Organised support to In-situ conservation in Ethiopia started in 1988 following several years of ex-situ maintenance of landraces with a farmer-based programme implemented by the Seeds of Survival Programme / Ethiopia and Institute of Biodiversity Conservation and Research Institute. Building on this, the UN Global Environment Facility launched a $2.5 million programme in 1994 focusing on indigenous crop varieties maintained by farmers in dynamic agro-ecosystems. The programme ran until 2002 and included institutional strengthening; community-based activities; and identifying incentives for in-situ landrace conservation. One of the greatest achievements of the programme was that it brought all relevant sectors together.

The Ethio-Organic Seed Action Programme (EOSA) was formed as a result of this earlier work. It is an NGO promoting integrated conservation, use and management of agro-biodiversity. With a guiding principle of "conservation through use", the programme works with community groups, government, researchers, other NGOs and industry to promote greater integration, and especially the integration of producers with the market. The programme works at local, regional, national levels.

The case study focused on EOSA's work with farmers around "Ejere", 105 km from the capital, Addis Ababa, which aims to help develop mechanisms to support small-scale farmers' ability to manage their resources-base; community-based seed networks; building linkages between farmers and industry through local markets; and the promotion of organic agriculture. (More details of the project were presented at the Lusaka Workshop (view presention pdf 105kb))

It appears that the project has been successful at promoting agro-biodiversity conservation and increasing the diversity of durum wheat and other crops in the programme areas. The multiplication of the durum wheat was started in 1995 by the GEF project with only 4 spikes of durum wheat (400 gm. seed). EOSA has a vision to consider other indigenous crops in the future of its programme of promoting organic products. The EOSA focus on organic production methods has also increased on-farm biodiversity through the promotion of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) instead of pesticides. It has also managed to develop market orientated mechanisms 'which support and encourage small-scale farmers' efforts in managing their natural diversity and on-farm resource-base.

Factors contributing to this success include:

• the involvement of all stakeholders throughout the project, including farmers, scientists, industries and policy makers;
• resonance with the government's focus on the need to preserve Ethiopian varieties, values and cultural practices, which ensured government support;
• the adoption of appropriate technologies for traditional farming practices;
• the use of existing social structures;
• the ability of the project to demonstrate that increased use of local durum wheat would provide savings in the use of forex;
• the bottom-up approach focusing on strengthening farmer's own indigenous knowledge;
• building on local biodiversity of durum wheat.

Challenges

• Marketing and raising awareness of the availability of the durum wheat locally.
  
• Bad infrastructure - This makes it difficult to access smallholder out-growers and has implications on expanding project coverage.
  
• The natural environment- weather conditions seem to be getting worse and worse, no rain or excess rain etc. This results in low and unpredictable yields.
  
• Pests devouring crops is a concern since production is organic.
  
• Lots of farmer demand but project doesn't have capacity - i.e. how to include more farmers despite the project having limited funding to supply seed to more farmers and also to provide extension support to more farmers.
  
• The policy environment - has been one where government has been more interested in increased production to cater for growing population demand at the expense of maintaining diversity. This mentality has resulted in less support for conservation initiatives and has proved to be a challenge to programme implementation.
  
• The impact at grass roots level is that farmers are not allowed to undertake seed business unless registered and based on registered varieties but EOSA is allowed because it is working on farmers' varieties which are not considered on the above law of the seed policy. There are about six improved varieties of durum wheat, mainly from CIMMYT. There is also some confusion on considering farmers varieties as improved varieties. Market liberalization since 1991 has had a positive impact on the project but lack of (a comprehensive) land policy has a negative impact for further expansion of the project.
  
• Macro-economic situation - The prices of grains have been low and it was a challenge to get higher prices for the local durum wheat especially from traders not involved in the project.
  
• Infrastructure/accessibility - The Infrastructure in the country is very bad and this has meant that participating farmers had to be limited to farmers in areas that are easily accessible for both researchers supporting and training farmers and also for industries who wanted to buy the end product. This has implications for scaling up.
  
• Climate - This has been changing over the years and many farmers struggle with a lack of water for their crops due to low rainfall. This tends to depress yields.
  
• Market demand - Few consumers are aware of the availability of the pasta product and industries are being conservative with their production levels.
  

Tamiru Mulualem & Joanne Manda