World Food Programme – Purchase for Progress Case Studies SMALLHOLDER FARMER Dejeyetnush Yenesew, a female head of household & PC leader in

Farmer Dejeyetnush Yenesew at a Glance Location: Shende town, Wonberema Woreda, West Zone, Amhara Region FO affiliation: Shende PC Member since: 1997 Spouse member n/a Household head: Female (Dejeyetnush) HH members: 6: 2 male, 4 female Ha cultivated: 3ha owned, ½ ha rented Crops cultivated: Wheat, teff, maize, beans, millet Livelihood sources: Agriculture and restaurant Assets: House (with iron roof), 2 oxen, 3 cows, 4 sheep, 17 chickens

A female farmer demonstrating complex production and marketing Female farmer Dejeyetnush Yenesew grows a diversity of crops each year and engages in careful analysis to decide what and how much to produce. Her brother is a staff member of her primary cooperative (PC) and gives her advice based on his experience. She grows wheat as a cash crop because the wide availability of improved seed leads to her highest yields.

Beans are another cash crop, bringing a high price and high demand. Dejeyetnush plants millet as another cash crop, which, along with teff for family consumption, requires less fertilizer and can be stored for long Farmerperiods. and This community year, Dejeyetnush organizer also planted a hectare of maize as yet another cash crop. She wanted to rotate the cropsDejeyetnush grown Yenesewon her land in front and of herwas house able to purchase some improved seeds for maize. Unfortunately, the maize seeds were not compatible with the cold climate of the Amhara highlands, and produced poorly. Dejeyetnush‟s fields are rain fed and produce once per year. She uses compost, soil bunds (a combination of ditches and ridges built along a contour), and crop rotation to preserve water and nutrients in the soil. In addition, she adds chemical fertilizer and pesticides bought from Shende PC. This year Dejeyetnush constructed a small irrigation system she plans to use for vegetables like onions. Her main constraints are the limited supply of improved seeds, especially those adapted to the cold highland climate. For post-harvest storage, Dejeyetnush purchases the “best bags” she can and keeps them within a gotera, a 1.2 Mt traditional storage container made of bamboo. Dejeyetnush also applies chemical and traditional pesticides to her stored crops, a practice which Purchase for Progress (P4P) experts discourage. Improperly applied chemicals may contribute to chemical resistance in weevils and unsafe working conditions for the farmers, who often neglect proper protection. According to P4P Ethiopia‟s technical specialist, fumigation should only be done by trained, qualified experts, preferably at the Cooperative Union (CU) level, when commodities have been aggregated in greater bulk from farmers and PCs. Dejeyetnush calculated her exact costs of production. A half hectare of wheat costs 1,100 ETB (80 USD1) to cultivate, including fertilizer and improved seed purchases, with an additional 1,500 ETB (110 USD) to rent the land. She sells the wheat at 3,160 ETB (230 USD). That half hectare yields over 2,000 ETB (150 USD) profit on owned land and just 560 ETB (40 USD) on rented land. Dejeyetnush‟s numbers illustrate the frequent complaint of other farmers that too little land and being forced to rent additional hectares reduces the profits of one‟s yield (technically, all land is owned by the government, but some certified land owners will sublet to others at high cost). The profit generated from farming helps Dejeyetnush cover different costs like her children‟s school fees (her daughter is in university), consumer purchases (recently, a television) and other expenses. Dejeyetnush prefers to sell to her PC because the “PC belongs to us,” the farmers, she says. She appreciates her dividend, cost-effective inputs, its reliable weighing scale (those of traders are not always trustworthy, she says) and the

1 For this and all other currency conversions between Ethiopian Birr (ETB) and US Dollar (USD), rounded figures from: Coinmill.com. The Currency Converter. http://coinmill.com/ETB_USD.html. Accessed 28 July and 4 August 2010. higher price—her PC pays more per 100 kg than traders. She sells beans to traders because her PC does not purchase beans since local availability is limited. Dejeyetnush must transport her produce about 40 minutes to market it, at a cost of 10 ETB (0.73 USD) per 100kg. She learns market prices by talking to friends and traders. She will stock or sell her commodities based on price, a fairly unique practice for her area, she says, where few farmers are aware enough to wait for higher prices when the market is glutted. Because Dejeyetnush‟s quality is so high, she sometimes sells it as seed stock, fetching an even higher price. Good quality produce brings the highest prices from PCs and some traders, she says, so she only sells her best crop, saving the lower grade harvest for family consumption. Within the last 9 months of 2010, she sold 3 Mt maize and 2.7 Mt wheat to Shende PC, 0.6 Mt millet to farmers and 0.4 Mt millet for traders. Last year she sold only 3.5 Mt of wheat.

