In Ethiopia, the agricultural sector remains a key driver of economic growth and poverty alleviation. Agricultural productivity has grown rapidly in the past decade due to the increased use of improved seeds, fertilizer, and farm management techniques, though productivity gains have been limited to a few key commodities. Yield growth remains insufficient to meet domestic food security and industrial needs, and underdeveloped markets continue to prevent farmers from realizing returns on their input investments. Productivity growth is constrained by a lack of access to high-quality inputs and finance, efficient market systems, and research and extension services. Soil degradation and emerging challenges like climate change and shortage and rising fertilizer costs exacerbate the problem.

The Sasakawa Global 2000 Ethiopia (SG 2000-Ethiopia) program was initiated in 1993 under the umbrella of the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), financed by The Nippon Foundation. The program was aimed to strengthen the agricultural extension system, improve the skills and knowledge of extension agents and smallholder farmers, and foster locally adapted agricultural solutions so as to boost production, achieve food security, and increase smallholder farmers’ incomes. Despite the tripling of crop production since 1993, courtesy of the combined efforts of SAA and government initiatives, ongoing issues such as climate change, repeated droughts, and rising population numbers persist as significant hurdles.

In 2010, SG2000-Ethiopia experienced a significant shift, aligning its efforts with SAA's updated approach to agricultural value chains. While crop productivity remained a priority, the redesigned strategy gravitated toward a more holistic value chain approach, emphasizing aspects such as post-harvest management and agro-processing as well as market linkages. The strategy underscores the vital roles of rural youth, and the need for more inclusive advisory services, particularly to women. Additionally, it places a strong emphasis on bolstering farmer organizations, broadening market ingress, and nurturing public-private partnerships.

With the Strategy 2021-2025, the organization, now rebranded as SAA-Ethiopia, is set on a transformative journey. Drawing inspiration from its past milestones and aware of emerging challenges, its path is charted towards fostering increasingly sustainable and resilient food systems in Ethiopia.

The principal of SAA activities is to strengthen extension systems and the agricultural value chain through capacity building of all stakeholders, especially extension workers and smallholder farmers. Our training approach is a skills and knowledge cascade, in which SAA first provides Training of Trainers (TOT) to extension workers and then they train farmers (TOF). The SAA programs are structured around three key components: Regenerative Agriculture (RA), Nutrition-sensitive Agriculture (NSA), and Market-oriented Agriculture (MOA). Our wide-ranging activities are aligned with these fundamental components, ensuring a comprehensive and coordinated approach to developing sustainable agriculture.