Even though it was possible to cultivate plenty of water from the river in the valley through using water pumps in conjunction with that traditional irrigation canals and produced adequate foods, farmers Hussen Yimam was unable to do this. Due to one-time grain and other food items production per year farmers Hussen was never provide enough food and care for his wife, six children’s and his grand mom. Small amounts of land in conjunction with that of once a year production cultures could not be sufficient for the markets even for family hand to mouth consumption.
Hussen Yimam live in Kedida (07 ) Kebele under Kallu Woreda Amhara Regional State Province in the North east Amhara, one of the poorest and uncultivated areas in Ethiopia. Of the district’s 120000, 65 percent were lived in poverty. Their land is highly vulnerable for erosion and degradation. In addition to the soil erosion urbanization as one of the surpluses their lands and lead them to serous poverty. Hussen also categorized among those poorest farmers.
Under Livelihood creation and diversification project Kelem Ethiopia provide water pumps with full accessories for the farmers who had possibility to use irrigation in order to enhance the farmer’s and the parents live. Hussen Yimam was one the farmers who get water pump support; farmer based live skill training and continuous advice from the Kelem Ethiopia. Through using settled selection criteria by project staff and government agricultural sectors and local community representatives Mr. Hussen was selected as one of the water pump provision beneficiaries. In hoping that the water pump could help him to use irrigation by using pumps to taking the water from the river and take water through traditional canals and secure better living conditions.
After the selection and identification of beneficiaries project based on the stated criteria our staff( Kelem Ethiopia agricultural expertise) provide training for all beneficiaries and concerned stakeholders in the grass route level on how to farmers physical, mental and social setup were going to ready for change. It is training focus on how to mobilize community capacity and integrate to our project objectives technically.
After attending the farmer field school training sessions organized and technical training by the project, Mr. Hussen immediately start to use the water pump and planted Tomato, mango and onion. In addition to those he started to use irrigation for those previously an irrigated banana and lemon and maximized their production from seasonal to year on year. Hussen himself described the change in his live as follow:
