Climate Action Ethiopia Project #5659

Build victory gardens for 500 Ethiopian households

by Consortium for Capacity Building (CCB), University of Colorado at Boulder

Project Report | Sep 14, 2015
The 2015 El Nino might challenge our success

By Amanuel Gebru and tsegay Wolde-Georgis | Volunteer and Project Leader resectively

Aridity during th rainy season

Several institutes from NOAA to the Australian Weather Bureau are releasing information that the 2015 El Nino will be much stronger than that of the 1997/98 El Nino. The Effect of El Nino is felt locally either in the form of abnormal rainfall or extreme drought. I have received reports from the project area that extreme drought has been felt in the village. According to our volunteer, Amanuel Gebru who visited the village ten days ago he stated that “Speaking about the rainfall situation- the project area is severely affected by the current drought impact. There were only three days of rain each month since the beginning of the rainy season in June, July and August.” He added that “cereals are in the field are getting wilted” and farmers waiting for at least two rains in order to have at least minimum harvest and avert total crop failure”.

The check dams for in situ water harvesting have done great but they need to be raised so that they can trap more sediment and moisture, Amanuel added. However, the treated stream is much better than the other springs that have already dried due to the poor rainy season in the village. Spring flow is very low due to the aridity due to the failure of the rainy season. There is fear that the spring might not serve them more than three months unless they receive rain in the mean time. The water flow in the small gully down the spring is lower than last year at the same time as the photos by Amanuel Gebru (below) show.

Based on the observation obtained about the apple trees especially in farmers’ field are started harvests ranging from 5-50 fruits per trees on average. Though they didn’t sell the fruits due to lack of access to the market they are adding new food variety to their diet. Our volunteer states that the use of clay pots to grow temperate fruits is a success and has impacted the community.

Dear supports: Immediate action is needed to harvest any rainfall that might come out side the main season such as in October as happened in the 1997/98 El Nino even. Thank you for your continued success.

There should have been more water than this

Optimism due to the maturity of the apple fruits

Ato Hailemariam around the houshold apple

Amanuel Gebru with Ato Hailu and Ato Hailemariam

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