Annual report 2014 Sesame Business Network Support Programme

Transcription

1 Annual report 2014 Sesame Business Network Support Programme i Wageningen, Gondar February 2015 Sesame Business Network Ethiopia

2 ii

3 About the Sesame Business Network and its support programme The Sesame Business Network (SBN) is a largely informal innovation network that is driven by local entrepreneurs and other stakeholders to work towards more competitive, sustainable and inclusive sesame value chains. This network is supported by a Support Programme that grafts its activities to stakeholder objectives, priorities and action plans. The first phase of the SBN support programme ( ) is funded by the Netherlands Government, through the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ethiopia (CASCAPE project) and the General Directorate for International Cooperation (DGIS) in The Hague (2-SCALE project). For this phase, the SBN support programme is administratively established under the CASCAPE project. The SBN support programme is guided by tripartite MoUs signed between Regional Agricultural Research Institutes (TARI and ARARI), Bureaus of Agriculture (Amhara and Tigray) and Universities (Mekelle and Bahir Dar), respectively for Tigray and Amhara region. Together with the Centre for Development Innovation, Wageningen University and Research centre (CDI), an interdisciplinary team coordinates and implements the support programme to the SBN. Operating in the lowlands of northwest Ethiopia, 5 woredas in North Gondar zone and three woredas in Western Tigray zone, the team is hosted by the Amhara and Tigray Agricultural Research Institutes, at Gondar and Humera Agricultural Research Centres respectively. The SBN support programme is implemented in partnership with the IFDC coordinated 2SCALE project. The SBN support programme provides several support services that help stakeholders work together to realize their individual and common economic objectives. Based on participatory analysis and planning, the SBN and its support programme pursue five economic objectives, namely: (1) productivity and quality improvement; (2) credit cost reduction; (3) harvest, transport and storage loss reduction; (4) post-harvest value creation; and (5) market linkages and sales. For achieving these objectives, the Support Programme works together with many partners and stakeholders. These include governmental organizations at federal, regional and local level, companies and private sector actors, non-governmental organizations, development organizations, and other stakeholders. A visit to the website can provide you more information on the Sesame Business Network. Different briefs provide for instance facts and figures related to the above mentioned five economic objectives and suggest strategic orientations. Newsletters inform about the SBN and the support programme activities. Each newsletter is in fact an attractive quarterly progress report that highlights activities conducted in the preceding period and looks ahead to upcoming challenges and activities. To subscribe to the online version of the SBN newsletter, interested persons and organisations can contact: sbnethiopia@gmail.com. iii

4 iv

5 Preface The SBN support team plays the roles of trainer, organizer, coach, information broker and matchmaker, so as to improve stakeholder capacities and collaboration. Field activities are always realized in collaboration with and co-funding of stakeholders. Currently, the SBN and its support programme are built around 38 local sesame business clusters in 8 woredas in northwest Ethiopia (1 additional woreda and 19 new clusters in 2014). With these clusters the administrative reach is 8 woredas, 73 kebeles and cooperatives and up to 70,000 farmers. The campaign for rolling out best practices for sesame yield and quality improvement covered 93 kebeles in After introduction the Sesame Business Network and its support programme in chapter 1, the structure of the progress report of 2014 and the annual plan for 2015 follows the project logic. For this report, the main activities, results, outcomes and lessons learned are presented in the following chapters: - Chapter 2: Planning, collaboration and coordination; - Chapter 3 : SBN Support Programme; human (with additional details in chapter 6 on budget use and available budget for 2015). - Chapter 4 : Activities and results according to 5 intervention areas; - Chapter 5: Cross-cutting activities, monitoring and evaluation; Chapter 6 presents the conclusions and recommendations. It looks back at the highlights, main activities, results and lessons learned of On that basis, the priorities for 2015 are indicated. This report is part of a set of four that complement each other, namely: Annual report 2014; Financial report 2014; Work plan 2015 and Budget Dr Geremew Terefe, national coordinator SBN Support Programme Geremew.sbncoordinator@gmail.com Ted Schrader, coordinator SBN Support Programme (Centre for Development Innovation; ted.schrader@wur.nl v

6 vi

7 Table of Contents About the Sesame Business Network and its support programme... iii Preface... v Table of Contents... vii Acronyms and Abbreviations... ix 1. Setting the stage: Sesame Business Network and its support programme Sesame in northwest Ethiopia Sesame Business Network (SBN) Objectives and performance indicators Implementation modalities and principles Planning, collaboration and coordination Priorities and focus Sesame business clusters Coverage, reach and targeting Planning and coordination Institutional embedding, collaboration and co-funding agreements Collaboration and synergy with other projects SBN Support Programme - human and financial resources Staffing: the SBN Support Programme team Internal organisation Budget and financial management Activities and results according to 5 intervention areas Productivity and quality improvement Harvest, transport and storage loss reduction Credit cost reduction Post-harvest value addition Market linkages and sales Cross-cutting activities Cooperative and farmers entrepreneurial capacities Training and extension Communication Strategic innovation Monitoring and evaluation Conclusions and recommendations Looking back at 2014: highlights, main activities and results Activity-to-Outcome-to-Impact analysis Lessons learned Looking forward: priorities for Annex 1: Overview Sesame Business Clusters and kebeles (2013 and 2014) Annex 2 : SBN Support Programme staff (as per December 2014) vii

8 viii

9 Acronyms and Abbreviations 2SCALE - Toward Sustainable Clusters in Agribusiness through Learning in Entrepreneurship AAOMA - Addis Ababa Oil Millers Association ABCD - AgriBusiness Cluster Development ABSF - Agribusiness Support Facility ACDI/VOCA Agricultural Cooperative Development International/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance ACSI - Amhara Credit and Savings Institute AGP Agricultural Growth Program ARARI Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute ARC Agricultural Research Centre ARI - Agricultural Research Institute ATA Agricultural Transformation Agency B2B Business to Business BDS(s) Business Development Service(s) BoA Bureau of Agriculture C4C - Cooperatives for Change CASCAPE Capacity building for SCaling up of evidence-based best practices in Agricultural Production in Ethiopia CBE - Commercial Bank of Ethiopia ÇBO - Cooperative Bank of Oromia CBI - Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries CDI Centre for Development Innovation (Wageningen University and Research) CGIAR - Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research CSF(s) Critical Success Factor(s) CPA - Cooperative Promotion Agency CPO - Cooperative Promotion Office DA(s) Development Agent(s) DECSI - Dedebit Credit and Savings Institute DGIS Directorate General for International Cooperation (Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Kingdom of the Netherlands) DOHA - Current trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) DSO Department for Social Development (MoFA, Kingdom of the Netherlands) ECX Ethiopian Commodity Exchange EIC - Ethiopian Insurance Company EKN Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) EPOSPEA - Ethiopian Pulses, Oilseeds and Spices Processors and Exporters Association ETB - Ethiopian Birr EU European Union FTC(s) Farmer Training Centre(s) G4AW - Geo-information for Agriculture and Water GAP Good Agricultural Practices GARC Gondar Agricultural Research Centre GDP Gross Domestic Product GoE Federal Democratic Government of Ethiopia GTP - Ethiopia s Growth and Transformation Plan HAM - Hiwot Agricultural Mechanization HUARC Humera Agricultural Research Centre IPM Integrated Pest Management IFDC - International Fertilizer Development Centre ISFM Integrated Soil Fertility Management ISSD Integrated Seed Sector Development ix

10 L - Large farmer (small investor farmer; ha) LEI Agricultural Economics Institute (WUR) KHSPSC - Kafta Humera Sesame Production and Sales Cooperative M - Medium (intermediate farmer; ha) M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MASP Multi-Annual Strategic Plan MF(s) - Model Farmer(s) MFI(s) Micro Financing Institute(s) MoA Ministry of Agriculture (Federal Democratic Government of Ethiopia) MoA - Memorandum of Agreement MoT Ministry of Trade (Federal Democratic Government of Ethiopia) MoU Memorandum of Understanding MSc Master of Science MVO - Dutch Product Board for Margarines, Fats and Oils NGO(s) Non-Governmental Organisation(s) NABC - Netherldands-Africa Business Council NOP National Organic Program (USDA) NW North-West OoA - Office of Agriculture OO Education and Research Division (DSO, MoFA, Kingdom of the Netherlands) PLC Private Limited Company PM&E Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation PP Public Private PPP(s) Public Private Partnership(s) PPP-O Public Private Partnership on Oilseeds PSI Private Sector Investment Initiative (MoFA, Kingdom of the Netherlands) PUM Programme of Netherlands senior experts RISE Rural Innovation Systems and Entrepreneurship S - Small (small farmer; 5-10 ha) SBC(s) Sesame Business Cluster(s) SBN Sesame Business Network SH Small Holder SP- Support Programme SMART Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely SNNP Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (region, Ethiopia) TARI Tigray Agricultural Research Institute TMMF Tigray Multipurpose Marketing Federation ToC Theory of Change ToT - Training of Trainers TVET Technical, Vocational and Educational Training USD United States Dollars VC4PPDev Value Chains for Pro-Poor Development VCD Value Chain Dynamics WoA Woreda office of Agriculture (BoA) WCPO - Woreda Cooperative Promotion Office WUR Wageningen University and Research Centre XL - Extra-large (large investor farmer; > 100 ha) XS - Extra small (micro farmer; 0-5 ha) x

11 1. Setting the stage: Sesame Business Network and its support programme 1.1. Sesame in northwest Ethiopia Sesame forms an important agribusiness sector in Ethiopia, and is one of the six priority crops of the governments Agricultural Growth Programme. Ethiopia is the fourth biggest producer and second biggest exporter of sesame in the world. About 70 % of the county s sesame is produced in northwest Ethiopia. National sesame production has more than doubled in the past 5 years. The export value of sesame is estimated around 600 million US dollar between September 2013 August Although the sesame sector in Ethiopia has a significant turnover, the sector has a huge potential for further growth and development Sesame Business Network (SBN) The Sesame Business Network (SBN) is a largely informal innovation network in northwest Ethiopia that is driven by local entrepreneurs and other stakeholders working in the sesame production and business sector. Building blocks of the SBN are Sesame Business Clusters (SBCs). Participation in the clusters and within the overall sesame business network is voluntary. Improved performance and benefits are the motivation for stakeholder participation. The SBN is currently built around 38 local SBCs in 8 woredas in northwest Ethiopia. Actors of these clusters have analysed their situation and formulated clear economic objectives. The Sesame Business network is composed of a diversity of actors, as shown in the figure to the right. There are three major actor groups: value chain operators, supporters and enablers. In fact, the sesame business network is a partnership of private and public actors. The SBN support programme is aligned to the informal Sesame business network. is not part of the market system, but is part of the broader innovation system. The aim of the support programme is to promote and improve stakeholder collaboration at local and strategic levels, in targeting innovation and value chain development on the production-push and market-pull sides. Sesame: a long way from field to fork! 1

12 1.3. Objectives and performance indicators The table below shows the business development proposition of the SBN and its Support Programme. The planning, monitoring and evaluation system (PME) system is strongly oriented at the overall goal, two major strategies and 5 economic objectives, with key impact indicators for each level. GOALS and OBJECTIVES OVERALL GOAL : INCOME IMPROVEMENT GOAL/STRATEGY 1 - PRODUCTION COST PRICE REDUCTION Objective 1 - Productivity and quality improvement Objective 2 - Harvest, transport and storage loss reduction Objective 3 - Credit cost reduction GOAL/STRATEGY 2 - PRODUCT AND MARKET DEVELOPMENT Objective 4 - Post-harvest value creation Objective 5 - Market linkages and sales IMPACT INDICATORS 30% average increase in farmers net income from targeted commodities (sesame and sorghum), enterprise development and labourers purchase power and welfare. 30% cost price reduction per quintal of targeted commodities (sesame and sorghum). 50% productivity improvement for sesame and sorghum, set against yields obtained with prevailed farmer practices 30% reduction of harvest, transport and storage losses, set against baseline loss level. 50% reduction credit costs for farmers, set against the average credit cost rate of informal and formal credit in 2013 Farmers and small, medium and large enterprises operating in the sesame zone of NW Ethiopia improve their net benefits with 10% as a result of product and market development. 10% price improvement, resulting from post-harvest product development activities, as compared to farm-gate price at harvest time. More than 10% of the sesame and sorghum production of NW Ethiopia is directly channelled to large (inter) national buyers and fetches significantly higher prices and has spill-over effects. High possible rate of return More than a development project (which it is as well), the SBN Support Programme is an investment to trigger further development of the Ethiopian sesame sector. The annual SBN Support Programme budget is less than 0.3% of the ECX value of the sesame produced in NW Ethiopia. If the sector stakeholders would achieve their economic goals (cf. dashboard indicators below), the turnover would increase with millions of Euros per year. At average ECX prices, each 10% of productivity improvement represents a value of some 800 million ETB. This indicates a very high potential return on investment Implementation modalities and principles Services and facilities of the support programme The SBN support programme (shown at the side-line in the figure on page 1) temporarily provides different facilities and services that help stakeholders to work together to realize their individual and common economic objectives. These include: (i) the services of the interdisciplinary SBN support team currently composed of 16 professionals and additional support staff; (ii) co-funding for support to sesame business cluster activities and for innovation testing and development; (iii) Knowledge and innovation brokering and (iv) Planning, monitoring and evaluation for learning. The SBN support programme provides action research, training, coaching and communication services through its own staff and more importantly through a network of local service providers, both from the private and public sector. Although part of the innovation system, the support programme plays no important role in the actual operation of sesame value chains. It does this in the objective of sustainability, as the support programme is temporary in its existence, initiated from the start with a clear entry and exit strategy. 2

13 Collaboration Grafting principle. To explain its modalities for support, the SBN support programme uses the metaphor of grafting trees. Like for grafting, sustainable development needs mother trees, e.g. own objectives and action plans of stakeholders. The human and financial resources of the SBN support programme are always aligned to the initiatives of stakeholders of the SBN, following strict principles for co-financing, such as: never buying participation or funding what stakeholders can do themselves; and only contributing to what can be done more or better. Collaboration agreements. For the provision of advisory services, the SBN support programme collaborates with many different local partners and service providers. In case of co-funding arrangements, performance-oriented collaboration agreements are established, specifying the roles, responsibilities and financial contributions of the partners. Key questions to answer in collaboration agreements - Why : what are the joint objectives, how does a joint activity plan respond to stakeholder/sbc demand? - What: what will be done by the partner/stakeholder, what will be done by the SBN Support Programme - How much: how much will the partner, other actors and the SBN Support Programme contribute, both in terms of human resources, and in cash and in kind contributions? Many challenges and issues cannot be solved at the local and require strategic dialogue and system change. That s why the support programme plays a proactive role at levels beyond the local clusters: woredas, zones, regional, federal and international level. Also with actors at these levels, the SBN support programme is establishing strategic partnerships. The SBN approach has been described in detail in the activity report for A summary of the approach can be found in the brief Winning teams for competitive, sustainable and inclusive sesame value chains. This brief can be retrieved at : 3

14 2. Planning, collaboration and coordination This chapter is about how the SBN Support Programme has prepared itself for action, according to 6 subsequent paragraphs: 2.1. Priorities for Sesame business cluster objectives and plans 2.3. Coverage, reach and targeting 2.4. Planning and coordination 2.5. Institutional embedding and collaboration agreements 2.6. Collaboration and synergy with other projects Priorities and focus Stakeholder priorities and SBC action plans as starting point The action plans of the first 19 sesame business clusters (SBC s), finalised in the second part of 2013, propose many actions and activities. The stakeholder proposals clearly show that the work at farmer, field and cluster level should focus on production cost price reduction (80% of the proposed activities of SBC s are in this domain). Yield improvement, harvest loss reduction and credit cost reduction are the best bets for reducing production cost price (per quintal), hence to raise the likelihood of improving farmers profits. 2014: the 20 steps year For this reason, 2014 has been the 20 steps year. In the first months of the year, a package of best agricultural practices was developed in collaboration with EIAR, TARI and ARARI and BoA. This led to a sesame production manual and a brochure for farmers and development agents. The approach and advice was called: 20 steps to raise sesame yields and quality. After the consolidation of the best recommended agricultural practices to farmers, the roll-out of the 20 steps was the key focus of the SBN Support Programme in Announced priorities for 2014 The annual report of 2014 (chapter 7) provided orientations for 2014, which were based on the lessons learned in the first year of operation of the SBN Support Programme. The priorities concern the approach and organisation of the SBN Support Programme, orientations for achieving stakeholders economic objectives and scaling-out and scaling-up strategies. SBC meetings 4

15 The table below summarises the main subjects mentioned. In this annual report, we will come back to these, and report and evaluate whether we managed to work on the priorities identified by the end of Approach and organisation of the SBN Support Programme - Stick to the principles - Enhance ownership of clusters and network - Pursue action-research for evidence on key subjects related to the economic objectives - Continuously update and operationalize the basket of options - Tailor advice to different types of farmers and farmers organisations Strategic orientation for achieving stakeholders economic objectives - Prioritise strategies and activities : focus on production cost price reduction - Capitalise on the proof that yields can double and build on quality consciousness - Identify and promote practical options for harvest, transport and storage loss reduction - Create conditions for credit system change - Promote collaboration with companies and unions for post-harvest value creation - Contribute to marketing system innovation Going to scale - Scale out through strategically chosen additional SBC s in the current intervention zone - Iterate between bottom-up and top-down approach - Build resilient market systems and pluralist advisory services - Train trainers - Pursue the implementation of the communication strategy - Continue investing in collaboration for synergy and coherence of development interventions - Organise data collection for monitoring and evaluation 2.2. Sesame business clusters In August 2013 an initial analysis of potential clusters was already done after the action planning with the first batch of 19 sesame business clusters. Detailed analysis of the sesame production and marketing zones in North Gondar and Western Tigray has led to an additional 19 clusters, bringing the total to 38. This corresponds with the orientation to increase the number of SBC s in the existing intervention zone. A Sesame Business Cluster (SBC) is defined as a network of local actors that voluntarily organize themselves around sesame value chains to achieve their individual and common goals. Points of attention for selecting new clusters were the following: importance of production zones, existence of market centres, coverage of sesame cooperatives, size of the clusters and distance between actors, and interest and commitment of woredas and service providers. Two clusters in Tegede woreda (Amhara) have been added, as this woreda was erroneously not included in Six existing clusters in Tigray have been split, because they were geographically too large or too heterogeneous (small and large farmers). For the 19 new clusters, basic data have been collected in the last months of The write-up of SBC profiles is in process and close to finalisation. For all SBC s a summary document will be established. Overview of clusters Annex 1 provides an overview of all existing and new clusters, structured per woreda, with indication of the kebeles involved. A SBC generally covers 1-3 kebeles. A total of 73 kebeles is covered by the 38 clusters. The location of these clusters is shown on the map on the next page. 5

16 Map of Western Tigray and North Gondar showing the locations of the Sesame Business Clusters Region Woreda Symbol Region Woreda Symbol Amhara Quara Metema Tach Armachiho Mirab Armachiho Tegede Gondar Town Tigray Tsegede Wolkaiet Kafta Humera Observations: - For Kafta Humera, the Kafta Humera cluster of investor farmers is not shown on the map. -Large parts Kafta Humera (Tigray) and of Mirab Armachiho and Metema are investor farmer zones (see blue circles) 6

