Ethiopia - Country Programme Profile 2014

ETHIOPIA

04

Scaling-up agricultural production and developing new

enterprise and market opportunities for farmers and

rural households has become a key focus of Self Help

Africa’s work in Ethiopia.

In 2013 the organisation invested upwards of €2.5 million

in eight development projects, all of which are being

implemented in collaboration with local and/or international

partners. 2014 started on a strong footing with two new

projects commencing in January, and a number of additional

projects in the pipeline.

2014

SOMALIA

KENYA

SUDAN

ERITREA

SOMALILAND

TanaLake

Addis Ababa

01. RuSACCO II

03. LivestockGrowthProgram

05. Building Resilience through seed andconservation agriculture

04. Early SeedGeneration II

2. Malt BarleyValue-ChainDevelopment

09. Improving HoneyProduction and Quality

10. ClimateSmart Agriculture

06. Scaling Up ofCommunity-Based Seed Production and Multiplication

07. STAR project

08. Pastoralist LivelihoodImprovement Project

Amhara

Oromia

SNNPR ETHIOPIA

Butajira

Gondar

VALLEYGREAT RIFT

ETHIOPIA

togo

ghana

kenya

burkinafaso

zambia

malawi

05

ETHI

OPIA

PRO

GRAM

MES

Scaling Up of Community-Based Seed Production and Multiplication

Sustainable Transformation of Agricultural Resources (STAR)

Pastoralist Livelihood Improvement Project

Improving Honey Production and Quality

Climate SmartAgriculture

Irish Aid

Irish Aid

Irish Aid

Jersey Overseas Aid Committee

Irish Aid

€ 485,000

€ 200,000

€ 114,000

€ 103,836

€ 640, 071

2014

2015

2014

2015

2014

2015

2015

2015

2016

Bureau of Agricultureof SNNPR

A Glimmer of Hope

Emmanuel Development Association

SOS Sahel, Farm Africa, Vita

SNNP Region

Oromia Region

Afar Region

SNNPR

SNNPR

Programme Donor Timeframe ImplementingPartner

ProgrammeArea

Total Budget

Rural Savings andCredit Cooperatives II

Malt Barley Value-Chain Development

Livestock GrowthProgramme

Early Seed Generation II

Irish Aid, Irish League of Credit Unions, Terrafina Microfinance

2013

2015

SACCO Unions:Awash, Keleta, Ifa Boru,Yenestanet Fana,Sidama Chalala

Oromia and SNNPRegions

Irish Aid 2012

2015

Farmer Cooperatives:Galema,Raya Kajema

Oromia Region

USAID 2013

2016

CNFA SNNP Region

Vitol Foundation 2014

2017

Koga Irrigation Water Users Service Cooperative

Amhara Region

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

Building Resilience through Seed and Conservation Agriculture

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations

2014

2015

Melkassa Agricultural Research Centre, Farmer Cooperatives, Boset Woreda Office of Agriculture. Cooperative Promotion Office

Oromia Region

08

09

10

€ 695,965

€ 353,655

€ 426,594

€ 213,211

€ 203,409

06

I n over a decade Self Help Africa has distributed small

loans to over 34,000 people in two regions of Ethiopia, to

support the development of on and off-farm enterprise

as a means of generating an income.

SHA’s RuSACCO (Rural Savings and Credit Cooperative)

Programme has supported the formation of 240 Primary

Cooperatives and five Cooperative Unions in 20 districts of

Oromia and SNNP Regions.

Training, management support, mentoring and financial

assistance has been provided to these member-run

microfinance providers.

Member-run RuSACCOs have a comparative advantage as

financial providers, and particularly so in rural communities

where less than 15% of households have access to credit.

In 2013 SHA, in collaboration with the Irish League of Credit

Unions Foundation and Terrafina Microfinance, implemented

a new phase of its RuSACCO programme.

The programme aims to promote higher levels of financial

inclusion, and support rural families to access credit with

which to develop enterprise and new income generating

opportunities.

