Training given on agricultural investment
ORDA Ethiopia, funded by GIZ, in collaboration with Welt Hunger Hilfe, conducted a four-days training on responsible agricultural investment in Debre Elias Woreda.
The training was focused on responsible agricultural investment (RAI) and voluntary guidelines on the responsible governance of tenure (VGGT), environmental and social codes (EAI) and regional land policy and proclamations.
According to the World Food Program, half of the 815 million people affected by famine in 2009 were family members of smallholder farmers. Agriculture is a major source of income for our region and the country, and we are socially, culturally and economically attached to land and land related concerns.
Debre Elias and Womberma woredas are among those potential areas for agricultural investments in the Amhara region.
Hence, Land for Life Amhara project is targeted to provide recommendations for policy makers to help establish a fair, inclusive and transparent land governance system based on international land policies and practices.
In general, the project aims to fill the gaps in land governance for the benefit of smallholder farmers and pastoralists, women, people with disabilities, children, the elderly, youth and investors in the agriculture sector.
According to Belachew Yirsaw (Dr.), Dean of the Land governance Institute of Bahir Dar University and a member of the Amhara MAP Core Group for Land Life Project, the food security gap is currently challenging the world due to population growth. Therefore, it is important to increase productivity by making responsible agricultural investments, he said. However, environmental impact assessments need to be developed and implemented to reduce the negative impacts of agricultural investment, mainly on loss of biodiversity, soil and water and security problems & conflict.
Investors, officers of the woreda investment, women and children and land administration, security representatives, administration officials actively participated in the training workshop.