The Meta Abo Brewery Share Company announced that its local barley sourcing programme has become effective in increasing yields as well as putting positive impact on the livelihood of farmers. Meta has given recognition to outstanding farmers and five farmer union partners. Diageo Corporate Relations Director said, the brewery has been working to create link between agriculture and industry sectors as per Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) goals. The brewery has been getting 50 per cent of its barley consumption from smallholder farmers last budget year. It will work together with stakeholders to fully cover barely sourcing from local suppliers by the end of 2017. Brewery Agri-business Development Director said that the program is unique because its partners are providing comprehensive support and input to smallholder farmers. The package consists of mechanization, chemicals, seeds, credit, training, purchase contract as well as crop insurance. The Agri-business Director further revealed that in its third year of the program, the business invested U$ 4,304,984 of which U$ 573,997 was allocated for pre-financing to the farmers, and purchased 8,000 tonnes local barely from commercial and smallholder farm sources. The brewery partnered directly with 6,113 farmers in West Arsi and South West Shoa zones, providing training, interest free pre-financing, quality seed and fertilizer, along with a number of other inputs for the cultivation of high quality barley. According to Oromia Transformation Agency Agriculture Commercialization Cluster Coordinator, working together with both the brewery and farmers has benefitted the programme to work with 6,113 farmers from 800 initially. Smallholder farmers supply over 374,000 qunintals of barley and more than 23,000 farmers have become beneficiary through entering into one year contract. On his part the Industry State Minister said that the government has been assisting farmers to produce barley through providing modern technologies and creating value chain to play their role in building industry led economy. In Ethiopia, barley is the fifth most important cereal crop after teff, wheat, corn, and sorghum.http://allafrica.com/stories/201509101145.htmlhttp://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/JBAH/article/download/22519/23177