Agriculture which accounts for 50 per cent the national gross domestic product (GDP), is making a significant contribution to Ethiopia’s fast growing economy. The dominant contribution of agriculture as a sector is in turn the result of a combination of various sub-sectors including horticulture and spices. The country is also becoming popular in the international markets for its spice crops. Among such crops is found Ginger.
Ginger is not just a widely used ingredient in Ethiopian recipe but also is a source of income for many small-holder farmers. Many describe Ethiopia as suitable for producing the crop in abundance and even for export purposes.
Ginger has a long history of medicinal use in the preparation of many Ayurvedic formulations, the traditional medical discipline in India, Nepal, America and Europe. In Ethiopia, Ginger is locally called Gingibill. Tea brewed from ginger is a common folk remedy for colds in Ethiopia. This often called Kasher-chai in Amharic Language. Ginger ale and ginger beer are also drunk as stomach settlers in countries where the beverages are made.
Ginger has pungent taste and interesting aroma. It been used since the ancient times as a spice. In addition, ginger has been used historically for its medicinal value to a wide variety of diseases, especially to gastrointestinal disorders, such as constipation, diarrhea, anorexia, colic, dyspepsia, nausea, vomiting, and motion sickness and remains an important cooking spice around the world.
Ginger plays an important role in to local economy. It can also be an export crop. Value- added ginger products cannot just boost economic growth, but also create job opportunities.
Ginger production can be relatively high in places where labor is abundant. From that perspective Ethiopia has a comparative advantage to massively produce ginger for export. It will also give market opportunities for small farm holder growers.
Ethiopia has wide altitude variations from 1000 to 3000m which gives it climatic variations ranging from high rain fall in the central, western, southern and south western parts of the country, to hot and dry weathers in the lowlands. That in turn provides an opportunity to grow the crop in various agro-climatic conditions.
Historical evidences suggest that ginger cultivation in Ethiopia started during 13th century when the Arabs introduced it from India. Ginger is cultivated in many places of Ethiopia. The specific areas where it is cultivated abundantly include East and West Gojjam, and Awi zones of Amhara State and in different parts of the SNNP and Oromia states.
Endrias Geta of Haramaya University and Asfaw Kifle who conducted a survey in 2011 on the Production, Processing and Marketing of Ginger in Southern Ethiopia, concluded that ginger had been produced as an important commercial horticultural crop in southern Ethiopia. Farmers produce different varieties and apply traditional management practices. External support in promoting improved varieties and management practices is almost non-existent.
Ginger product markets are very volatile and price fluctuations create a disincentive for farmers in the production of the crop. Thus, researchers have to assist farmers in identifying improved varieties with desirable market traits, appropriate agronomic and post-harvest management practices including drying methods, sorting and grading techniques, as well as processing technologies. Extension workers and other development practitioners need to assist farmers in addressing marketing problems according to the survey.
Horticultural crops play a significant role in countries like Ethiopia, both as income source and employment opportunity.
Ethiopia has an immense potential to develop horticulture on small-scale as well as on commercial scale. Girma Abera Jibat of Oromia Agricultural Research Institute reported some of the favorable factors that contribute to overall investments in Ethiopia. According to him, proximity to lucrative markets, agro-climatic suitability and rich water resources for irrigated agriculture, rising demand for horticultural crops, particularly in urban areas, diversified agro-climatic conditions suitable for diverse crops, the high productivity of horticultural crops as compared to cereals are among the factors that give comparative advantages to horticultural and spice crop growers . Despite the enormous potential though, horticulture is relatively under developed.
Ginger is a tropical species native to South-east Asia and extensively used around the world as spice. It is cultivated in India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, Ethiopia, Nigeria and the Pacific islands while India is both the largest producer and consumer of ginger in the world. Out of the total production, about 30 per cent is used dry, while 50 per cent is consumed as a fresh product and the rest as seed material. During 2009, the area under ginger cultivation in the world was 273,736 ha. India has the largest area of ginger cultivation, constituting about 39.7 per cent of the total world area under ginger cultivation. World production of ginger was 1,615,974 MT in 2009. India had a predominant position in ginger production, contributing 23.5 per cent of the total world production in 2009 but productivity was very poor compared to that of the United States of America as reported by FAO in 2011.
