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|  | | A Soldier's Story, Ethiopia | | An ex-soldier who returned from Ethiopia’s war against Eritrea with nothing of his own and few prospects, Abu Mohammad has seen his life transformed since he became involved in the farmers irrigation co-operative established with the support of Self Help in his native Dodota.
A father of four who returned from his war-time service ‘a landless peasant’, he managed to only scrape a living before the Self Help Development International intervention, and for much of the time depended on the allocation of grain available monthly in food aid relief to his family and himself.
The arrival to Dodota in 1999 of Self Help’s integrated rural development programme began to change all that for Abu Mohammad however, and within a year the ex-army lieutenant was one of 130 farmers in an irrigation co-operative established at Koro, beside the Awash River in the district’s parched and dry eastern Arsi Zone.
With the support of SHDI and the local Ministry for Agriculture, the co-operative members first of all set to building a pump house with twin pumps beside the river, and with support from the Ministry of Water and Natural Resources built a series of irrigation canals and locks to carry water to a 40 hectare plot adjacent to the fast flowing Awash. |
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| A series of workshops and training sessions organised by SHDI project staff and outreach workers assisted the farmers in establishing the necessary administrative and management structures for their irrigation co-op, while training demonstrations were also organised to promote improved farming methods amongst the group.
As the final piece in the jigsaw Self Help and the local Agricultural Research Institute arranged for the distribution of improved seed stock to Dodota’s Koro Co-Operative – who divided the irrigated site into quarter-hectare plots to grow what became in many cases their first ever ‘cash crops’.
Abu Mohammad, like many of his neighbours, grew onions in their first season – and harvested 21.5 quintals from his plot, which he sold for 4,760 birr (€460). It was a reward far beyond his wildest dreams – far more than his army salary had been, and more money than he had ever earned in a single year. Better still – the payment was just half of his potential annual income, thanks to an irrigation system which enabled the Koro Co-Operative members to produce two harvests a year from their holdings.
Abu Mohammad is now into his third year as a farm member of the co-op, and in that time says that his life has been completely transformed. He has purchased a house in Dera town (10 km away) where his family now live and all four of his children attend the local high school (built with the support of SHDI), while his wife contributes to the family income by rearing poultry which she purchased as a member of the Dera Women’s Savings and Credit Scheme (SACCO), which was also established by Self Help.
For part of the year Abu Mohammad lives at the Awash adjacent to his irrigated holding. He is considering teaming up with other farmers to purchase their own pumps to irrigated a further riverside plot, and believes that a scheme such as theirs has the potential to help many more of his neighbours.
‘Now we have seen what can be done we want to do more’, he said. ‘Everybody wants to stand on their own two feet, and thanks to this project we have been able to’, he said. | | Related Topics | | | | | |
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| | | | | Self Help Africa is a limited liability company. Company number: 105601 Charity No. 6663 (Ireland)
The organisation has offices in Ireland at: Annefield House, Dublin Road, Portlaoise, Co. Laois Tel: 00 353 (0)57 8694034 - Fax: 00 353 (0)57 8694038, and in the United Kingdom at : Second Floor Suite, Westgate House, Dickens Court, Off Hills Lane, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY1 1QU. Tel : 0044-(0)1743 277170
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