Agriculture in the Lake Tana Sub-basin of Ethiopia

Abstract

Agriculture is the mainstay of the Ethiopian economy in general and Lake Tana Sub-Basin in particular. The crop diversity in the Sub-Basin is high and the crop categories including cereals, legumes, root crops, oil crops, vegetables, fruit crops and other cash crops. The cropping pattern is also including the rain-fed , irrigation , residual moisture and minor recession cropping. More than 80% the cultivated land during the base-year is under rain-fed system and the remaining land is cultivated using irrigation and residual moisture. The farming system is characterized by crop-livestock mixed production system ; crop production is the focus of farmers both for food and cash income. In recent years agriculture has shown a sustained increase in the use of improved inputs notably seed varieties and chemical fertilizer, pesticides and farm credit. In the Sub-Basin areas, horticultural crop production is a relatively new activity which is mainly triggered by the commencement of small scale irrigation scheme. Studies in area revealed that insect pests and diseases were, and still are, one of the major production constraints. Farmers also ranked pest problems are to be one of the major production constraints in the area.