{"id":68167,"date":"2024-05-17T19:02:19","date_gmt":"2024-05-18T00:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=68167"},"modified":"2024-05-17T19:02:19","modified_gmt":"2024-05-18T00:02:19","slug":"small-scale-farmers-in-ethiopia-first-came-conflict-then-devastating-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=68167","title":{"rendered":"Small-scale farmers in Ethiopia: First came conflict, then devastating drought"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Small-scale farmers in Ethiopia: First came conflict, then devastating drought<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Kalayu and other farmers can now harvest up to four times a year, instead of relying only on rain and harvesting only once a year. All photos: Sarah Easter\/CARE<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Kalayu, 70, was once a self-sufficient farmer, but \u201clast season,” he says, “there was no harvest at all. We did not have any rain.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Kalayu is from Tigray, Ethiopia, where 95 percent of potentially irrigable land in Ethiopia depends on rainfall. It is also where a two-year-long conflict ended only in November 2022, affecting an estimated\u00a0seven million<\/a>\u00a0people. The conflict led to numerous casualties, mass displacements, food insecurity, and damage to infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst came the conflict, then the drought,\u201d he says. \u201cThe conflict took all my resources. All my goats and sheep were lost. They were the source of our happiness and immediate income. We relied on their milk for nutrition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shortage of rainfall has severely affected overall agricultural production, and surface and groundwater resources across the country. In Tigray, out of 1.3 million hectares of cultivable land,\u00a0only half<\/a>\u00a0was planted due to drought where\u00a0only 37 percent<\/a>\u00a0was harvested during the main season.<\/p>\n

Nearly 1.4 million<\/a>\u00a0people in Tigray need immediate emergency food because of the drought.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe usually sow between May and June, then the rain starts in June and stays until September. We harvest in October and November. But not last year,\u201d Kalayu says.<\/p>\n

June to September is the primary rainy season which accounts for\u00a050 to 80 percent<\/a>\u00a0of the annual rainfall. The severe rainfall shortage in Tigray has put the region\u2019s predominantly agricultural population in a precarious situation. Approximately 80 percent of Tigray\u2019s residents are farmers who rely on consistent rainfall and favorable growing conditions to produce the food they need to sustain themselves and their communities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Water is a major crisis across Tigray, a predominantly arid region.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Small-scale farmers in Ethiopia: First came conflict, then devastating drought Kalayu and other farmers can now harvest up to four times a year, instead of relying only on rain and harvesting only once a year. All photos: Sarah Easter\/CARE Kalayu, 70, was once a self-sufficient farmer, but \u201clast season,” he says, “there was no harvest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[914,1912,34586,34585,5125],"class_list":["post-68167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ethiopia","tag-food-production","tag-hillol-sobhan","tag-sarah-easter","tag-small-scale-farming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68168,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68167\/revisions\/68168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}