For its strategic role in strengthening the poultry sector in Ethiopia, the Livestock Compact of Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) has emerged winners of Ethiopian Poultry Producers and Processors Association (EPPPA) recognition award.

The award, according to the Ethiopian Poultry Producers, comes in recognition of TAAT’s commitment to transforming the poultry sector in the country through its support to the EPPPA-led Ethiopia’s Poultry Innovation Platform and other initiatives across the country.

Sponsored by the African Development Bank as part of its Feed Africa Initiative, TAAT’s main objective is to improve the business of agriculture across Africa by raising agricultural productivity, mitigating risks and promoting diversification and processing in 18 agricultural value chains within eight priority intervention areas.

The programme increases agricultural productivity through the deployment of proven and high-performance agricultural technologies at scale along selected nine commodity compacts which include livestock.

These work with six enabler compacts addressing transversal issues such as soil fertility management, water management, capacity development, policy support, attracting African youth in agribusiness and fall armyworm response.

Led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) the TAAT Livestock Compact (TLC) seeks to increase the productivity and profitability of small animal value chains through upscaling innovations in livestock genetics, feed, health, production systems, policy and marketing.

With support from the compact, EPPPA was able to organise its first national poultry forum in April 2019. The forum brought together policymakers from the Ministries of Trade and Industry Development, Finance and Economic Cooperation, and the National Bank of Ethiopia as well as poultry farmers, producers, suppliers and other industry actors.

In addition to charting a pathway out of the challenges facing the industry, the forum identified key challenges facing the poultry industry in Ethiopia. These include lack of access to foreign currency for importation of basic poultry inputs, and taxes levied on imports of poultry inputs and machinery among others.

These discussions contributed to the government’s release of a policy document that lifted import tax on some poultry inputs and improved access to foreign currency for stakeholders.

With further TAAT Livestock Compact support, EPPPA organized five regional workshops in 2019 to raise awareness on the importance of advocacy in influencing policies.

These events led to the convocation of a Poultry Stakeholders Forum side event at the African Livestock Exhibition and Congress (ALEC) in Addis Ababa in October 2019.

The TAAT Livestock Compact and the TAAT Policy Enabler Compact co-sponsored the ‘Poultry Forum’ at the ALEC conference.

The forum was attended by members of the standing committee on agriculture of the Ethiopian House of People’s Representatives

(HPRE), poultry farmers, research institutes, suppliers, distributors, industry association representatives and other poultry stakeholders.

Dr. Francis Nang’ayo, TAAT Policy Enabler Compact Leader, presented the results of a ‘Poultry and small ruminant supply/value chains in Ethiopia: policy and operational challenges’ review for validation while Genene Tesfaye, EPPPA President, shared the findings of the first national poultry forum and the five regional poultry platforms.

Receiving the award on behalf of the compact, Dr Niyi Samuel Adediran, the TAAT Livestock Compact Coordinator averred that the award reinforces the programme’s conviction that a vibrant poultry industry association is vital for an improved policy environment and overall transformation of the sector.

 “By working together with National Partners, we can hasten technical innovations adoption and resolve many of the barriers limiting the development of the Ethiopian poultry industry,” he added.