Council of Ministers Regulations No. 418/2017
COUNCIL OF
MINISTERS REGULATIONS TO PROVIDE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ETHIOPIAN SOIL
RESOURCE INSTITUTE
WHEREAS,
it is found necessary to ensure healthy and fertile soil for enhancing
agricultural production and productivity in a rapid and sustainable manner, for
ensuring food security at household level, playing a key role in combating the
negative impact of climate change and in building green economy;
WHEREAS,it
is found necessary to establish state-of-the-art information system with
updated and detailed soil resource, fertility and landscape information for
ensuring fertile and healthy soil in a sustainable manner;
WHEREAS,
it is found necessary to ensure that soil information to be generated by
various private and governmental organization in harmonized manner and of high
quality;
WHEREAS,
it is found necessary to build strong national capacity to organize soil
resource, fertility and landscape information with analysis and mapping
capacity with required international standards;
WHEREAS,
it is found necessary to make soil fertility improvement and soil management
recommendations available and accessible to farmers, pastoralists, and other
users using state-of-the-art geospatial technologies based on soil testing
result at parcel level, crop requirement, and ecological zones;
WHEREAS,
it is found necessary to establish strong institution to ensure accomplishment
of soil related agriculture and rural development policies, strategies,
procedures and related legal frameworks
effectively;
NOW,
THEREFORE, this Regulation is issued by the Council of Ministers pursuant to
Articles 5 and 38 of the Definition of Power and Duties of the Executive Organs
of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Proclamation No. 916/2015(as
amended by Proclamation No.942/2016)
1. Short Title
This Regulation may be cited as the “Ethiopian Soil Resource
Institute Establishment Council of Ministers Regulation No. 418 /2017”.
2. Definition
In this Regulation:
1/ “soil” means the unconsolidated mixture of
mineral, organic matter, gases, liquid, and countless organisms on the
immediate surface of the earth used to support plant growth;
2/ “soil
fertility” means the status of soil having optimum nutrients and other inputs
(water, air, organisms, and balanced chemical content) to sustain plant growth
and productivity;
3/ “soil
resource” means a natural resource and often characterized by amounts of
materials existent in various soil types;
4/ “soil
data” means soil resource/fertility data either raw or processed that is
directly collected from field, obtained from secondary sources or generated
from satellite imagery;
5/ “soil
survey” means a systematic study of the soil of an area including
classification and mapping of the properties and the distribution of various
soil units;
6/ “soil
test” means activity done to estimate the available concentrations
of essential plant nutrients, in order to determine fertilizer
recommendations;
7/ “soil
map” means a map prepared by integrating data from various sources (field,
satellite imagery, legacy data); and showing the distribution of soil types,
soil fertility status and fertilizer requirement of an area;
8/ “information”
means a resource generated from any raw data obtained in the form of text,
audio, visual, map or orchestrated in any form;
9/ “geospatial
technology” means technologies used to collect, visualize, measure, analyze and
interpret earth's features;
10/ “fertilizer”
means any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is
added to a soil to supply plant nutrients essential for plant growth;
11/ “landscape”
means the natural features that distinguish one part of the earth's surface
from another; and is the portion of land or territory visible in a single view,
including all its natural characteristics;
12/ “ecosystem”
means a natural system in which living and non-living things are found
interacting with each other in a dynamic process;
13/ “environment”
and “pollution” shall have the meanings assigned to them under Article 2(6) and
(12) of the Environmental Pollution Control Proclamation No. 300/2002,
respectively;
14/ “Region”
means any state referred to under Article 47(1) of the Constitution of the
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and includes Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa
city administration;
15/ “Ministry”
means the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resource;
16/ “person”
means any a natural or juridical person;
17/ any expression in the masculine gender includes
the feminine.
3. Establishment
1/ There
is established the Ethiopian Soil Resource Institute (in this Regulation
referred to as the “Institute”) as an autonomous federal government office
having its own legal responsibility.
2/ The Institute shall be accountable to the
Ministry.
4. Head Office
The Institute shall have its head office in Addis Ababa and may
have branch offices elsewhere, as may be necessary.
5.
Objective
The Institute shall have the following main objectives:
1/ establish modern and world class soil
information system and build national capacity in the field so as to improve
soil health and fertility;
2/ provide updated soil resource and landscape
information, soil fertility status and fertilizer recommendation maps/atlases
to clients with the required quality and quantity on time using various
communication methods;
3/ build up capacity of soil testing centers and
achieve international accreditation;
4/ ensure the proper implementation of policies,
strategies, laws, directives and manuals to implement soil related activities
and agreements, upon approval;
5/ strengthen the synergy and strategic
partnership with national and international organizations working for the same
purpose.
