Figure: Access to water means Lake, a smallholder farmer in Ethiopia, no longer has to rely on food aid to survive. He is making an income and feeding his family. ©IFAD/Mawira Chitima

IFAD 21 August 2015 - In the scorching sun, Lake Grimay, a smallholder farmer from the town of Atsbi in northern Ethiopia, proudly shows off his newest potato patch to Mawira Chitima, an IFAD water expert.

The Tigray Region where Lake farms is very dry and rugged, and is perhaps best known internationally for images of famine victims that were broadcast around the world in the mid-1980s.

Lake’s farm has come a long way in the past two years. 

“Before we met Lake, he was working hard to produce one main crop of teff each year,” says Mawira Chitima, IFAD’s Lead Technical Specialist in Water and Rural Infrastructure, referring to the main cereal crop on which Ethiopians rely.

“He was reliant on rainfall as his main water source, which was very sporadic, and his crop would often fail.”

“When this would happen, he wouldn’t have enough food to feed himself or his family. He often had to depend on a non-governmental organization (Relief Society of Tigray) for food aid. Quite simply, he was struggling to survive.”

In 2014, everything changed for Lake when he was selected to participate in the IFAD-supported Participatory Smallholder Irrigation Development Programme (PASIDP). The programme works with vulnerable farmers living in drought-prone, food-insecure and densely populated districts of the country, by developing irrigation schemes.

It supports the construction of river diversions, spate irrigation, spring development and deep wells. For farmers who don’t have access to  these options, hand-dug wells are constructed as an alternative strategy.

Through the programme, Lake and other members of the farmers’ group he belongs to were able to take out a loan to buy a pump and receive assistance in digging a well nearby so they could irrigate their crops.

Once the well was built, Lake could finally farm year-round, says Chitima. He was able to diversify his crops, and now grows a variety of them such as teff, barley, potatoes, onions, beans and chilli on his one hectare of land.

“Lake now keeps the barley for home consumption and sells the rest of the products at the market for income for himself and his family,” says Chitima.

“Lake was so proud when I last saw him. Having access to water means Lake no longer has to rely on food aid to survive. He is making an income and feeding his family.”

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