Today was a relatively uneventful day, although I think the
contacts made might bear fruit in the not so distant future.
First thing I noticed as I went out of the Planet Hotel (a
very nice hotel indeed) was that I had a nearly flat tire. Rats! Yes, it was the
spare tire my minibus driver had changed for me, which clearly was not in great
shape. Fortunately I had had the other one repaired, so it was a matter of
pulling out the jack from the trunk and almost immediately letting another
helpful young man change it for me. What can I say? The folks here are
fabulous!
I am being hosted by Tedros, the Program Coordinator of
Bio-Economy Africa, and through his good services I visited with the Chair of
the Department of Land Resources of University of Mekelle, who expressed great
interest in collaborating with CSU Stanislaus in educational projects. From
there we went to see a wind farm installed over the last couple of years by a
French contractor, with an installed capacity of 120 MW. Ethiopia does
not have oil or coal resources, and hydroelectricity is barely developed, so
the whole country is interested in wind and solar energy. Did I already tell
you that Ethiopia
has 13 months of sunshine? They use a calendar with twelve, 30-day months, and
a 13th month of 5 days (6 days in leap years) that is mostly used
for celebrations.
A visit to the newly installed Bio-Farm/Farmers Training
Center in Mesanu Kebele followed. This FTC is a joint project between the
Ethiopia Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) and Bio-Economy Africa (BEA),
and it is in its infancy. The project started in 2016, with the fencing of
about four hectares of rocky soil in a dry, wheat-growing portion of Tigray,
the construction of a Farmers Meeting Hall, a dormitory, a cow byre, a
bio-digestor, and a couple of ancillary buildings. The initial effort also
included demarcation of small plots for the planting of fruit trees and
green legumes, wheat demonstration
plots, a composting area, and a chicken coop. In a way one could say that the
stage is set, and the only thing missing was the arrival of the actors.
As it happens, the actors were there, for no sooner had we
arrived in the property when a long string of farmers passed us on their way to
the Farmers Meeting Hall, chatting and laughing, and carrying with them their
long plows and ox yokes. I counted no less than 15 plows! Why would such a
large number of plows would be needed for what can be no more than a couple of
hectares at the back of the property? Well, they had come together, to exchange
techniques and to engage in a friendly competition with the ATA tractor, and
now they were heading for a well deserved lunch and discussion. It was not for
me to interfere with their lively discussion, but I could tell from the tone of
their voices that they had had a good time and had many ideas to exchange. I am
absolutely amazed by the way the farmers have taken ownership of the project.
Bravo!
From Todros I learned that the farmers have all sorts of
good ideas about how to diversify the agricultural production of the FTC, and
are very interested on improving their stock. For example, they would like to
improve milk productivity by selective breeding of their milk cows. Milk is an
excellent source of protein, although it is a product that spoils easily, so
the next challenge will be to develop preservation processes, such as
ultra-pasteurization, and production of curds (like they do in Mongolia ),
cheese, and butter.
Before finishing the day we stopped at a comparatively large
farm, where the owner wants to develop a vineyard and eventually a winery. The
grapes come from South
Africa , and to my untrained eye they looked good
but a bit small. As always, the big challenge is to have access to irrigation
water. For a while they got water from the reservoir that supplies the city,
but last year they had to shift to wastewater from a bottling plant (high TDS,
so they are not sure they want to continue this practice for long). Eventually
they will have to drill a deep well, particularly since they would like to
expand the 10 hectares they have now to 40 hectares.
We celebrated our successes by going to lunch at a
traditional Ethiopian Restaurant, where we had a common platter of ketfo (raw chopped beef with a delicious
mix of spices), tebs (thin strips of
goat meat in a red sauce), deep-fried goat meat morcels, and cooked spinach. As
is traditional, the dishes are scooped out of their bowls unto a flat injera
pancake, and Todros and I ate them by tearing pieces of the injera and using
them to scoop small portions into our mouths. A fine way to end the day.
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