Dunno which Forum this is more suitable in. Maybe Culture Forum as well? It’s interesting, i’ve always found the most destitute of individuals, the ones least materially-privileged (by ‘our’ standards) possess probably more humanity and strength than half of us in the more ‘affluent’ parts of the world put together. IMO that ain’t an exaggeration.
GM puzzle for Ethiopian farmers, Alex Kirby, BBC, 12 December 2003
An unseasonal night of heavy rain has turned the fertile soil round this tiny village into sticky, viscous black mud.
But it does nothing to quench the warmth of the villagers’ welcome, as solemn faces open in beaming smiles. Barely half-an-hour from the centre of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s venerable capital, Akaki-Kality boasts hardly any of the basic amenities of modern life.
But its people are set on improving themselves as fast as they can, and they’ve already made a flying start.
This is one of four villages each given a small grant of 80,000 birr (about $10,000) in a micro-finance project funded by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture. Soresh Dequ, a tall, rangy farmer, says the difference the grant has made is real enough.
“Before the project started we had no income, except for some money given to war veterans who live here”, he says. “Now we can afford to send our children to school, and we eat three times a day.”
The grant has allowed the co-operative to buy two water pumps to improve the 37 hectares (91 acres) its members farm. The river Akaki, which runs close by, used to flood the land.
Now the villagers can control the flooding, and make sure the fields are watered enough to produce a good crop. They sell their vegetables - cabbage, beetroot, potatoes and tomatoes - in the local market, and in central Addis.
They have several fields of grain, most given over to tef, a local staple. It is the raw material of injera, a sort of grey pancake eaten with meat and vegetables and described accurately in Ethiopian Airways’ inflight magazine as having “the consistency and taste of a crepe bandage”.
The villagers say the FAO project means they can earn about 4,000 birr (almost $600) a year, a considerable income in one of Africa’s poorest countries.
They hope to expand their fledgling dairy business, and even to buy a tractor. Ask them whether they would use genetically modified seeds if they could get them, though, and their responses vary from the guarded to the mystified. “We wouldn’t use anything unless it was recommended by the advisers from the ministry”, says one man, perhaps with a diplomatic eye on the ministry man who translates his answers.
Soresh is forthright. “Monsanto? Never heard of them”, he says. “To us, new technology means improved production systems, ploughing without oxen, things like that. Genetically modified seeds are a bit advanced for us to understand.”
Whatever new technology may have to offer Akaki-Kality, it’s clearly one of Ethiopia’s luckier villages. Even here, though, some people face a daily struggle that beggars belief.
Behind the stable stands a ramshackle wigwam-shaped cone of straw, maize stalks and reeds. It is little more than two metres across where it sits on the bare, sodden earth, and looks like a tool store.
Incredibly, it is home to 19-year-old Agernesh Alemayehu and her father. Displaced in the war with Eritrea, they lived for a time in a tent in the city before finding refuge here. Agernesh works without a wage in a local factory, where she’s learnt computer skills. Her father is a labourer, and also farms part of the village’s land: her mother is dead.
Asked how she manages to stay spotless, she replies: “I wash my clothes in the river. I may be destitute, but I’m still determined to be clean.”
As for her ambitions, they’re simple enough, though impossibly beyond her reach: “I’d like a better home - and an education.”
Thankoo for saying it’s interesting even though i guess most people didn’t find it too interesting 