"We are solving our own problems"
Ireland’s new Integrated Climate Smart Livelihoods Improvement Programme's impact on Lemelem Kahesay and her family
Lemelem Kahesay heads a household in the village of Dibo, in Tigray, Ethiopia.
The area was arid during the dry season and faced serious erosion during the rainy season, when soil washed from deforested hillsides and deep gullies cutting through arable land in the valley floor. Farmers struggled to make a living, with declining crop yields and falling income.
Controlling water flows for climate smart farming
Ireland supports long-term work by ICRAF (World Agroforestry), Adigrat Diocese, the Tigray Agricultural Research Institute and local authorities to control water flows so that more land can be cultivated along the valley floor and sides, and to introduce local farmers, especially women and youth, to climate smart farming and land-management practices. These help to improve yields and sustainably increase family incomes.
Lemelem and her family benefitted in particular from homestead development work that was introduced to increase productivity and resilience, particularly for women-headed households.
Building resilience for families
She was provided with seeds and saplings for backyard farming, including gesho, coffee, orange and guava, and was linked with other women through a cooperative.
Lemelem says that she feels much more confident about her family’s wellbeing, as they produce sufficient food for themselves, with an excess that they sell to bring in money.
Lemelem says that she feels much more confident about her family’s wellbeing, as they produce sufficient food for themselves, with an excess that they sell to bring in money.
She says that because of better land and water management soil is no longer washed away, and produces wheat, teff and whatever else you plant there.
Climate smart farming education
She also praises the impact on women like herself, saying: “Today, every woman here is more educated and capable – we are now solving our own problems and working our own land.”
Ireland’s new Integrated Climate Smart Livelihoods Improvement Programme in Tigray is continuing to address the underlying causes of poverty in rural communities such as Dibo and enabling women such as Lemelem to take control of their own lives and support their families.