Attendance to Amhara region planning meeting and a short visit
February 23-March 2, 2014
Kahsay Berhe
The objective of my trip was to attend the Amhara region planning meeting held in Bahir Dar, from 24-27, 2014 and make a short field visit to Gonder zuria and Dembia districts in North Gonder zone and Bahir Dar town and Mecha districts.
The planning meeting was attended by all 3 zones with one each representative as focal person and the 3 zonal coordinators and 2 regional coordinators and myself who were all male.
Planning meeting
The regional coordinator presented planning steps followed and materials used as resource to prepare demand driven intervention plan. In addition he presented his summary of observations from the 3 zonal stakeholder workshops as follows:
1. Over expectation from the project
2. Much emphasis on material/technological or financial support from the project
3. Visible knowledge and technical gaps in all actors and service providers
4. Loose linkage among value chain actors
5. Market and input supply as major bottlenecks for commodity development
Following these observations, every zone presented its respective work plans. In preparation for this presentation however, each zone prepared the work plan and budget for their respective zones by organizing a stakeholders’ workshop which were attended by relevant stakeholders from the zones, districts, including woreda level focal persons, various value chain actors, and regional coordinators. Information from the diagnosis reports was also used for the work plan preparation. As the zonal focal persons were fully engaged in the preparation of the work plans, they were even presenting and defending the plan.
Few observations during the regional planning meeting
1. In some instances there were pushes from the zones for HQ to deliver technologies. This was however corrected after discussions. Following this, zonal focal persons tried to internalize and consider some work plans to be carried out through the government budget.
2. There should be more consideration of environment and gender issues on some of the work plans
3. LIVES is a member of GO and NGO forum in south Wollo and knows what is happening in the zone in general and hence will help identify gaps but also avoid overlaps. The zonal coordinator uses this forum to explain what activities he has done or has planned to do. Hope this will trigger others to be members if there are these forums in the other zones.
4. Zonal focal persons complained of late start of project activities
5. Zonal coordinators also complained of unavailability of the focal persons or staff to undertake some activities or even consult because of other assignments
6. Over expectations for materials/technologies needed despite the regional coordinator’s remarks. For example, some zones proposed 1 each chopper per woreda.
7. All the focal persons raised that the project need to be more transparent. It should disclose its budget because all other projects operating in their zones do so.
Visit to Gonder and Dembia
I made a brief visit to these two woredas. At Teda PA (Gonder town administration), a youth group is growing various vegetables on a 3.5 ha. This piece of land used to be a grazing land. The group is facing shortage of water because the river has decreased its flow. It is therefore important to consider available water resources to match area to be irrigated. I have recommended for the youth group to dig some shallow wells to supplement the river water.
My trip to Dembia was mainly to visit the water pump repair trainees who have already started giving services and some who got the service from the newly established pump repair service providers. One of the service providers in Guramba Michael PA has already maintained/repaired 21 water pumps. He was among the 4 farmers who got the training. There is a huge potential for irrigated vegetable production in this district. I feel that the role of fruits in Dembia is low and more focus be given for vegetables, even though avocado may do well in some areas.
The district has similar agroecology as that of Fogera. Problem related to collapsing of shallow wells was observed. Hence, these shallow wells provide service for only 1 season. The water table in the low-lying areas of the district is about 3-4 metres in most cases. Use of asphalt barrels is possible but other reinforcing materials could also be used (concrete pipe, tyres or industrially made strong plastic) which can keep the walls of the shallow wells from collapsing. Currently, there is a road construction going on in the area (Gonder to Dembia) which could be a good source of asphalt barrels for this activity. Consulted with some farmers and were happy with idea of using the shallow wells for longer period of time but also use them for growing vegetables other than livestock watering only. There is a growing demand for vegetable market in Gonder town. Following this observation, I have proposed that 2-3 shallow wells be constructed in appropriate intervention areas for demonstration purposes so that other farmers will easily adopt.
Visit to Bahir Dar town and Mecha district
Cherechera group at Zenzelma PA (Bahir Dar town administration) is a newly organized group of 50 people growing a number of fruits (mango, avocado and banana) and vegetables (pepper, Swiss chard and cabbage, including the new popcorn variety (Awash-Ghibe) that we sent from here. The banana plants will also serve to reduce lake siltation. The site is very close to Lake Tana. Popcorn is grown on 0.25 ha of land while the remaining ones are grown on smaller plots. There was some management problems observed with the group. In order for this site to be used as a demonstration site for other farmers/groups, member should be taught on issues related to agronomy of vegetable, crop pest and disease management, pump repair, irrigation interval and many others. Care should be made so as to avoid damage to the lake ecology. However, there are plans by the LIVES team for additional Napier grass and banana planting to serve as silt trap for the coming rainy season. In addition, they should also be taught on appropriate group management. DAs and experts could support them because they are with the Bahir Dar city administration. If properly managed, it could be used as a demonstration site for others. The group operates on 3.5 ha of land very close to the lake area.
Points of concern
1. There was no labeling of the varieties/cultivars grown in the field. This was supplied by the Office of Agriculture but plant spacing was as per the recommendation.
2. Some of the plants were water stressed (fruits and vegetables). However, I was informed that the group has bought its own water pump from own contributions.
3. Members were heard complaining of poor management. Hence need training on cooperative management. There seems to some kind of conflict of interest in the group. This is because the group has just been established and hence need some time to learn how manage irrigated crops.
A brief visit was also made to Koga irrigation project at Mecha, district. The visit was made to 3 women headed households where the project, in collaboration with the district office of Agriculture has introduced number vegetables to women who planted vegetables for the first time. Introduced varieties include Sivan, red Bombay, Adama red (onion), Detroit red (beet root), Copenhagen (cabbage) and shanti (tomato). In addition, lettuce and Swiss chard varieties are also introduced. The popcorn variety sent from here was also planted in one farmer’s plot. Koga irrigation scheme can irrigate 7,000 ha even though not all are developed. Nearly all the irrigation scheme is covered with cereals only. This effort of introducing vegetables is therefore to introduce and demonstrate high value crops which can generate better income to the household economy. At the moment, about 4199 ha is under bread wheat for seed multiplication.
Multipurpose chopper/grinder
A complete demonstration on the operation of the chopper/grinder was not possible because of lack of petrol in town. However, the basics were demonstrated to the participants of the meeting on its operations based on the experience gained from the importing company.
Some of the zonal focal persons wanted to use the chopper for demonstration purposes. However, using it only for demonstration purpose will be a waste of resource. It is however recommended that the business plan, being prepared by Dereje, should consult the respective zonal/district focal persons and our coordinators in order to smoothly operationalize the choppers.