Rainwater harvesting in Ethiopia - How to achieve sustainable food production for increased profit and well-being

Ethiopia’s success in sustainable land and water management. The video highlights how a landscape approach was used to manage land, water and forest resources to meet the goals of food security and inclusive green growth. The lessons drawn are relevant for other countries in the region and other parts of the world fighting land degradation and climate change issues.

In chronological order:

2019

Ethiopia plants more than 350 million trees in 12 hours [30.07.2019]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3mS8_JmUlQ

International Livestock Research Institute: Celebrating Ethiopia’s agricultural transformation [10.05.2019]
Ethiopia has made unprecedented investments in agriculture in the past two decades. As a result, the agriculture sector is growing 7% annually and millions of Ethiopians are now rising to a middle-class life, moving out of poverty and hunger. CGIAR is working alongside the Ethiopian people in their agricultural transformation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2LL6UvQz1Q

Center for Strategic & International Studies – Report Launch: Building a Big Tent for Agricultural Transformation in Ethiopia [24.04.2019]
Report: Building a Big Tent for Agricultural Transformation in Ethiopia, which examines the past wins, current endeavours, and future challenges of Ethiopia’s Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA).
CSIS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-o4nU8tH2M

The dark side of agriculture in Ethiopia (1/2) | DW Documentary (Farming documentary) [5.01.2019]
Across the globe, global commercial demand for arable land is on the rise. One of the most profitable new agricultural hotspots is Ethiopia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isiYYVmvn2U

The dark side of agriculture in Ethiopia (2/2) | DW Documentary (Farming documentary) [5.01.2019]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Igk5NHH-qJ0

France 24: Permaculture brings prosperity to Ethiopia’s rural areas [26.04.2019]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptxIXwDpx50

2018

Ethiopia Blooming- EHPEA Promotional Film 2018 [19.04.2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2MRDK12lHc

World Future Council: How Ethiopians turn the desert into fertile land [Tigre] [17.01.2018]
This last used to be a desert, but thanks to the pioneering policy of Tigray government, people have turned it into fertile land. This video features incredible drone footage of the marvellous Ethiopian landscape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHTl2x4GQmc

2017

Farm Africa: Regreening the valley in Tigray [8.03.2017]
Twenty years ago, Sero Kebelle in Tigray, Ethiopia, was barren, without the lush vegetation you see today. Then Farm Africa supported the rehabilitation of the gully and helped local women and young people to make a living from beekeeping, goat rearing, poultry farming and developing fruit and vegetable orchards on rehabilitated land. Now this thriving valley has helped lift up an entire community. http://www.farmafrica.org/regreen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VMJVrYm-Vc

2016

Center for International Forestry Research: Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) in Ethiopia [01.09.2016]
Forest landscape restoration (FLR) is the ongoing process of regaining ecological functionality and enhancing human well-being across deforested or degraded areas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIZ0Qz3jICgx1

Why Are People Starving In Booming Ethiopia? [25.05.2016]
Endless Famine (2008): Despite economic growth and development in Ethiopia people are still dying of malnutrition in Ethiopia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-1nqsSWbvc

2015

Green Journey “Ethiopia’s Agricultural Revolution” [30.07.2015]
MIDROC is a global investment group, wholly owned by Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi. It has substantial interests in petroleum, agribusiness, property, industry and industrial services, engineering and construction, tourism and trade and investment, largely in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and North Africa. Mr Al Amoudi migrated from Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia when he was 19 and became a full citizen of the Kingdom in 1965. He built up a private fortune in construction and property before diversifying into the downstream energy sector with major refining and retail investments in both Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

MIDROC has an international focus with three main operating companies: MIDROC Middle East (based in Saudi Arabia), MIDROC Europe (based in Sweden) and MIDROC Africa where the company’s focus is heavily on Ethiopia. It also has separately managed and significant petroleum interests.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf8sSvXpQRk

Plan International Ethiopia is working on to ensure a supply of clean drinking water and improve sanitation sustainably by providing infrastructure and trainings for project stakeholders. Accordingly, over the last 15 years a total of 77,093 people are accessed with potable water supply at rural and pre urban communities of Plan’s intervention areas. Moreover, 27,534 school children are also accessed with safe WASH facilities in their school compound.

UNCCD: Trailer: Ethiopia Rising Red Terror to Green Revolution [21.05.2015]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b33mFU7htU0

Ethiopia: Open For Business | FT World [27.04.2015]
Ethiopia is one of Africa’s top performers, yet is one of the markets most closed to foreign money. Zemedenah Negatu from EY tells the FT’s Katrina Manson why investors are flocking to the country, and whether it is really restrictive to foreigners.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfkbojrDPug

UNDP – Climate Resilient Green Economy in Ethiopia [3.02.2015]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_doa8pnIbA

Farming in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia [29.01.2015]
Farming practices in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia haven’t changed over the past century. These images and video were taken during a trek from the Simien Mountains to the historic town of Lalibela in November 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPcxXrLYVQA

