Build victory gardens for 500 Ethiopian households

Dear supporters and partners

We hope that all is well with you and your loved ones during these challenging times. The problem of COVID-19 has affected our work though disruption of meetings. Our plan to work on upscaling the project during this rainy season is delayed due to the national and regional state of emergency to cope with the virus.

One of the interventions that we started this year is a supplementary irrigation technology to support the clay pot irrigation system. As shown in our demonstration project the system had helped our trees to survive despite the 9-10 months of dry months. We noticed that our fruit trees had stunted due to the shipowners of the clay pot subsurface irrigation system. The system provided water but did not help the roots to go deeper. Therefore, we came up with the funnel deep root irrigation system. It was a trial and we have the video to show it. Reports we received show that it has a lot of potentials to support the fruit trees. This was at a small scale for the demonstration of existing trees.

Drilling on the side of the trees allows us to insert a plastic pipe with holes to the tree side to be inserted to deliver water directly to the root zone of the trees to encourage deep root growth. The system reduces water waste by eliminating runoff when compared to surface irrigation. It also provides water to the soil below the existing roots helping the tree to send its roots deep and improve growth during the dry season. See the video we took during our early 2020 trip (https://youtu.be/9GOfUsnJQAw)

I plan to travel to the areas as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic subsides and expand the program as well as work on additional water harvesting systems.

Again, Thank you for your continuous support. Please keep safe.