17 2.3. Coverage, reach and targeting By the end of 2014, the team reflected more in-depth about coverage, reach and targeting of the Support Programme were done. Reflections included the following perspectives: (i) Geographical coverage of the sesame production zones (acreage) ; (ii) Farmer households; (iii) Farmer categories (from small to investor farmers); (iv) Current reach small farmers; (v) Current reach investor farmers (vi) Farming system (sesame and rotation crops); and (vii) Social inclusion (labourers and targeting of women and youth). Below, we present the results of the analysis, which is important for strategizing for 2015 and beyond. Acreage - cultivated land Quantitative data (acreage, populations and households, yields...) are not easy to collect. The baseline per woreda was the first effort to have quantified parameters. Data were collected for 7 woredas (Tsegede not included). The rough picture for these woredas (data for 2012, including kebeles with less or no sesame) is as follows: - land size of around 3 million hectares, of which 32% is cultivated, hence around one million hectares; - half of the cultivated land of these woredas is under sesame (including kebeles with limited or no sesame), hence around 0.5 million hectares of sesame; - The percentage of cultivated land under sesame is by far the highest for Kafta Humera, followed by Mirab Armachiho. These are the woredas with most investor farmers. Kafta Humera accounts for more than half of the sesame acreage of the 7 woredas, Mirab Armachiho for 30%. The tables below provide information for the 93 kebeles involved in the 20 steps campaign of According to kebele data, the acreage of these kebeles (including investor land) is estimated at 640,000 ha, of which 70% is sesame. This corresponds with earlier findings on the importance of sesame in the farming systems (woreda baseline 2013; 66%, production and credit cost survey 2014; 66%). Cultivated land Tigray Kafta Humera Wolkaiet Tsegede Total ha % ha % ha % ha % Cultivated sesame 238,042 92,3% 16,013 45,2% 21,164 60,9% 275,219 83,9% Cultivated sorghum 11,869 4,6% 10,821 30,5% 9,948 28,6% 32,638 9,9% Cultivated other 8,052 3,1% 8,611 24,3% 3,648 10,5% 20,311 6,2% Total cultivated land 257, ,0% 35, ,0% 34, ,0% 328, ,0% Cultivated land Amhara Cultivated sesame Cultivated sorghum Cultivated other Total cultivated land Quara Metema Tach A/chiho Mirab A/chiho Tegede Total Ha % ha % ha % ha % Ha % ha % 18,268 49,1% 30,952 45,0% 9,570 34,1% 101,462 70,8% 16,488 45,9% 176,740 56,4% 13,718 36,9% 20,231 29,4% 9,709 34,6% 36,448 25,4% 15,028 41,9% 95,134 30,4% 5,205 14,0% 17,614 25,6% 8,767 31,3% 5,332 3,7% 4,369 12,2% 41,287 13,2% 37, ,0% 68, ,0% 28, ,0% 143, ,0% 35, ,0% 313, ,0% Cultivated land Tigray Amhara Total Tigray and Amhara ha % ha % ha % Cultivated sesame 275,219 83,9% 176,740 56,4% 451,959 70,5% Cultivated sorghum 32,638 9,9% 95,134 30,4% 127,772 19,9% Cultivated other 20,311 6,2% 41,287 13,2% 61,598 9,6% Total cultivated land 328, ,0% 313, ,0% 641, ,0% 7

18 Farmer households For the 7 woredas included in the baseline of 2013, the total population is around 750,000 (CSA of 2007 and woreda administration of 2012). The population of the 93 kebeles where SBN is operating is close to 500,000 people. Woreda information of 2014, collected during the labour study, shows that the total number of sesame growing households in the SBN intervention zone (93 kebeles) is around 70,000 households. Referring to inventories, the number of investor farmers (> 30ha) is around 2,000. The definition of investor farmers has recently been changed; they are now those having more than 20ha. Parameters Kafta Humera Wolkaiet Tsegede Total Population (nb) 105,151 67,117 36, ,801 Households total (nb) 26,230 15,967 7,749 49,946 Households with sesame (nb) 21,439 1,225 7,543 30,207 Households with sesame (%) 81,7% 7,7% 97,3% 60,5% Parameters Quara Metema Tach Mirab A/chiho A/chiho Tegede Total Population (nb) 47,111 87,323 52,246 63,459 22, ,018 Households total (nb) 9,268 15,880 9,991 14,325 6,128 55,592 Households with sesame (nb) 9,142 12,563 4,070 10,242 3,756 39,773 Households with sesame (%) 98,6% 79,1% 40,7% 71,5% 61,3% 71,5% Parameters Tigray Amhara Total Population (nb) 208, , ,819 Households total (nb) 49,946 55, ,538 Households with sesame (nb) 30,207 39,773 69,980 Households with sesame (%) 60,5% 71,5% 66,3% Farms and farmers : potential reach As indicated above, the total number of sesame growing households is estimated at 70,000 farmer households (for 93 kebeles involved in roll-out of best practices), of which an estimated 68,000 are small farmers (< 30ha), and around 2,000 are large (investor) farmers (> 30ha). Triangulating different information sources, the total acreage of cultivated land is estimated at 750,000 ha of which 65-70% is devoted to sesame and some 20-30% to sorghum. Other crops represent 5-10%. In terms of acreage and farmers, these totals are the maximum reach of the SBN Support Programme. Farmer categories In 2014, we collected the woredas classification of farmers according to their size of holding. Not surprisingly, it comes out that the classification of farmers varies a lot from one place to another. This reflects the realities on the ground. What is large for a certain woreda is small for another (and the other way round). Woredas Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4 Category 5 Quara Small-scale 0-3 ha Intermediate 3-5 ha Large >5 ha Metema n.a. n.a. n.a. Tach Armachiho Mirab Armachiho Tsegede Wolkaiet Kafta Humera Small-scale 0-10 ha Small-scale 0-10 ha Small-scale ha Small-scale < 2.5 ha Small-scale <3ha Intermediate ha Intermediate >10 ha Intermediate >2.5 ha Small investor 3-50 ha Investor >30 ha Intermediate ha Large investor ha Above large investor >600 ha 8

19 This led to the proposal for the following general farmer classification, which was used during the production and credit cost survey: Extra small (XS; 0-5 ha), Small (S; 5-10 ha), Medium (M; ha); Large (L; ha) and XS (> 100 ha). According to this classification, which was in line with the official classification, investor farmers have more than 30 ha. This categorisation has recently changed; investor farmers are now those having more than 20 ha. This new classification will be taken into account in surveys and the M&E system. Current reach small farmers With the extension and densification process realised in 2014, the current 38 clusters cover the most important smallholder production zones in northwest Ethiopia. The current SBC s include the most important market centres (spot markets) where small farmers sell their produce. These are generally located in villages where service providers (BoA, MFI s, transporters,...) are located. As cooperatives are mainly structured per kebele, a comparable number of sesame cooperatives are actors in the SBC s. Compared to other agricultural sectors, the organisation rate of sesame farmers is quite high, estimated at 46% in Western Tigray and 39% in North Gondar. Affiliation to unions is high, > 75%. We have an overview of cooperatives, but we propose to update it, as input for the activities with cooperatives in This will be done in collaboration with C4C and Agriterra. During the 2014 agricultural season, the roll-out of the 20 steps concerned the existing and new SBC areas (73 kebeles). Since farmers in the existing clusters very clearly asked for support for production improvement, it could be safely assumed that this was the case as well for the new clusters. An additional 20 kebeles was also involved as the Woreda Offices of Agriculture were very eager to provide services in all sesame producing areas, even the less important ones. The extension activities mainly targeted small farmers. In all these kebeles, DA s and model farmers were trained and demonstration plots were installed. At this moment, there are an estimated 5-20 farmers per kebele that have been trained; this would correspond with 3-12 trained model farmers per cooperative. This allows to focus more on farmer-to-farmer extension, e.g. more demonstration of the 20 steps via volunteering farmers. Most farmers received the brochure on the20 steps to improve sesame yields and quality. A media strategy accompanied the roll-out of the 20 steps, so as to reach different target groups in the best possible way (see 4.1 and 5.2 for more details). Current reach investor farmers We estimate that investor farmers, although they only represent 3% of the farmers, cultivate more than half of the sesame fields and account for more than half of the total production. Investor areas are merely along the Sudan border, especially in Mirab Armachiho (Amhara) and in Kafta Humera (Tigray). You can see these investor zones on the SBC map. These are also the woredas that have the largest sesame acreage and have a farmer classification that specifies investor farmers. In these areas, there are hardly villages, nor service providers. There are no clusters that are physically located in the large investor farmer zones. Investor farmers operate from the larger centres, close to their fields (Humera town, May-kadra, Abrehajira, Abderafi, Metema- Yohannes). They are generally not organised in farmer groups, except for a group of some 100 investor farmers in Humera, who constitute the Kafta Humera SBC. The sesame business cluster approach, centred around larger villages and spot markets, is less suitable for investor zones. In 2014, a start has been made for developing a more specific strategy for investor farmers (cf. box below). Farmer-company cases and agribusiness companies In addition to the doubling of local SBC s, alternative working modalities were prepared in We propose to work on two cases organised around companies specialising on processed organic sesame that directly source from farmers (Selet hulling and Dipasa). Additionally, work has started with agribusiness companies. Hiwot Agricultural Mechanisation (HAM) is a company with an own large farm (600 ha), of which largest part is sesame and the rest for sorghum and cotton. Hiwot supplies inputs and hires out machinery to neighbouring farmers; it has started irrigation. Almikom (Tigray) and Zeleke (Amhara) are other companies, also with a large acreage. It is expected that comparable cases will follow. A challenge for next year is to refine the map and to show the actual boundaries of clusters, as well as alternative cases and investor farmer zones. 9

20 Farming system perspective According to the production cost survey, which sampled farmers from 19 existing clusters, the average field in the core sesame production zone looks like the figure to the right. Investor farmers generally grow sesame and sorghum, and occasionally cotton. Fields of smallholder farmers are more diverse, especially in Amhara, and include pulses, finger millet and teff. Home gardens may produce maize, vegetables and fruits. The SBN Support Programme operates in the most important sesame zones, with promotion of rotation crops within the major sesame production zones. During the 2014 agricultural season, explicit attention was given to rotation crops. The pitch to farmers is that a good sesame farmer grows other crops. The attention for rotation crops will be further developed, with specific attention for finding marketing options, which seem to be most determining for farmers to reduce the area devoted to sesame and to adopt alternative crops. The sesame price decrease observed in 2014 may be a disincentive to further extend the sesame acreage and an incentive to consider other crops. Social inclusion Sensitivity to labour conditions. The largest part of the sesame production costs concern labour. At peak times there are thousands of temporary workers that come to labour, plant, weed, harvest, thresh and transport. To get to grips with modalities for hiring labour and labour conditions, a field study was conducted this year. Targeting women and youth. Looking at the membership of cooperatives, it can be estimated that 10-15% of the sesame farms are female-headed. Female farmers find it often difficult to cultivate and often rent out their land. In male headed households, women provide family labour. Women have specific responsibilities for winnowing and cleaning. There are many youth who (seek to) establish themselves as sesame farmers. Sometimes they are entrepreneurial sons of sesame farmers, or labourers that want to become a farmer themselves. To understand dynamics better and to prepare for practical action, a gender and youth action research will be done in The focus will be on practical action, with induced better understanding of the specific challenges for female and young farmers Planning and coordination Participatory bottom-up planning The participatory planning system has been explained in detail in the annual report over During the formulation phase, a representative group of stakeholders identified the key challenges; this set the agenda for the Sesame Business Network. This agenda was further analysed and developed during the inception phase (baseline study, participatory analysis and action planning at SBC level). After formulating their economic objectives, all clusters defined key challenges to address, and identified priority actions to undertake. The action planning of 19 clusters led to the identification of some 360 activities (average of 19 activities per cluster). Most activities were proposed for productivity and quality improvement, credit cost reduction, and harvest, transport and storage loss reduction. For postharvest value creation and product and market development there were less proposals (and probably less ideas). 10

21 Stakeholder ownership and coordination at different levels Because of the focus on the roll-out of the 20 steps (which was a Tsunami approach to cover the entire sesame production zone in North Gondar and Western Tigray), good collaborative relations have been established at woreda and kebele level. The focus on collaboration with BoA, with a logic of administrative units, went to some extent at the expense of the SBC s. The orientation on clusters will be stronger in 2015, because farmer-to-farmer extension will be a key element of the roll-out strategy for Regional and national SBN network meetings Annual business meeting. The Annual Business Meeting of the SBN is an important platform, during which stakeholders come together over the course of 2 days to exchange experiences, discuss challenges, share knowledge and provide solutions for the prioritisation of sector strategic interventions. During the annual meeting of 2014, a sesame business market hall was organised where different stakeholders showed their products and services. A detailed report on the annual business meeting is available. The meeting also reported upon in Newsletter 4. Regional workshops. Two regional workshops were successfully organized in Gondar and Humera. These were networking events for key actors, including public service providers, decision makers and partner organisations. The focus of the workshops was on reviewing the activities and results of 2014, with emphasis on the roll-out of 20 steps, identifying and discussing on some key challenges of the sesame sector such as access to finance, row planting, availability of quality seeds and fertiliser, integrated pest management, loss reduction, cooperative marketing, discussing on modalities for coordination at SBC, woreda and regional level. The outputs of the workshops provide critical points to be considered for the 2015 work plan. Field days. In 2014, national sesame field visits were organised in early October, with the objective of showing the results of the scaling out activities of improved sesame production technologies and the crop rotation trial to the concerned officials at federal, regional, zonal and woreda levels. Higher officials from the Netherlands Embassy, EIAR, CDI, Wageningen University, the Netherlands, ARARI, TARI, zone and woreda Offices of Agriculture, 2SCALE, EXC, AGP, ISSD and other government and private organisations participated in the field days. Regional and national field days are important events during which SBN main actors, stakeholders, partners and strategic participants come together and discuss progress of activities, share experiences and learn from each other. Many other field days have been organised at different levels (see chapter 5.2) Institutional embedding, collaboration and co-funding agreements Trust and collaborative relations with public and private sector stakeholders have been built up in the two preceding years. The conditions for establishing collaboration agreements and co-funding arrangements are now better understood, especially because of the visibility of the roll-out of the 20 steps in collaboration with the regional, zonal and woreda offices of agriculture and agricultural research system. Bilateral agreements and co-funding arrangements could potentially be established with a broad range of private and public service providers. Both for resilient market systems and pluralist advisory service systems, a combination of public and private actors is crucial. 11

22 Ministry of agriculture and ATA Ministry of agriculture Our work in NW Ethiopia is not unnoticed at the level of the federal Ministry of Agriculture. The focus on yield and quality improvement is appreciated. Both the Minister and the Director of Agricultural extension expressed strong interest in out scaling (applying the SBN approach to other sesame production zones in the country, especially Benishangul and Gambella) and upscaling (applying the SBN extension approach to other crops and sectors). This interest was also voiced at ATA (Director pulses and oilseeds value chain program). On request of the Ministry, the SBN support programme facilitated several trainings. Agricultural Transformation Agency The ATA is the national agency for catalyzing positive, transformational and sustainable change in the Ethiopian agricultural sector, which promotes existing structures of Government, private sector and non-governmental partners to address systemic bottlenecks in delivering on a priority national agenda for achieving growth and food security (Cf. ATA and SBN support programme have somehow have similar approaches, albeit at a very different scale. In fact, SBN is ATA in miniature. The SBN is catalyzing change in different domains, for a specific commodity (sesame, one of the six AGP priority crops) in a specific geographical area (NW Ethiopia). Like ATA, the SBN support program is looking at the agribusiness system, with due attention for system change (markets, cooperatives, seed sector, integrated soil fertility management) and is looking at cross-cutting issues like gender, youth and employment. The comparable approaches come remarkably together in the recently adopted corridor and cluster approach (see box). Cluster approach adopted as national strategy to focus on lead commodities in certain geographical areas - Focus on Product and Place Recently, the council of Ministers has approved the corridor and cluster approach. Essentially, this implies focusing on priority crops in specific geographical areas. For these clusters, an integrated approach, with due attention for inputs, finance, GAP, storage, processing, market linkages (...) is pursued. The SBN-SP already follows this approach: it is focusing on sesame in NW Ethiopia where the largest part of the sesame is produced. In fact, the SBN is working on an Amhara sesame zone (Quara, Metema, Tach Armachiho, Mirab Armachiho and Tegede) and a Tigray sesame zone (Kafta Humera, Wolkayit and Tsegede). It would be revealing to have an ATA-SBN exchange on the cluster and network approach, with attention for bottom-up and top-down dynamics. For the SBN, the network level is the level where strategic issues are brought up from local clusters and ways and means are found to address these (Example: finding solutions for access to finance: farmers need to access this at local branches, but systemic change has to be discussed at HQ - regional and federal level). For ATA, the network/cluster is the level where national strategies are operationalized. The planning process for identified clusters is about to start. The SBN support program has already a lot of experience in planning activities in the sesame clusters/networks in NW Ethiopia. In fact, there are already clear plans and objectives for the Tigray and Amhara sesame clusters/networks, as formulated by stakeholders themselves. The SBN support program has done base line studies for the 8 woredas involved, has made local cluster profiles and action plans and has consolidated these to the level of Amhara and Tigray networks. There are great opportunities for making links between policy and practice, both for ATA and SBN support program. Identified opportunities for collaboration: - Operationalizing corridor and cluster approach - Development/refinement of pulses and oilseeds strategy - Participation in sesame-chickpea working group - Direct export of farmer cooperative unions - Rural finance - Input voucher system - Extension approach and scaling out strategy - Mechanization - row planting - Organization of commodity platforms at different levels (kebele, SBC, woreda, region) - Institutionalization of sesame days The table below provides an overview of the collaborative relations that were explored and established in

23 Public sector Domain Partners Observations Policy and Ministry of - Meetings in Addis before and after the agricultural season. coordination Agriculture - Module development in Debre Zeit for sesame, sorghum and other oil crops (April) - Training on improved package for sesame and sorghum for other regions in Bahir Dar and Arbaminch (April-May). - Contribution to elaboration of training manuals (other crops) for 2015 in Adama (Muez Berhe and Hagos Tadesse, December 2014) ATA - Participation in training on improved sesame production Addis (April- May) - Several meetings with different departments and resource persons. - There are great opportunities for making links between policy and practice, both for ATA and SBN support program (see box) Research and extension Regional, zonal and Woreda administration - Especially the woreda administrators were very actively involved in the campaign for the roll-out of recommended agricultural practices. Bureau/Office of Agriculture - Important collaboration agreements with 8 Woreda Offices of Agriculture, under coordination of regional Bureaus of Agriculture of Tigray and Amhara, for a total value of > 12 million ETB. ARARI/TARI - Collaboration agreement on staff hosting and administrative management of the SBN Support Programme. GARC / HuARC - GARC and HuARC works on priorities of SBC s. They are active for basic seed production, variety development and testing, on-station and on-farm research on soil fertility management, and pest and disease control. - Collaboration agreement for roll-out of 20 steps and co-organisation of field days. EIAR - Development of 20 steps; Participation in annual meeting and field days. Universities - Limited relations so far. Cooperatives Cooperative Promotion Agency - Some capacity development activities, among others cooperative marketing (cf. 5.1) (federal, regional and woreda) - Meeting at federal level. Possibilities for collaboration explored at woreda and revel. This did not lead to collaboration agreement yet. Contact will be established at regional level Marketing Trade and Transport - Collaboration for information and monitoring of spot market prices (woreda and kebele levels) Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) - Collaboration for awareness creation on grading and quality (info during stakeholder meetings). - Intended collaboration for market information. Billboard Humera stalled because of road construction. Private sector Domain Partners Observations Cooperatives and farmers Unions - Collaboration for market linkages (Selam) and training on marketing (Selam, Metema, Setit) Cooperatives - Same subjects as for Unions - Training on contract farming and organic production for Adebay and Bereket cooperatives, in collaboration with Dipasa - NB: coops paid for training costs, SBN only staff costs KHSPSC - Training KHSPSC on organic farming. SBN only staff costs. - Demands support for: organic certification and market linking trip to Israel market Investor farmers - Relations some innovative investor farmers (Desta Berhe, Tekee Batah,...). These might be stepping stone for more collaboration with investor farmers. Finance ACSI / DECSI - Invited to trainings and workshops, for airing their products and conditions for access to credit, and sensitisation of farmers on saving culture. SACCO Tegede - RuSACCO case analyzed. Potential case to be further developed or inspiration for other SACCO s. 13

