Ethiopia through its Ministry of Agriculture has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Precision Development (PxD), a global nonprofit organization to digitise the East African country’s agriculture sector.
In a ceremony held in Addis Ababa on June 11, 2025, Ethiopian Minister of Agriculture Dr. Girma Amente (PhD) and PxD CEO Niriksha Shetty formalised the agreement, marking a pivotal milestone in Ethiopia’s agricultural modernisation efforts.
Under the MoU, the two parties will establish a dedicated Project Management Unit (PMU) tasked with implementing Ethiopia’s Digital Agriculture Roadmap (DAR), building on frameworks introduced earlier by the Ministry and its development partners.
The PMU will be funded by a US $3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, covering the period from December 2025 to February 2027. Its core mission is to coordinate the early phases – dubbed “Build the Digital Foundation” (2025–2029) – of Ethiopia’s comprehensive digital transformation, which encompasses the entire agricultural value chain, including digital extension services, supply chain management, market linkages, and farmer profiling.
Ethiopia’s DAR, co-developed by the Ministry and the Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) in 2022, outlines a five‑pillar strategy: defining critical digital use cases, establishing a digital stack (infrastructure, data architecture, APIs), strengthening enabling environments (policies, human capacity, connectivity), and ensuring interoperability across systems.
Under the MoU, PxD will provide specialized technical assistance and operational leadership to bring these pillars to life on the ground.
The digital extension component builds on previous initiatives such as Ethiopia’s 2022 Digital Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services Roadmap, which aimed to enhance the reach and efficiency of the national extension system serving 50,000–60,000 development agents.
The expanded DAR now sets its sights on digitizing markets, soil and weather data systems, financial services access, and traceability technologies.
The MoU also aligns with Ethiopia’s broader Digital Ethiopia 2025 strategy, which has already improved mobile internet access, digital literacy, and public‑sector digital infrastructure.
By integrating digital tools into agronomy, livestock, advisory, finance, and market systems, the initiative promises to increase productivity, resilience to climate risks, and farmers’ incomes.
Effective governance will be vital. The PMU will report to a newly formed DAR Steering Committee chaired by the Minister of Agriculture. A Technical Committee, along with focused sub‑committees on data governance and partner coordination, will guide implementation under the DAR’s phasing plan.
This MoU between Ethiopia’s Ministry and PxD is more than a partnership—it reflects a deep commitment to drive systemic, technology‑enabled transformation across the nation’s agriculture. As the PMU ramps up activities, stakeholders will be watching closely to see how innovations in digital extension, market access, climate-risk analytics, and data interoperability unfold on farms and in rural markets across Ethiopia.
SOURCE: Farmer Review Africa
