One woman’s mission to halt drought

She heard about a trip to visit other farmers in Ethiopia – an exchange visit organized by the Africa RISING program - to see how farmers in Tigray had managed to bring their land back from the brink of becoming desert. What she saw impressed her so much she promised to herself and the team during the visit that she will change her live forever. She started work on her farm as soon as she got home. She dug little gullies in her garden, leading water from the roof of her house towards a water pond. “Maybe in your place, when it starts to rain, you run to your houses,” she said. “I hurry to the field when it rains to make sure that the water doesn’t run away!” Building a more resilient farm She constructed additional ponds, ditches, pits made of stone that help to retain and filter water into the soil, and trenches up to three meters deep, to help capture water on her farm which can be used during the  dry season. As time went on, groups of farmers, agricultural extension staff, district level administration officials and university researchers, visited her plot to see the progress. Joining forces with others in the community, she began spreading her knowledge throughout the Hossana district, helping others make changes too. Dr. Lulseged Tamene, CIAT’s landscape ecologist working with the farmers to advise them about best practices to improve and protect the soil, said: “Through hard work, Bekelech and other women in the community have drastically improved the soils on their farms and made impressive gains in in their harvest.” Her work has clearly demonstrated the importance of integrating physical conservation measures, like trenches for collecting water, with biological conservation measures, like planting livestock grasses alongside food crops. Now, the wider community also understands that building this kind of resilience within the farming system can build productivity and sustainability. The community workin with Bekelech even use an analogy: “A sick person will not recover fast and fully if only he or she takes only medicine, without complementing it with appropriate food and additional nutrients.” Bringing the community together Bekelech’s hard work on her farm has inspired others, and now the community works together to keep structures like the ponds intact and maintained. According to Lulseged: “Farmers appreciate that the impact is not just socio-economically but also culturally important. One farmer said they sincerely appreciate the project because it linked people from different parts of the country in Hossana and Tigray with different cultures, which otherwise would never happen.” To move the project’s activities forward, farmers said they are willing and ready to pay for tested and proven methods that reduce soil erosion. They are aware that the project will end, and are keen to ensure the hard work they have already put in will pay off in the long-term. The project is implemented with CIAT, ILRI and other partners through the USAID-supported Africa RISING initiative.