24 Domain Partners Observations Finance Cooperative Bank of - Meetings in Humera/Gondar. Interested in linking up to farmers and (continued) Oromia cooperatives. Participate in meetings. Promising for further collaboration ( training on different subjects, experience sharing, for instance on coffee cooperatives) Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) - Participation in meetings and workshops in Gondar, Tigray and Amhara Ethiopian - Participation in national meeting in Gondar Development Bank Ethiopian Insurance - Meeting in Humera, potential for services to investor farmers. Company (EIC) Nyala Insurance - No relations yet, foreseen for In-country processors Exporters and international buyers Buyers rotation crops Production factors Media Selet Hulling / Tradin - Meeting at HQ in Amsterdam, will make a proposal for collaboration. Good contacts with local representatives in Humera/Addis. Dipasa - Meeting in the Netherlands. Training on organic farming for two cooperatives. Collaboration to be locally defined. Ambasel - Visit of annual meeting participants to factory. Planning to work on value addition and market linkages. Exporters/ - Participation of SBN staff in CBI trainings and visit to Europe. processors in CBI - Six participating companies reportedly interested to invest in trajectory processing activities in Ethiopia. EPOSPEA - So far limited collaboration, indirect via CBI training for export promotion. Dutch sesame - Visited in the Netherlands: Tradin Organic, Dipasa, DO-IT, Ruby buyers Trading, Other international buyers Buyers of rotation crops Hiwot mechanisation Other mechanisation companies Developers of animal-drawn sesame row planters Dimtse Woyane media Amhara Mass Media Agency - Contacts with Israeli-American company (Tahini and Humus) established, which has interest in the quality/taste of Ethiopian sesame. Potentially a demand for large volumes. Will be further explored in 2015; aim is to have clear demand and - if possible - a pilot order and delivery. - IFDC has explored different options, which will be further explored (company names cannot be disclosed yet). Aim is to have clear demand and - if possible - a pilot order and delivery. - Contacts were also established with Fafa food (production of children flour - Sorghum-Soja-Maize. With some organic food companies it is explored if they are interested to source other products than sesame. - Providing machinery renting services to nearby farmers (tractors, ploughs and planters). Relation expected to be expanded (contract farming for sorghum). - Mechanisation road show in June, with participation of the following companies: - Contacts with TGT/Rumpstadt established, to be explored further. - Tool developer (Marek) via Precision Consult; demonstrated prototype row planter during annual meeting. Disappeared. - Contacts with André Overmars, collaboration with ISSD for development of row planters. Indicates he can produce a specific sesame row planter - Radio programmes on best practices for sesame production and for sesame marketing, according to action-based timeline. - Radio programmes accompanying the roll-out of the 20 steps, but problems of coverage limitation encountered. This overview shows that there are many collaborative relations. They often only take staff time and consume some operational costs. Many of the current relations could be brought to the next level and be materialised by collaboration agreements with co-funding arrangements. This means that the use of the SBC and SBN support funds can be much higher than was the case in The collaboration agreements of this year, especially the one with BoA, allowed to learn a lot about how to prepare these: joint objectives and targets, detailed activity planning, accompanied by a budget that clearly shows the partners and farmers contributions. 14

25 Sticking to the SBN principles Sticking to the SBN principles (see also 1.4) was one of key orientations indicated in the 2014 work plan. Because of this, it was not always possible arrive at collaboration agreements based on co-funding, even though there were intensive preparatory meetings (for evident reasons we do not cite the cases of partnerships that could not be established). All the time, the SBN Support Programme communicates to stakeholders with the following pitch: You are there to stay, we are bound to go. This gets reactions that are in-between surprise and respect. The implementation of the agribusiness cluster and network approach is situated in an environment where the donor dependency syndrome is still strong (at all levels: farmers and their organisations, Government institutions, Cooperatives and unions, private sector). There is however increased understanding of the SBN approach and its principles, mainly thanks to the successful roll-out of the 20 steps in collaboration with BoA. Sticking to the principles will continue to be important during the elaboration of collaboration agreements and co-funding contracts in Showing stakeholder contributions The direct 2SCALE contribution of 800,000 Euro concerns two competitive funds: SBC fund for local initiatives (SBC fund; budget codes 4.5 and 4.6) and Innovation fund for strategic issues (SBN fund; budget code 5.11). These are the main instruments to graft SBN support to the activities of SBN stakeholders. To substantiate the claim that the SBN is stakeholder driven, it is important to have an idea what they contribute in terms of human resources and financial resources (both in cash and in kind). For the use of 2SCALE facilitated grants, the leverage by private sector contributions has to be shown. This was clearly explained in December Establishing the overviews is underway. For all collaboration agreements of 2014 and 2015, the private (and public) sector contributions will be made visible Collaboration and synergy with other projects Field presence is the strength of the SBN Support Programme. From this grounded establishment, departing from SBN stakeholders challenges and needs, the SBN Support Programme works together with several other externally funded development projects and programmes. The table below presents the collaboration in Partners Domain Observations CASCAPE Administrative - The SBN Support Programme is part of the CASCAPE project. Collaboration is Good agricultural mainly on administrative issues. Because of large physical distance, there is less practices collaboration on technical matters. SBN and CASCAPE participate in each other s important meetings. 2SCALE/IFDC All domains Contributes to the funding of the SBN support programme, focusing on the SBC and SBN grants, for which a private sector contribution has to be shown. 2SCALE funds have also allowed to recruit two additional agronomists. Content-wise, 2SCALE has specific attention for rotation crops (production and marketing) and soil fertility management. C4C/SNV Agriterra Cooperatives and farmers; Marketing and sales Through the project Cooperatives for Change (C4C): Value Chain Approach for Cooperative Development in Ethiopia, SNV and Agriterra support the business endeavours of cooperative unions by enhancing their capacity to handle business relations with buyers. The focus of C4C is on building cooperative entrepreneurial capacities, enhancing the confidence on the part of buyers by the creation of a reliable supply. - So far, SNV and Agriterra have focused on the business relations of unions with international buyers and support their direct marketing efforts. Supported unions: Metema, Salam and Tsehay in Amhara and Setit, Dansha and possibly Wolkayit in Tigray. - C4C covered the printing costs of the 20 steps field guide - A C4C staff member is hosted at GARC and shares office with SBN support staff - More collaboration is foreseen, among others for rating of cooperatives and in the micro-finance sector. CBI Marketing and sales Regular exchange for implementation of joint plan. Particpation of SBN staff in CBI training trajectory in Ethiopia and Europe. Will possibly lead to relations of farmers with Ethiopian exporters or processors and or with European/Dutch sesame buyers 15

26 Partners Domain Observations ISSD Seeds Establishment of Local Seed Business and their capacity development. ISSD supports GARC for that purpose. Co-organisation of workshop on quality seed production techniques and requirements (Humera). Collaboration with ISSD for development of row planters. Potential collaboration for seed dressing. Common Sense / G4AW Geo-information, M&E, rural finance SBN Support Programme contributed to G4AW project proposal for Common sense project, which was approved in October Several meetings in Wageningen for the start of the pilot phase of Common sense. Precise Consult Business incubation Agreement was signed for: evaluation of business proposals for sesame sector, for capacity development of incubatees, development of row planter PUM Post-harvest management project Tigray ACDI-VOCA - Amde Rabo Development Senior management support Loss reduction Sesame value chain development Rural finance PUM services explained during annual SBN business meeting. There was a demand from KHSPSC, but they decided not to use PUM services. Also other options did not materialise. This is a project Kansas University. Evaluation of project document, participation in launching workshop. This project made use of SBN loss study. Preparation of survey format and staff participated in loss survey for one week (two staffs). Good perspective for further collaboration. Only participation in annual SBN meeting. Hardly any relations; somehow hard to get the contact established. This is a pity, because ACDI-VOCA can support activities that SBN can t, such a facilitating cooperatives and unions to have stores, cleaners and other hardware. There is a serious risk of duplication of activities. Meeting at Rabobank Utrecht with Corné de Louw. No practical subjects for collaboration yet, but perspective for collaboration ( CBO, more strategic issues rural finance sector) Terrafina Rural finance Several exchanges, leading to planning of identification mission in sesame zone for early

27 3. SBN Support Programme - human and financial resources In this chapter, three paragraphs inform about the SBN support programme and its human and financial resources Staffing: the SBN Support Programme team 3.2. Internal organisation 3.3. Budget and financial management 3.1. Staffing: the SBN Support Programme team Staff A highly motivated SBN support team is in place. This is the human resource capital of the SBN Support Programme. The success of the SBN and the visibility in the field is the result of the very hard work of all team members. This year, the team was extended with three additional agronomists, two for Tigray and one for Amhara. The recruitment of two of these agronomists has been made possible with financial support of IFDC- 2SCALE. With the arrival of the third car (for Humera), TARI/HuARC has appointed a driver for this car. The agro-economist for Amhara, Daniel Lemlem has left the team as per December 31 st 2014 for a position at ATA in Bahir Dar. The vacancy for this position, and the vacancy for a market specialist for the Gondar team were announced and letters of application were received. In the context of a relatively limited budget for 2015, the recruitment process has been stalled. The work plan for 2015 will indicate how this question will be addressed. In December, Mr Anteneh Mekuria was nominated as assistant coordinator. He will replace Dr Geremew in case of absence and be responsible for quarterly and annual team meetings and reporting, and for internal communication and information sharing. Anteneh will continue to coordinate the Communication, extension and training team. In line with his main activities, the name of the function of Oscar Geerts has been changed into market economist. Oscar will be coordinating the economic team. An overview of all SBN support staff as per December 31 st 2014 is provided in annex 1. Staff contracts As per January 1 st 2014, all staff have an annual contract with GARC (SBN facilitators Gondar, financialadministrative staff and SBC coaches Amhara) and with TARI (SBC coaches Tigray). The contract format was legally checked. The delay in establishing the staff contract was mainly due to the fact that it is not common that staff members of an externally funded project are hosted at a national institution. The salary levels and fringe benefits are in line with the CASCAPE modalities. Staff salaries are directly transferred to their bank accounts. Payments for the Provident Fund (PF) are up to date. The Provident Fund (contributions over 2013 were retroactively regularised in Provisions are in place for supporting staff medical costs and to pay compensation to direct family in case of work related accidents. Staff management The SBN support staff has been working many hours per day and many days per week, especially during the production season. A proposal was submitted to the Netherlands embassy for compensating the hard work of staff. This proposal was exceptionally accepted and the compensation will be made available in the first quarter of Partly as a result of the work pressure, staffs do hardly take leave days. To solve the backlog of outstanding leave days, it has been proposed to the Netherlands embassy to pay the outstanding days and to start anew as 17

28 per January 1 st 2015, with the note that leave days over 2015 have to be taken before the end of the year and will not be paid. This proposal was also exceptionally accepted and will be paid in the first quarter of To react on the salary developments in Ethiopia, both in the public sector and the context of international NGO s, a proposal for salary adaptation has been developed and submitted to the Netherlands embassy. A structural revision of staff salary scales will be done in 2015, to be effective as from Staff capacity development Some staff capacity development activities were undertaken this year, but to a limited extent. Most learning is by doing. In December a training needs assessment was done among staff. This will translated in more staff development activities in CDI support and coordination CDI staff has supported the SBN support programme on several aspects: methodological, organizational, financial-administrative, communication, reporting (...). CDI staff conducted 12 missions in Ethiopia Internal organisation Team organisation The SBN support staff team is coordinated by Dr Geremew. In Tigray and Amhara the SBC coaching teams are respectively coordinated by Muez and Tewodros (on 50% basis; they are also HuARC and GARC staff members. In daily work, there are two organising principles: geographically and thematically. For Amhara and Tigray the SBC coaches work as interdisciplinary teams. When needed the staff help each other, even if it is outside their main domain of specialisation. This year, the focus was strongly on the roll-out of best agricultural practices. For next year, it is important that the economists can focus more on their area of work. Often the agronomy, economy and training-extension-communication teams (composed of staff in Gondar, Tigray and Amhara), work together on specific subjects in their field of work. As of recent, we call them respectively the A-team, E-team and TEC-team. The thematic work was better coordinated this year. A quarterly meeting system will be instituted in Internal communication and information management For internal communication, staff use cell phones and have access to Internet, who is unfortunately not always functional, both in Gondar and especially in Humera. SBN staff have addresses with the same logic: xxxx.sbn@gmail.com. The project has a Google drive folder that is accessible to all staff. This is very important for information management and sharing. The structure of the SBN Google Drive has been adapted and further developed this year. The new structure will further strengthen the internal communication among staff members. A description on how to use Google Drive is available and regularly updated. The structure of the Google Drive looks as follows: 18

29 3.3. Budget and financial management Please refer to the financial report which informs about : - Budget: funding sources, integrated three year budget, budget categories and activity-based budgeting - Project organisation and financial-administrative management: instituional alignment, staffing, procurement, logistics and operational costs, iterative planning and adaptive management, financial management system - Budget use of SBN support programme in 2014 with observations - IFDC-2SCALE contribution and available budget for Lessons learned The budget use is on the rise and will increase further in This reflects the situation that the SBN support programme is fully established and its principles and modalities of operation are increasingly understood. 19

30 4. Activities and results according to 5 intervention areas This chapter reports on the activities of SBN stakeholders and the Support Programme that were undertaken in 2014 to achieve five important economic objectives Yield and quality improvement 4.2. Harvest, transport and storage loss reduction 4.3. Credit cost reduction 4.4. Post-harvest value addition 4.5. Market linkages and sales We highlight the main activities done and results obtained during For most if not all activities, specific and more detailed reports are available. We thus limit ourselves to the essential information, with emphasis on the process, summarised overviews of activities and results, stories from partners and farmers, and major lessons learned which are important for 2015 and beyond Productivity and quality improvement As indicated in chapter 2, all 19 clusters of 2013 identified major challenges related to sesame production, yields and quality improvement. Farmers, research and extension are convinced that, compared to prevailing farmer practices, yields can double. It is in this context that the Support Programme has set a target of 50% yield improvement. Scaling out of recommended agricultural practices has been the most important activity in In this chapter, we describe the process throughout the year and the activities undertaken, and we reflect on the results obtained. Quick facts on 2014 campaign for rolling out of best agricultural practices Roll-out of improved sesame production practices in 3 woredas of West Tigray (Kafta Humera, Welkayiet, and Tsegedie,) and 5 woredas of North Gondar:(Metema, Quara, Tach Armachiho, Mirab Armachiho and Tegedie) 100,000 copies of the 20 Important Steps to Double Yields and Improve Quality of Sesame guide have been published and distributed to farmers and others 793 model farmers & 291 DAs (1084 in total) have been trained as trainers of the application of improved sesame production technologies Improved sesame technologies were demonstrated on 916 plots in northwest Ethiopia; 502 in Western Tigray and 414 in North Gondar 823 demo plots were conducted in the fields of model farmers and 93 were at Farmer Training Centres Over 75,000 farmers were targeted; most farmers have received the manual and at least 50,000 have visited field days Throughout the season, an average of two field days were organised in each demo plot during different stages in the maturation and management of sesame Contents of this paragraph - Roll-out process: a major operation in Yield improvement analysis (demo plots 2013) - Best practices: preparation of manual and field guide - Partnership development and collaboration agreements with BoA - Capacity development - Rotation crops - Logbook preparation and distribution - Mobilization and distribution of seeds, fertilizer and other inputs and materials - Row planting - Monitoring, coaching and technical backstopping - Observed challenges: an overview - Outcome evaluation - Field days - Yield measurement - Recommendations for further roll-out 20

31 Roll-out process: a major operation in 2014 The table below provides an overview of the activities conducted before, during and after the agricultural season. It shows that it was a major operation with often tight time schedules. Activities Pre-season Consolidation of research recommendations in manual Printing of production manual and training materials Development and printing of field guide ( 20 steps ) Presentation of 20 steps during annual SBN meeting Planning per woreda (kebeles, FTC s, MF s) Partnership development and agreement signing (BoA) Field size and site determination Resource mobilisation; seeds and fertiliser Core team selection and ToT-1 in Gondar Mobilisation of other working materials ToT-2 at zone and woreda level & material distribution Logbook preparation Input, logbook and other materials distribution Production season Field preparation, field lay-out and planting Field monitoring, coaching and technical backstopping Identification, purchase and distribution of plastic sheets Experience sharing visits/ kebele level field days Woreda, regional and national level field days Harvesting, threshing, transporting & storing End-of-season field days (woreda, region, national) After-season Marketing Logbook collection, data entry and analysis Report writing Regional workshops Months Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 21

32 A large yield gap During the 2013 production year, the SBN Support Programme conducted sesame yield measurements in 93 farmers fields. The average yield of sesame was found to be lower than 450 kg per hectare. This is much lower than what is possible. Existing research and the results on the SBN 2013 seaon demonstration plots shows that the application of improved production technologies can easily obtain yields of 800 kg per hectare under farmer conditions. This massive yield gap is largely due to pre- and post-harvest management deficiencies. Key determining factors are the use of quality seeds, fertilizer application, row planting and spacing, appropriate and timely land preparation and weeding and pest and disease control. A yield gap of 350kg/ha on a total acreage of 500,000 hectares represents a potential additional production of 1,750,000 quintals. At average ECX prices in 2013/14 (4000 ETB/quintal), this represents an additional value of 14,000 ETB/ha and a total value of more than 7 billion ETB (280 million Euro). This is the reason why yield and quality improvement is a key pillar for achieving the SBN goal of improving farmer income. ds-can-double.pdf Best practices Consolidation of research results and recommendations. To realize the yield and quality improvement goal, 50% yield increment, the SBN support programme made an inventory and reviewed available research results on sesame crop management, input use and post-harvest activities. This was done in collaboration with regional and national resource persons (EIAR, TARI, ARARI). Early 2014, Dr Geremew Terefe, Muez Berhe (HuARC senior research, SBC coach coordinator), Hagos Tadesse (then Director HuARC, now agronomist in SBN team) and Adugna Wakjira (currently Deputy Director EIAR), compiled a sesame production manual with the latest research-based information and recommendations. The production manual was prepared in English and translated in Amharic and Tigrigna languages, printed in 6,000 copies and distributed to experts and agronomists of unions and private firms. The 20 steps field guide. The detailed manual was the source for distinguishing 20 important steps for improving sesame yields and quality. All these steps have to be carefully observed during field operations. An attractive design was developed with one page of pictures and one page of short text per step. The field guide was prepared and printed under the banner of Ethiopian institutions: EIAR, ARARI, TARI and BoA. The field guide was printed in 100,000 copies, 50,000 in Amharic and Tigrigna languages. The materials were distributed to trainers, development agents (DAs) and model farmers (MFs), who subsequently distributed the field guides to farmers attending local training sessions and field visits. For details on the number of distributed copies of the manual and the field guide, please refer to paragraph 5.3. The guide can be downloaded at the resource page of the SBN website: Guide-Booklet_English.pdf Partnership development and collaboration agreement with BoA After the successful pilots in 2013, the SBN Support Programme and the Ministry of Agriculture, BoA and TARI/ARARI agreed to reach more sesame farmers with improved production technologies and innovations in To roll out the packaged technologies, key players (BoA at regional, zonal, woreda and kebele), research institutes and centres (EIAR, ARARI/GARC and TARI/HuARC), woreda and kebele administration agreed to work together, share responsibilities and costs. Available human, physical and financial resources of the partner organisations were inventoried and required additional resources were determined. In April 2014, parameters were defined for the planning for the farmer training centres and the demonstration plots of model farmers (cf. box below). Each woreda decided on the 22

