Agricultural emergency response with potato and sweetpotato technologies for livelihood restoration of communities affected by conflict and other concurrent crises in Ethiopia

Gebeyehu, S.; Cherinet, M.; Aragaw, A.; Kifle, A.; Yeshitila, M.; Tigre, W.; Tesfaye, H.; Asfaw, F.; Kirui, L.; Maru, J. 2024. Agricultural emergency response with potato and sweetpotato technologies for livelihood restoration of communities affected by conflict and other concurrent crises in Ethiopia. International Potato Center. 20 p.

Armed conflicts and other concurrent crises that have been occurring in different regions of Ethiopia in the past couple of years have left behind a legacy of massive displacement and disruption of agricultural activities, exposing millions of people to various challenges, including food shortages, malnutrition, and loss of productive resources such as agricultural inputs. To restore the agricultural livelihoods of the communities affected by multiple crises, the International Potato Center (CIP) has designed and implemented emergency response interventions in collaboration with local partners since 2021. The projects aimed at strengthening farmers access to quality seeds and accompanying technologies of resilient and nutritious potato and sweetpotato varieties, improving the capacity and skills of the targeted households for effective utilization of these crops for food and feed, and strengthening the performance and resilience of local institutions serving these communities. A total of 112,046 households across 124 districts of seven regional states have benefited from the interventions implemented between 2021 and 2024. The interventions enabled access to high-quality seeds of more than 1062 metric tons of seed potatoes and 35 million sweetpotato cuttings by the households most affected by the crises. Moreover, the interventions supported decentralized seed multiplier (DSM) groups through building their capacity and equipping them with skills to produce good quality planting materials to ensure sustainable access to quality seeds by smallholders at a reduced cost and time. These DSMs have developed the capacity to multiply and supply over 37.2 million sweetpotato cuttings and more than 4090 tons of potato seed annually. Beneficiary farmers on average harvested 23.7 and 24.0 t ha-1 of potato tubers and sweetpotato roots, respectively, which is nearly double of what they used to obtain under traditional practices. These increased yields have contributed to availability of food to support families for four to five months. Farmers have also sold surplus potato and sweetpotato produces and seeds to generate modest incomes. Over twenty-four thousand women and mothers were trained on the utilization of orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) based products to ensure adequate vitamin A intake for children under two years of age. The practice of seed conservation has shown tremendous improvement among farmers, with those targeted with potato technologies were able to save up to 25% of their produce for seed. Consequently, farmers have started expanding their production on larger fields to reap the benefits of the resilient and cash generating crops in their path to self-reliance and livelihood restoration. This review highlights the major challenges encountered including those related to availability and access to quality planting materials of roots and tubers, inadequate seed market information, and insufficient coordination among seed system actors to timely and adequately respond to the needs of people affected by multiple crises. Key lessons learnt from the emergency response projects include the role of decentralized seed multiplication approach in addressing the needs of farmers in crises prone areas, integrating agriculture and nutrition interventions to enhance the uptake of nutrient dense crops such as OFSP, and the vital role of capacity building and sharing with local partners in sustaining results and ensuring continued implementation and monitoring of activities under conflict situations. Policy implications of the lessons and challenges will be highlighted so that more attention is provided to fully harness the potential of resilient and nutritious root crops in future emergency response interventions implemented by the government and humanitarian agencies.