Since 2009, the Globalization and Markets program has participated in the Assessment of Key Areas of Ethiopian Agricultural Sector project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in response to a request from H.E. Meles Zenawi, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. This project supports the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) by providing diagnostic studies of a number of sub-sectors of Ethiopia’s agricultural system.
Following extensive consultation with the Ethiopian government, national and international research organizations, and other stakeholders, a total of seven studies were launched. These included three studies on the input markets (seed system, irrigation, and soil fertility), three studies on the output markets (maize, livestock, and pulses), and a cross-cutting study on agricultural finance. Several national and international organizations, academic institutions, and CGIAR centers provided inputs in producing these reports. The Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), two CGIAR centers (ILRI and IWMI), the University of Illinois, and McKinsey Inc. were particularly instrumental in generating the drafts of these reports.