33 number of kebeles, FTCs, and model farmers to involve and the location and size of the demonstration sites, taking into account their available human and financial resources, experience, farmers readiness and accessibility of kebeles (see table on next page). A total of 916 demonstration plots was planned with the aim to reach most sesame farmers in the 2014 production season in the two regions. The targeted farmers were 30,400 in Western Tigray (Kafta Humera, Welkayit and Tsegede) and 24,550 in North Gondar (Metema, Quara, Tach and Mirab Armachiho and Tegede) woredas. Parameters for planning - There is one FTC per kebele, even if there is currently no farmer training centre. In that case, the woreda/kebele will rent an appropriate plot. - The plots of FTC s in Tigray are one hectare and in Amhara their size is ½ hectare. Their reach is respectively estimated at 125 and 100 surrounding farmers. - The FTC s in Amhara include a plot for demonstrating the sesame production package (at least 50%) and an area for demonstrating rotation crops. The sesame demo plots have an experimental design with 4 quadrants: (1) full sesame package applied; (2) full package without fertiliser application; (3) full package without row planting and thinning; (4) control plot with prevailing farmer practices. The justification for the two key variables are that farmers currently often not convinced of the benefits of fertiliser, it requires investment and farmers are afraid to get addicted. Row planting and thinning are innovative activities and most likely determining factors for yield improvement - There are special model farmer plots which have the same size as FTC demo plots. These plots also show rotation crops and/or are used for seed multiplication. The larger size of these plots is an effort to come as close as possible to farmer conditions (e.g. move beyond small plots of research trials). In general, farmers have larger plots in Tigray than in Amhara. The reach of these demo plots is estimated at 100 and 75 surrounding farmers, respectively for Tigray and Amhara. - The ordinary farmer demo plots are ½ hectare in Tigray and ¼ hectare in Amhara. The reach of these farmer demo plots is estimated at 50 surrounding farmers. - The farmer demo plots do not have an experimental design; farmers apply the full package. Next to the demo plots, the farmers apply their current practices. These plots (both of model farmer and other farmers) will serve as control plots. Signing and implementation of collaboration agreements. Based on these parameters and the need for training sessions, input and other materials, detailed calculations were made of the costs of the campaign. These were described in the document The challenge of arriving at collaboration agreements to roll out the sesame package: strategic choices and operational proposals, which was backed by detailed calculations per activity and per woreda. In all calculations the cost share of BoA, farmers and the SBN Support Programme were distinguished. The contribution of the Support Programme was targeted on capacity building and on the extra costs of new practices (as compared to farmers practices), such as row planting, fertiliser use or drying of hillas on plastic sheets. Budget. The estimated total budget for the rolling out of sesame productivity and quality improving activities in the two regions for 2014 crop season was 14,505,888 ETB (659,359 Euro), of which the costs were divided over the farmers contribution (5,454,062 ETB; 37.6%), woreda offices of agriculture (2,489,575 ETB; 17.1%) and the SBN Support Programme (6,562,251 ETB; 45.2%) After planning and budgeting, the Amhara and Tigray Bureaus of Agriculture signed collaboration agreements with the SBN Support Programme, which guided all activities before, during and after the agricultural season, until the joint evaluation of the technology scaling-up activities in December 2014: Partnership Development Resource Mobilisation & Planning Capacity Development Rolling out the Package Monitoring and evaluation Human resources. Each woreda and kebele assigned a focal person fully in charge to follow-up on the planned activity programme. This is an important stepping- stone towards woreda and regional coordination. The SBN Support Programme assigned 17 staff members for providing technical and administrative support during the rolling out activities and mobilized six cars (three own and three hired) during the period June to end of October,

34 Summary overview: planned and realised implementation of action plan The planned activities were by and large realized in practice, the farmers reach, generally estimated between farmers per demo, appears slightly higher than expected. Woredas Kebeles DA FTC Model Total demo farmers plots Farmers reach Planned Realized Planned Realized Planned Realized Planned Realized Planned Realized Planned Realized Kafta Humera ,775 21,800 Tsegede ,475 8,913 Wolkaiet ,150 5,400 Tigray ,400 36,113 Metema ,100 8,600 Quara ,250 3,750 Tach Armachiho ,650 7,000 Mirab Armachiho ,350 6,850 Tegede ,200 2,800 Amhara ,550 29,000 TOTAL ,950 65,113 Capacity development To facilitate easy and proper transfer of sesame production technology, researchers, agricultural experts, development agents and model farmers were trained on the improved sesame and sorghum production packages. The aim was to build capacity of experts, DAs and model farmers within the different sesame production zones. The trainings were realized according to a cascaded system, from resource persons to core trainers (ToT-1), to woreda experts, DA s and model farmers (ToT-2), to sesame farmers. This system is explained in paragraph 5.2. During the ToT-1 training, practical demonstrations were made on ploughing, row planting and fertiliser application, and logbook data recording. At the end, trainees were provided with production guidelines, manuals, logbooks, seed drilling bottles, glue and hoses for demonstrating during training at each woreda towns and kebeles. The core team members dispersed to eight woredas of the two zones and the second level training of trainers (ToT-2) was conducted. They organised several training sessions for development agents, model farmers, SBC representatives, and woreda and kebele administrators. In Amhara region, eight training sessions were held with 483 participants (98 experts and development agents, 350 model farmers and 33 were core team members). Similarly, 8 training sessions were held in western Tigray zone with a total of 630 participants (439 model farmers and 191 experts). In the 16 ToT sessions, 1,081 experts and model farmers participated, not including trainers. The total cost for the two ToTs amounted 1,234,060 ETB. The woreda level ToT participants (model farmers and DA s) trained 66,402 fellow farmers at kebele level (cf. section 5.2 for more details) Logbooks For proper data collection and the recording of day to day activities on the demo plots a logbook was conceived, prepared in English, Amharic and Tigrigna, and distributed to all operational demonstration sites (912) through the respective woreda and kebele focal persons. The trainings of DA s and model farmers included sessions on field layout and logbook recording. Logbooks were inspected during field visits of the overseeing staff of woredas, research institutes and the SBN team. 24

35 Mobilisation and distribution of seeds, fertiliser and other inputs and materials Field demonstrations included the recommended use of improved seeds and fertiliser. Especially in Amhara, farmers are less convinced that fertiliser application improves crop establishment and productivity.. For the demonstration of four treatments (full package, broadcasting with fertiliser, row planting without fertiliser and farmers practice), the necessary inputs and other materials were identified, purchased and distributed (cf. table below). Fertiliser (ton) Sesame variety (kg) Rotation crop varieties (kg) Total cost (ETB) Soybean Mung bean Sorghum Cotton DAP + Urea Humera-1 Setit-1 Abasena (Nova) (Arkebe) (PAC-537) (DP-90) , ,231,583 Fertiliser. Both in Tigray and Amhara, Urea, NPS and/or DAP has been purchased and distributed through offices of agriculture to MF s and FTCs. The required amount of fertiliser was fully purchased by SBN team in each kebele in order to shorten the lengthy money transfer system, especially, in woredas where banks are not online. Seeds. Improved seeds of sesame varieties Abasena (198kg), Humera 1 (844kg) and Setit 1 (1,464kg) were distributed to FTCs and MFs through the woreda and kebele offices of agriculture. For promoting crop rotation, 364kg of soya bean (Nova), 135kg of mung bean (Arkebe), 8.3kg of cotton (Deltapine 90), and 69.5kg hybrid sorghum (PAC-537) were distributed for testing their adaptability and yielding potential FTCs and some model farmer fields. For measuring demo plots, each participating kebele received two measuring tapes of 50m and two rolls of 100m length plastic strings. Row planting and row planters Like for other crops in Ethiopia, planting sesame in rows is a challenging operation as farmers are familiar only with broadcast planting. Small farmers practicing it manually on their plots find it a back breaking activity. For this category of farmers, it is a very important challenge to develop and test animal-drawn row planters. There are also challenges at the side of investor farmers. A pneumatic seed driller with tractor was rented from Hiwot Agricultural Mechanisation PLC for sesame row planting. The machine was supposed to plant sesame in rows of 40cm apart and 10cm between plants. However, the row planter was made for large seeded crops and made only drilling for sesame. It was demonstrated in four places: at HuARC (12 ha), Bewal (7 ha), Redem (4 ha) and May-kadra (3 ha). Although seed germination was very uniform in row planted fields, it required repeated thinning as the seeds were drilled without maintaining the required plant distance. Plant population maintenance is another challenge farmer s face in row planted sesame. Therefore, the seed drillers have to be modified to planters in the future. Monitoring, coaching and technical backstopping In each kebele, SBN staff members, researchers and experts of offices of agriculture rendered season round technical and coaching support to DAs and MFs, from field preparation, through planting to harvesting. The objectives were multiple: a) make sure that activities were being done as planned; b) find out if there is any defaulted MF/FTC; c) clear any worries on the technology and make change or amendment; d) assess and adapt activities to ensure that they are as effective as they can be; e) identify areas for further improvement; f) share knowledge, expertise and experience on proper field management; g) collect information on the different field activities and difficulties encountered; h) evaluate the programme s progress and success, and - at the same time - i) evaluate the impact of the 2013 demonstration activities. For these purposes different tools and techniques (visual observations on crop establishment and application of agronomic practices, GPSsupported plot identification, transect field walks for measuring plot area, photo camera, lenses and knives for pest scouting). 25

36 Season round technical backstopping and monitoring gave the chance to easily correct shortcomings observed during package implementation. During field visits, deficiencies were observed regarding the implementation of agricultural practices and regarding the roles of DA s and model farmers to provide the good example and to record activities. To rectify these shortcomings, on the job trainings were provided for MFs and DAs, directly in the field. The coaching and technical backstopping helped to correct mistakes and improve crop performance greatly. This was clearly observed during the second round of field monitoring visits to selected demo fields. This indicates the need for further coaching and technical support so as to successfully implement the sesame production package. After monitoring, farmer and FTC plots were rated as poor, good, very good and excellent. The result of rating was directly communicated to MFs and DAs. Farmers and DAs were instantly advised to correct their weaknesses and encouraged for better performance directly at their fields. Observed challenges: an overview The table below suggests the major topics that should be improved during the implementation of the roll-out programme and the field level application of recommended practices. The environmental constraints show the importance to test the package under different environmental conditions and shows that agriculture is always depending on nature. The lack of appropriate tools and machines for row planting is a major structural constraint and therefore a priority to address in the near future. Implementation of the roll-out programme - Site selection (too sloppy fields or water logging); flooding in most FTCs, indicating site selection problem - Reduction of area in many of the FTCs and MFs fields, - Delay in financial release & settlement from the woreda finance offices, - Delays in land preparation, especially in FTCs due to lack of oxen for timely ploughing and the subsequent operations. This is the major reason for failure of some FTCs' - Staff turnover, after ToT and the subsequent trainings, - Backing of some model farmers after training - Insufficient logbook recording and GPS reading Environmental constraints - Inaccessibility of some kebeles, lack of communication means and road infrastructure - Moisture deficit soon after germination, and excess moisture throughout the growing period. - Insect pests (grasshopper, gall midge, webworm and thrips) damage, - Wind and hail damage accompanied with heavy rain Implementation recommended agricultural practices - Too high seed rate resulting in high plant population; - Delays in first weeding - Late thinning (at 10-15cm seedling height) - Insufficient thinning (10cm plant spacing and 40cm row spacing; - Lack of knowledge on insect pests and disease identification and delay in taking action; - Untimely or improper application of agronomic practices, for instance fertiliser application Structural problems - Lack of row planters; there is a high need for availing row planters for the different categories of farmers - Inefficiency in row making, especially in maintaining between row spacing using oxen Outcome evaluation The field teams engaged in outcome evaluation: what are the short and medium term changes in farmers knowledge, attitude and practices? The desired outcomes were changes in participants knowledge on the importance of new technology and practices; improvements in crop management skills, change in attitude towards the use of inputs and accompanying agronomic practices and farmers plans and goals for the future. Monitoring teams of woreda experts and SBN staff visited FTCs and MF fields in all eight woredas and most kebeles, from crop establishment to flowering. Discussions with MFs and DAs clearly showed that there is much improved understanding of the 20 recommended steps, especially for the importance of improved seeds, fertiliser application and row planting. Farmers belief in the importance of the package increased, when they saw the tolerance of sesame in demo plots to water logged conditions. The major attitudinal change observed was the setting of targets for future land use, resource allocation and cultivation practices. Field evaluations were made to determine whether farmers changed their practices as a result of the SBN supported demonstration plots in the 2013 crop season. Some improvements in crop management practices, row planting and input use were observed. At many sites, there were farmers applying certain new practices and/or declaring that they are going to apply the package next season. This could be the combined result of the experiences gained and results seen in 2013 field days, this year s trainings and demo plots and the broad distribution of the 20 steps field guide. Voluntary adoption was most observed in Wolkaiet, especially in Mogue 26

37 and May-gaba kebeles, where 225 volunteer farmers planted sesame in rows. This is very encouraging. Similar efforts were observed in Kafta Humera, Tsegede and Mirab Armachiho woredas. No significant impact was observed in Metema woreda, even though farmers in this area were quite well exposed to the new techniques. Increased fertilizer application in Mirab Armachiho In Mirab Armachiho woreda, in the 2014 cropping season, 90,000 hectares of land was used to cultivate sesame, 34,300 hectares was dedicated to sorghum and 1,175 to other types of crops. Before this production season, the Woreda Office of Agriculture has been demonstrating the improved sesame technology package, especially fertiliser application and row planting, but the adoption rate was not as such impressive. Since the sesame technology demonstration in 2014 started, the adoption of fertiliser significantly increased as Mr. Addisalem Bitew, Abrhajira woreda agriculture office expert and Support Programme focal person pointed out. He praised the collaborative effort of the SBN Support Programme and Gondar Agricultural Research Centre (GARC), which enabled a twofold adoption rate of fertiliser application within a short period of time. Before two years the total use of fertiliser by farmers in the woreda was 11,146 quintals only, but after a lot of demonstration and awareness creation, fertiliser application has increased to 25,731 quintals. The trend is illustrated in the table to the right. 30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0 DAP Urea Total Agricultural technology adoption and application depends on many factors. In the Ethiopian context, farmers trust in the new technology and commitment to implement, and the easiness of technology application are among the major factors that determine success. Regular technical support and intensive monitoring can enhance the farmers trust. Our experience shows that uncertainty about the new practices diminishes over time when farmers get more experience, observe the results in the field and get information from DA s, model farmers and backstoppers. The widespread adoption of the 20 steps will be a gradual process. Some practices may be picked by the farmers at short notice, while others take longer, especially when there are financial, tools or labour constraints. The scaling out needs further follow up for some years to go, to assess impact as it is a slow process. Field days Field days have been organised to give the farmers and the public a chance to see the practiced sesame rolling out activities, observe progress under real field conditions and talk with researchers, adopting farmers and other development practitioners involved in the technology popularisation process. They also aimed at providing the opportunity to view the latest technologies in sesame and alternative rotational crops. Each participating kebele organised more than two field days, depending on the performance of the sesame and other rotational crops. The first field days were conducted at an early stage of crop development and the second one at flowering stage, with the intention to convince farmers of the importance of using fertiliser and improved seed with packaged agronomic practices can make a difference in crop establishment and stands. The third field visit was meant to show the difference in fruiting and yield. In these field days, most farmers were reached and given the opportunity to make their own observations by counting branches, pods per plant and seeds per pod from both improved and local practiced plots. In the event questions were entertained by DAs, woreda experts and SBN Support Programme staff. 27

38 Feedback The main remarks on the 20 steps package for improved sesame production are the following: The full package is much appreciated for its tolerance to waterlogged conditions and pests Ascertained suitability of sesame variety Abasena for high rainfall and waterlogged areas; request to (more) Abasena in the next season, Farmers requested refinement of fertiliser rates based on fertility status of each field Need for row planters for different categories of farmers. The main feedback on the roll-out of the package are: Model farmers appreciated the physical presence of experts and the quality of the technical backstopping given. The advice and explanations given directly in the field encouraged them to improve their farm practices to the highest standard. Farmers stated that it is the first time for them to see and have such intensive care and coaching at field level as they have never been visited and advised by such team of experts directly at their farm. Many farmers blessed woreda staff and SBN facilitators and coaches for their courage to walk through such long distances. MF Tesfaye Kassa from Kokit Cluster I first do the land cleaning work. After I have taken the training, I called the professional (DA) to support me in measuring my plot. We did the measuring and I employed the improved sesame production technology in half a hectare of my land. I ploughed it repeatedly. That time my friends were mocking at me. Why did you plough repeatedly? Especially they were laughing at me while I was row planting. Some of the farmers in the village even said how on earth you have used row planting for sesame. I did not give attention for this. I simply do my work. I weed it repeatedly. The professionals from Woreda Office of Agriculture were also following the progress of my plot. After some time those farmers around my village and those passers-by did not simply pass on the way. They stand there for minutes and watch my sesame plot with their utter surprise. They appreciated it because it was quite different from the neighbouring plots. I was hoping to harvest more but due to the climate change in September; I did not get what I expected. And yet, I found 5.5 quintal from the half hectare. I found this because I used the improved sesame production package properly. I am not happy with the existing market. Right now, I am selling my Abasena seed to other farmers. Field day participants showed very positive reactions to the technology and seriously followed the events and critically evaluated the technology scaling out activities at all stage of crop development. They were impressed at early stages of crop development and were eager to see the yield result at the end. Although harvested yields were often low or even very low due to the heavy rainfall received a few days before harvesting and during hilla drying, participants during the last stage field days observed the effectiveness of the technology over the farmers practices even under waterlogged conditions. Yield Measurement Yield is the measure of seeds generated from a unit of land expressed as kilograms per hectare. The actual yield that is captured on farm depended mainly on a grower s ability to manage weeds, insect pests and diseases, soil fertility and socioeconomic factors that contribute to yield reduction. The aim of the sesame yield measurement in FTC and model farmers' plots was to estimate the impact of applying full production package on the productivity and quality of sesame. Accurate measuring of sesame yields is however not easy and is even more of a challenge in the context of Ethiopian smallholder farms that lack accurate measuring devices. Nevertheless, efforts were made to obtain yields of demonstration plots from most woredas and kebeles. Out of 916 logbooks distributed in the eight woredas, 607 were collected back, data computerised and yield data analysed for simple descriptive statistics. The summarised results are presented in the next sections, respectively yield measurement in FTC and model farmer fields. Yields in FTCs in Amhara region Four treatments. In the Amhara region, to evaluate the recommended sesame production technologies over prevailing farmer practice, four treatment levels were selected: (1) full package, 2) broadcast with fertiliser, 3) row planting without fertiliser and 4) farmers practice. The four treatments were planted in a single plot of 0.125ha in 52 FTCs of the five woredas. The first three treatments were planted with improved varieties (Abasena, Humera 1 or Setit 1), depending on their adaptability. The fourth treatment, the local practice, included farmers' practices of each locality and was planted with a commonly used variety. The harvested plot yield was measured and converted to quintal/ha. 28