The history shows, India, China, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines and Thailand are currently the main producers. India alone produced 232,510 tons in 1996-97 on 70,910 hectares, and exported 28,321 tons in 1997. The International Trade Centre data show that China and Thailand were the major exporting countries in 1998-2000. China seems to be the preferred provider for Korea, while Pakistan buys most of its ginger from India. Indonesia also provides ginger to Malaysia, and Hong Kong before it became part the People’s Republic of China. Brazil is the third exporter of dried ginger. The three leading exporting countries in 2000 were China, Thailand, and Brazil.
Ginger has a long history of use in South Asia both in dried and fresh form. The Hindu epic ‘Mahabharta’ describes a meal where meat is stewed with ginger and other spices. In the world trade in ginger is estimated at 190 million USD per year. India’s share in ginger trade is only 6 per cent, while China’s share is 57 per cent. In ginger oil and oleoresin trade India dominates with 50 per cent share. Garbled/ungarbled and bleached/unbleached variants occupy predominant position in ginger export.
The history of spices in Ethiopia is an ancient one and spices remain as basic food items of the Ethiopian people. Ethiopia is the homeland for many spices including long pepper, black cumin, bishops weed and coriander. The average land covered by spices is approximately 222,700 ha., and total production is 244,000 tons per annum.
At the moment, there are two spice extraction plants in Ethiopia, one public and the other under private ownership. The public spice extraction plant, the Ethiopian Spice Extraction Factory, has a processing capacity of 180 tons per year. The plant is capable of processing ginger from locally grown ginger root, capsium oleoresin from red pepper, and turmeric. Over 85 per cent of its business is for paprika. The privately owned spice extraction plant, Kassk Spices and Herbs Extraction Plc., was built in Addis Ababa in 1997 and has a processing capacity of 120 tons per annum. All of the extracted spice is exported overseas for food coloring, flavoring, etc. to Europe mainly Germany, Spain and Italy.
Spices cultivation is scattered throughout Ethiopia and is carried out by small-holder farmers. In most cases, traders act as middlemen between farmers and spice extraction factories hiring trucks to collect spices from farm gate or intermediate markets.
As spice is an important additive to Ethiopian meals, the domestic demand for spices is large. The current estimate of world imports of spices is 5.25 million tons valued at 1,500 million USD, with an annual growth rate of 4 per cent. This is against a world production of 8.5 million tons valued at 25 billion USD. As far as the product mix is concerned, the bulk of spices are exported in “whole” or “un ground” form, while only 15-20 per cent of spices are sold in ground form, as mixtures of ground spices and as essential oils and oleoresins.
The Government of Ethiopia is promoting agro-industrial projects and has declared spices as focus area for development. As plant species spices have a wide possibility of being cultivated in different agro-ecological zones of the country. Financial services by banks and micro-credit institutions and transportation and related logistic infrastructure are necessary. The spice sub-sector is amongst the important crops that fit within the strategy of commercialization of agriculture. Spice crops already widely traded internationally have a high potential for expansion and diversification of export earnings of Ethiopia. Policy incentives enable exporters to implement modern processing techniques from pre-harvest to post-harvest processing. An increasing number of buyers/Traders/Oleoresin Extraction Companies, Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, choose to buy spices directly from Ethiopia.
The Netherlands-African Business Council has identified limited knowledge of cultivation that passed from generation to generation, low level of production, and inefficient spice value chain service delivery mechanism as challenges for ginger growers and traders. Innovate technologies (farm management, drying, storage) and spice agricultural research are needed. Post-harvest handling of the product is also said to be inadequate. Packaging, storage and transport facilities are also stated as challenges facing the sub-sector. Irregular supply and variable quality of spices as well as weak involvement of private commercial investors in spices production are among the factors that negatively affect commercialization of ginger Challenges also exist in the marketing of ginger due to the involvement of unlicensed brokers in the market. Lack of value addition in and price volatility due to changes in demand and supply in local and overseas markets are also affect ginger growers.
Ginger also provides opportunity for growers not just in rural areas but also in urban and Semi-urban areas as it can grow in small plinth areas like 4×5 or 3×5 square feet for household consumption. In this context, the production and processing of ginger will be the future urban horticulture and become an important crop for the economy of Ethiopia.
[TheEthiopianHerald]