Connecting women’s empowerment to income generation Unlike most women throughout Ethiopia, Dejeyetnush plows her own fields. With the help of hired labor and her relatives, Dejeyetnush does the weeding, harvesting and threshing, too. She says her neighbors are “amused. People were saying „You do everything!‟” But her attention and hard work pay off. The quality of Dejeyetnush‟s produce is so high that her PC has used it as an example for others. Though a member of a Savings and Credit Organization, Dejeyetnush has not needed a loan since 1999. Last year, Dejeyetnush organized 48 women leading female-headed households (FHH) in her village to begin cultivating their own land. Usually, women in FHH in her area

will rent away their land because they lack the skills and

resources to farm it. But Dejeyetnush, a community organizer Dejeyetnush preparing buna, Ethiopian coffee with the Amhara Development Association (ADA) and active member of her PC‟s management committee, has been performing the labor on her own land for years, generating income for herself and her family. In 2009, Dejeyetnush convinced her Woreda Agricultural Office to provide seeds to other female heads of household in her area. She encouraged the women to take on some of the agricultural labor themselves. As the women gain practical experience, knowledge and resources from farming income, Dejeyetnush says one day they too will be able to farm on their own. Dejeyetnush‟s community engagement bridges the social and economic spheres. In her organizing role with ADA, Dejeyetnush engages local women on issues like gender equity, HIV and family planning awareness. She first talks to women about how to convince men to listen to them on these issues, she says, and then she talks to men. Her activities resulted in the ADA awarding her a radio. In her role as member of the managing committee of Shende PC, Dejeyetnush says she is involved in all of her PC‟s business: buying, selling and dispersing dividends. The committee meets for all urgent issues, like salary decisions, on a monthly basis. As an example of her influence in the otherwise all-male committee, Dejeyetnush cites the time the Woreda Education Office asked the PC for a 50,000 ETB (3,662 USD) donation. The rest of the managing committee wanted to go ahead with the request, but Dejeyetnush felt that they should ask their members, since the donation would cut into their dividend payment. The members voted to donate just 5,000 ETB (366 USD). By connecting income-generating activities with empowerment and health, Dejeyetnush takes on the intersecting manifestations of disempowerment in women‟s lives. Without independent income sources, women‟s reproductive choices are in some ways dictated by reliance on male relatives for economic security. At the same time, business depends on much more than independence—to flourish, women need to feel empowered to negotiate and speak up as active members of their community. Dejeyetnush‟s life, with her agriculture, her restaurant business and her voluntary work with a farmers PC and development NGO (ADA) are an example of her holistic approach to development and women‟s empowerment in action. Dejeyetnush encourages women to attend PC meetings so they can learn how the PC works. She asks that P4P support trainings for women on the importance of farmer organization membership, PC bylaws and rules, literacy and organizational and speaking skills. In another interview, the Shende PC management dismissed the potential for women‟s leadership in their community, explaining that while they do not discriminate against women, there are few local women with the skills to participate in running a cooperative. Dejeyetnush‟s appeal for trainings targeted specifically to women, giving them these skills, would allow local women to fill this gap. Just before the interview ends, after talking at length about the constraints facing women in her community, Dejeyetnush demonstrates her sharp business sense. “We need a threshing machine!” she says decisively, demonstrating again the link between income sources and empowerment.

Findings 1. Supplying inputs to Female Headed Households: Last year Dejeyetnush convinced the Woreda Agricultural Office to give seeds to 48 FHH in the area, enabling them to begin cultivating their own land, which they had previously rented out. As Dejeyetnush demonstrates, agriculture can be a source of income for women heads of household. Targeting inputs and services to FHH helps them overcome high upfront costs and gain valuable experience. 2. Teaching women how PCs operate: Dejeyetnush encourages women to attend meetings so they can observe and learn how the PC works. Understanding PC operations will enable the women to better utilize the PC‟s services, and perhaps gain the necessary experience to enter into a leadership position. 3. Education is necessary to discourage improper chemical fumigation by farmers. Dejeyetnush, like many farmers in this study, applies her own chemical pesticides to her stored crops. P4P technical experts state that any chemical fumigation should only be done by trained experts. Improper fumigation can lead to pesticide resistance in insects, as well as pose serious environmental and health risks. Farmers need education to discourage this practice. 4. Rented land brings significantly lower profits, but is necessary when farmers’ fields are too small. The profit margin of owned (government certified) fields can be over 3.5 times greater than the margin on land rented through private landholders. When plots are very small, however, renting more land can be one of the few methods of increasing yields and total profits.

Interviews cited Dejeyetnush Yenesew, farmer (female, 32) Shende Primary Cooperative Date: 14 July 2010 Mr. Yehun Atenafu, manager (male, 38 years old) Location: Wonberma Woreda, Mr. Getinet Yigzaw, accountant (male, 32 years old) Amhara Region, Ethiopia Date: 13 July 2010 Interview language: Amharic Location: Wonberma Woreda, West Gojjam Zone Interviewed by: Yibeltal Fentie, P4P Ethiopia Amhara Region, Ethiopia Interview language: Amharic Interviewed by: Yibeltal Fentie, P4P Ethiopia

Appendix: Summary of key issues and indicators to be tracked over time

Key issues/indicators Description of current status Position in leadership of PC Managing committee member Services from PC Seeds, fertilizer, consumption commodities(coffee, pasta, sugar), market access Support from other actors Amhara Development Association (ADA) Major buyers of produce PC (most with1-2 mark up price) and traders (beans only) in Shende Source of market information Friends and traders Major commodities produced Wheat, teff, maize, beans, millet through rain feed Quantity sold 2010sofar-maize(3Mt), wheat(2.7Mt), millet(1Mt), bean(0.4Mt); 2009: wheat(3Mt) Timing to sell produce and Stores until high price, transporting by pack animals to buyers transportation Post harvest practices Stores in bags in traditional storage, applies chemicals Production constraints Improved seeds, thresher and agricultural tools Gendered division of labour Does all labor, with help of relatives and hired hands Credit received so far and cash in No credit received and has 2,500 ETB (183 USD) in bank account Livelihood sources Agriculture, mini-restaurant (new)