39 Yield (qt/ha) Results. The results indicate that across all FTC s, the full package treatment performs much better compared to the farmers' practices. The highest mean yield was obtained from the full package (5.23 qt/ha), while farmers practice yielded 1.18 quintal. This means that the full package performed more than 4 times better than farmer practices. Significant variation was observed between locations in response to the four treatments. The full package treatment coupled with variety Abasena gave the highest yield in three FTCs, namely Soroqua (10.56 qt/ha), Masero Denb (9.6 qt/ha) and at Dubaba (9 qt/ha), while the lowest yield (0.00 qt/ha) was recorded from the farmers' practice treatment in Dizagumuz, Metema Yohanes and Kokit FTCs. Even though statistically non-significant, comparable yields were obtained from row planted sesame without applying fertiliser, indicating the importance of row planting in maintaining the required plant population in sesame plantations. The trend line for treatments indicate linearity of relationship for the full package across all locations. In 13 farmers training centres where variety Humera 1 was planted significant variation was observed in yield, ranging from zero to 14.4 qt/ha. Out of the 13 FTCs, 9 recorded from 8 to 14 qt/ha, three 4 to 8 and one less than 2 qt/ha in the full package treatment. The lowest yield (0.0) was obtained from the farmers practice. The over location mean for variety Humera-1 indicated that the full package yielded twice higher than the local practice. The difference was much higher for Abasena and Setit-1. The other two treatments, broadcast with fertiliser (commonly practiced by farmers), and row planting without fertiliser application, gave comparable yields (3.6 qt/ha) in all tested locations. The row planted sesame gave lower yield than broadcasting with fertilizer, indicating the importance of nutrients for higher yields of sesame. Despite the challenging weather conditions, specifically the high rainfall recorded at the crop maturing stage, the Humera 1 variety gave the highest yield (even under farmers' practices); followed by Abasena and Setit 1 (cf. table) Mean yield of treatments over FTCs in Amhara Full Broadcast package + fertlizer Row + zero fertilizer Farmer practice Abasena Humera 1 Setit 1 Yield in FTCs of the Tigray region In the Tigray region only the full package was implemented in 40 FTCs. Analysis on the effect of different treatments can therefore not be made. Yield data was collected from 39 FTCs and analysed. Results indicate significant variability across locations and varieties. In the Kafta Humera woreda 19 FTCs were planted and the highest yield (>7 qt/ha) was recorded from Rawiyan and Aditsetser FTCs planted with Setit 1 variety. The lowest yield was reported from Maycadra (0.2), Shiglil (1.5) and Ruwasa (1.7 qt/ha). In Tsegede woreda, out of 10 only 9 FTCs were planted and collected yield was very low, ranging from 0.8 to 2.5 qt/ha because of the unusually high rainfall. In Wolkaiet, 11 FTCs were planted and results indicate significant variability between locations. The highest being 6.3 qt/ha from Tsebery and the lowest from Kisad delesa (0.0 qt/ha) and Selam (0.2 qt/ha). Productivity of sesame varieties, Humera 1 and Setit 1 was assessed based on yields of FTCS in the three woredas. Results show that both varieties were non-significantly different from each other. Similarly, productivity of sesame was evaluated across the three woredas regardless of varieties grown. Kafta Humera woreda has harvested 2.31 qt/ha, Tsegede 1.38 and Wolkaiet (2.04) qt/ha). 29

40 Yield can double with the 20 steps: The case of Mr. Gamo Malede Mr. Gamo Malede, 30, is a farmer living in Tach Armachiho woreda, Kisha (Filwuha) kebele and he has seven hectares of land in which he usually cultivates sesame due to the highly increasing economic advantage of sesame. For long, Mr. Gamo was employing the traditional way of sesame production that yielded not more than 4 quintals per hectare. In the 2013 production season, Mr.Gamo hosted one of the demonstration plots of improved sesame varieties. This was the first time for him to see new sesame varieties and planting of sesame in row. Mr. Gamo yielded an average of 7.38 quintal per hectare. On another plot he applied conventional methods. Here he yielded 24 quintals with a productivity of 4 quintals per hectare. As a result, in the 2014 production season he was highly motivated to apply all the practices he used on the demonstration plots. Subsequently he sowed one hectare of land applying all the 20 steps by his own and he obtained 7.5 quintals in one hectare and he plans to cultivate all his land using the improved production package for next production season. Mean sesame yield on model farmers' fields in Amhara region In Amhara, 362 demonstration plots were planted on model farmers' fields, selected from 53 kebeles of the five woredas. Yield data were collected from 165 farmer fields. In the Metema woreda, out of 108 demonstration plots planted in 16 kebeles, yield data was collected only from 61 plots. The highest recorded yield in the woreda was 11 qt/ha. Six farmers harvested 8-10 qt/ha and 11 farmers got 6-8 qt/ha. The highest mean yield, 7 qt/ha was obtained from kebeles, Gendewuha, Kumer aftit and Shashigie and the lowest from Shinfa and Zebach bahir. In Quara woreda, out of 51 demo plots planted, yield was collected from 32 fields. The highest yield harvested was 7.6 qt/ha while the lowest was 0.4 qt/ha. Mean yield for the woreda varied from 5.5 to 1.8 qt/ha. In Mirab Armachiho, only variety Setit 1 was demonstrated on 92 farmers' fields. Yield was collected from 71 MFs and the highest was recorded from Torka followed by Gabla and Mogesie. The lowest record was from Dirmaga kebele. Mean kebele yield varied from 1.4 to 6.2 qt/ha. In Tach Armachiho woreda 84 MFs fields were planted in 11 kebeles. Out of which yield data was collected from 50 plots in 10 kebeles. The highest mean yield was recorded in three kebeles, namely Kisha, Kokora and Masero denb. The lowest mean yield was reported from Jansum kebele. Nevertheless, the lowest yield in this woreda is by far higher than mean yield of sesame in other woredas. In Tegede woreda, 28 model farmers' fields were planted in 4 kebeles. Yield was reported from 25 MFs and the highest is 7.2 qt/ha, while the lowest is (0.6 qt/ha). Mersha Awoke: a young model farmer who doubled his sesame yield Mersha Awoke, 27, has been working as a farmer since He lives in Mogo kebele, Wolkaite woreda. To make a living, Mersha has started a farming activity when he became strong enough to support himself. During the rainy season, Mersha usually produces sesame and sorghum on the land that he leases from other farmers. This production year, Mersha leased a total of seven and a half hectare land for 15,000 birr. Despite the heavy rain, Mersha has managed to harvest on average 7.4 quintals sesame per hectare from a total land of 5.5 ha. Because of the heavy rain, some of the farmers who used the traditional practices harvested between 0 and 2 quintals per hectare. Mersha is very grateful for the support that he gets from the SBN Support Programme and Woreda Office of Agriculture. He said, Despite the high labour cost, I employed row planting because I am well informed about its importance; and the application of inputs in enhancing productivity and quality. I applied all the steps mentioned in the production guide. Regarding his achievements so far, Mersha said, To be successful, one has to think about his life. Being poor by itself puts pressure on you not to lead your life in that state; most of us do not accept technology as fast as we can. I have been poor so far because I was not using improved technologies. One of Mersha s future plans is to use a tractor and other modern machineries in the coming year. He hopes that he gets support from the woreda officials. He said, if he has a support letter from the woreda administration office, he can get a tractor from Bisheftu Defense Engineering by paying thirty percent of the price first. Mersha seems to have found his niche in the agriculture sector. He is on the right track to get out from the grip of poverty. 30

41 Mean yield of sesame on model farmers' fields of the Tigray region In western Tigray zone, 462 MFs fields were planted in the three woredas using the full package and either Setit 1 or Humera 1 variety on one hectare of land. Yield data were obtained from 329 MFs. The comparison of sesame productivity across the three woredas reveals that those MFs in Kafta Humera and Wolkaiet woredas got significantly better yields than in Tsegede. - In Kafta Humera 261 demonstration plots were planted in 21 kebeles and 149 farmers from 14 kebeles reported their harvest. Adebay kebele has recorded the highest (7.12 qt/ha) yield, while the lowest was from Adigoshu. - In Tsegede, 150 demo plots were planted in 10 kebeles and 130 farmers from 10 kebeles submitted their reports. In Tsegede, harvest is very low on all demo plots, the highest 3.68 qt/ha from Lekatit kebele, followed by Selam, 3.25 qt/ha. Most kebeles harvested low yield, ranging from 2.3 to 1.3 qt/ha. - In Wolkaiet, yield data was reported from 50 MFs in 14 kebeles. Highest mean yield, 6.3 qt/ha was from Delesa Koka, followed by Adifluho (5.9 qt/ha). The lowest yield, qt/ha was reported from kebeles Selam, Mogue and Endabo. Conclusion The full package significantly improved sesame yields in all woredas, despite the unusually high rainfall recorded in the season. Severe damage was inflicted to the crop by late season rains in August and September. This intensified bacterial blight infection, affected pod setting, maturity, drying; increased seed dropping and darkened the seed colour. The full package treatment demonstrated its superiority over prevailing farmer practices, even under unfavourable environmental conditions. It also increased tolerance of sesame to water logging, fastened crop establishment, enhanced vigorous growth and branching ability. It helped greatly in convincing farmers on the importance of input use in sesame production. Improved sesame technologies: the best option to double sesame yield Mr. Tesfay Romedan was one of the farmers included in the scaling up programme. He has been working as a farmer since 2010 on his four hectare land. He lives in Hilet koka kebele, Kafta Humera woreda. In this area, farmers who used the traditional practices harvested between 0 and 2 quintals per hectare this year mainly due to the high rainfall and use of traditional sesame production technique. Unlike many of the farmers, Tesfaye s yield is very interesting this year. He got 11.4 quintals per hectare. The secret behind the high yield score this year according to Mr. Tesfay: I use row planting because I am well informed about its importance. This eases the air circulation in the field so that my field was not attacked by late blight occurrence this year. He also added: I have planted in rows which also make it easy to apply fertiliser for the second time, to weed, to control pest and diseases, to drain excess water from the field and to harvest. He also explained that he did not put his full trust in the development agents about this technology. Because of this he planted one hectare using the traditional farming method side by side with the improved demonstration plot. He said he applied fertiliser and followed the 20 steps for the conventional plot but he did not use row planting and improved seeds. From this plot, he harvested only 3.5 quintals of sesame. He said: Had I put more trust in the DAs and SBN Support Programme experts I would have harvested more. Lessons learned and recommendations for further scaling out of best agricultural practices In this section we discuss challenges related to the package of best agricultural practices, the organisation of the scaling out campaign and institutional challenges. Critically important elements of the package are: - Row planting, spacing and thinning. These are not current practice of farmers. Row planting requires appropriate machinery, both for large and small farmers - Fertilizer application has a significant effect on yields. Fertiliser use is increasingly accepted. Farmers are however sceptical about the blanket fertiliser recommendation. This induces the challenge of developing more tailored advice. - Farmers and DA capacities for scouting and appropriately controlling pests and diseases is limited. Capacity building on integrated pest management and testing new pesticides for the management of upcoming pests should get more attention, as pest and diseases are increasingly a problem; 31

42 - Harvesting, drying and threshing modalities to address the high field level harvest losses (see 4.2). Challenges in the institutional and market environment that affect the uptake of the 20 steps are: (i) Access to formal credit (especially input credit); (ii) Timely supply of quality inputs (seeds, fertiliser, pesticides, and other inputs), (iii) Access to tractors, ploughs and row planters and related roles of public and private sector actors; (iv) Market demand for rotation crops which influences farmers production decisions and (v) capacities of and relations between - cooperatives and unions. The driver for change for cluster actors is income improvement. In addition to yield improvement analysis it is important to give more attention to the risks and marginal rate of return of (elements of) the suggested agricultural practices. This is especially important for row planting, fertilizer application and harvest and postharvest operations. Shared vision and interests The driver for service providers is to deliver on their mandate (public service providers) and to realise business plans (private service providers). A joint vision, shared by service seekers and service providers, is a sound basis for collaboration and own contributions, for instance: - Moving up to an average yield of 6-8 quintal per hectare is the objective of SBC s and of the zonal BoAs in Western Tigray and North Gondar. - Direct marketing of Unions is the objective SBC s and cooperatives, and also of the Government and the CPA. - Increasing the amount of credit provided and the improvement of farmers reimbursement rates are objectives of both farmers, banks and MFI s - Access to well-adapted row planters is a need for (large and small) farmers, and it is a priority of the Government, TARI/ARARI and BoA, and it is in the economic interest of machinery sellers; -. TOPP strategy Considering the demand of the clusters (mainly farmers) and the contents of the official sesame production package, there is a high level of common understanding and motivation. The following TOPP strategy is important to arrive at a pluralistic and sustainable provision of advisory services in the sesame zone of NW Ethiopia: - Tailored services: matching the best service provider to local service seekers, considering a range of private and public service providers. - Own contributions of both service seekers and service providers are important for sustainable service provision. - Proximity - Also for sustainability reasons, service providers should as much as possible be sought in the direct vicinity of SBC service seekers, hence the focus on DA s and model farmers. - Private and public service providers, with specific and complementary roles. For 2015, more emphasis can be put on the role of cooperatives and unions, investor farmers, processing companies and agribusiness companies. Improving the roll-out campaign in 2015 Specific actions for improving the roll-out of best agricultural practices: - Pursuing the collaboration agreements with the Bureaus of agriculture in Tigray and Amhara, albeit with less demonstration plots. The woredas and OoA should take full responsibility of further scaling out the 20 steps. The capacities, motivation and commitment of woreda experts and DAs has to further strengthened. Proper site and model farmer selection should be given due attention. - Involving cooperatives and unions in the roll-out of best agricultural practices, as they have on average 5-15 model farmers who know the 20 steps. - Giving more attention to large scale sesame producers, processing companies and agribusiness companies, as these can make the difference on large pieces of land. - More attention for data collection and record keeping, and more attention for the differential effects of certain practices (as done for Amhara FTC s this year). - For all partners, the own contribution should be made clear from the onset and indicated in the collaboration agreements. Receipt keeping of private and public sector contributions should get more priority. 32

43 4.2. Harvest, transport and storage loss reduction Loss study In addition to yield and quality improvement, reducing harvest, transport and storage losses is the second major objective at the production side. During the SBC action planning, it came out that clusters are very ambitious to reduce harvest, transport and storage losses. In order to get reliable data for designing interventions and practical solutions the SBN Support Programme has conducted a yield loss survey in the fourth quarter of 2013, with direct field measurements on 93 farmer fields. This survey has provided important insights which were reported in the study Sesame yields and (post-)harvest losses in Ethiopia: Evidence from the field. The main results of this study were summarized in the 2-page brief The sesame sector is losing one billion ETB! Sensitization and practical recommendations The action research was very revealing to farmers involved: they know sesame seeds are lost, but they never quantified the losses and considered it as part of the game. Some simple solutions to reduce harvest losses have been suggested as options in the 20 steps. These recommendations, coming out from the losses action research on include: (i) harvest when 2/3 of the pods/capsules turn from green to yellow; (ii) stack the hillas on plastic sheets. The post-harvest losses study determined average yield loss of kg/ha. On a sesame acreage of 500,000 ha, the estimated annual loss is 27,780 tons. Multiplied with the average selling price of 40,000 ETB/ton, the country loses more than 1 billion Birr, which is > 40 million euro or 50 million USD. To reduce these losses, different interventions methods (placing hillas on permeable plastic sheets, collecting more hillas to one drying sites, early threshing) have been tested with farmers in the 2014 production season and were found effective. The techniques will further be tested for full recommendation. Loss factor Kg/ha % loss Loss due to shattering before harvest Loss due to unharvested capsules Drying of hillas Hilla relocation to threshing floor Loss due to transport to the market Storage loss (measured partially) Loss due to re-bagging at market centres Estimated losses at ECX for depositors Estimated losses at ECX for exporters Processing loss Total loss in kg/ha and % Field activities The use of water permeable plastic sheets to save the sesame loss during hilla stacking was demonstrated on 240 farmer fields and 29.7 kg/ha of sesame was saved on average in This finding is in agreement with the results obtained in 2013 SBN-SP (25 kg/ha) in The experience (gathering hilla to one spot and use of plastic sheets) was adopted by some volunteer farmers from Maykadra and Humera on 14, 17 and 100ha and saved kg/hilla. Taking average number of hillas 22/ha for 2014 season, the farmers saved 27.5kg/ha. This implies that a farmer with 14ha saved 385kg, while the one with 100ha saved 2750kg. 33

44 Taking the SBN recommendation the Hiwot Agricultural Mechanisation PLC gathered 10 to 70 hillas to one site for all the 1500ha and was able to avoid the loss of a significant amount of sesame. The company much appreciated the method and its results and plans to continue for the years to come. From disaster to model farmer for drying Mr. Hadush Gezae is an intermediate farmer in May-kadra; he cultivates sesame and sorghum since Although 2013 was a good production year, it turned out to be a disaster for Mr. Hadush. In the 2013 production season, Mr. Hadush had more than 1000 hillas at hand which he expected to monetise. Due to wind damage he lost all his production. He will always remember this disaster. For long, Mr. Hadush was not able to come up with a solution to reduce postharvest loss resulting while drying, from wind damage, rainfall, transport and storage. He used the traditional post-harvest handling techniques. In 2013, he observed when the SBN Support Programme staff members were doing the post-harvest loss action research. That time he has learnt that stacking hillas on plastic sheets and placing hillas next to each other could save some amount of loss in the drying stage. By taking lessons from the Support Programme s action research, in 2014 Mr. Hadush stacked his hillas on plastic sheets and he also puts many hillas next to each other. Doing this not only helped Mr. Hadsh minimise his loss but his new practice create awareness on the surrounding small and medium scale farmers. A considerable number of farmers were visiting his farm. Most visitor farmers said they will use plastic sheets to dry hillas in one place in the 2015 production season. Mr. Hadush expects to use the same plastic sheets for two to three years. The durability of the plastic sheets and their resistance to termites and insects will further be tested. Orientations Operational orientations for reducing harvest, transport and storage losses are: - Prepare manuals and posters on harvest and storage loss reduction techniques - Pursuit of recommendations for reducing field level losses, as part of the scaling out of the 20 steps - Constantly gather farmer feedback (both from those that adopt and those that reject the recommendations) - Closely monitor the (positive and negative) the use and effects of plastic sheets at hilla sites and do costbenefit analysis, so as to have more robust evidence. - Test different qualities of plastic sheets, which have different effects (permeability, resistance to termites) and costs - Improving the sampling and grading system at ECX and other spot markets - Investments in infrastructure, storage and transportation, in collaboration with several stakeholders, including other projects - More emphasis on storage handling practices; test the efficacy of hermetic bags and innovative storage modalities - Further exploration of possibility of non-shattering varieties. 34

