At the start of this year, the 23 000 farmers had reaped their harvests and were safe in the knowledge that their families and livestock would eat for another year. Approximately 4319 quintals of wheat remained in storage in Nazareth waiting for the border to open again. We plan to transport and distribute them in June 2022 for July planting.
Our Ethiopia Director Aklilu Aklilu Negussie traveled to Tigray to transport cash, visit project sites and discuss post-harvest support programmes with the team and responsible regional authorities. WeForest was acknowledged by the district office for the seeds and our continued restoration activities while most NGOs had withdrawn from the region because of the conflict.
On January 7th 2022, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed issued a statement calling for “national reconciliation” as Ethiopia celebrated Orthodox Christmas and announced it would pardon and release some of the country’s most high-profile political detainees. In mid-January we called the representative of the Norwegian Development Fund in Addis to see if they could help us with the transfer of funds and ask about his analysis of the situation. He expressed some hope about the future evolution and possible reopening of banks.
Thank you for your trust and for making this possible!
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Despite the conflict continuing in Tigray, by August an incredible 604000kg of wheat and 101200kg of barley had been delivered to the 23,000 families in the 13 villages we’re working with north of Mekelle. By September security had improved, making transport safer, although access to fuel, electricity, cash and banking services and communication was still a challenge.
In November, the WeForest Ethiopia team visited the villages to meet the farmers and check on progress. To everyone’s delight, they saw that the barley had grown well and the farmers had begun to reap their harvests. The wheat fields, too, were also almost ripe for harvesting.
Hagosa G. and her family in the village of Golgol-naele received 25kg of wheat seeds at the beginning of August. “Thank you, WeForest, for reaching us at this bad time,” she told us, while weeding her farm. “If you hadn’t seen us, we would have had no harvest this year.”
Alemat B. is a forest guard from Hawille and local village administrator. “WeForest didn’t leave us during these bad times,” he said. “WeForest gave us hope, food and strength. We know we can count on you no matter what – and you can count on us to continue planting the trees.”
Gitet D., 70, owns a quarter of a hectare of land and is supported by her children and grandchildren to cultivate it. She received 50kg of barley and told our team: “We had no food or seeds left, and without your help, my land would have been barren.” Her big smile said it all.
Thank you for your trust and for making this possible!
Great news: all 23 000 farmers will have received cereal seeds by mid-August!
15 686 families (69%) have already received and sown 1012 quintals of barley and 3791 quintals of wheat (with each family receiving 50kg or 25kg, depending on land and family size). 7250 families will receive 2249 quintals of wheat this week and next (weeks 32 and 33), with each family receiving 50kg or 25kg.
Approximately 4319 quintals of wheat remain in storage in Nazareth (north of Addis) and will be distributed when transit is possible again. These seeds will secure food until next year’s new harvest for 110 000 people in 13 villages across 4 districts in Tigray.
The war is far from over
The security situation around the Desa’a forest remains difficult
Next steps
Our ambition now is still to supply vegetable seeds to these farmers to help provide a more balanced diet, as well as tools for weeding and field work.
Our costs ($1 304 375) have exceeded our budget by 11%, mainly because of the price increases: 30% for barley and 11% for wheat. We are still searching for $106 535 for the cereal deficit, $372 893 for the tools and $323 144 for pulses and vegetables.
Our team is proud to have already achieved such progress in the face of extreme adversity and in such a short timeframe.
Thank you for your trust and for making this possible!
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April 26-30: Taskforces were established for seed procurement and delivery at the regional, district and village levels.
May 17-20: Seed quality, diversity and packaging were reviewed by experts.
May 22-26: Our senior team visited the field to demonstrate our support to the villagers.
May 26: Lists of households were validated for each village to establish cereal preferences - wheat or barley. Although the plan had been to distribute an equal amount of both, wheat was by far the preferred option, as it can grow everywhere, has more uses and has a higher yield. Of the several wheat varieties available, the preferred types among the farmers are kingbird and kekeba, which are both suitable for the area.
May 26 to June 2: Seed suppliers were selected and announced.
May 26-June 6: Six central warehouses were prepared for storage and distribution. They will be managed by the district and village taskforces in collaboration with WeForest.
June 8: Transportation of barley seeds from local sources in the Tigray region began. 1012 quintals in total will be transported in trucks carrying 100 quintals each. So far, 172 quintals of barley have been transported to Hawile village and distributed to 334 households.
June 11- 23: Wheat seeds were transported from central, east and south-eastern Ethiopia in batches of up to 2000 quintals. Each batch was split between 5 or 6 trucks, each with a 400-quintal limit in case of road blockages or attacks. In all, 26 trucks carried 5 batches (10359.5 quintals in total) over 2 or 3 days. During unloading, village taskforce members check each package and put them in the stores.
June 15: The first 2000 quintals were delivered to Hawile and Dera warehouses. During distribution, the village taskforce cross-checks the beneficiary names on the list, and each beneficiary signs for their delivery. The signed document will be delivered to the WeForest office.
Mitigating risks during procurement and distribution:
Financial situation:
We will be spending $1,176,474 on cereals instead of the expected $1m and will borrow the rest from our restoration activities until we can find those additional funds. This was because:
We also plan to supply vegetable seeds to these farmers in order to help provide a more balanced diet, especially as, due to the shortfall in funds, we missed the window to plant pulses after prioritising the cereal procurement. However, vegetables can only be grown by families living near water (either a river or the water basins constructed as part of our project activities) - about 30% of the total households.
Prioritising cereals also meant that there was no money left over for tools. However, we’d still like to provide these, as they are crucial for weeding and maintaining the cereals, as well as for those families who will receive vegetable seeds.
Therefore we are urgently looking for an additional donation of $522,000 ($176,000 for the cereals deficit and $346,000 for the tools).
Testimonial:
Gebreyohanes Gebreeyesus (58) lives in Endamariam Kushet (Seret village), and is head of a family of seven. His livelihood mainly depends on farming his 0.5 ha of land. He lost part of his crop to locusts. “You bring hope to this village and the farmers,” Gebreyohanes told us as he ploughed his farm in readiness for the cereals. “We don’t have enough seeds to grow the next crop. Our children are desperate and fleeing to towns to seek refuge from the war. Thank you for the project and for giving us hope again.”
Watch a video of farmers ploughing their land in preparation for the WeForest seeds: https://youtu.be/-c6bcPGCjQU
More good news
WeForest’s core activities are continuing: planting sites are being prepared, and livelihood and nursery activities are continuing, such as the small ruminant procurement in Atsbi village that started on May 22.
Thank you for your trust and for making this possible!
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