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Ethiopia: Enriching soils, improving nutrition

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More nutritious crops, bigger yields, more diverse diets: Ethiopian and Canadian researchers are working toward these goals in southern Ethiopia, where drought and poor soil have threatened farmers' livelihoods and led to widespread malnutrition.  Researchers at Hawassa University, Ethiopia, and the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, have turned their attention to these problems. One facet of the team's research focuses on finding crops and techniques capable of coaxing bigger, better harvests from depleted soils in this drought-prone area.  Their work is unfolding under the umbrella of the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund (CIFSRF), a joint initiative of IDRC and Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada. With 21 projects in food-insecure regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, CIFSRF brings together Canadian and developing-country specialists in search of practical solutions to the interlinked problems of environmental degradation, poor agricult

New route opens promising future for specialty coffee

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BY www.capitalethiopia.com Photo from Social Media A new asphalt road that links the source of Ethiopian specialty coffee grower of Bensa Woreda of the Sidama Zone with  the regional center of Hawassa was inaugurated in the presence of top government officials on Tuesday April 21.  The 51 km concrete asphalt road project is constructed by a local contractor Alemayehu Ketema General Contractor at a cost of 427 million birr. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn inaugurated the road that links three weredas of the Sidama Zone with the SNNPS regional state seat. The contractor was pressed hard to complete the assignment on schedule as the project stretches  across difficult terrain and a long rainy season that is common in the SNNPS had reduced the pace of the work. A revision of the project’s design that was made after the contract was awarded was another challenge on the work.   The road that reaches  Bensa will surely have  high economic value to making possible transportation of 

Alle Bejimla Opens Shop in Hawassa

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By allAfrica.com Alle Bejimla has inaugurated its first outlet outside of Addis Abeba, in Hawassa, on Wednesday April 22, 2015. The outlet, which was planned together with another three, will follow in a month's time in Shashemene, Bahir Dar and Dessie, became an addition to the existing four in Addis Abeba. Alle, a wholesale supermarket established in 2013 in an effort to bring modern and reliable trade practices, became operational in May 2014. Alle's target customers are retailers, consumers' associations, service providers like hotels and restaurants, and the newly added one, civil servant unions. Currently, the enterprise has about 4,000 regular customers The registration of customers in Hawassa will start soon the outlet inauguration. The inaugural ceremony at Hawassa was attended by Ali Siraj, state minister of Trade, and officials from the Trade Practice and Consumers Protection Authority, Public Procurement & Property Administration Agency, an

Government Aims to Quadruple Coffee Production in Five-Years

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Coffee study recommends structural reform to maximize high quality production By addisfortune.net The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), in concert with the Ministry of Trade (MoT) has finalised a Coffee Development Strategy that will be used to boost coffee production in the second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II) over the next five years. The strategy, developed after a six-month study conducted by Agrear Consultant, is targeted at raising the current coffee production capacity of the country by four fold. Agrear began the study in April 2014 and completed it within six months at a cost of 200,000 euros, availed by the European Union. “The study was initiated by the belief that as coffee is a permanent plant, the trading should depend on quality and it should be supported by special extension programmes,” said Fikru Amene, coffee development director at the MoA. “We did not achieve the plan that we set for the GTP I, which also triggered the study.” The coun

Ethiopia drafting new law to stiffen punishments for human trafficking

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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia –   Ethiopia is drafting a new law to stiffen punishments for human trafficking. The Ministry of Justice old state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate that human smuggling is increasing alarmingly. Ethiopians are among Africans who are trying to reach Europe, and dying en route. Ethiopia's current laws stipulate prison terms ranging from five to 20 years for crimes related to human smuggling and a maximum fine of $2,500. Ethiopia's Foreign Minister, Tedros Adhanom, told Parliament last week that most smugglers of Ethiopian migrants are Ethiopians. He said the smugglers have established networks in different migration routes. Ethiopian officials said they are working to bring migrants home. The Ethiopian Ambassador in Egypt, Mohammed Dirir, said more than 190 Ethiopian migrants in the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi have registered to return home. Fox News