45 4.3. Credit cost reduction During the formulation of the SBN Support Programme, stakeholders in the sector identified finance as the top challenge. In cluster baseline data collection and cluster action planning, both conducted in 2013, this number one challenge became more explicit where it was found that high interest rates, limited credit supply and credit accessibility are barriers that contribute to the overall finance challenge. At this stage it remained unclear what the value of missing credit and credit uptake in the sector is and therefore quantitative data collection was done. Early 2014, the SBN Support Programme therefore conducted a credit cost and production cost study in the 19 SBCs it was active in, with the aim to better understand the number one challenge in the sesame sector. From each SBC, 25 respondents were drawn and queried about their finance situation in relation to their agricultural activities. The specific situation and challenges for different small farmer and investor farmer categories was analysed. From Producer to Business Manager Anecdotal stories bring the idea forward that sesame production can only be realised by means of credit taking. At every level, insufficient finance methods may inhibit optimal production and marketing. Current agricultural practices are determined by the amount of money a producer has available. The issue with finance relates to the informal credit systems where high interest rates are found and hence high interest costs are diminishing the producers profits. Yet, producers also look in the mirror and they acknowledge that they can improve their savings so that their necessity for loans becomes less was the year of the demonstration fields. With finance constraints present, producers may not be ready to invest in all 20-steps, especially when they are not convinced of a new activity. Producers are convinced once they can see that a birr of investment will yield more birr of profit. The production cost results collected early 2014, were gathered by interviewing the producers. It is not common for producers to record their expenditures or income. However, a good evaluation of the season, based on costs made and turnover realised, can be very helpful for producers. The Support Programme found that producers rely on their prevailing knowledge and skills since this did well for them in the past. High-risk investments, which can give significantly better yields, are not considered when well-informed decisions about such investments cannot be made. The Support Programme will support producers on their business endeavours in the comings year(s). The aim is to see producers become business managers where they will know well what they have spent, how much they earned, and how much they need to save for next year s production so that high interest loans can be avoided. Analysis on financial uptake The Support Programme emphasises on productivity improvement. The low yields realised year after year are a concern in the sector. The inability of producers to attain enough finance may inhibit further investments. Whilst the Bureaus of Agriculture and the Support Programme are promoting good agricultural production activities for better yields, it may be questioned whether these activities can actually be financed for by producers. The baseline studies provided estimates of production costs per identified activity. These costs were not made per se by every producer and so it becomes impossible to make inferences on current finance usage by sesame producers. The credit cost study was done simultaneously with the production cost study. With both studies, the current situation (as per the 2013 production season) was investigated for the finance uptake (from any source) and credit uptake (from both formal and informal credit sources). The implementations of good agronomical practices require a different level of investment and in order for these practices to be implemented, a significant capital injection in the sector is required. Merely promoting good agronomical practices, whilst producers cannot finance it, will not result in higher yields in the sector. The Support Programme wants to initiate finance institutions to supply more credit to the sesame sector and with the production cost study results, an approximate for the magnitude of finance needed can be provided to the institutions. The credit cost study distinguished between formal and informal credit supply, and with limited formal credit availability, sesame producers turn too frequently to the informal sector. By combining the two studies, it could be found what the share of credit costs are in relation to the production costs. The result is that the interest costs range between 20% and 30% of the total production costs. The Support 35

46 Programme s objective is to reduce this by 50%. The interest rates used with informal loans are high, very high in some instances and reducing this can diminish the share of interest costs on production costs. Barriers with the formal credit systems The formal credit system is less frequently available and in the producers eyes, they are difficult to get a good loan from. The amount of money is limited but the interest rates are good. Micro (ranging up to 5 ha) and smallscale producers (ranging from 5 ha up to 10 ha) turn more frequently to microfinance institutes and large investors (more than 100 ha) can make use of bank loans. Intermediate producers (ranging from 10 ha up to 30 ha) and small investors (ranging from 30 ha up to 100 ha) find difficulty in attaining the right credit source. Their finance need is not always satisfied with microfinance credit and banks will not provide them credit due to capital constraints. These producer categories take therefore a relatively high share of informal credit, as compared to other producer categories. Identified challenges for formal credit were lack of sufficient collateral and credit volume limitations. High interest rates in the informal credit sector Credit taking in northwest Ethiopia is characterised by a variety of loan providers, especially in the form of informal moneylenders. Some formal credit systems cannot reach out to small-scale producers but sesame producers do need to cultivate sesame to sustain a livelihood. To make sure that sesame production can be expended for, sesame producers turn to informal moneylenders where cash is available at the right time and often in the right amount as well. The downside of informal moneylending is the very high interest rates. SBC stakeholders have reiterated the need to have (formal sector) alternatives for replacing the informal money lender system. The informal moneylender interest rates of 250% per annum on average seem to be extraordinary but it could not be more close to the truth. Producers run short of cash in the end of the production season and they turn to a trader who can lend 2,000 birr right away. The informal agreement is that the trader will receive one quintal of sesame right after harvest. The period can then well be 50 days so that the 2,000 birr will only cover the expenses for harvesting, which is also the period where labour becomes scarce and costs turn high. At the time of loan resettlement, the value of one quintal is 4,200 birr and so the producer repays his loan plus interest with 4,200 birr. The informal credit sector is not always disfavouring producers. Family and friends are sometimes able to provide loans without interest costs. But attaining such loan is more difficult since the producer s peers may not have enough capital to miss money, the producer may fear a family conflict when the loan is not repaid, or repaid too late, and peers may live remote from the sesame producer. Informal moneylenders can appear in any form ranging from spot market traders to priests, from prostitutes to co-workers in any company. This credit source is therefore easy to find and more importantly, the amount of credit requested is most of the time readily available. Even investor farmers turn to informal moneylenders where one million birr loans are agreed on. Strengthening financial institutions The credit cost study results were shown during national and regional workshops. The audience present at the national workshop received the first results and here finance institutions and other stakeholders saw the potential to further invest in the sesame sector. Remarks were made on the high annual interest rate that was presented as 259% on average with informal moneylenders. The findings were also shown in the regional workshop in Tigray where the audience fell over the high interest rates. In addition, microfinance institutes do not reach out to all producers. The audience challenged Dedebit Credit and Saving Institute (DECSI) and the discussions are opened for The Cooperative Bank of Oromia (CBO), with a branch in Humera and Gondar towns, has demonstrated their interest to invest in sesame production as well. With the help of Agriterra, they have already supplied loans to primary cooperatives in Tigray. Collaboration with the Support Programme could provide CBO with new areas to supply credit to. In addition, the Support Programme visited Rabobank 1 in Utrecht (Netherlands) to explore collaborations for the sesame sector. This will be followed up in Additional strengthening of microfinance institutes did not take place yet in 2014, but it is planned to take place early 2015 with the Ethiopian representative of Terrafina. 36

47 Savings and credit cooperatives SBCs do not only refer to third parties for the reduction of credit costs. In 2013 it was already remarked that producers should learn how to save money. One means to do this is by the establishment of saving and credit cooperatives (SACCOs). In Tsegede woredas, Eyasu Kaza Union has primary saving and credit cooperatives as their members. It is surprising that within the sesame producing areas, only one woreda has SACCOs available. Respondents took loans from this credit source quite frequently, yet the amount of money provided is limited. Solely relying on this source was therefore a rarity. Nevertheless, the presence of Eyasu Kaza and its primary cooperatives is appreciated by sesame producers in Tsegede, as was found in the credit cost study. The SBN could learn from this experience and expand it to different areas. Combination of production-push and market pull strategy Post-harvest value addition and market linkages and sales (pillar four and five respectively) are very much related. For more information, see brief : Bringing farmers and buyers together: options for innovating sesame business relations and modalities, which you can retrieve at : Post-harvest value addition This paragraph focuses on the following value adding activities: grading, cleaning, colour sorting, storage, transport, tahini production, roasting, oil pressing. Important other points are the establishment of links with processing companies, traceability and certification, and the recent policy change that make it possible for domestic processing companies to source locally. When appropriate, it is explained how value adding activities may contribute to improve market linkages Cleaning, grading and colour sorting Cleaning. In 2014 a value addition related activity in the SBN is the implementation of cleaning facilities with the Unions of Metema, Selam and Dansha. USAID has financially supported them with the purchase of these machines. Four cleaning facilities were tendered and a Turkish company won the bid. Besides the aforementioned Unions, Tsehay Union located in Gondar, also purchased a cleaning machine. The Support Programme cannot support in capital investments. Grading. The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange sets the grading criteria for sesame. To date, complains persist about the lack of transparency about this grading system. Alleged corruption at the ECX and subjective grading systems at the local spot markets make the assessment of seed, in terms of the ECX grades, difficult. Producers prefer to see fair grading at the spot markets and the solution they propose is to have grading analysis material present at each spot market. The perceived opaque grading system at the ECX needs internal amendments within the commodity exchange. Grading at the spot market or at producer level is not undertaken since the government acknowledges the ECX grades. The SBCs objectives are to improve the grades of the sesame from WHGS3 to WHGS2 for example. Yet the 2007 crop has shown a decline in quality. In 2014, sesame trade with lower grades did not happen as frequent as before as can be seen in the two graphs below. Trading of the new crop starts around October/November and it is here where in 2012 and 2013 high quantities of WHGS2 were traded. In 2014 the 37

48 quantity traded remains low. Instead, WHGSUG flourishes on the commodity exchange where in 2012 and 2013 these grades were not traded that frequently. WHGS2 traded quantity from July December per year WHGSUG traded quantity from July December per year Colour sorting. In the 2014 export year, South Korea bought intensively from the Ethiopian sesame market (5,500 metric tonnes; still less than 2% of the total sesame exports) Since 2010, South Korea had not been so active on the Ethiopian market (Source: National Bank of Ethiopia, sesame export transactions ). South Korean interest resulted also in a buyer-initiated contact with Setit Union to explore opportunities for collaboration. Explorative talks were held for an upgrade of Setit Union s current cleaning machine. Setit Union already owns a state-of-the-art cleaning machine but it can be of much more value when it has a colour sorter. The buyer expressed its annoyances of being reliant on the Chinese market and it is therefore keen to work more closely with capable Ethiopian suppliers. Adding a colour sorter to the cleaning machine could enable Setit Union to deliver sesame with the quality that is wished for by the South Korean buyer. The Support Programme picks up such initiatives and we are willing to provide support where it is needed. Storage and transport Storage and transport are also post-harvest value adding activities. They have in common that they do not change the nature of the product. Storage is a potential strategy to create value by selling a product at a later moment. Transport is a potential value adding activities by selling a product at another place. Storage. The SBN stakeholders had good experiences in the past season with storing sesame since it rewarded the producer. In case he could sell later on in the season, he could earn about double the price per quintal, as when he would have sold right after harvest. This year, the opposite was true as can be seen in the graph to the right. This year it may not reward to sell a few months later after harvest. Traders expect that producers are still anticipating higher prices and they think that quite some sesame is at the producer s hand. The volatility of the international market makes it a challenge to leverage storage for gaining value. The Support Programme cannot intervene on international market dynamics, and hence not on value addition by storing with the purpose to sell at a later point in time when prices are higher. Transport. The government regulates sesame trade at spot market level and commodity exchange level. Value addition through transport could mean fetching a higher price for delivering sesame to a different location. Yet the regulations for sesame trade restrict the space where a producer or spot market trader can trade sesame. In theory, a producer registered in Seroka kebele can only deliver sesame to the Seroka spot market. In Dansha town (30 km away from Seroka), the spot market price was 200 birr per quintal higher at the end of 2014, but the producer is not allowed to bring his crop here. Likewise, a spot market trader in Seroka may want to deliver sesame to the Humera ECX warehouse since the price per quintal is there, generally seen, higher than in Gondar. Yet, he will only be allowed to supply sesame to the Gondar ECX warehouse. 38

49 Other transport options to add value through transport are to deliver sesame in bulk to the spot market. Currently, the spot market traders add some birr per quintal when higher quantities are delivered. For example, a producer delivering one quintal to Seroka spot market may find a price of 2,400 birr per quintal. Yet, when he delivers 20 quintal, he may receive 2,450 birr per quintal. Hence, by transporting and delivering sesame in bulk, the price may go up. Challenge is that it is not common for producers to work together on such initiatives. In 2014, the Support Programme did not see producers making informal agreements like this but this can be explored in the next marketing season. Local processing In country processing of sesame from northwest Ethiopia is limited with currently only three processors being active within the Support Programme s mandate area. The SBN Support Programme is in contact with three processors: Dipasa Agroprom Plc., Selet Hulling Plc. and Ambasel Trading House Plc. The first two companies have out-grower schemes with contracted producers. As organic processors, buying randomly from producers is not possible because they have to ensure organic produce. That is why they have to know where the primary produce is coming from and how it was produced. Ambasel operates on the conventional market. Since they can buy from anyone and anywhere, they normally source at the ECX. In the 2014 marketing season, Ambasel had its buying booth located in Kokit market centre (Metema woreda) to purchase sesame directly from the producers. This is an interesting development. Visit Ambasel The national workshop, held in May 2014, allowed the participants to witness local processing. Ambasel has their processing plant, where sesame is cleaned, hulled, roasted and made into paste (tahini), in Gondar. At the beginning of the second day of the national workshop, all participants were invited by Ambasel to see their processing plant. CBI Trajectory Ambasel is one of the 12 participants in the Centre for the Promotion of Exports from Developing Countries (CBI) programme called the Export Coaching Programme (ECP). SBN staff (three persons) has been taking part in the trainings of CBI so that the gained knowledge can later be shared with primary cooperatives and cooperative Unions. Contact with Ambasel became stronger in the last year but besides the site visit, no other collaboration with the Support Programme took place. Within the CBI trajectory, six companies (including Ambasel) have plans, or are active already, to process sesame. Synergy with the SBN Support Programme could result in linking of these potential processor with producers or producer organisations that can live up to the requirements of the processor. Visit to Holland In October 2014, three staff members of the Support Programme were invited to the Netherlands for an exposure visit organised by CBI. This five-day visit was supplemented with a three-and-a-half day stay with CDI Wageningen. The following processing companies were visited: Tradin Organic; vist was used to introduce both parties to one another. Tradin Organic is one of the partners in the Selet Hulling Plc. joint venture. Tradin showed much interest to work with the SBN support programme. They will develop a proposal for project activities boosting organic sesame yields, starting off with a selected group of some 20 farmers around Humera (around 500 ha). This proposal will be guiding for the collaboration in This collaboration may help to develop a specific 20-steps for increasing yields and quality of organic sesame. It may be that Tradin is also interested in rotation crops, as they have other commodities in their portfolio. Tradin has however its core interest in sourcing organic sesame for its plant in Addis Ababa. This may lead to more in-country value addition. Once the proposal is available in broad strokes, the relation will have to be concretised through collaboration between the Humera SBN team and Tradin/Selet local representatives. Dipasa Europe B.V.; visit was used to share ideas with the Dutch side of the Dipasa Agroprom Plc. joint venture, located in Addis Ababa. In 2013 and 2014, the Support Programme has supported Dipasa with technical trainings for their out-growers. It became clear that the possibility of more collaboration, beyond occasional training of farmers, would have to be discussed with the Ethiopian representatives of Dipasa, rather than with the Dutch office. A possible option is the expansion of the out-grower scheme. 39

50 Traceability and certification Options for traceability and organic production are becoming more prominent in the SBN. Setit Union has planned to implement basic traceability with some of its members, and Kafta Humera Sesame Production and Sales Cooperative (KHSPSC) requested the Support Programme to help them with organic certification through BCS Öko-Garantie GmbH. Setit Union did not start traceability in the past year but they may try to do it next year. The Support Programme can support here. The request from KHSPSC was not executed since the organisation s own contribution was not specified. Policy Change The Ethiopian government acknowledges the relevance of post-harvest value creation. On April 28, 2014, the Ethiopian government passed amendments to the Sesame and White Pea Beans Transaction Council of Ministers Regulation, No. 178/2010 under Regulation No. 307/2014. The promulgation of this proclamation laid a legal ground for a new domestic trading of sesame and white pea beans. The most important change for the sesame sector is that processors are now allowed to directly buy sesame at spot markets, instead of trade through the ECX. The amendment states that "the transaction of sesame or white pea beans at primary transaction centres shall be carried out only between producers and suppliers or producers and processors." The change may not only foster the process of domestic trading of the two commodities, but can also provide farmers with better market opportunities, as it allows more buyers at the spot market level. It also paves the way for processors to intensify their value-addition activities. Spot markets may now see the competition of ECX registered traders, processors and cooperatives Market linkages and sales Related proclamations This amendment applies for two articles in two proclamations. First Article 5 of the Definition of Powers and Duties of the Executive Organs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Proclamation No. 691/2010 is referred to and second Article 31(1) of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange Proclamation 550/2007 (as amended) is referred to. Prior to the announcement of this amendment, sesame purchase by processors could only be realised through the ECX. Spot market traders purchase at local markets from producers and they subsequently offer the purchased sesame at the trade floor in Addis Ababa. Introduction Sesame market dynamics are closely being monitored to follow the trends. The Support Programme did not make any direct linkages in the past years and left these activities for C4C and ATA. In the coming periods, the recorded market dynamics will help us understand possible challenges related to market linkages that we might propose in the future. Year after year, the majority of sesame is being exported to China (59% in 2014) and shifting from these arms-length transactions may require a paradigm shift in the way sesame trade is being done. Therefore, the gathered data and follow-up on new market developments will help the Support Programme step-by-step to develop individual cases for new market linkages. This paragraph describes what the Support Programme has done and witnessed in Price monitoring international market The domestic market was volatile but so was the international market. In April 2014, the average price was 2,449 US dollar per metric tonne but in December this price dropped significantly to 1,848 US dollar per metric tonne on average. The most recently seen lower price was only seen in February 2013 (1,837 US dollar per metric tonne). The graph below shows the export price trend since

51 International price trend of sesame exports from Ethiopia (Source: National Bank of Ethiopia) Price monitoring - national market The 2006 crop (produced in the Gregorian year 2013) fetched high prices locally and internationally. In November 2013, the ECX price for sesame reached an all-time high of 4,560 birr per quintal for both Grade 2 and Grade 3. After this peak, the price dropped gradually to 3,700 birr per quintal levels. Farm gate prices around 4,200 birr at the peak of the season made producers enthusiastic about the future. Future prices of around 6,000 birr per quintal were expected but in November 2014, the first warnings about a price drop were communicated. The metric tonne price would stay around 1,600 US dollar, and this could never result in high farm gate prices, as was experienced for the 2006 crop. The 2007 crop (produced in the Gregorian year 2014) was first traded at the ECX on the 23 rd of October and at that time the price was still around 4,000 birr per quintal. This would only be temporarily. The price dropped and at the end of 2014, the ECX market closed on 2,800 birr per quintal levels. Above: Heap of sesame at the spot market Below: sesame repacked and ready for ECX delivery 41

