The Ministry of Agriculture announced that more than 37 million quintals of produce are expected to be harvested in the 2016/17 production season from contract farming across all regions.
Sultan Mohammed, head of the Ministry's Agricultural Production Contract Desk, stated that this yield is expected from 2,121,350 hectares of land under contract farming. He specified that this includes high-demand crops such as sesame, chickpeas, beans, maize, and teff.
He detailed the expected yield for each crop: 8,418,637 quintals of sesame; 8,903,175 quintals of chickpeas; 5,507,009 quintals of beans; 1,335,501 quintals of maize; and 279,052 quintals of teff.
Further yields are anticipated for other crops including: 1,188,744 quintals of linseed; 234,901 quintals of broad beans; 677,280 quintals of corn; 62,310 quintals of rice; 7,005,827 quintals of bread wheat; 178,892 quintals of durum wheat; 3,412,009 quintals of barley; 501,683 quintals of pigeon peas; 61,440 quintals of finger millet; 204,382 quintals of teff; 8,500 quintals of nuts; and 10,566 quintals of cotton.
He also stated that 1,819 contractors and 1,004,870 farmer producers participated in cultivating and harvesting the crops during this period. The harvest is expected to be completed by the end of the current month reported FBC.
Contract farming is a system where farmers and buyers agree in advance on terms including price, quantity, quality, and delivery time of the agricultural produce.