A Pioneer of New Techniques

Gebrehawarya Wereta lives in the village of Maygua in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. In Tigray, the climate has become warmer and the rainfall scarcer over the last 50 years. In order to survive as farmers, the population has had to use its ingenuity to find new ways to irrigate their land and diversify their agricultural production.

The village of Maygua lies 2,600 metres above sea level and consists of several smallholdings neatly lined with cereal fields and vegetable patches. Gebrehawarya, a youthful 72-year-old, has five children aged between 14 and 30 years and is also a grandfather of two.

The Belg Rains Have Disappeared: In his 45 years in Tigray, Gebrehawarya has experienced a dramatic change in the region's climate.

"A long time ago there used to be sufficient rainfall, but now there is only a little rain. In those days we had two periods of rain - the kiremt and belg - but for the last ten years the belg rains have not appeared. It seems to us that the increasing deforestation is resulting in less rain. It used to be cold here as well, but now it is like the hotter lowland areas where I worked in the old days. These factors have been making life increasingly difficult."

New Produce: Gebrehawarya describes himself as a pioneer in the adoption of new agricultural techniques and technology: "A decade ago, I constructed my own well in just one month. I was very strong then," he boasts. He has also introduced a system of drip-irrigation: pipes, with small holes in them, have been laid out in the fields. Water from a water tank is fed into the pipes and trickles out through the holes, providing a small but constant supply of water for the growing crops.

"In order to change the way things were going, we needed new technology," says Gebrehawarya. "We knew the main problem was shortage of water. With help from the REST organisation, we have constructed four hand-pumped wells so that we can pump water to our fields."

As the site is at the bottom of the watershed, the four metre shallow wells collect enough ground water for the community to irrigate their land, regardless of the amount of rain that has fallen. As a result of better irrigation, Gebrehawarya and his wife, 38-year-old Hadessh Kassa, have been able to increase the number of harvests per year and expand into new crops.

In May, at the end of the dry season, Gebrehawarya's plot contained cabbages, alfalfa, wheat, barley, tomatoes, onions and garlic. Last year, the new wells made a dry-season harvest possible. In total, their harvest brought in 3,500 birr ($310), a substantial amount for an Ethiopian farmer. Last year, for the first time in their lives, they were even able to save money.

Milk, Honey, and Apples: In an enclosure, Gebrehawarya keeps a healthy-looking Holstein cow that is fed on alfalfa brought from the fields. A year ago, 60 farmers in Maygua established a milk cooperative. Gebrehawarya thinks the cooperative might lead to other resource-pooling arrangements in the future.

Gebrehawarya has of late also purchased several modern beehives and planted over 50 apple trees. He explains that he started to grow apples because they fetch 25 birr ($2.20) per kilogram. The prices for other produce are 2-4 birr ($0.18-0.35) for one cabbage, and 700 birr ($62) per quintal of wheat. The apples are sold locally and to various market traders.

I Don´t Want a Tractor: Asked about what else needs to be done to ensure that life in the village remains sustainable, Gebrehawarya stresses his desire for more technology, although he is quite content to continue ploughing with his two oxen, which can plough 40 square metres a day.

"I do not want a tractor, as my land is too small, but I would like an electric water pump," he says. He also suggests that water-harvesting projects should be intensified so that more families in the area can benefit from the dry-season harvest.

Read more about the work of REST and The Development Fund.