Over the past two years, the World Potato Congress has appreciated the opportunity to provide a global perspective on the potato industry through Spud Smart.
More recently, we’ve been sharing stories from the delegates who received funding to attend the recent World Potato Congress in Adelaide, Australia. Here is an excerpt from an interview and submission of work from Medhanie Mehari, the Seed Potato Project Coordinator at the Eritrean Ministry of Agriculture.
Eritrea, a northeast African country which shares its borders with Ethiopia, Sudan, and Djibouti recognizes potatoes as a strategic crop to help combat food insecurity and improve nutrition levels.
Production is mainly concentrated in the highlands of the country, more particularly in the central and southern regions, and is a key component in the livelihood of small-scale farmers in these regions. In recent years, production and productivity have been low due to several factors, but mainly due to unavailability of adequate seed potato supply.
In 2015, the ministry initiated a new seed potato multiplication project coordinated in partnership with Teagasc, Vita, the National Agricultural Research Institute, and Irish Aid to ensure quality and adequate potato seed supply to the farmers.
The project provides support in several areas. It facilitates quality seed production by the farmers, and promotes farmer to farmer sharing and redistribution of the quality declared seed potatoes.
The project supports research, maintenance of communal seed potato storages, and market facilitation. It strengthens the farmers’ technical skills on different topics of seed potato production through sessions and on farm trainings, distribution of booklets and guidelines, and experience sharing visits.
Furthermore, it trains frontline extension experts to improve their knowledge to support the farmers efficiently. Climate smart potato varieties are used, such as Electra, a Teagasc-bred IPM variety. This variety is high yielding and early maturing, which is suitable for the prevailing water shortage in the country due to erratic rainfall.
One of the farmers Medhanie has been working with is Mussie Sielu.
Mussie, a 39-year-old farmer from Eritrea, has made significant strides in improving his livelihood since he began farming 11 years ago. Residing in the village of Amadir within the Dubarwa subzone, Mussie lives with his wife and their four children.
Mussie cultivates 1.5 hectares of land, dedicating half of it to potato farming. Since 2017, he has been receiving quality seed potatoes under this project. Reflecting on the benefits, Mussie reports an increase in productivity from an average of eight tons per hectare with older varieties, to 20 tons per hectare with the new seeds. This remarkable improvement has allowed him to enhance his income and overall quality of life.
In addition to selling his potato harvest, Mussie stores up to 2.5 tons of seeds, which he sells at a favourable price of 35 Nakfa per kilogram (approximately C$3) to nearby farmers. His hard work has led him to diversify his income sources.
“I built a two-room house with a kitchen, purchased an animal-drawn cart for transporting my produce to market, and acquired 12 beehives,” he says.
His beehives yield an average of 50 kilograms of honey annually, which he sells for 200 Nakfa per kilogram (around C$15). This combination of direct and indirect income streams has significantly improved his family’s livelihood.”
Medhanie reflected on his attendance at the Congress in Australia. “It is the main global initiative bringing together scientists, industry experts, farmers and suppliers into one platform to discuss the challenges in the industry and offer the opportunity to collaborate and improve market linkages.”
He has brought back to Eritrea key findings and solutions to continue to build the potato program in the country.
In Eritrea, the community-based seed potato production project has distributed more than 6,779 tons of quality seeds, positively impacting over 4,787 subsistence farmers across the country. By implementing training programs and providing resources, these initiatives have strengthened the agricultural sector, paving the way for a more food-secure future for the nation.
