Hicodep- Boreda Ethiopia Project

Hicodep- Boreda Ethiopia Project

HiCoDeP- Boreda Ethiopia Project Samuel Era

“Realised how to make best use of the available resource”

Age: 50

Group name: Esspe Dicha (let us grow together)

Role in the group: Chairperson

Marital status: Married and a father of 3 boys and 6 girls

Wife’s name: Martane Zata

Samuel farms 3 hectares which is well above the average homestead size in the highlands region. Samuel is looking forward to the day when all his available land will be cultivated and growing food, cash crops and fodder.

Samuel has already established a number of apple trees and is expanding his orchard by planting a further 35 trees. Income presently comes from the sale of vegetables, coffee, milk, seedlings and occasional livestock i.e. calves, poultry and sheep.

Samuel is the chairperson of the Esspe Dicha PoG which is one of the most successful groups in the district. Every Thursday, all the group members undertake various activities such as compost shed, compost, preparation of vegetable beds, and they also deposit regular weekly savings. The Esspe Dicha group has set up a savings fund from which Samuel can borrow up to 100 Bur (£6) at any time provided all previous loans have been repaid. No interest is paid for the first three months. After that, interest is added at 10% per week!!

One frequent use for the loan by group members is to pay for a contractor to come in and plough their land with a team of oxen. Realising the positive life transformation among the groups that are working with this project many of the farmers in this area are organising themselves into groups hoping for such a transformation in their lives.

Samuel has found sustainable organic agriculture training critical since it has enabled him to produce a lot of yield from a small plot of land. After Samuel received training on improved animal management, he bought a crossbred heifer and managed to get two calves from the bull service available in the project. Samuel sold the calves for 3,700 Bur (£231). In addition to the milk production Samuel has also established a number of other income sources, such as, apple seedlings, vegetable production and poultry.

“The income is mainly used to fulfil my family’s needs and I have children who are attending college. Generally speaking I have benefited a lot in working with this project and I would like to thank Send a Cow next to God.” Samuel is hopeful that given time there will be a big transformation in the district.

Whilst there is always plenty of work to do on the farm, Samuel does not expect his children to provide labour unless they want to during their school holidays. Both Samuel and his wife, Martane believe the children’s education must come first.

What about out the other 15 members of the group who started to train at the same time as Samuel? 5 more are doing as well as Samuel, 5 are doing well and with more and more help from Samuel – who gives at least one day a week to helping other group members – they will further improve.

What of the remaining 5. Samuel says “Their land is much improved and they have more food with some small income. But we are still trying to convince them to stop other forms of small scale local trading (called petty trading) and give all their efforts to t heir farms.”

Samuel has a dream that before he dies he will see all of the southern highland hills looking like his 3 hectares.