The Ethiopian Pulse Industry A Situation Paper

Abstract

Pulse crops of some form are grown in almost all, if not all, of the traditional farming areas of Ethiopia; they are mostly found in the highlands where they are basic in the crop rotations. With few exceptions, pulses are viewed as subsistence crops being sold only in small quantities when the farmer is in need of cash. In recent years, prior to nationalization of farmlands, attractive prices prompted a lively interest in haricot beans among the then growing commercial farming sector of the Rift Valley area. Apparently, many small farmers in this area also entered the production of haricots as a cash crop. Production of other pulses remains almost exclusively in the peasant sector although these crops are at times among the more important enterprises of the small producers; e .g . , lentils are highly concentrated on peasant farms in northern Shoa. Practically all of the peasant farmers who are producing the great bulk of pulses in Ethiopia are using the labor-intensive, traditional cultural practices which include much hand work, as well as harvest-run, uncleaned seed and little or no chemical fertilizer and insecticides/herbicides. Improved practices, including mechanization, were being increasingly employed on some of the larger scale, commercial farms that were growing haricot beans in particular.