Factors Impeding Effective Crop Production in Ethiopia

In the Ethiopia crop agriculture, pillar in balancing the food diet of the majority people, as a whole and the cereals specifically is facing serious and vast challenges which in turn affect the supply of food grains. Various research institutes in Ethiopia have revealed several factors which affect crop production over the past three decades, but their findings are not synthesized into a whole and difficult to access as such. This study attempts to review various existing research findings and present them holistically. The most common factors are lack of more recently introduced improved seeds, initial capital for investment, loss of cropland, labor, pesticides, invasive alien species, farm storage techniques, methods of small scale irrigation, and religious and cultural challenges. Thorough understanding these constraints, researchers and policy makers can make useful recommendations to crop growers’ on farm improvement system and not on how to devastate well designed sustainable crop production systems. Succinct and collated scientific information would help to shade light on the best standards to overcome most factors affecting crop production and enhance the productivity and quality of crops. Moreover, this paper offers more implications and recommendations for various stakeholders in Ethiopian and similar contexts.