In this country, 1.99 million hectares is planted to maize yielding approximately 3.243 tons per hectare, but with very high variability which increases the risk of seasonal food insecurity. Likewise, the legume area is expanding in response to growing export demand for legumes – for example, haricot beans to East Africa, and Sudan. However, less than 25 percent of the maize or legume area is under improved varieties but underdeveloped seed systems are a major constraint.

Other constrains to agricultural production and productivity are low level of technology adoption, poor market access for smallholder farmers, and limited technological options for the very diverse agro-ecological areas and farmers’ circumstances. Resource shortages, including scarcity of land in high potential areas, seasonal labour shortage, inadequate draught power, and insufficient supply of input and credit are identified as major crop production challenges. Also, population pressure is another constraint contributing to environmental degradation and declining land holding per household. Farmers in drought-prone areas have an average farm size of 2.36 hectares and average family size of eight people per household.

On the other hand, average farm size in sub-humid maize-legume based farming systems is 1.5 hectares with average family size of seven per household.

Cognizant of these inter-related production constraints of the predominantly maize-legume farming systems, Ethiopia was identified a major SIMLESA program country by ACIAR and CIMMYT.

SIMLESA activities were implemented by eight research centers including 17 districts/communities located in different maize-legume growing agro-ecologies of the country.

In the sub-humid high potential maize and legume growing farming systems, low soil fertility, especially low nitrogen, was the most important production constraint. Use of traditional soil fertility management practices such as crop residues, manure, fallow, cereals/legume intercropping, crop rotation, among other practices, has declined together with farm size, coupled with alternative uses for manure as fuel and crop residues as feed and construction material. Few farmers practise fallowing and crop rotation because of scarcity of land. With increasing population pressure, and land scarcity, livestock increasingly dependent on crop residues; production of improved forage or fodder crops was hampered by poor awareness of available options and lack of seed.

1. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/et.html
2. 39% of the population is below poverty line
3. The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Central Statistical Agency Agricultural Sample Survey 2013/14
4. The areas of pulses was 2.37 ha in 2010 while was 3.26 in 2014.