Bridging the Gap between Strategy and Delivery of Improved Sheep Fattening in Ethiopia

Abstract

ICARDA and TAAT (Technologies for African Agriculture Transformation) project introduced entrepreneurial skills to sheep farmers in the Ethiopian Highlands in 2018. The approach targeted youth as disseminators of improved and market-oriented sheep fattening technologies and practices. In 2019, power of idea implementation and strategy execution was put in the hands of “Sheep Fattening Community of Practice” teams. A training in Entrepreneurial Skills Development and follow-up workshops for communication, interaction and cooperation between grassroots change and development agents, researchers and government Ministry officers, were undertaken with a vision to start addressing the knowledge gap that would help to commercialize sheep fattening as a pathway to tackling youth unemployment in the Ethiopian Highlands. The workshops in part also sort to understand how local knowledge and systems might shape innovation in market-oriented sheep fattening.