Syed Shozab Abbas, a career diplomat appointed by the Government of Pakistan as its new Ambassador to Ethiopia called on the Minister for NFS&R ,Syed Fakhar Imam on Thursday to seek guidelines regarding agricultural cooperation between Pakistan and Ethiopia. Federal Minister welcomed Syed Shozab Abbas and congratulated him for his new assignment as Pakistan’s Ambassador to Ethiopia. Syed Fakhar Imam conveyed best wishes to him for his new assignment. He appreciated his willingness of consulting line Ministries to promote meaningful cooperation between Pakistan and Ethiopia. He stated that we may only consider extension in the period of lifting of ban on import of Red Kidney Beans (RKB) from Ethiopia provided that the SOPs agreed between the two sides are fully complied by the Ethiopian side. It will further be important that the Ethiopian side keep on sharing progress on the Pest Risk Analysis (PRA) with our Department of Plant Protection (DPP) for permanent settlement of this issue based on scientific evidence and procedures. The Federal Minister apprised that the draft MOU on Agricultural Cooperation formerly proposed by the Ethiopian side could not be finalized due to thin response of the provincial governments. He suggested that Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) may sign an MOU with its counterpart Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organization for which draft of MOU may be shared by PARC after completion of the internal formalities of the Government of Pakistan.
PARC has suggested that Pakistan can extend assistance to Ethiopian side in the many areas which include honey-bee management and value addition, poultry production and processing, developing and fabricating agricultural machinery and farm implements, livestock breed improvement, and artificial insemination and rehabilitation of degraded lands, conservation of biodiversity. This year Pakistan exported 150 MT of maize starch which estimates 0.033 million USD and 362.30 MT of rice which had a cost of 0.20 million USD. Similarly this year Ethiopia imported 152.5 MT of black tea, 12160 MT of kidney beans and 213 MT of Pinto Beans of worth 11.414 million USD.
Agriculture constitutes about 46 percent of Ethiopian GDP, more than 80 percent of its exports, and an estimated 85 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture. Important agricultural exports include coffee, leather products, pulses, oilseeds, beeswax, and tea. The coffee sector is the most important agricultural activity, and about 25 percent of Ethiopians gain their livelihoods from coffee production. With 75 million heads of livestock, Ethiopia has the largest concentration of livestock on the African continent, and the leather products are Ethiopia's second most important export. The country has approximately 7 million bee colonies, and is the Africa's leading producer and exporter of bees wax and honey. Other important agricultural activities include tea, cotton and sugar production. Ethiopia confronts several environmental issues that are particularly problematic for the agricultural sector of the economy. Such issues include deforestation (depletion of forests), over-grazing (depletion of pastures), soil erosion (depletion of quality soil), and desertification (extensive drying of the land).
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