52 The SBN Support Programme has no influence on the market prices, but we are witnessing the struggles producers and producer organisations face in this highly volatile market. Market price information dissemination is a commonly heard wish from various actors in the network (see box ). International market prices, ECX prices, and spot market prices fluctuate and with those prices at hand, producers and traders feel that they can have a better bargaining position. Market prices are gathered over time, but disseminating this information to various actors real-time is not happening. IT solutions may be required to facilitate this, since under the current conditions, price information dissemination is a logistical nightmare. Market price information Lack of market information is one of the major problems in the sesame business clusters. Traders and producers are not very clear about sesame price trends and its dynamics. Both parties are always speculating on high prices without having a clue about the international and national prices. Price trend analysis is very important for making price decisions for all actors in the sesame business. Quick decisions on changes based on facts and figures can lead to profitable business operations. The Support Programme is at the heart of the sesame business to share this valuable information for real price decision-making. Farmers, cooperatives and unions respond to this change. The Support Programme has shared this information for sesame actors so that they can have informed expectations and decisions on sesame prices. Price Monitoring spot market The spot markets opened up around early October this year. During the previous season the Support Programme attempted to gather spot market prices on a daily basis. This was challenging with some spot markets being distant from infrastructure to communicate prices regularly. In the 2014/2015 marketing season, the Support Programme made collaboration agreements with cooperative promotion offices, office of agriculture (in Tigray), and trade and transport office (in Amhara) at woreda level so that daily transactions could be recorded. With this data, the relative importance of each spot market and the relative participation of primary cooperatives can be analysed. Evaluation of the data collection exercise and data collected will take place in International trade Through the CBI ECP, the Support Programme is getting in contact with other ECP participants. From the 12 exporting companies, the Support Programme sees three or four companies as potential partners for the coming year. We were already familiar with Desta Berhe Welu Agricultural Mechanization and Oil Seeds Export, since they are part of the Kafta Humera SBC, led by KHSPSC. Other interesting companies are the ones who see potential to supply organic sesame or processed sesame products to the European market, like Ambasel, Berhan Oil and Edmealem Ejigu Import & Export. The Support Programme mission to Europe brought the programme in contact with some potential partners as well. The mission included a visit to the SIAL Trade Fair in Paris, where a wide variety of sesame buyers were found. In the Netherlands, some organisations interested to buy sesame from Ethiopia were visited. DO-IT B.V. is one of them but has no experience yet with sesame imports from Ethiopia. They are sourcing and selling organic products only and they do not refrain from the idea to invest in an out-grower scheme. Ruby Trading B.V. is buying sesame from Ethiopia for many years already. They buy from exporters and not from producer organisations but this is where the Support Programme may be of help in the future for Ruby. Mr. Zabidat from Ruby Trading has expressed his concern of quality decline. He wants to do something about this and could use support with this. Further discussions are needed to elaborate on these first ideas. Expansion of sourcing by Selet Hulling and Dipasa could also result in the establishment of new market linkages. Both parties are already sourcing sesame in Kafta Humera woreda with in total four different primary cooperatives. However, this can be expanded and the Support Programme can support in establishing those new relations. Chinese market The lion share of sesame trade is still going to China. There are advantages for exporters to supply here. Contract renegotiations due to late delivery, and few requirements with regards to certifications make the conditions favourable for Ethiopian exporters. Besides, the prices paid by Chinese buyers are fcompetitive to the prices European buyers pay. Rationally seen it makes therefore sense to deliver to the Chinese market. 42

53 1.22% 1.88% 1.37% 1.88% 1.38% 2.02% Percentages of Sesame Exports per Country 2014 Total exported sesame: 297,840 Metric Tonnes 3.07% 4.83% 0.39% 7.45% 14.55% 59.97% China Israel Turkey UAE Saudi Arabia South-Korea Jordan Egypt Sudan Japan Sesame exports to the Dutch markets are rare. The number of transactions is quite frequent but low quantities per transaction are recorded (not exceeding 76 metric tonnes per transaction). Chinese buyers purchase in bulk up to 950 metric tonnes per order in This also shows the difference of doing business with the European market as compared to the Chinese bulk market. Ethiopian Commodity Exchange In the previous section (3.4) it was already mentioned that the ECX proclamation was amended. This was not the only change for marketing in the 2014 season. Two new ECX delivery centres were established in the sesame producing areas. The Support Programme has extended its activities to 39 SBCs but this extension did not include the woreda of Tahtay Adiyabo in Tigray. One of the two new ECX centres is in this woreda, namely in Shiraro town. The other newly established delivery centre is in Abrehajira, Mirab Armachiho s administrative town. Sesame from Mirab Armachiho has to be delivered to Abrehajira s ECX warehouse and sesame produced in Northwest and Central Tigray zones has to be delivered to the Shiraro warehouse. The last mentioned warehouse was also supposed to serve the sesame producing areas around May-gaba, Wolkaiet. The traders were dissatisfied with this change because the Humera warehouse, where they used to deliver to, normally trades better quality sesame. It is said that the quality in Shiraro and its surrounding areas is less and this image would affect the sesame coming from May-gaba area. At the end of 2014, the ECX warehouse in Humera kept accepting sesame from Wolkaiet but this could still change in The Support Programme has no say in these amendments. The developments and their implications are closely being monitored. Cooperative marketing The Ethiopian government is in favour of producer exports through cooperative Unions and they support Unions from ATA, FCA and RCPA out. The Support Programme sometimes wonders whether the Unions and cooperatives are currently capable of making exports happen. Producers may be exposed to too high risks in such a volatile market. The governmental bodies made credit for the Unions available through the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE). This credit was meant to purchase sesame that would then be destined for the foreign market. The trade terms in the cooperative structure were determined in 2013 and they were also still applicable for Different modalities per region were witnessed. Amhara restricted sesame trade from primary cooperatives out and this made the Union the only possible market outlet for primary cooperatives. In Tigray, the primary cooperatives had a choice. They could supply to the ECX, or they could provide the sesame to the Union so that the Union could export it. Some cooperatives also delivered to processors (e.g. Selet Hulling) and the Tigray Multipurpose 43

54 Federation (see Box). There was resistance at primary cooperative level for the imposed trade restrictions from the Amhara government. The Support Programme brought up the issues to concerned government bodies, but we were not the right party to solve the matter. In the end, all seemed settled but here the Support Programme did notice the frictions and struggles that primary cooperatives and Unions face in their collaborations. Cooperative marketing with the 2007 crop In the 2014/15 marketing season, many cooperatives entered in sesame marketing, after traders did due to late arrival of credit from the Union. The cooperatives that have own capital to purchase sesame (like Kokit from Amhara and May-cadra from Tigray) started their marketing at the same time as traders did. Ninety-two primary cooperatives purchased 81,190 quintals of sesame seed to date at a weighted average price of 3,021 birr per quintal. The investor primary cooperative found at Kafta Humera woreda in Tigray purchased about 19,000 quintals. The total purchased amount to date in both regions of the SBN Support Programme thematic area reached 100,190 quintals (worth 302,673,990 birr). From the total purchased sesame at primary cooperative level, 55% has been transported to different buyers. The Unions received 49%, the Federation got 2.5%, and 3.5% was forwarded to Selet Hulling and the ECX. The remaining amount is still stored in the primary cooperatives' warehouses. Delivery of sesame to the spot market Cooperative marketing research Shortly before the marketing season of the 2007 crop, the SBN support staff participated in Agriterra s cooperative research, which was performed by Girar Development Consult. Across 6 Unions, 18 primary cooperatives were interviewed to find out how the relations in the cooperative structure work. The Support Programme interviewed cooperative members to query them about their supply participation. Some primary cooperatives are doing well on the market and they can be assured of good supply by members (or sometimes also non-members). At the spot market, primary cooperatives compete for sesame with spot market traders. For example, at a big market centre you may find 50 spot market traders competing against one primary cooperative. Spot market traders are considered equal in many producers eyes and competition is therefore limited. Primary cooperatives do not compete on the spot market all the time and anecdotal stories have brought forward the idea that spot market traders will collude, once the primary cooperative is out of the game. The correlation of spot market price increase and primary cooperative presence is not found but this is something the Support Programme is willing to find out more about. The Support Programme believes that marketing through the cooperative structure is the most beneficial for producers. Yet the current systems do not allow primary cooperatives to flourish as much as they potentially can. Staff limitations, financial resource limitations and distrust between members and their organisations may inhibit the growth of primary cooperatives and Unions. Marketing of rotation crops 2014 was the year of the 20-steps. On more than 900 fields, the 20-steps were implemented and on 18 plots the Support Programme started to experiment with rotation crops to tackle the mono-cropping issues. On farmer field days, the demonstrated rotation crops (sesame, sorghum, cotton, soya bean and mung bean) were positively received. The only challenge that remains is the market side of the rotation crops. Sorghum is a wellaccepted rotation crop in the lowlands of northwest Ethiopia but this is because it can serve as cash crop and as food crop. In case there is no market, then sorghum can be consumed within the household. Especially for soya bean and mung bean, this is currently not the case. This whilst both crops bring back the nutrients in the soil that benefit sesame production in the next year. Producers acknowledge the necessity to rotate with other crops but as long as a crop will not provide an income due to market absence, then opting for a rotation crop does not make sense economically. The Support Programme s task for the next year is to take up market access for lowland pulses more. During the mission to the Netherlands, it was already identified that sesame buyers are also often engaged in trading pulses. 44

55 5. Cross-cutting activities This chapter reports on different activities that create the conditions for achieving the SBN stakeholders objectives and/or allow to reflect on results obtained and the dynamics of the change process Cooperative and farmers entrepreneurial capacities 5.2. Training and extension 5.3. Communication 5.4. Strategic innovation 5.5. Monitoring and evaluation 5.1. Cooperative and farmers entrepreneurial capacities Context Cooperatives are the lead actors in the local sesame business clusters and farmers are the main target group of the programme. In the past two years of operation of the SBN support program, cooperatives have not been explicitly targeted for collaboration. The main reach to farmers was realised through the collaboration agreement with BoA. In total 850 model farmers were trained, who in turn trained neighbouring farmers and showed their demo plots to them. Cooperatives are generally organized per kebele, the SBN support programme thus indirectly works with some primary cooperatives, which are affiliated to 4 cooperative unions. Relations are expected to be more direct in Activities with cooperatives, unions and the cooperative promotion agency In 2014, the following activities were conducted: - Support to Setit union to improve relations with primary cooperatives - Collaboration for market linkages (Selam) and training on marketing (Selam, Metema, Setit) - Training on contract farming and organic production for Adebay and Bereket cooperatives, in collaboration with Dipasa (only staff costs for SBN) - With the Kafta Humera Sesame Production and Sales Cooperative (KHSPSC), a cooperative of investor farmers, there were several activities: training on organic farming and observation of farm machinery during mechanization road show. KHPSPC requested support for organic certification and market linking trip to Israel market. - Cooperatives provided fertilisers, in the context of the roll-out of the 20 steps - Radio programs on cooperative marketing. Interviewed SBN staff discussed the following topics: access to market information and finance, relation between sesame quality and price, marketing modalities, strengths and weaknesses of the relations between farmers and primary cooperatives and unions, cooperative marketing management committee versus manager leaded cooperatives. - Collaboration agreements for data collection spot market prices (with OoA and CPO at the Tigray side and with TTO and CPO at the Amhara side). The agreement was on cost-sharing airtime costs. The flow of daily sesame price data was however not as good as expected. A better plan for tracking daily sesame spot market prices is needed. - The SBN support programme participated in a study that tracked the marketing channels from primary cooperatives to end markets. This study was organised by Agriterra and implemented by a consultant. The objective was to assess farmers and traders views on sesame marketing and to identify challenges cooperatives face in North Gondar and Western Tigray. The consultant s report is due. - SBN staff reported on the part concerning farmers and traders views on marketing at spot market level. It came out that cooperatives tend to buy at higher prices at spot markets than traders and have a positive effect on traders price collusion, which happens when cooperatives are no longer present at spot markets. 45

56 Orientations for 2015 In the past two years, the SBN support programme has broadly introduced improved agricultural practices for improving sesame yields and quality. In addition to technical demonstrations, it is important to put more emphasis on economic analysis: production cost price calculation, marginal rate of return, cost-benefit analysis. Another point of attention is financial management, saving habits and credit use by sesame farmer households. Member ownership, leadership and internal management of cooperatives are generally weak. The level of internal resource mobilisation is also limited in most cases. A first challenge is to establish the performance of cooperatives, as perceived by members themselves and on the basis of external criteria. This would be the first step towards member-directed change in cooperative activities and management. In the cooperative policy and strategy, the rating of cooperatives is foreseen. RCPA s will have certification units. FCA is planning to assess and rate many cooperatives. The SBN support program proposes to align itself to this process. Tentatively, it is proposed to go through the following process: - Inventory of sesame cooperatives and unions (available: 5 unions and 120 cooperatives) - Analyse tools and suggest tools for internal and external assessment - Strategic meeting on assessment and capacity development of cooperatives (March) - Collaboration for piloting the assessment of cooperatives (April- June) - Rainy season: evaluate pilots / preparing training materials - October-December: pursuit cooperative assessment Cooperative assessment, to be done in collaboration with CPA s and with Agriterra/C4C, is potentially important for different purposes: promoting farmer and cooperative entrepreneurship, access to finance, farmer-buyer relations. Considerations are that cooperatives reportedly have a positive effect on spot market prices, have efficiencies in transporting sesame to ECX (as compared to traders), may provide dividend to members if marketing is successful, and can deliver to directly exporting unions Training and extension The training and extension services of 2014 strongly focused on the scaling out of recommended agricultural practices. For this purpose, the SBN Support Programme intensively collaborated with the regional BoA s and woreda OoA, and with the agricultural research institutes and centres of Tigray and Amhara (TARI/HuARC and ARARI/GARC). The training and extension activities involved a core team of 44 master trainers, 291 Development Agents (DA s), 793 Model Farmers (MF s). Best practices were shown at 912 demonstration plots, more than 75,000 field guides were distributed, over 66,000 farmers were trained, more than 450 field visits were organized throughout the season, mobilizing some persons per visit, 16 radio programs were aired. In addition to the description of the entire process, activities and results of the 20 steps campaign presented in section 4.1, this section reports in detail about the supporting training and extension activities. Modules and manuals Based on previous years research results and field experiences, 6000 copies (3000 in Amharic and 3000 in Tigregna) of a detailed sesame production manual was produced in a booklet form, and distributed to development agents and professionals in northwest Ethiopia. The manual was a reference document during training of trainers sessions. It is more detailed than the field guide for farmers. Zone Woreda Manuals Training of trainers (ToTs) The training and extension cascade. In the first months of the year, the provision of quality training and extension services was conceived as a cascaded system, with three levels: master trainers, field level trainers and trainees. The next figure describes the roles of each level and visualises the interaction among them. 46 North Gondar Western Tigray Metema 500 Quara 300 Tach Armaciho 605 Mirab Armaciho 700 Tegede 400 Sub-total Amhara 2505 Kafta Humera 1000 Tsegede 400 Wolkaiet 600 Sub-total Tigray 2000 Total Northwest Ethiopia: 4505

57 Core team of master trainers - Develop/ fine-tune the contents of the sesame production package for different target groups (DA s and model farmers, and for other farmers) - Develop and avail an extensive manual and trainers guide - Intensively train field level trainers (2 training rounds) - Design and explain the organisation of the FTC demo plots - Explain the organisation of the farmer field demo plots - Conceive and avail logbooks to be kept by DA s and model farmers - Monitor and coach the field level trainers and supervise demo plots - Collaborate with regional radio for content development and timing of radio programs - Make an evaluation of the production season Field level trainers (DA s and MF s) - Implement the demo plots according to design and timing; - Keep detailed logbook of the operations and experiences in the demo plots; - Organise 2 field days per site, in collaboration with woreda offices and cooperatives - Coach model farmers (DA) - Make an evaluation of the production season, results, and lessons learned (DA) Trainees (farmers) - Receive and use the sesame production field guide explaining the different operations for arriving at improved yields and quality - Participate in FTC and model farm field days - Regularly visit the demo plots and ask advise from DA s and model farmers - If convinced and capable: apply recommended practices in own field Second ToT The members of the core team subsequently trained DA s and MF s in the eight woredas involved in the rollout programme. The second level training was organised at 15 different sites, 7 in Amhara and 8 in Tigray. The objective of the trainings was to understand and master the 20 steps to improve sesame yields and quality. The trainings were given before the start of the production season. In North Gondar between 4-8 June and in Western Tigray between 6-16 June, The table on the right shows the number of DA and MF trainees at the different training sites. Zones Training venues Model DA s and Farmers others Total Kokit Meka Shinfa North Quara Gondar Sanja Abrhajira Seroka Sub-total Amhara Adi-goshu Beaker Adebay Western May-kadra Tigray May-gaba Rawyan/Bereket/Central Division-Dansha Dansha Zuria Sub-total Tigray Total NW Ethiopia: In addition to theoretical aspects, practical lessons were given to the trainees, especially for ploughing, row planting and fertiliser application. The picture to the right shows a row planting demonstrating using a plastic bottle. Directions were also given as to how to develop and manage demonstration plots, and how to record the field operations and crop development in a logbook specifically designed for this purpose. 47

58 ToT participants impression Frewine Yemane, a development agent from Wore (Division cluster) said: I have got important lessons from the training. When we finish this training, I and my colleagues are expected to train 73 model farmers. By using the five-in-one grouping system the 73 model farmers will each train five farmers in their neighbourhoods. This way we can reach a large number of farmers. She added: the production guide is really interesting. It will help me and my friends do our work properly Dasashe Genet, a development agent in Gelego Kebele said the ToT will help model farmers to serve as teachers for other farmers. She said farmers believed that they will go and teach others in their area. She said; the fact that model farmers have been trained on the improved sesame production package will make my work somewhat easier as these model farmers would also help other farmers together with me and my collegues. She also likes the production guide very much. She said, The production guide is produced nicely. It easily attracts farmers attention. Even those farmers who cannot read and write can understand something from the attractive pictures. Dasashe has a strong belief that farmers will double their product this agriculture season. Training of farmers. After the ToT, the trainees went to their area and shared what they learned with their neighbours and other farmers in their vicinities, both through formal and informal training sessions. The table below gives an overview of the number of male and female farmers trained by model farmers and DA s. Zone Woredas Farmers trained by model farmers Farmers trained by DA s Total number farmers trained Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female All North Quara , ,043 1, ,482 Gondar Metema 1, ,430 1, ,580 2, ,010 Tach Armaciho 1, ,927 3,201 1,016 4,217 4,623 1,521 6,144 Mirab Armachiho 4,170 1,392 5,562 3,579 1,801 5,380 7,749 3,193 10,942 Tegede 2, ,357 4,636 1,161 5,797 7,317 1,837 9,154 Sub-total Amhara 9,888 2,827 12,715 14,468 4,549 19,017 24,356 7,376 31,732 Kafta Humera 2,417 1,300 3, ,807 19,450 15,060 8,107 23,167 Western Tigray Welkaiet 2, ,689 2, ,706 4,882 1,513 6,395 Tsegede 1, ,245 2, ,863 4, ,108 Sub-total Tigray 6,242 2,409 8,651 17,821 8,198 26,019 24,063 10,607 34,670 Total Northwest Ethiopia: 16,130 5,236 21,366 32,289 12,747 45,036 48,419 17,983 66,402 Farmer s impression and feedback Farmer trainees expressed their satisfaction about the trainings. Melkamu Molla, a farmer from Mahdit Kebele (Quara) said: till recently we have been following what our fathers and forefathers where doing. I have never tried row planting for example. I never used improved seed varieties. We did not get more benefit because of the traditional farm practice we follow. The efforts that we exert and the benefit that we get out of it did not match. He added: This year, by following the 20 steps that I have learnt, I will try to double my yield. I am determined to get 10 quintals from a hectare. Melkamu is very happy to have the production guide in his pocket. He said he will keep it just like the holy book. He has an ardent believe that the information in the booklet will help improve his own and his family s life. 48

