By Coletta Wanjohi

Whether you find yourself in the heart of a bustling city or in a quiet village in Ethiopia, expect a flatbread to be part of every meal.  

Taste is guaranteed, thanks to traditional baking methods that ensure a serving of fresh bread is never far away, even in the more remote parts of the country.

"In Ethiopia, everybody knows how to bake bread, whether in the modern or traditional way," Beza Meseret, a native of the East African nation, tells TRT Afrika. "Bread is as essential to our culinary heritage as it is to our existence."

Ethiopia has historically struggled with self-sufficiency in wheat.

"Ethiopia used to spend nearly US $1 billion annually on wheat imports to meet domestic demand, as local production was insufficient," states a report from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali's office.

After assuming office in 2018, the Nobel Peace laureate embarked on an ambitious project to boost internal wheat production. At the 2025 African Union summit last month, he termed it "a risk" that paid off.

"Over the past five years, we have doubled our cultivated land, increasing crop production to nearly 70 million tonnes. Wheat accounts for 40% of this total," PM Ahmed told the AU assembly in Addis Ababa.

Ahmed's Climate Resilient Wheat Value Chain Development initiative was boosted by funding of $94 million, majorly from the African Development Bank.

This was done under the bank's Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) programme, which aims to help Africa boost its agricultural production through high-impact technologies.

Of the 27 countries covered by the project, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Ethiopia were identified for wheat production.  

"Over the last three years, the TAAT Wheat Compact has partnered with the Ethiopian government and seed companies to make heat-tolerant wheat varieties available to farmers in the country's lowlands, where high daytime temperatures reduce yield from regular wheat varieties," says a mission statement of the African Development Bank.

The Afar, Amhara, Oromia and Somali regions of Ethiopia are the target areas for production.

The project aims to benefit 2.3 million people, 50% of them women, by increasing household incomes, creating jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities, and strengthening food and nutrition security.

Road to self-sufficiency

The improved variety of wheat yields two harvests, with the second one having a shorter growing cycle.

In 2022-23, the country produced 15.1 million tonnes of wheat from cultivation across 4.18 million hectares. "Of these, 1.33 million hectares were part of a special irrigation scheme while crops spread over 2.85 million hectares were harvested during the main season," Bilene Seyoum, spokesperson for the Ethiopian PM's office, tells TRT Afrika.

By 2023/24, the yield grew to 23 million tonnes of wheat while the span of cultivated land expanded to 6.58 million hectares. A total of 2.97 million hectares were part of the irrigation scheme while 3.61 million hectares were earmarked for cultivation during the normal season.

Data from Ethiopia's ministry of agriculture shows that approximately 3.4 million farmers were involved in irrigated wheat production in 2023-24, which Seyoum says "demonstrates significant investment in this area"

In 2024/2025, the country intends to expand land for wheat production to 8.37 million hectares, of which 4.27 million hectares will be under irrigation while 4.1 million hectares will be for normal wheat production in the main agricultural season.

Hurdles along the way

As the country strives to achieve self-sufficiency of agricultural production, it also has to contend with humanitarian challenges.

The World Food Programme (WFP) states that Ethiopia has become "one of the world's hunger hotspots, driven by conflict, displacement and extreme weather patterns".

"A total of 5.5 million people, of whom 1.7 million are internally displaced, are severely food insecure," WFP says on its website.  

The statement mentions that the country "urgently needs $338 million to continue delivering assistance to Ethiopia's most vulnerable people up to May 2025".

While acknowledging that the quest for self-sufficiency in wheat and food production is "a challenging and demanding path", the PM's office insists that the country remains resolute in achieving its goal.

"When we say Ethiopia is self-sufficient in wheat, we mean that the country no longer relies on wheat imports due to a significant increase in domestic production in recent years. As a result, the need for wheat imports has been eliminated. Ethiopia has completely ceased wheat imports."