In the last three years, we have seen an improvement in our nutritional and economic status by taking up permagardening. We were the first farmers in the Raya Boda Kebele to implement permaculture activities in our farmers after training by SAA Ethiopia. We initially started with a combined cultivated area of 600m2 in 2020, which we increased to 960m2 in 2021 and 1170m2 in 2022. On this land, where we practice minimal soil disturbance, we have applied 0.9 MT of fertilizer and 0.3 MT of compost (including vermi-compost). We have also dug water wells for sustained irrigation of the indigenous vegetables, spices and herbs, and perennial plants that we cultivate. We make sure to rotate root tubers, with leafy vegetables, and beans.

Today our families consume about 11.6Kg of four different types of vegetables twice a day for five days a week. We also have surplus production that allowed us to cumulatively earn USD676 in 2021 and 2022. Most of our market sales were led by the women in our family, who got the chance to manage the income for household expenditure. For the 2023 season, we have prepared 13.9MT of compost (including 0.7MT vermi-compost), which we plan on using to expand our permagardening venture.

By brothers: Gemeda Sora and Debeso Sora

Retrieved from SAA E-Newsletter, issued in May 2023 with Focus on Ethiopia