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Seka – Agriculture

Improved agriculture through irrigation

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Project Information

  • Activities:
    – Construction of irrigation canals
    – Provision of seeds and tools for 200 hectares of arable land
    – Agricultural training for farmers
  • Target group: Farmers and their household
  • Region: Village Buyo Kechema, district Seka
  • Partner: Support for Sustainable Development (SSD)
  • Duration: 2019 – 2022

Project Goal

Project Description

PROJECT AIMS

Farmers receive food security and an income that enables them to improve their lives. Natural resources are preserved. The role of women is strengthened.

 

MEASURES

  • Irrigation system: design and construction of a complete infrastructure with weir and canal systems.
  • “Cash for work”: The construction works offer temporary jobs to needy farmers
  • Trainings: Farmers receive instructions in irrigated agriculture
  • Sustainability: Water committees are being trained. They organise the maintenance of the infrastructure

 

THE PROJECT

The rural regions of Ethiopia lack trade and industry. The increase in agricultural production is thus the lever for an initiating development in these areas. This is particularly true of streams and rivers, where the irrigation potential has so far mostly been untapped. Our project in the Seka district not far from the city of Jimma in western Ethiopia will irrigate 200 hectares of land.

We are using local labour to build the plant on the Gibe River between 2019 and 2021. The farmers are working on the digging and lining of the canals and are paid in cash for their work. Thanks to this Cash for Work program, they are better able to provide for their families. A total of 6.5 kilometres of canals will be built.

The farmers receive training to learn how to produce vegetables and fruit as efficiently as possible for market sale. They also receive shoots and improved seeds to grow effective fruit and vegetable gardens. The seedlings are grown in a specially equipped nursery, where the training courses also take place.

600 families will benefit from the project. They will be able to harvest up to three times a year thanks to irrigation: Maize and vegetables will be used for their own consumption and market sale, and at the same time can be used as fodder for their livestock.

The irrigation system is being built in cooperation with the local authorities. The regional government of Oromia will cover twenty percent of the project costs.

In order to ensure the sustainability of the project, so-called water committees are being trained. Their members organise a fair distribution of the water and the maintenance and repair of the plant.

The Problem

Seka is a rural district in the Oromia region known for its coffee. Coffee is Ethiopia’s most important export, but in a globalised market small farmers get too little money for it. A large amount of agriculture in Ethiopia is subsistence based and practises are not modernized. Often the land for cultivation is tiny. Many families have only one area at their disposal, which is not more than half the size of a football pitch. Because the farmers have no access to fertilisers and efficient seeds, the average grain harvest per hectare is only 1.25 tonnes, according to figures from the Oromia region. That is why families live from hand to mouth and often fall into hunger.

It is precisely because of the small fields that it is important to increase yields in a small area. This is particularly possible through streams and rivers, where farmers can harvest three times a year thanks to irrigation. But the potential is mostly untapped so far. In the poor villages there is a lack of know-how and capital to build up irrigation infrastructures.

Project Information

  • Activities:
    – Construction of irrigation canals
    – Provision of seeds and tools for 200 hectares of arable land
    – Agricultural training for farmers
  • Target group: Farmers and their household
  • Region: Village Buyo Kechema, district Seka
  • Partner: Support for Sustainable Development (SSD)
  • Duration: 2019 – 2022

Project Goal