Ato Abebe’s Story: Improved Inputs are Improving Lives
Ato* Abebe Guda, is 40 years old and has a large 10 person family. Ato Abebe has 1.5 hectares of land, the equivalent to approximately 3 acres. The yield from his small farm is used to feed his family and the remainder is sold at market to provide income. Unfortunately, Ato Abebe’s land had very low productivity and the technologies he used were inefficient.
Ato Abebe managing his maize plot
CPAR-Ethiopia introduced the Farmer Field School approach under the Farmers First program and organized different Farmer Field School groups in target Kebeles. Ato Abebe was able to join the Lelistu** Farmer Field School group which was established in Bochesa Silasie KA of Were-Jarso woreda. The group has 30 male and 15 female members and is engaged in crop production.
After he joined the Lelistu Farmer Field School group, things started to change. He participated in the agronomic practices training which included training topics such as, inter-cropping, seed selection, row plantation, and integrated pest management.
In addition to the training and technical support, Ato Abebe has received input of improved maize seed from CPAR. With this support, he sows on half a hectare of land using natural fertilizer (manure).
"Look, it is deep green and has a strong stand"
Ato Abebe reflects, “I have been informed for many years that improved seeds must get chemical fertilizer to be more productive and even to grow well. But in my Farmer Field School group I have learned that natural fertilizer (manure) can replace chemical fertilizer and it can even be used for more than three years.”
Ato Abebe describes his success “As an experiment I tried this technology on the improved maize seeds, and as you can see it is interesting, look it is deep green and has strong stand. I hope I will have more than expected result from this half hectare of land.”
*Ato in the Amharic language is the equivalent of “Mr.” and is used widely by Ethiopians of various linguistic backgrounds
** Lelistu is an Oromifa word meaning green and attractive
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