBE replaces Ayka manager for poor performance
The Development Bank of Ethiopia replaced the company appointed General Manager of the Ayka Addis Group with an expat, saying this was a management intervention based on the company’s stagnant performance over the past four years.
“We hired the best expert in the area to replace the owner who had been leading the company since its establishment,” Haileyesus Bekele, the President of the Policy Bank told Capital. “It was not appropriate for that person to claim leadership just because they owned the company.”
The General Manager has been assigned to prepare a report for the Bank about the status of the company.
“We will take other action based on his report in order to transform the company,” Haileyesus added. “I believe he will bring the change we are aspiring for.”
The company which was founded in Alemgena Town invested USD 240 million when it was established in 2010.
The company has created 7,500 jobs and was invited to invest in Ethiopia by the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Mulatu Tesome(PhD) who was an Ambassador to Turkey at the time.
The company acquired a loan of 2.3 billion birr from the bank and then, kept declaring an increasing rate of loss since 2013. The Bank had been trying to help the company in order to get some of its money back but eventually felt that things were not working out.
The policy bank has a good track record of recovering businesses that were abandoned. The Else Addis was abandoned by its Turkish Investors and later taken over by the creditor, DBE, which took only a few months to make millions of birr in profit.
Capital attempted to get a statement from the company but was unsuccessful.
President discusses economic issues
At the opening of parliament the president promised several economic changes would be taken by the government in the budget year.
President Mulatu Teshome (PhD), who recalled the challenges that the country faced in the political, social and economic sphere in the past few years, stated that several improvements will take place in the remaining period of the GTP II and this budget year.
The president said that the situation in the past frustrated the private sector. “The revitalization policy is expected to be in place to back the economic development and we should grow as we did in the past,” Mulatu said in his opening speech on Monday October 8.
In his speech that expressed the government’s plan for the year he indicated that under the development of a democratic developmental free market the government will work to stabilize the macroeconomic condition and improve of socio economic development.
“We will work to improve the implementation of the free market and expand the country’s process in international economic integration based on fair competition and clarity,” he said.
The monetary and fiscal policy will be strongly followed to normalize the macroeconomic condition, according to the plan for the year.
Government revenue and expenditures are the other priority areas for the year. In the past two years the government worked to minimize expenditures in federal offices and implement tight budget controlling mechanisms. However, tax collection also significantly declined in the past budget year. According to the communiqué of the congress of the ruling party that concluded a week ago tax collection will be one of their top priorities for the year.
Last year the government was able to collect 200 billion birr from the target of 250 billion. The country’s tax to GDP ratio is one of the poorest in the region, according to international financial organizations. Based on last year’s report the country’s tax to GDP ratio is less than 13 percent, which is lower than the regional average. The government is looking to improve it to 17 percent in 2020.
Debt management is the other priority area for the year. The country has been stressed from debt because of some projects that are lagging or are running below expectation. This has forced the government to suspend most foreign commercial loans for the past two years. Mismanagement of finance was also stated as one of the major challenges which has caused the country to be unable to perform well in terms of foreign loans.
According to the government’s plan, the loan management will be undertaken as per the expected limit, although the limit was not directly stated. The government guarantee would be also minimized in the coming periods, according to the president’s speech.
In addition, non public sectors or the private sector will also be included in the public financial scheme, which would be a new thing for the country.
The capital market is also stated as one of the new operations for the year, while details were not given. The president’s speech directly mentioned the insurance sector saying that they will improve their operation and insurance coverage. The non performing loans (NPL) of the banks was also covered by the president’s speech as he said it would be improved under international standards.
Except for the Development Bank of Ethiopia the Ethiopian banking sector was run on its good NPL standard at a level of 5 percent but experts stated the past year’s performance was not like the previous trend.
Capital reported that over the past few months that the highest NPL ever occurred during the previous fiscal year since the economic condition was very poor during that budget year.
Experts argued that the last year’s hard currency shortage and instability has forced the business community mainly manufacturers to run under their regular performance causing them to have difficulty settling their debts on time. “The effect on the private sector is directly seen in the financial industries since they are working together,” experts told Capital in the past few months.
In his speech which mostly covered economic issues the president hinted that several economic policies and laws would be ratified or amended in the budget year.
In addition several restructures at the federal level are expected to take place in the coming few weeks when the PM comes to the parliament.
About two months ago Capital reported that the number of ministries and cabinet members would be slashed. In its latest meeting the council of ministers announced that the number of cabinet members would be reduced to 20 from 28.
