Photo: V. Durroux/CIP
Before the project introduced the new variety to our village, we used to plant only once a year. Now many of us are planting potato seed twice a year. I used to plant just 100 kg of the local potato seed variety, which produced about 400 kg per year. With the Diffused Light Store (DLS) for the potato seed I can now save 5,000kg of quality seed to sell and use as planting material. We used to only be able to store 50 kg of seed before the DLS, and only used it for planting, not to sell.
I have some difficulty working in the farm, so I also hire labor on a daily basis as I need it, for planting, weeding, harvesting and storing the potato. I aspire to increase the productivity of my farm and run a profitable restaurant business.
I’m building a traditional restaurant house, which will have 30 corrugated iron sheets. I’m also constructing a Diffused Light Store (DLS) for storing the potato seed, with the support of the project.
Before I joined the Africa RISING research project I was a productive safety net program (PSNP) beneficiary for about 8 years, which was an Ethiopian Government and World Food Program (WFP) initiative where we were provided with a combination of food and cash transfers to pay for our labor contribution in local development work.
The Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) program comprises three research-for-development projects supported by the United States Agency for International Development as part of the U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative.
Through action research and development partnerships, Africa RISING will create opportunities for smallholder farm households to move out of hunger and poverty through sustainably intensified farming systems that improve food, nutrition, and income security, particularly for women and children, and conserve or enhance the natural resource base.