Like the previous years, the Extension Component of AMAREW aims at improving the regional picture in terms of agricultural production and productivity by focusing its activities in the five extension Woredas namely, Lay Gayint, Sekota, Gubalafto, Tehuledere, Sekota and East Belessa.  The objectives of the Extension Component of the AMAREW Project are:

• To strengthen the extension system in view of introducing in an integrated way crop and livestock development as well as natural resources management technologies to bring about a significant increase in agricultural production and household income; and

• To promote awareness among rural households about human nutrition, family planning, and HIV/AIDS so as to bring about changes in attitude and practice.

In view of achieving these objectives the following are some of the proposed intervention measures to be implemented in the five pilot woredas:

• Introducing better performing varieties of various food crops, introducing crop varieties of higher market demand (e.g. faba bean, haricot bean, pepper, etc.), promoting horticultural crops production and introducing high value fruit trees along with appropriate management practices such as the use of organic fertilizers to ameliorate soil;

• Introducing different and new improved farm tools and implements such as tie-ridging for moisture conservation as well as cheaper and efficient pumps to promote off-season crop production;

• Introducing and promoting various soil and water conservation measures on communal and farmlands, and promoting water-harvesting technologies;

• Encouraging the use of IPM practices to control pests and diseases;

• Improving livestock management practices especially disease control and forage production;

• Promoting the use of better performing poultry breeds and improved husbandry methods;

• Promoting the use of improved beehives and beekeeping techniques;

• Promoting sustainable fishing methods and improved fish processing and marketing;

• Promoting awareness on issues related to home science, family planning, food habits and HIV/AIDS;

• Organizing experience sharing and study tour for experts, DAs and farmers; and

• Assisting in institutional and human capacity building of the Woreda office of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The 2005 Extension Plan is designed at further pursuing on these activities and improving the dissemination of agricultural and natural resources technologies in the pilot Woredas. This year’s plan is as comprehensive and integrated as possible in view of bringing about a substantial increase in agricultural production and household income of participant farming families in the pilot woredas. Depending on their comparative advantages, the different woredas vary in their emphasis on each of the components, although the emphasis generally  on the crop sector. 

The general direction that the project follows in its extension approach is in line with the government extension system with some minor operational variations that the Project is encouraging the extension system to adopt, particularly as it relates to beneficiary targeting, to content and extension method selection, and to increasing efficiency and effectiveness of extension interventions. We are now encouraging woredas to adopt watershed based extension system to scale up the success we have achieved in empowering communities in the two pilot watersheds.

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