The national economies of many Sub-Saharan African countries are growing at a rapid rate. As a result Governments and African regional organizations (such as the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, FARA), and development platforms (such as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program, CAADP and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, NEPAD), seek to improve policies and priorities for rural development in a landscape dominated by a diverse population of smallholders with different needs and opportunities, depending on their farming system.
The current project focussed on the Development of a Farming Systems Framework for Investment Planning and Priority Setting in Ethiopia was carried out under funding from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and in cooperation with the University of Queensland and other international organisations including the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Ethiopian universities, regional research centres, the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and CGIAR centres. Auricht Projects lead the development of the spatial framework and characterisation of farming systems and provided additional expert input to develop a practical tool to support the identification and targeting of policies, institutional innovations and technologies for agricultural and rural transformation. The aim was to develop a standard ‘model’ report that can could be adapted by other African countries (and elsewhere in other developing areas) to support agricultural transformation under changing frame conditions.