An Assessment of Operation and Performance of Commercial Farmers in Ethiopia

An Assessment of Operation and Performance of Commercial Farmers in Ethiopia

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An Assessment of Operation and Performance of Commercial Farmers in Ethiopia

January 28, 2014

A study to assess the performance of commercial farmers in Ethiopia was commissioned by the UNDP on behalf of the Ethiopian government to generate evidence based policy actions aimed at enhancing the performance and development of the country’s commercial agricultural sector. This executive brief highlights some of the key findings and policy actions distilled from the main report to support policy-decision making.


Basic highlights:
The agricultural sector accounts for 41.1% of the GDP, 85% of total employment and about 50% of total export receipts in 2011.
Peasant farmers account for 95% of total food production, and commercial farmers 5% only. There are about 4952 registered commercial farmers of which 47.6% are in crop production, 35% in both crop and livestock, and 16.7% in livestock production.


In terms of investment projects, data from the Ethiopian Investment Agency (EIA) indicates that 10,224 agricultural investment projects have been registered and allocated 10.112 million ha between 1992 and 2011. Of these 8,298 are registered as operational.


1540 of the 8481 domestic investment projects (18.2%) in agricultural sector have the potential land areas of 1.076 ha operations. 386 of 1743 foreign owned foreign firms are currently operational and occupy approximately 1.52 million ha.
Overall distribution of commercial farmers varies from 2% in Gambella and Somali regional states to 50% in Tigray.


Only an average of 48% of land leased is currently farmed and only 1% for investors with 10,000 ha and above.

Document Type
Regions and Countries