Ethiopian soil laboratory infrastructure: CASCAPE scoping mission

Food security is one of the main issues in Ethiopia. Large amounts of money are spent on food security programs set up by federal- and regional governments and other organisations. Decisionmakers, as well as researchers, share a dependency upon reliable data on soils, water and crops. The authors of this report believe that the data from the Ethiopian soil laboratories are not reliable enough for decision-making purposes. Ethiopian laboratories need to improve their analytical services. The main problems concern the organisational set-up, and not merely a lack of budgets for facilities. Apart from organisational problems, managerial-, human resources-, technical-, instrumental- and supply issues were identified.