Agriculture and Horticulture Developement
Sector and Executives>Agriculture and Horticulture Developement
State Minister
Dr Melese Mekonen
Agriculture and Horticulture Development
Duties and Responsibilities
The agriculture and horticulture development sector, holds a comprehensive array of responsibilities crucial for advancing productivity, sustainability, and innovation within the agricultural and horticultural domains.
Key tasks include expanding extension and training services to benefit farmers, pastoralists, private investors, and society members engaged in crop cultivation.
Additionally, the sector formulates policies and strategies to drive sectoral growth, collaborates with research institutions to conserve national plant genetic resources, and fosters coordination with stakeholders to enhance production and productivity. Moreover, it leads initiatives to monitor and guide the implementation of climate-resilient practices and green economy principles.
Through the implementation of ecological agricultural practices and technology, the sector ensures efficiency, sustainability, and support for stakeholders. It facilitates seed multiplication, provides technical support, and delivers crop development recommendations based on climate data.
Furthermore, it identifies, evaluates, and disseminates technologies and practices to mitigate production losses, improve product quality, and reduce environmental impact. The sector prioritizes knowledge and skills enhancement, offering capacity building initiatives and establishing training centers. Ultimately, it plays a pivotal role in strategic planning, resource allocation, and information dissemination, driving productivity and growth while ensuring effective governance and stakeholder engagement within the agricultural and horticultural sectors.
Sector Lead Executives Duties and Responsibilities
As the lead Executive for Crop Development, it assumes critical responsibilities aimed at enhancing crop production nationwide.
It formulates comprehensive short, medium, and long-term plans to tackle challenges faced by farmers, pastoralists, and semi-pastoralists. Working closely with stakeholders, it designs effective methods to ensure the sustained benefits of agronomy, seed, fertilizer, and rice practices crucial for crop development. It consolidates crop development methods, technologies, and strategies from global and local sources, tailoring distribution strategies to specific environmental and user needs.
It plays a pivotal role in identifying and directing new research findings, providing access to development packages, problem-solving solutions, and best practices. It promotes the adoption of improved practices through demonstrations and testing to boost productivity. Additionally, it leads in developing policies, strategies, standards, and practices directly linked to crop development, including soil health, biodiversity, conservation agriculture, and organic farming.
It selects and integrates new technologies, supporting their implementation with comprehensive training. It develops forecast-based crop production recommendations for broad dissemination. Organizing national crop development information and technologies, it ensures accessibility and strategic delivery through the extension system. Proactively managing risks, it integrates disaster risk considerations into activities, enhancing preparedness and collaboration with stakeholders.
Based on the challenges faced by farmers, pastoralists, and semi-pastoralists, the Executive Officer for Plant Protection develops comprehensive short, medium, and long-term plans and work programs aimed at mitigating the detrimental impact of both regular and contagious pests on the country’s crop production and productivity. Collaborating closely with relevant stakeholders, it designs procedures and strategies to ensure continuous benefits from essential plant protection practices.
Drawing from both domestic and international sources, the officer gathers and consolidates integrated pest control practices, technologies, and strategies utilizing plant protection forecasting and early warning systems. These are then distributed effectively to suit environmental conditions and user needs.
Furthermore, the officer develops, enhances, and implements policies, strategies, standards, and activities directly associated with plant protection efforts. It advocates for the establishment of standardized laboratories for pest testing and inspection services and oversees their implementation upon approval. Additionally, it identifies and deploys procedures, directives, and technologies to improve the efficiency of pest control diagnostics, management, and prevention services.
Moreover, by bolstering the capacity of plant protection clinics across diverse regions, the officer supports the enhancement of pest control, inspection, and prevention services. It leads project design and provides guidance and support for their successful execution. Leveraging insights from risk assessments, monitoring, forecasting, and early warning systems for transboundary epidemics, insect pests, plant diseases, invasive species, and regular weeds, the officer proposes and monitors the implementation of an early prevention system.
The officer also designs protocols for pest event monitoring, risk research, surveying, data collection, analysis, control, and prevention. It identifies and compiles challenges, coordinates their resolution, and directs nationwide implementation efforts. Additionally, the officer gathers international and national meteorological data, analyzes it, and prepares early warnings based on international forecasts. It also allocates resources and logistics to prevent the spread of transboundary pests.
Lastly, the officer develops integrated pest control technology packages aimed at enhancing production and productivity. It conducts regular reviews, provides training, and monitors the effective implementation of these technologies to ensure sustained improvements in crop protection and agricultural outcomes.
The lead executive of Horticulture holds a pivotal position and responsible for enhancing the production and productivity of horticulture crops.
It oversees the planning, construction, and expansion of horticulture development projects, ensuring rigorous control and quality assurance measures are implemented. Playing a crucial role in providing accurate and well-organized horticultural information for strategic decision-making, it introduces innovative ideas that contribute to policy and strategy formulation, ensuring their practical application.
It monitors the implementation of horticulture-related policies, standards, and practices, supervising the adoption of technologies and best practices aligned with development objectives. By involving stakeholders in resource allocation and program implementation, it fosters excellence through training programs and knowledge exchange initiatives. Additionally, it ensures regulatory compliance, monitors the horticulture development budget, and cultivates a skilled workforce.
Through performance evaluations and professional development initiatives, the executive empowers staff within the Horticulture Development Department. Actively engaging in decision-making processes, such as committee establishment, it facilitates collaborative decision-making to drive the growth and success of horticulture development.