Ethiopia: Ata celebrates the milestone of the 8020 Farmer Hotline

By Tameru Regbada

ADDIS ABABA – The Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) said that the 8020 Farmer telephone line has become the largest interactive voice response system and short messages in Africa.

ATA CEO Kahlid Bomba said that since its inception in July 2014, the hotline has received 30 million calls and 3.6 million registered phone numbers, consisting of smallholder farmers and agricultural development officers

. Federal ministers and state offices send SMS messages to warn farmers of occurrences of diseases and pests.

The hotline helped alert farmers about the prevalence of crop protection problems, such as: rust, corn lethal necrosis disease, and the army worm of autumn in areas affected by these threats, the CEO added.

Khalid said that tform also allows farmers to obtain personalized information from experts by calling and leaving voice messages with question. The system in turn contains a survey function used by development agents to collect information that enables decision-makers to make decisions in real time.

The State Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Dr. Eyasu Abreha, said that the State Minister noted that to provide valuable information to small farmers and to properly support the different agricultural value chains, information and communication technologies play an important role.

To this end, the Department facilitated the 8028 Farmers' Telephone Line. In the platform, issues related to agriculture such as fertilizer use patterns, mechanization, air conditioning, soil information and other useful information are disseminated.

Access to inputs and markets at optimal prices; He added that financial services, payments, credit and savings services, insurance and others are issues that farmers want to know, he added.

"Agriculture is the backbone of the country.Economic transformation."

He further pointed out that, although the use of Hotline by farmers has started very recently, it has multiple advantages. The ministry would work closely with stakeholders to improve the use of the system, noted the state minister.