Revitalising the Ethiopian landscape

In Africa, 874 million hectares of land are suitable for agriculture. But extreme weather and poor management mean that 83% of it is currently not fertile enough for farming.

In southern Ethiopia, changeable weather, crop diseases and outbreaks of pests make farming extremely difficult. Last year, unpredictable rains pushed harvests back by two months.

For farmers like Tafesse, these delays meant their families had to go without. With success riding on just two crops, Tafesse could not grow the food his family needed to eat or sell.

Farm Africa’s climate-smart agriculture project is a lifeline working to improve the food security of 7,000 families across southern Ethiopia – including Tafesse’s. He is one of 1,295 farmers recently trained in ‘climate-smart’ practices.

As part of this, we gave him high-quality seeds and showed him techniques to revitalise his land and boost his harvest.

Onions are now Tafesse’s forte. They are a rare find in his village, and this means he can sell them for a good price.

A year after joining Farm Africa’s project, Tafesse has doubled his earnings and his onions have given him a reliable second source of income.

And it doesn’t stop there. Thanks to healthy eating training from Farm Africa, Tafesse and his family now have a more nutritious diet, eating a variety of vegetables with every meal.