In the coming years the RuSACCO programme will seek to

improve the operational and financial capacity of SACCO

Unions, thus supporting these unions to deliver sustainable

financial services to their members.

Total direct beneficiaries: 40,000

Self Help Africa’s Malt Barley Value-Chain Development

Project was developed on foot of research that was

carried out to assess the market potential of malt

barley as a cash crop for small-holder farmers in Oromia

Region.

The assessment indicated an existing high demand for malt

barley, and the potential for development within the sector.

The Malt Barley Project was subsequently designed to tackle

the challenged faced by malt barley producing farmers, their

institutions, and stakeholders who benefit from production.


ETHI

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GRAM

MES

01 RURAL SAVINGS AND CREDIT COOPERATIVES II

02 MALT BARLEY VALUE-CHAIN DEVELOPMENT

07

Self Help Africa’s Livestock Growth Programme is a five

year project that is designed to reduce poverty through

improving the productivity and competitiveness of

selected livestock value-chains, including meat/live animals,

hide, skins, leather and dairy production.

Backed by the US Government’s Feed the Future (FTF)

Initiative, the project is also a part of USAID-Ethiopia’s

Agricultural Growth Programme.

As part of a consortium led by US-based non-profit

organisation CNFA, Self Help Africa is responsible for a part

of the implementation of this project in Oromia and SNNP

regions.

SHA will focus on increasing the productivity and

competitiveness of selected livestock value chains and

improving the quality and diversity of household diet through

intake of livestock product. Integrated into these components

are the crosscutting objectives of engaging people living

with HIV/AIDS, gender equity, promotion of ICT solutions,

environmental mitigation and natural resource management.


Early Seed Generation II Project follows a successful pilot

that was undertaken to test farmer-led basic and pre-

basic wheat seed production in Ethiopia.

That project was one of the first of its kind in the country, and

demonstrated that farmers at community-level could produce

quality basic and pre-basic seed for sale and distribution.

The second phase of the project will test this innovative

approach to farmer-led early generation seed production

on a wider scale, and extend the reach of farmer led seed

production to a new region - Amhara, and to new crop –

maize.

The project aims to prove the viability of farmer-led

seed production as a means to address limited seed

availability in Ethiopia.

This will not only address the high demand for certified

seeds in Ethiopia, but also provide farmers with better

market access and a better price, thus enhancing

economic growth and development.


This project is being funded by the Food and Agriculture

Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations through its

improved agricultural solutions initiative. It is designed

to improve the resilience of smallholder men and women

living in drought prone areas of in the East Shewa district of

Oromia region Ethiopia.

The adoption of conservation agriculture techniques, together

with increased availability and utilisation of improved quality

seed, will help increase crop production, enhance food

security and alleviate rural poverty. The promotion of

conservation agriculture as a sustainable agriculture

practice to enhance natural resource management and crop

production will improve access of smallholder farmers to

drought-tolerent varieties of maize, teff and haricot bean

seed, which are the main food crops produced in the area.


ETHI

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03 LIVESTOCK GROWTH PROGRAMME

04 EARLY SEED GENERATION II 05 BUILDING RESILIENCE THROUGH SEED AND CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE

08

I mproving Smallholders’ Food Security in Southern Nations

Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) is an 18-month

project funded by Irish Aid, to be implemented by SHA

in collaboration with the Bureau of Agriculture of SNNPR,

Ethiopia. The project’s goal is to increase food security and

economic growth for 6,000 male and female farmers within

the region.

The project has been designed based on success and lessons

learnt from previous SHA seed projects. It aims to diversify

and increase productivity of crops through the provision of

wheat, haricot bean and teff seed, and the establishment of

farmer based seed production and multiplication. It will build

and strengthen cooperative leaders and staff, and enhance

the capacity of government extension staff to ensure effective

service delivery to smallholders.

The improvement of natural resource management is

also core to the project. Communities will be trained on

the importance of sustainable use of their resource base

to reverse the effects of environmental degradation and

promote environmental protection.