59 Extension materials On the basis of the sesame production manual, a colourful field guide was produced for farmers. It is written in easy understandable language that depicts the various steps of sesame production. The 20 steps guide is of a handy size so that farmers can easily keep it in their pockets. The full title 20 Important Steps to Double Yield and Improve Quality of Sesame has come to be known as the 20 steps. During the trainings farmers have got the sesame production guide. In total, 100,000 copies of the guide have been printed and about 90,000 were distributed to sesame farmers and development agents in the two regions (50,000 copies in Amharic and Tigregna, and 500 in English). The table below indicates the distribution of the guides at zone and woreda level. Zone North Gondar West Tigray Woreda and other recipients Guides distributed Metema 7,900 Quara 6,700 Tach Armaciho 6,000 Mirab Armaciho 9,300 Tegede 3,190 Tsehay Union 2100 Zone Agri. office 400 ARARI 1000 Sub-total Amhara 36,590 Kafta Humera Tsegede 8400 Wolkaiet Sub-total Tigray Total Northwest Ethiopia: 77,250 Posters. Some posters for different occasions such as national and regional workshops, and sesame field days were prepared and displayed for participants. For example, posters which depict the major activities of the scaling up of 20 important steps such as demonstrations, field days, and workshops, were produced and shown to annual workshop participants in May 2014, field day attendees in October 2014, regional workshop participants in both Tigray and Amhara workshop December Radio. Sesame radio programme by the name white gold has been produced and broadcast in collaboration with Dimtsi Woyane Radio and Amhara Mass Media Agency since the beginning of May A cost sharing collaboration agreement was signed with the two radio stations. White gold is a weekly radio programme but it is run twice a week. The Amharic programme has been run on Monday and Thursday night and the Tigrigna programme has been broadcast on Friday night and Sunday mornings. Farmers, cooperative members and other stakeholders have been told about the radio programmes in different meetings and informal contacts. A flyer in a kind of ad, which has information about the date and time of transmission, was prepared and distributed to farmers and other stakeholders. The radio programmes were produced taking into account the sesame production and marketing season and there for broadcast for targeted audiences. Agenda or topics of the programmes were largely set by the suggestion of the SBN Support Programme agricultural production, communication and extension, value-chain and marketing professionals. A good rapport has been formed with the radio stations. We had discussions with Amhara Mass Media Agency about the sesame radio programme. The meeting gave us chance to talk about SBN s overall activity. Some radio programmes were evaluated. Formal and informal discussions were made, with the journalists who are producing the SBN radio programme, about the strong and weak sides of the broadcast programmes. Mobile cinema. A short film about post-harvest loss of sesame entitled with the long road of sesame and the many losses along the way was produced both in Amharic and English languages. This film was shown in different occasions, among others the annual sesame business meeting and the evening programme of the national field days. The post-harvest film was shown in May-Kadra, Dansha and Ashere areas using mobile cinema. Also partners used the film, for instance C4C/SNV and Tsehay Union during training sessions in Abrhajira. 49

60 Many people, especially labourers were watching the post-harvest movie and other short movies. While showing the movies some explanations were given to viewers by the SBC coaches. A short movie on sesame value addition activities around north Gondar zone is under production. We signed agreements with the film makers and they have started shooting. Experience sharing Demonstration plots. Improved sesame production technologies have been shown at 916 demonstration plots (502 in West Tigray and 414 in North Gondar). 823 demonstrations were at model farmers lands and the remainder 93 are in Farmer Training Centres (FTCs). Experimental trials for crop rotation were done at 18 FTCs. Local field days. For farmers, seeing is believing. Through field days organised at gote and kebele and woreda level, many farmers were reached and they observed the improved sesame production technologies. The demonstration plots were therefore conducted not only to teach model farmers but they were run to create awareness, build knowledge and improve skills among as many other farmers as possible about the improved sesame production technologies. In view of this, field days were arranged in many places and farmers visited the FTCs and MFs plots in their areas. Each demonstration plot was visited by the surrounding farmers and professionals at least twice. The visits were made in different growth stages of the sesame. Through repeated field days, farmers were able to see the improved sesame technologies in different stages of sesame crop development. The numbers of men and women reached by the local field days are the recorded number of participants during field days. Estimating that there were on average 2 local field days, a reach of some 60,000 farmers can be estimated. The number of women participating in the local field days (30%) is encouraging, especially for Tigray (36%). The accessibility of the fields, because of the high number of demo plots, has probably contributed to this. Zone North Gondar Woreda No of field days Men Women Total Quara 24 5, ,506 Tegede Tach Armaciho 114 8,003 1, Mirab Armaciho 78 12, ,172 Metema Sub-total Amhara ,871 6,874 39,745 Western Kafta Humera ,012 28,907 75,919 Tsegede 16 3, ,579 Tigray Wolkaiet 70 3, ,883 Sub-total Tigray ,836 30,545 84,381 Total Northwest Ethiopia ,707 37, ,126 70% 30% 100% Regional and national field days. The regional/national field days were organised from October 7-9, 2014, with the objective to show the results of improved sesame production technologies at FTC s and MF fields and the testing of rotation crops at FTCs. Officials from different levels attended (federal, regional, zonal and woreda level). Among others, there were representatives from EIAR (deputy director), TARI, ARARI, ECX, 2SCALE project, AGP, ISSD, Advanta Private Seed Enterprise, Amhara and Tigray Region Media, Radio Fana, banks, MFIs, zone and woreda Offices of Agriculture, administration, Trade and Transport CPO and other government and private organisations. Farmers joined the field visits organised in their woredas. The visit of Mr Martin Koper and Dr. Worku Tesema of the Netherlands Embassy in Addis Ababa coincided with the field days. All participated the full three days. The field days organised at different levels served as platforms for farmers and professionals at different levels for sharing and learning from field results on their application of the 20 step sesame production package. The feedbacks from attendees were significantly positive. Most farmers appreciated the sesame planted using the improved production technologies such as row planting, fertiliser application, three times weeding etc. Farmers also raised challenges such as pest and disease problem, lack of quality seed varieties which could resist pest and disease, lack of farm machineries, problems in relation to blanket recommendation of fertilisers, lack of market 50

61 for relatively new rotational crops. Professionals from the two regions and the federal Agriculture Research Institutes sated that they will do all their best to search for solutions for these and other challenges raised. Those field days organised at zone and national levels were reported in the regional radio and television stations. Field days which were arranged at the woreda level were reported by woreda communication offices. Some of the field days were documented in pictures and footages. Impression of field visit participants Dr. Adugna Wakjira, deputy director of EARI, observed: Sesame is the second most important crop that brings foreign currency to the country, after coffee. The field day showed us important results that will increase the productivity and quality of sesame. The results achieved in the scaling out of improved sesame technologies are the combined efforts of all stakeholders in the sesame sector, from farmers to, administrators, agricultural research centres, Offices of Agriculture. Mr. Koper from the Netherlands Embassy shared the following observations: The field days are an eye opener for me. Sesame is a big operation in Ethiopia. It is an important part of the economy and export of Ethiopia. It should be given all the attention it deserves. The Sesame Business Network is very important. They have been very instrumental in getting people together, improving the technology and working together with farmers and all other stakeholders to boost the farmers income. He added, The next step is to get a better price when selling sesame to the buyers. I think SBN will pay attention to that part of the sesame value chain as well. Yirga, of Seroka woreda, has been supporting 12 model farmers out of which nine are very successful before harvesting. He said the woreda agriculture office organised field days at the different growing stages of the sesame. He said, in the recent field day that he participated, more than 120 farmers visited the demo plots. During the visit, farmers were made to compare the sesame plantation which runs with and without the application of the improved technologies. Farmers are convinced about row planting, input use, fertiliser application. We have seen the very good progress of the demo plots. Farmers would like to have more field days till the harvesting time. They wanted to see the result so that they can do the same next year. Asefu Birhan, a woman farmer from Shinfa cluster said: It is my first time that I visit the demonstration plots in the farmers fields. The sesame plant in this plot is unusually tall. It also has many capsules. I am eager to see the result Communication In an attempt to increase information flow, dialogue and understanding as well as to raise awareness of Sesame Business Cluster (SBC) stakeholders, partners and all concerned bodies about the overall activities in the sesame value chain, effective and efficient communication is mandatory. To this end, the SBN Support Programme designed a communication strategy in Since then, the communication activities have been supporting stakeholders and partners communicate effectively and meet the objectives of the SBN and its Support Programme. The communication channels that the SBN Support Programme uses for dissemination and communication of activities and results include the SBN newsletter, SBN official website, briefs, social media such as Facebook and twitter, short films, mobile cinema, radio and posters. The following part briefly presents the major achievements of 2014 pertaining to the abovementioned communication tools. 51

62 SBN Newsletter The SBN newsletter is one of the major communication tools that are used to disseminate information about the major activities of the SBN and its Support Programme. The newsletter is a quarterly newsletter produced in three languages, namely English, Amharic and Tigregna. In 2014, all the four issues have been produced and distributed to different audiences. The hard copies of the newsletter were published in a total of 1300 copies (500 Amharic, 500 Tigregna and 300 English).The electronic copy of all publications of the newsletter has been sent to 350 subscribers. What is more, all the three language newsletters are made available in pdf in the Resource page of the SBN official website. Subscribers of the electronic version have been increasing from time to time. All the major activities in the SBN such as scaling up activities, workshops, trainings, field days, results of studies have been reported in the newsletters. In addition to the regular update of the major activities, the newsletter is running regular columns under the topics of sesame cuisine around the world and in the picture. While the earlier deals with the consumption and use of sesame cuisine in the different continents of the world the later one entertains the profile of individuals, cooperatives, unions and/or any other service provider in the SBN. The newsletter also highlights future activities for readers. The feedback that we get from our subscribers is encouraging. Demand of the hard copy is also increasing. Website and social media The SBN official website ( is the other outlet that the SBN Support Programme uses to update visitors about the major activities of the SBN and its Support Programme. The News & Events page is regularly updated with up-to-date information in the network. Current news in the SBN has been reported and posted together with pictures. Basic information such as goals and objectives of the SBN and its Support Programme, where SBN presents, principles and staff members, is available in the About page. Important documents of the SBN and its Support Programme such as action plans of the SBCs, monitoring and evaluation framework, research findings, workshop reports, presentations, newsletters, brochures, production manuals, briefs etc. have been uploaded in the Resource page of the official website. Also, the one page profile of some stakeholders have been produced and uploaded in the Stakeholders page. What is more, the SBN website publicises the SBN partners by posting their logos in the Home page and linking the logos with their website s home pages. It also dedicates a page for the Partners logo and small description of what they do. Facebook and twitter pages have been regularly updated with short texts and pictures which show recent activities or happenings in the SBN. So far the SBN Facebook page ( has got 481 followers or likes; most of them are local visitors. The number of followers is increasing. Followers like our posts and the comments that some followers have been giving in the posts are encouraging. Like that of the Facebook page, the SBN twitter page ( has been updated regularly. This page has only 80 followers. The reason is that Ethiopians are not much used to Twitter. We also started to use Twitter more recently. Two SBN communication staff got some tips on using Twitter in the learning sharing event at Addis Ababa. 52

63 Films and documentaries A short film about post-harvest loss of sesame entitled with the long road of sesame and the many losses along the way was produced both in Amharic and English languages. This film was shown in different occasions, among others the annual Sesame Business meeting and the evening program of the national field days. The postharvest film was shown in May-Kadra, Dansha and Ashere areas using mobile cinema. Also partners used the film, for instance C4C/SNV and Tsehay Union during training sessions in Abrhajira. Many people, especially labourers were watching the post-harvest movie and other short movies. While showing the movies some explanations were given to viewers by the SBN coaches. A short movie on sesame value addition activities around north Gondar zone is under production. We signed agreements with the film makers and they have started shooting. Profiling actors The short profile of different SBN actors were prepared and posted under Stakeholders page of the SBN website. Thus far, we profiled four successful farmers primary cooperatives, three farmers cooperative unions, one woreda office of agriculture, two agricultural research centres and two micro-finance institutions. Their one page profiles are available in the stakeholders page of This could help SBN actors to be linked with external bodies. Media (radio, TV, newspaper) Some important occasions or activities of the SBN and its Support Programme have been reported by the government media. For example, SBN annual national workshop which was held from May 15-16, 2014 in Gondar was reported in Amhara television and Dimti Woyane radio. The demonstration of Rumptstad 2-wheel tractor, which was organised by Agriterra, SBN Support Programme and TGT Enterprise, was also reported in Amhara Television, Amhara radio both in Amharic and English languages and Tigregna television and Dimtsi Woyane radio. The field days organised from October 7-9, 2014 were reported by Amhara radio and television, Fana FM Gondar, Tigregna radio. In particular, a short documentary were produced by Amhara television and shown to the general public by the national television. The SBN regional workshops held in December 29, 2014 were reported in Amhara and Tigregna televisions. Information management Briefs: Facts, figures, strategic orientations and options for action. Different short briefs provide analytical background to the 5 economic objectives. These briefs have been shared with key partners, both in hard and soft copies. They contain major results of the action research done (facts and figures) and present strategies, options for practical action and strategic issues. The briefs were also posted on the resource page of the SBN website ( and can thus be accessed there. Subjects SBN (cluster and network) approach Objective 1: Yield and quality improvement Objective 2: Credit cost reduction Objective 3: Harvest, transport and storage loss reduction Objective 4: Post-harvest value creation Objective 5: Market linkages and sales Briefs Winning teams for competitive, sustainable and inclusive sesame value chains Yields can double! Financing sesame production and marketing: the number one priority The sesame sector is losing one billion ETB! Bringing farmers and buyers together: options for innovating sesame business relations and modalities Reports. Different activities and progresses such as regional workshops, action planning and other meetings, field days and other important occasions have been reported and communicated to the concerned bodies through in either hard or soft copies. Some reports have also been posted in the SBN website and the links has been shared to the SBN Facebook and Twitter page followers. Introductory brochure copies of an introductory brochure which has basic information about SBN and its Support Programme was published in Amharic, Tigregna and English languages and distributed in different occasions. The brochure has also been given to guests who visited the SBN Support Programme offices in different times. 53

64 Photo and film database. Almost all major activities of the SBN Support Programme, (action planning, studies, meetings, workshops, trainings etc.) have been video shoot and photographed and documented in photo and film library- external hard disc. The photos and videos are used for different purposes such as extension and communication material preparation. They are also used for monitoring and evaluation purposes. Promotion and visibility T-shirt and caps. T-shirt and caps help us to make ourselves visible in the SBN zone. In 2013/2014 we distributed 500 T- shirts and caps, mainly during regional and national workshops and field days. For 2014/2015, 600 white t-shirts and caps, with SBN logo, have been produced. Some of the T- shirts and caps were given to regional workshop participants in Humera and Gondar. Others are kept for the national workshop and other activities. Stickers. Stickers of the SBN logo were prepared in different sizes and they have already been posted on the gate of the SBN Support Programme offices, the three cars of the Support Programme, laptops of staff members. Stickers have also been given to some stakeholders. Banners. The roll-up banners with the five objectives of the SBN and its Support Programme have also been hanged in all the three teams offices. These banners, prepared in the three languages have also been erected inside meeting halls during meetings and workshops Strategic innovation Stakeholder meetings at different levels and action-oriented research on important subjects have been used to identify priorities for strategic innovation. The table below summarizes and structures the main subjects: Row planting Tractor-mounted row planters for investor farmers, collaboration with companies - Animal-drawn row planters for small farmers : development and testing of prototypes Market linkages and sales - Market system innovation - Getting orders before production season and translating buyers specifications in production decisions - Direct sourcing by national processors - Direct export farmer cooperative unions Finding markets for rotation crops Targeting and tailoring - Specific attention for investor farmers - Specific attention for organic production and markets, including traceability and certification - Specific attention for young and female farmers Yield and quality improvement - Variety testing and development, seed multiplication, seed dressing, local seed business - Alternative crops and crop rotation for sustainable sesame production systems - Adapted recommendations for integrated soil fertility management - Pest and disease management Credit cost reduction - Farmers financial literacy, economic analysis and saving culture - Cooperative management and internal resource mobilisation - Rating cooperatives (advanced certification; creditworthiness) - Improved linkage of farmers and cooperatives to MFI s and banks - Development of financial products - Capacity strengthening MFI s, SACCO s and banks Policy implementation - Implementation corridor and cluster approach - Rating cooperatives - Direct sourcing of processors at spot markets - Direct export cooperative unions 54

65 5.5. Monitoring and evaluation The SBN M&E system The overview of main objectives and indicators presented in chapter 1 and the process of bottom-up planning provides the context of the SBN M&E system. The purpose of this system is to know the monitor, understand and communicate change processes and to assess whether these move into the direction of the SBN goals and objectives. The SBN and its support programme have two major strategies, production cost reduction and product and market development, for achieving their goal: farmer income improvement. According to the Theory of Change, activities in 5 intervention areas, each with specific economic objectives, contribute to overall goal. The five objectives guide the activities of the SBN stakeholders and the SBN support programme (cf. chapter 4). Strategies OVERALL GOAL : FARMER INCOME IMPROVEMENT Production cost price reduction Specific strategies and related economic objectives 1. Productivity and quality improvement 2. Harvest, transport and storage loss reduction 3. Credit cost reduction Outcomes are phrased in terms of change in attitude and behaviour, which result from stakeholder and support programme activities. Product and market development 4. Post-harvest value creation 5. Market linkages and sales Some of the outcomes that are monitored (and reported upon in this annual report) are shown in the figure to the right. This figure shows the logic from input to output-to outcome to impact analysis. The other way round is of course also important, when reflection on the best strategies for achieving the overall goal of the SBN and its support programme. The financial reports (and budgets) reflect on the efficiency of the use of human and financial resources. The activity reports and annual planning focus on activities (that are done or planned) and their link to envisaged outcomes and impact. In this annual report, there were frequent reflections as to how stakeholder and support programme activities are resulting to the uptake of innovations. Especially for the first objective, yield measurement and analysis was done. The objective of the SBN support programme is to arrive at competitive, sustainable and inclusive sesame value chains. Specific attention is given to these three aspects: - Competitiveness: cost price analysis - Sustainability : crop rotation and sustainable production (ISFM and IPM) - Inclusiveness: specific attention and targeting for small farmers, young and female farmers and sensitivity to labour conditions and income. 55

66 Grafting of support to stakeholder activities, pooling of resources and co-funding of activities are an important element of the implementation strategy. Stakeholder contributions are therefore specifically monitored. M&E: for whom? Monitoring and evaluation activities can be conducted for different purposes. For the SBN support programme the purposes are the following: - Information for the sesame business network. The first objective is to collect reliable information, to add value to it and to debrief information and analyses to interested stakeholders, so as to improve their analyses and decision-making. There is for instance a lot of interest in the most determining factors for yield improvement, production costs, relative importance of different sources of credit, market prices and market volatility. The SBN M&E system can - Adapting SBN SP intervention strategy. A second important objective is to continuously reflect on the best intervention strategies. What are the key subjects to work on, both at local and strategic level? - Information to donors. The support programme uses Dutch public funds. It has the obligation to inform its financial partners. The Netherlands Embassy especially requests information on yield improvement, cost price reduction and business linkages (aid for trade). The EKN is furthermore strongly interested in synergy with other projects and programmes. Being part of the food security program of the Dutch development cooperation, it remains important to report on social inclusion and livelihood improvement. IFDC, implementing the DGIS funded 2SCALE project, explicitly requests to make the private sector contributions visible. This is part of the M&E system, so as to substantiate the claim that the SBN is a stakeholder-owned network Information sources The following Mind map shows the multiple sources of information for M&E purposes. It clearly suggests that the entire team is involved in M&E activities. There is specific responsibility for the M&E officer to keep oversight. He has specific tasks for making sure that the databases are in place and M&E innovation is triggered. The agronomists, economists and training, extension and communication specialists have specific responsibilities for thematic analyses. In addition to quantitative data, the M&E system uses qualitative information: case studies, stories, photos and films. M&E activities in 2014 A broad range of activities have to be undertaken in order to be informed about changes in the sesame sector. These are described according ot the 4 main categories in the mind map above: quantitative information, thematic analysis, qualitative information and innovation. Quantitative information The purpose of the quantitative information is to know the starting point of the SBN and its support programme and keeping track of changes in terms of quantitative data. Database per woreda baseline 1. In 2013 baseline data has been collected for the (then) 7 woredas. The collected information was put in woreda baseline reports. Quite some difficulties to have complete and reliable information were encountered. In 2014, quantitative information has been put in a SBN database. At this moment, not all the information has been put in, as there are still gaps. Ongoing collaboration with woredas and kebeles, and the use more modern tools (tablet-based survey and satellite data; see below), may improve the situation. 56