Minister of Agriculture of Ethiopia Addis Arga said that the area of land cultivated through cluster farming reached 13 million hectares in the Ethiopian fiscal year ended July 7, 2026. When cluster farming was introduced in 2011 E.C., it began with 600,000 hectares of cultivated land. By 2018 E.C., the area cultivated through cluster farming had reached 13 million hectares, the Minister said. He added that around 9.5 million farmers have been organized under cluster farming and are cultivating their land through the system, resulting in a 29 percent increase in productivity. In addition, the institutional arrangement will provide an alternative mechanism through which smallholder farmers can organize themselves and transition toward medium-scale agricultural production and agro-processing activities.