The Bura Woman

                     The Bura Woman

W/ro Tadilo was striving to improve the livelihood of a female headed family day & night. But, the income earned from crop production could not fulfill even their basic need. The livelihood problem had a consequence on her marriage and finally separated from her spouse. After a divorce, all the responsibility to farming activities & caring children laid on her.
W/ro Tadilo Belay, a widow woman aged 43, lives in Bura village, Libokemkem Woreda. She has seven children from her legal marriage. She divorced her husband due to disagreement that was caused and catalyzed by family poverty. After divorce, her husband left the home and all the responsibility to grow the children and to fulfill their need rests on her. Her agriculture work could not bring enough income to feed her children & an expense for a house rent for one of her child whom grade nine and live away in Yifag town, her agriculture work lacks technical & technological sophistication. She was under a severing poverty because she got an income from farming once a year only.

Though W/ro Tadilo had thought to diversify her income, she did not get enough finance & things were getting worse steadily. Because she used to cover all livelihood expenses from her farming only. On this occasion, ORDA’s Integrated Community Development (ICD) project began operation with a budget of Birr 83 million secured from Glimmer of Hope to improve the livelihood of impoverished farmers. Since W/ro Tadilo was a poor, she has been recruited to be benefited.
First she got training on agriculture value chains of onion cultivation, sheep fattening, ox fattening, poultry & shoat rearing to be engaged. Then, she has been organized in one of Rural saving & cooperatives called ‘Tadisalech Bura’ and she has been saving monthly in the hope to get a loan.

                       The Bura Woman1

To engage in value chains, she took a loan of Birr 25 thousand from her saving. She has decided to carryout garlic farming on her 0.25 hectare of land to earn an income which full fill her family needs. In 2019, she sews hybrid garlic with fertilizer and takes care of it daily. She and her children pass their day to cultivate the garlic farm and to avoid weeds and to protect from pests. She earned 15 quintals of Garlic and earned 67 thousand Birr since the time market for Garlic was 70 Birr/ kg which are twice fold of the previous season price. After paying her debt, she will make a 43 thousand birr profit.

Then by the income earned, she bought four pregnant Ewes for rearing and they delivered 5 lambs. In addition, she bought one ox with the cost of Birr 15 thousand for fattening and now she is caring it. The garlic farming transformed her livelihood by diversifying her income.
W/ro Tadilo said, “I earned better income from my garlic farm than when I had sewn it cheek pea & wheat. Thus, I can fulfill my children school expense like uniform, stationary & food. Previously, I used to borrow money from wealthy people in high interest to buy exercise book for my children. Therefore ORDA’s ICD project gave me a benefit more than any one of my nearest relatives does”. For the next farming season, she has planned to expand her garlic farm to one hectare farm land.

In 2019 only, one thousand 79 farmers has been involved in value chains of ox fattening, shoat rearing & fattening, poultry, onion & garlic farming to improve their live through the project intervention. In addition, the project built 13 water schemes & four spring development works to supply potable water for rural communities. The project will work more to benefit 5 thousand 500 farmers in 9 kebels of Libokemkem woreda by supporting them to engage in selected agriculture value chains & by delivering potable water to keep their hygiene & to protect them from water borne diseases.

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