Reduced crop harvests due to a shortage of rain

Photo credit: Pixabay

Water in Jedana, Ethiopia

Ethiopia | Food/HIV | Food Security | Urban Gardening | Income Generation | Micro Savings

Posted by Tim Magee

EXCERPT

Sebeta Town, Ethiopia
Alem Yalew Adela (Ethiopia) and Margie Huang (US/Ethiopia) are working on a Disaster Risk Reduction program and an income generation program with 265 families in Sebeta Town, Ethiopia. Community members suffer from chronic poverty due to lack of sources of income generation and savings/microcredit — and also suffer from reduced crop harvests due to a shortage of rain linked to climate change.

The DRR program is unique in the sense that team Ethiopia intends to hold a participatory workshop with the community members in order to identify their knowledge of risk, vulnerability, and traditional coping techniques related to food security. They will then combine this local knowledge with scientific knowledge in order to present to the community evidence-based techniques that will reduce risk, and prepare them for climate change impacts that might adversely affect the products that they hoping to develop.

One of the main products that they’re hoping to develop are vegetables from urban gardens that local/regional businesses have a demand for.  They’re hoping to partner with these businesses to develop vocational training that will help them develop improved agricultural practices for these which are in demand. Their project also includes developing a demonstration site for these evidence-based techniques that can show others in the community how to increase productivity and how to adapt their production techniques to climate change: proper water utilization and the development of drainage during high rainfall.

The long-term impact of the project is for these community members to have sufficient income to fulfill family need, have increased crop harvests that can adapt to a changing climate, for their children to be able to attend school and for the women could be able to have the health and strength to lead the productive, meaningful, prosperous lives they need to leave the vicious cycle of poverty and contribute to the development of their communities.

Read the full article: CSD-I