amhara region agricultural research institute (arari)

Amhara Region Agricultural Research Institute (ARARI)

By Gizaw Desta (PhD)

ARARI Establishment Established before 10 years to spearhead the

regional research system – some of its research centers established before 25 yrs

Organized into Five Research Directorates: Crop Livestock Soil and Water Forestry Agricultural Mechanization & Food Sciences

2 NBDC N3 Partner Technical Meeting, 28-29 March 2011, Adis Ababa, ILRI

Five Comprehensive Research centers

1) Adet ARC ( Crop, Soil & water, Forestry)

2) Debre Birhan ARC ( Crop, Soil & Water, Livestock & Forestry)

3) Sirinka ARC (Crop, Soil & Water, Livestock & Forestry)

4) Sekota DLARC (Crop, Soil & Water, Livestock & Forestry)

5) Gondar ARC (Crop, soil & Water, Livestock & Foerestry)

3 1NBDC N3 Partner Technical Meeting, 28-29 March 2011, Adis Ababa, ILRI

Three specialized research centers

1) Bahir Dar Fishery and other aquatic life research center

2) Bahir Dar Agricultural Mechanization and Food Science Research center

3) Andassa Livestock Research center


Five research sub-centers

Debre Tabor Finoteselam Alem Ketam Kobo Jari

And over 40 trial stations


What is the major objective of ARARI? Generation and adaptation of improved

agricultural technologies

Demonstration and popularization of improved technologies and knowledge to users through pre-extension demonstration, exhibition, field days, training, advice, and publications

Multiplication of breeder and pre-seed

Coordinate the regional agricultural research system


What are the main water related activities?

In-situ rain water harvesting and management for moisture stress areas- for hillslopes: half moon, trench, eyebrow,

and for agricultural bottom lands: tie-ridge, zie

pit

Evaluation and demonstration of water harvesting systems –Technical and socioeconomic evaluation of

water harvesting systemsComparative analysis of lining materials for

seepage control


Evaluation, verification and demonstration of surface drainage techniques (BBF, BBM, RF) and reuse of drained water for supplemental irrigation in vertisol areas

Integrated watershed management –WH, SWC

Assessment and management of wetlands

Runoff-rainfall relation, runoff-soil loss

What are the main water related activities?


Conservation agriculture practices – mulching, zero tillage, crop residue, cover crops, green manuring

Testing deficit water management techniques Irrigation water management

Flood prediction and flood control Agrometeorology and cropping pattern

studies, drought and its coping strategies Evapotranspiration


How do you decide about the water related activities?

Which data do you use? – generated through informal and formal survey Rainfall (deficit or excess) Farming system (less or high water demand) Soil (WHC, soil depth) Socio-economic (capacity of farmers for uptake of

technology, preference or demand, knowledge) How do you decide about the location of the

activities? Extent of problem or constraint The feasibility of potential impact and demand for adoption Representation of wider biophysical, agroecological and

socioeconomic sets of conditions or domain


Can you describe the process that leads to activities Agricultural problems surveyed (and presented

to stakeholder platform) Major researchable issues identified These issues will be distributed to research

centers for project proposal development Proposed research activities will be reviewed at

department level, followed by research centre level

Research and Partner joint annual research review will be done by involving researchers, university researchers, extension, and NGOs

Annual Research Directory will be developed


Do you investigate the impact of the activities? Impact of activities were not studied very often.

But technical and socio-economic assessments of the activities are investigated

To what extent do you use maps and GIS? It is not common to apply Map and GIS tools for

many of the research activities as there is lack of input data and knowledge of tools


Who are the partners that ARARI is working with?• Small holder farmers, water user associations, FREG• Bureau of Agriculture (BoA) or agricultural extension• Bureau of Water Resources (BOWRD)• Cooperative agencies• Seed enterprises, private investors, private business

processors and enterprises• The regional government• NGOs and donors of bilateral & multi-lateral

agreement• Regional agricultural colleges and Universities • Regional, national and international research

institutes• Stakeholder platforms


How do you disseminate knowledge to these partners ? Participatory research – Farmer-Research-

Extension-Group (FREG) Demonstrations and pre-scaling up

Stakeholder platforms (ARDPLAC) – developing technology package and popularization through the extension service

Training and workshops Field days and experience visit Exhibition of technologies and information Publication – Annual progress reports, Proceedings,

Journals, Manuals, Posters and Leaflets


Examples of success stories? If possible illustrate a success story? What

were the factors that led to success? Rainfed Potato production in North Shewa –

competing with the barley system Rice and vegetable production in Fogera wetland Broad Bed and Furrow (BBF) expansion to vertisol Village based Menz-Awassi cross breed production

in Menz and South Wollo areas – poor crop farming system and immediate benefit gain


Do you have an examples of projects that were less successful? What were the drivers hampering success? Water harvesting – due to blanket planning Broad Bed Maker (BBM) – specific to soil and

rainfall onset


Thank you


amhara region agricultural research institute (arari)

Documents

soil water

demonstration of water

adis ababa

reuse of drained water

research directorates

situ rain water

main water related activities

systems technical