Market-led Improved Livelihoods in Eastern Amhara (MILEAR) benefited over 8 thousand farmers

By Esubalew Dires


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The Organization for Rehabilitation and Development in Amhara (ORDA) has carried out developmental intervention works in food insecure and drought prone areas in the region. ORDA progressively achieved fruitful impacts with Market-led Improved Livelihoods in Eastern Amhara (MILEAR) project that developed ponds of underground water and rehabilitated canals of small scale irrigation schemes, supply of improved crop varieties and market linkage in Dewa Chefa & Artuma Fursi districts of Oromia administrative zone partly where persistent deficiency of water is exacerbated.

Executive director of ORDA, Dr. Amlaku Asres exclaimed ORDA with its strong partners and donors like CIDA and CHF are making enlightening developmental activities which are changing the lives of farmers in those areas.

Dr. Amlaku also noted though Chefa and its surroundings are potentially rich in underground water, farmers in the area suffered with extreme poverty and were obliged to wander to other places. 
For the last three consecutive years, MILEAR with a total budget of 40 million birr insisted farmers to be independent of rain to irrigate crop and horticulture and distributed ten thousand papaya, mango and orange seedlings. Farmers witnessed they are now earning better money far beyond food security.

Young farmer Ahmed Seid is the one among beneficiaries of the project. While explaining about the project farmer Ahmed said “the project created us opportunities with regard to saving our energy, time and water consumption. The development of canals of small scale irrigation schemes and underground water ponds, we now started producing tomato, garlic, maize, onion, cabbage and mung bean,” he said. Last year, he earned over 60 thousand birr within a single irrigation season.

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Ato Salfiso Kitabo, Country director of CHF and Mr. Davids, CIDA head remarked that donating ORDA means assisting the society to help them escape from poverty. They said CIDA and CHF, as longer years’ partner, are happy to work with ORDA for its strength of better undertakings of gender and youth issues through time in improving their livelihoods.

Dr. Teshome Walle, head of ANRS Bureau of Agriculture on his part said ORDA has been flourished in developmental agendas of the region. He added that ORDA works with the government and nongovernmental partners simultaneously to fill in the gaps of developing small irrigation schemes and underground ponds since it’s the current major concern of the government.

It is disclosed that in the past three years, MILEAR fruitfully carried out 8 SSI and 25 underground water ponds which can potentially harvest 354 & 153 hectares of land respectively.

Participants withdrawn from ANRS BoA, BoW, BoFED, the regional council, ORDA, CHF, zone and woreda heads and officers and representative from embassy of the Canada were actively engaged in the workshop and field trip.

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