Today, Canada is announcing support for the following two projects, which focus on agricultural development, a crucial sector for sustainable economic growth in Ethiopia:
This project will provide technical assistance for skills development and curriculum development, as well as support for physical infrastructure improvements (materials and equipment for classrooms, laboratories and libraries) at four agricultural colleges in Ethiopia. As a result, the estimated 3,000 students who graduate annually from these colleges will possess the right technical and entrepreneurial skills for agricultural production and employment. The project will help align training programs offered by agricultural colleges with labour market demands in order to promote agricultural growth.
This project will also strengthen the knowledge and skills of approximately 500 teaching and administrative staff in the fields of management, commercial agriculture, strategic and business planning, curriculum development and income generation.
Partnerships with other colleges, universities, research institutions, agribusinesses and farmers will be established to ensure the training programs remain relevant and that best practices are broadly shared.
This project is implemented by Dalhousie University Faculty of Agriculture in collaboration with McGill University and Mennonite Economic Development Associates in Canada and with Jimma University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine in Ethiopia.
Canada is contributing $18,296,000 to the project over six years.
This project aims to support technical and vocational colleges so that they can train skilled technicians to meet public and private sector needs for support in sustainable small-scale irrigation farming. It will also train public sector staff so that they are better able to design, coordinate and manage small-scale irrigation projects.
In addition, this project will introduce improved water- and soil-management and crop-irrigation practices to smallholder farmers, train them to manage small-scale irrigation and micro-irrigation systems and strengthen their ability to grow and market irrigated crops. The project will also promote the role of the private sector as a key provider of services related to irrigation.
Agriteam Canada won a competitive international bidding process to implement the project.
Canada is contributing $15 million to the project over four years through delegated cooperation with the Government of the Netherlands.
