The Ministry of Agriculture disclosed that more than 7 billion saplings have been prepared to be planted under the Green Legacy Program for upcoming rainy season in Ethiopia.
In the past consecutive rainy seasons of the past four years, 25 billion saplings planted under the Green Legacy program initiated by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
During the last rainy season, 7.1 billion tree seedlings, covering 1.8 hectares of land planted, which according to the ministry, was the best performance of its previous rounds of plantations.
According to information collected by the ministry, 93 percent of the total planted saplings in the past year’s rainy season received care and 88.7 of those survived.
For the upcoming rainy season, the ministry stated that it has prepared to plant more than 7 billion saplings under the Green Legacy Initiative.
Biological Soil and Water Conservation and Combined Forestry Desk Head at the Ministry, Bisrat Getachew told ENA that about 2.5 billion saplings are prepared with standard plastics.
According to Bisrat, 116,000 nurseries were operationalized for the plantation of this year’s tree planting campaign.
He said 60 percent of the seedling preparation is for indigenous forests, and the rest is for integrated agriculture and fruits.
The head also stated that 5.5 million people participated in the preparation of hole digging activities for the tree planting.
Bisrat noted that soil and water conservation works have been done on about 1.7 million hectares of land under the Green Legacy program.
He further explained that about 775,000 hectares of land have been protected from human and animal contact so that the stripped lands can recover.
Ethiopia's forest cover has reached 17 percent, it was indicated.