This paper attempts to describe the status, challenges and opportunities of spices production and marketing in Ethiopia. Ethiopia has enormous potential to produce and export various spice crops. The country mainly produces and exports; chillies, turmeric, ginger, black pepper, cumin, fenugreek, coriander and so forth. Inspite of the fact that the country has tremendous potential for various spices production, the subsector of spices had remained untapped and neglected and subsequently the level of production and share of spice crops of the total export earning of the country is at considerably low level. Hence, it is essential to describe the status, challenges and opportunities of spices sector in Ethiopia, for best uses of the potential and untapped spice crop resources. Among the various spices crops, chilli/hot pepper is the most commonly produced spices in Ethiopia. However, the production of ginger has devastated in 2013 on wards due to bacterial wilt epidemic and hence, turmeric occupies the large share of its production and exports. Similarly, the Ethiopian spice exports has showed a declining trend from 2013 on wards. This is mainly due to the disease that considerably affect ginger production and the rapid increasing domestic demand of spices. Hence, the share of spices export has been remained low compared to the country's total export earnings. Therefore, intervention and provide awareness for spices growers on using improved Tsegaye Shimelis ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tsegaye Shimelis Hordofa obtained his BSc in Plant Sciences and MSc in Horticulture from Haramaya University, Ethiopia, in the year 2015 and 2018, respectively. Currently he is Lecturer and Researcher at the School of Plant Sciences of Haramaya University. His key research interest is on development of improved production technologies, soil fertility management, organic farming, horticultural crops improvement and postharvest management of horticultural crops.

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Agronomic practices for the newly released shallot variety have not been conducted in Eastern Ethiopia. To assess the effect of nitrogen fertilizer rates and intra-row spacing, a field experiment was conducted in 2017 which consisted of seven rates of nitrogen (0, 25, 50, 75,100,125 and 150 kg N ha-1) and three intra-row spacing (7.5, 10 and 12.5 cm) in factorial combination and it was laid out in a RCBD with three replications. Results of the analysis revealed that all bulb yield and yield components of the variety were highly significantly influenced by the main effects of nitrogen fertilizer and intra-row spacing. Moreover, the interaction of nitrogen fertilizer and intra-row spacing significantly influenced days to maturity, plant height, and average bulb weight and bulb dry matter. The application of 125 kg N ha-1gave high total and marketable bulb yield advantage of 32.45% (13.89 t ha-1) and 40.8% (15.47 t ha-1), respectively over the control. Plants spaced at 7.5 cm had total and marketable bulb yield advantage of 35.94% (14.54 t ha-1) and 32.83% (12.42 t ha-1), respectively over plants spaced at 12.5 cm. Therefore, intra-row spacing of 7.5 cm with the application of 125 kg N ha-1 is used for optimum yield in the study area although further research should be needed to come up with conclusive recommendation.