Growth in agriculture has the potential to have an

enormous impact on poverty reduction, however

Ethiopian agriculture is dominated by small-scale

subsistence and rain-fed production systems using few inputs

and characterised by low productivity. Farmers are extremely

vulnerable to external shocks such as extreme climatic events

including drought and floods, as well as diseases and volatile

global markets. This project is designed to address these

problems and improve food security in one of the poorest and

most food- insecure woredas in North Shewa zone of Oromia

Regional State.

Over 24 months Self Help Africa will directly target 2,800

(30% female) smallholders to increase their capacity to

diversify livelihood activities, improve their wealth, food and

livelihood security. The project will focus on improving the

production and productivity of crops and livestock and create

better market linkages for farmers.

Problems of soil erosion and watershed management will

be addressed through the introduction of appropriate

technologies among all stakeholders. Cooperatives will be

strengthened to ensure farmers are engaging in the relevant

value chains and linkages will be created with rural savings

and credit cooperatives (RuSACCOs) to provide farmers

with access to financial services. Linking development

initiatives with cooperatives and RuSACCOs will also ensure

sustainability of interventions in the post-project period.


ETHI

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06 SCALING UP OF COMMUNITY-BASED SEED PRODUCTION AND MULTIPLICATION 07 SUSTAINABLE TRANSFORMATION OF

AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES (STAR) PROJECT

09

The Pastoralist Livelihood Improvement Project is a pilot

that is being implemented in the remote and arid

Afar region of Northern Ethiopia, in partnership with

Emmanuel Development Association.

The project seeks to build the capability of pastoralists to

adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. The goal

is to assist communities to cope with changing climate in one

of the hottest low-lying regions in the world, and will work

specifically with semi-nomadic communities in three areas

(kebeles) of Afar Region. The project will also seek to build

knowledge and experience to allow for subsequent scaling-up

to other pastoralists.


Ethiopian beekeepers currently realise just 10% of their

production potential, and meet less than 10% of the

market demand within the country for honey.

As well as addressing the challenges presented by low

production, this project will also seek to address the current

poor quality of honey that is produced in the country.

95% of Ethiopian beekeepers use traditional beekeeping

methods and do not have access to modern hives. By

providing training and improving hive production, the honey

harvest per hive can be increased by at least 30%, while

honey producer cooperatives can assist beekeepers to market

their produce collectively to processing companies who wish

to buy in bulk.

With funding from Jersey Overseas Aid Commission, this

project will work with farmers to increase their production

and return from beekeeping. The project will train

smallholders in basic bee husbandry, queen bee rearing,

colony multiplication and nutrition. It will purchase and

distribute hives and seedlings for bees to forage and establish

nine honey cooperatives.

Cooperative members will be trained in marketing, business

planning and quality standards. This will enable collective

marketing, improve access to markets and enable farmers to

continue to invest in beekeeping and improve their livelihood

security.

Total direct beneficiaries: 130

A collaboration with SOS-Shale, FARM Africa and Vita,

this ‘Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) Project’ will

commence in January 2015.

Developed to promote a CSA approach towards achieving

food security, it is built built on three key pillars of: increasing

productivity and incomes, enhancing resilience of livelihoods,

and reducing agriculture’s contribution to climate change.

The project covers 15 districts (woredas) categorised into four

clusters, with consortium members taking responsibility for

implementation in a district each.

The CSA Project will strengthen the resilience of individuals,

households and communities by improving and diversifying

livelihoods, developing community- based management

systems of resources critical to resilience (water, wetlands,

farmlands, communal land and forests) and embedding

location specific climate change adaptation and mitigation

into its development initiative.

Total direct beneficiaries: 7,750ET

HIOP

IA P

ROGR

AMM

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08 PASTORALIST LIVELIHOOD IMPROVEMENT PROJECT

09 IMPROVING HONEY PRODUCTION AND QUALITY

10 CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURE

Documents

Ethiopia - Country Programme Profile 2014