6. Power and Duties
The Institute shall have the following powers and duties:
1/ coordinates, leads and monitors national soil
resource and fertility information generation, analysis, interpretation,
dissemination and storage activities, in order to establish a functional soil
resource information system;
2/ by coordinating federal and regional
institution establish a uniform soil information system assisted by technology;
create a sustainable exchange of standardized information among the
institutions, and thereby serve as a center of soil database; and disseminate
information to users;
3/ periodically conduct soil fertility survey,
analyzes the samples, interpret the data and prepare soil test based fertilizer
recommendation, verify the result and disseminates to relevant stakeholders;
4/ document best practices and geo-information
technologies from countries that have a well-organized soil information system
and adapt them to local conditions and disseminates to local users;
5/ builds the capacity of Federal and Regional
soil testing laboratories so as to discharge their functions by maintain
competitive international standard and monitors the output quality through
sample exchange program and timely inspection;
6/ build up mobile soil testing technological
capacity in order to provide expedient soil test based fertilizer utilization
and soil management advisory service to farmers/pastoralists at parcel level;
7/ conduct soil classification and mapping of the
country at various scale;
8/ conduct soil survey and characterization
activities for priority development areas, monitor and validate such activities
performed by other stakeholders to maintain their standards;
9/ conduct crop yield mapping using modern
digital technologies;
10/ conduct cursory survey on degraded and
rehabilitated soils in collaboration with concerned stakeholders;
11/ evaluate the long term impact of fertilizers on
soils and the environment, and inform the results to the concerned bodies;
12/ upon request, provide soil survey, analysis,
and interpretation services to clients with reasonable service fee determined
by Government;
13/ act as a center of excellence in the continent,
provide tailored training, advisory services and soil analysis to clients,
including from countries in Africa;
14/ regularly monitor the health and status of
agricultural investment lands and inform the results to relevant stakeholders;
15/ facilitate condition for mutual support between
federal and regional agricultural educations, research, extension and
development institutions;
16/ create national and international
cooperation and strategic partnership in relation to its mission;
17/ formulate or initiate and coordinate the
formulation of policies, strategies, laws, directives and manuals to implement
soil related agreements; and upon approval, ensure their implementation;
18/ own property, enter into contracts, sue and be
sued in its own name;
19/ perform such other activities conducive to
the fulfillment of its objectives.
7. Organization of the Institute
The Institute shall have:
1/ a
Soil Resource Advisory Board (in this Regulation referred to as “Board”)
2/ a
Director General and as may be necessary, Deputy Director Generals to be
appointed by the Government; and
3/ the
necessary staff.
8. Members of the Board
The Chairperson and members of the Board shall be appointed by the
Government and their number shall be determined as appropriate.
9. Powers and Duties of the Board
The Board shall:
1/ deliberate
and forward recommendation on soil resource and fertility related proposals, programs
and projects and other issues that contribute towards achieving the objective
of the Institute.
2/ cause
issuance of certificate of competence to Institute by other independent body;
3/ establish
a technical advisory committee; designate members of the committee and receive
technical evaluation reports from the committee.
10. Meeting of the Board
1/ The
Board shall meet once in three months and may have extraordinary meetings as
may be necessary.
2/ There
shall be quorum when more than half of the members are present at a
meeting.
3/ The
decision of the Board shall be made by a majority vote; in case of a tie, the
chairperson shall have a casting vote.
4/ Without prejudice to the provisions of this
Article, the Board may adopt its own rules of procedure.
11. Powers and Duties of the Director General
1/ The
Director General shall be the chief executive officer of the Institute and shall subject to the general
direction of the Ministry, direct and administer the activities of the Institute.
2/ Without
limiting the generality of sub-article (1) of this Article, the Director
General shall:
a) exercise
the power and duties of the Institute specified under Article 6 of this
Regulation;
b) employ and administer employees engaged in
support services of the Institute in accordance with the federal civil service
laws and, in the case of professionals engaged in the core functions of the
Institute, in accordance with directives approved by the Government following
the basic principles of the federal civil service laws;
c) prepare
and submit work program and budget of the Institute to the Ministry and
implement the same upon approval by the Government;
d) effect
payments in accordance with approved budget and work program of the Institute;
e) represent
the Institute in dealing with third parties;
f) prepare
and submit to the Ministry the performance and financial reports of the
Institute.
3/ The
Director General may delegate part of his powers and duties to other officials
and employees of the Institute to the extent necessary for the efficient
performance of the activities of the Institute.
12.Powers
and Duties of the Deputy Director Generals
The Deputy Director Generals shall:
1/ assist the Director General in planning,
organizing, leading and coordinating the activities of the Institute;
2/ execute other duties specifically assigned by
the Director General;
3/ represent
the Director General in his absence, when specifically delegated by the
Director General.
13.
Budget
The Institute’s budget shall be allocated by the Government.
14. Books of Account
1/ The Institute shall keep complete and accurate
book of accounts.
2/ The book of account and financial documents of
the Institute shall be audited annually by the Auditor General or an auditor
designated by him.
15. Transfer of Rights and Obligation
The
rights and duties transferred to the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organization
under Article 17 of the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organization
Establishment Proclamation No. 79/1997(as amended by Proclamation No 382/2004)
with respect to National Soil Testing Center are transferred to the Institute.
16. Effective Date
This Regulation shall enter into force on the date of its publication
in the Federal Negarit Gazette.
Done
at Addis Ababa, this 24th day of November, 2017.
HAILEMARIAM DESSALEGN
PRIME MINISTER OF THE FEDERAL
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ETHIOPIA
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