United States Agency for International Development, USAID-Ethiopia, and Feed the Future -Ethiopia Transforming Agriculture visited Arba Minch University’s research and community engagement and job-creation and tech-transfer initiatives on Enset Processing and productivity from January 21-22, 2024. Click here to see more photos.

Contracting Officers Representative, COR, of ETA and Team Leader for Food System under USAID - Ethiopia, Mr. Getinet Ameha, said ETA is a five-year project funded by USAID to expand access to healthy foods especially for women and children. He noted that the team’s visit of AMU was organized mainly to see AMU's Enset tech-transfer initiatives and decide the fields of cooperation to support the university's efforts.

According to Mr. Getinet, the visit created the opportunity to observe closely the innovations developed to improve enset processing and productivity. AMU is a pioneering institution in working with the private sector to scale up innovations to the community via public-private partnership modality which other Ethiopian research institutions lack experience with, he added.

USAID - Ethiopia's Office of Economic Growth and Resilience Director Lily Kenny stated that USAID has been supporting Ethiopia in transforming agriculture initiatives to increase the availability and accessibility of quality and safe food to all Ethiopians particularly those who are food insecure. AMU's efforts to enhance enset processing and productivity shares the same goal with ETA and the potential of enset crop will realize Ethiopia's next major indigenous food enhancing food security and creating work opportunities for women and unemployed youth. Regarding her visit at Dorze Enset Processing Pilot Plant, she said that “I observed the traditional processing of enset which is highly arduous and time-consuming to women and realized that the university's innovations in the area truly ease societal problems allowing communities to produce healthier and nutritious food”. In her final remark, she ensured to keep fostering their cooperation with AMU and support its efforts of scaling up enset innovations to other enset-growing regions.

AMU Research and Community Engagement Vice President, Behailu Merdekios (Associate Professor), said that enset research is one of priorities of AMU and currently the focus is on scaling up these new and game-changing technologies to all enset growing areas. The Vice President also noted that AMU’s research & tech-transfer initiative on enset processing and productivity is a practical proof that research should go beyond publication and change the life of society. The collaboration initiated with USAID is critical to the university's efforts to improve enset production, productivity as well promotion.

University's Biotechnology Researcher & Enset Project Coordinator Dr. Addisu Fekadu on his part noted that AMU has inked an agreement with ETA and other private companies through a public - private partnership model to set up firms for women and unemployed youth in enset growing regions and supply technologies to users. According to the agreement, the private companies will produce the technologies and deliver the machines to 20 enterprises in the first round, and with this process, 100 enterprises will be organized and work in the field, he said. According to Dr. Addisu, collaborating with development organizations like USAID will greatly help AMU to spread the technologies to all enset-growing regions in a short period and expand markets to the newly produced value-added enset based food products.

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