Activities in Ethiopia

The agriculture sector in Ethiopia makes up more than half of the economy, and therefore, requires constant development and innovation. In 2004, JICA launched the first phase of the Project on Strengthening Technology Development, Verification, Transfer and Adoption through Farmers Research Groups (FRG) with the objective to improve the livelihood of farmers by creating farmer research groups. In cooperation with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), the FRG project became an established approach for agricultural innovation in Ethiopia by the National Agricultural Research System (NARS). The second phase of FRG (II) started in 2010 and focuses on the dissemination and improvement of developments in agricultural innovation by providing training systems, improved technologies and capacity building of researchers. The uniqueness of this project is the problem-solving mechanism it uses to train farmers on how to find solutions to their problems by providing information through the institution. This way the farmers are included in the agricultural innovation process and can even contribute their indigenous knowledge of the land, water and resources to the research and development process.

• Farmer Reserch Group Project Ⅱ (FRG Ⅱ) (PDF/241KB)