Haramaya University in collaboration with the Development Fund of Norway conducted a field day at Erer Woreda, Garasley Kebele in the presence of farmers, researchers and other stakeholders on 17th April 2021
During the occasion, Dr. Tesfaye Lemma, Vice-President for Research Affairs and a coordinator of the project noted that participatory action research (PAR) for enhancing food security and resilience in dry land areas of eastern Ethiopia implemented in Erer district by Haramaya University with grant from the Development Fund of Norway has reportedly delivered promising results.
Dr.Tesfaye added that the project provided key technologies and success stories including improved crop varieties, OFSP, improved dual purpose chicken breeds, and improved animal feed varieties were displayed to the farmers and stakeholders.
Dr. Tesfaye extended his gratitude to the committed and hard working team of the project in feedbacking from the agro-pastoralists, district officials and experts who participated on the field day and also said that a development is a process requiring patience.
Practicing participatory process in real life setting is more difficult than teaching and talking about it- easier said than done, he added.
According to Dr. Dandena Gelmesa,Researcher & Assistant Professor at Haramaya University, RAR team member, the main goal of the project is to enhance food security and climate change adaptation of agro-pastoralists and pastoralists in dryland areas of eastern Ethiopia to generate evidence-based knowledge in the areas of agricultural production, sustainable natural resource management, and climate change adaptation that can be used by agro-pastoralists and pastoralists to improve their food and livelihood security, and by CSOs, government agencies and other development actors to increase the impact of their programs and policies.
The purpose of the field day is to share best practices and experiences of PAR technologies to different stakeholders and agro-pastoralist, enhance networking and experiences among agro-pastoralist, researchers and extension workers so that they build network for further technology dissemination, enhance further collaboration among different partners for technology dissemination, evaluate performance of different technologies demonstrated at in the project kebeles, enhance agro-pastoralist skill on how to prepare and utilize different food recipes from the demonstrated crops (e.g. Orange fleshed sweet potato) and chicken technologies as well as to enable development agents and extension workers to take over the activities and scale-out/up successful technologies, management options, and processes by mainstreaming into their regular extension activities, it was indicated during the occasion.
During the feild day, Dr. Meseret Girma, Principal Investigator of Poultry Research of the Project, on her part said that the action research is conducted at Sitti Zone, Erer Woreda, Gereslay and Germam Kebele.
She added 14 female agro pastoralist selected for poultry activity and problem identification is performed will be conducted. Subsequently, training, research and finally dissemination of chicken, modern house, chicken feed and drug will be carried out.
Dr Meseret said that white leghorn and koekoek breed were distributed for 14 female farmers.The distributed chicken started laying eggs and the farmers had started selling eggs, feces of chicken. They had also started collecting income and used the egg for family food consumption.
Dr. Meseret added that in the near future the University will prepare poultry related technology and distribute for the rest of the kebeles under Erer woreda.
Among the beneficiaries of the project, farmers such as Mohammed Ibrahim, Mohammed Abdo, Hawa Mohammed and Shartu Jemal said they are proud and thanked the project and the University for providing input supply and materials support beside demonstrating and disseminating different crops, livestock and forage technologies and in sharing experiences.
After intensive farm visit, all the participants of the event held a meeting and discussed about the efforts and achievements of the University and the way forward by the concerned bodies and remarked that farmers have to use improved technologies to enhance their food security.
During the occasion, Ato Hasan Ese, administrator of Erer Woreda and Ato Mohammed Ahmed, delegate of Erer Woreda Agriculture and Natural Resource Office, appreciated the efforts of Haramaya University in supporting the community. They promised to give the necessary support and said that this is the great opportunity for the community to enhance food security and climate change adaptation of agro-pastoralists and pastoralists by increasing the production and productivity in order to settle their food security.