2014

Honeys of Ethiopia [05.12.2014]
Ethiopia is the main honey producing countries in Africa and ranked 7th in the world. This documentary takes a look at the special honeys and terroir that need to be protected across the country, demonstrating the importance of the Honey Network: a network of beekeepers and farmers that through specific educational training, improvements in the food chain and preservation of traditions, are becoming key figures in the local market.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr1eTimdD8A

The experience of modern white honey production from Tigray, Ethiopia [04.12.2014]
This series of documentary film was produced from Tigray regional state, REST-the Relief Society of Tigray project area. It was transmitted through CNN TV for about 8 consecutive days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y1VDBNGaYs

For more information on this Helvetas project, visit https://www.helvetas.org/en/switzerland/what-we-do/our-topics/water

Daniel Assefa, Inventor of a Natural Pesticide, Ethiopia [26.11.2014]
Daniel Assefa, inventor of a natural pesticide to fight ants biting farmers in coffee plantations. Made of natural ingredients such as fenugreek, Mr. Assefa’s environment-friendly Dan-Ant-Cide is sold all over Ethiopia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcRf1TfzmqQ

Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) Launching @ GuragheLima(GDA) [18.11.2014]
Workshop on Local Level Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) Initiative Launching SCIP and CSSP Funded Projects at Guraghe Development Association (GuragheLima)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFHPPxIv8cc

Ethiopia Rising. Original Trailer [01.04.2014]
Set in the stunning landscape of Northern Ethiopia, and during a time of great conflict, ‘Ethiopia Rising’ will tell the incredible story of how people in this region transformed thousands of hectares of degraded land into vast hillside forests and fertile valleys. The sheer scale of the works, completed in just 25 years, would surely make it Ethiopia’s ‘8th Wonder of the World’. For the ‘Live-Aid’ generation, ‘Ethiopia Rising’ will change out-of date notions of this part of Africa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NU5j-wCdPg&feature=youtu.be

2013

This is the story of Abraha Atsbeha, a small village in northern Ethiopia that managed to turn their barren, eroded valley into a green oasis – and how the methods of sustainable land management spread all over Ethopia now.

We are Coffee Farmers (Ethiopia, 2011) [21.11.2013]
Ethiopia is being one of the biggest countries in African coffee production, its natural factors offer ideal grounds for agricultural production, a sector in which 85% of the population are working in. The basic question on the background of news of famine and rural poverty is: How can local farmers participate from rising coffee prices worldwide and from producing a major good in global trade.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2xsmBW3QSc

The Tragic Cost of Progress in Ethiopia [28.10.2013]
The truth behind Ethiopia’s economic miracle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvVb9EZ6Kqs

In Ethiopia, pastoralist communities constitute 14 percent of the total population and have among the highest rates of poverty and the lowest human development indices. Because the health of their animals is so weather-dependent, pastoralists are particularly vulnerable to climate change, which has hit hard in the Afar region of eastern Ethiopia. Since the drought began in 2008, many pastoralists have migrated away from their traditional encampments in search of food and water for their animals. Some have already given up pastoral life and moved to urban areas looking for a better life. To help these communities face the effects of climate change, the MDG-Fund has been working with the Ethiopian government to provide long-term adaptation tools to individual pastoralists and to mainstream climate change mitigation and adaptation into the country’s development plans, strategies and policies. The joint UN programme, “Enabling Pastoral Communities to Adapt to Climate Change and Restoring Rangeland Environments” has developed water facilities and created activities to improve livelihoods for 32,000 pastoralists in some of Ethiopia’s most geographically isolated, vulnerable and impoverished areas.

FRANCE 24 – Ethiopia planting hope in trees [23.05.2013]
Showing tree planting taking place in practice in Ethiopia by armies of planters. Kurt Pfister, and Simon Pfister, Co-Founders of Green Ethiopia donate large amounts of Kurt’s personal fortune to tree planting initiatives. Jacques Rocher, Hononary President of Yves Rocher Foundation talks about his tree planning goals. It also discusses the dangers of eucalyptus tree plantations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdr6nrsW5VI

#16 What if we change – Food Security and Environmental Transformation in Ethiopia [17.05.2013]
In the Horn of Africa, famine and drought have plagued Ethiopia for years, but changes in agricultural practices and landscape management have shown that the solution can be simpler than it seems. Working to restore the landscape and the environment with the Productive Safety Net Program, the Ethiopian people have begun to transform the country and restore the health of the land.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta0dcp1FfY0&feature=youtu.be

2012

Groasis Ecological Water Saving Technology: Planting trees in Ethiopian with 90% less water, no irrigation and no energy [16.10.2012]
Groasis – a high tech agricultural company from Holland – sells the low cost Groasis Ecological Water Saving Technology. The Groasis Ecological Water Saving Technology helps to plant trees and vegetables with 99% less water useTraining Ethiopian white honey beekeepers with Mr. Gebremedhin Woldewahid from CGIAR / ILRI Addis Abbaba. Pieter Hoff trains Ethiopian beekeepers in cooperation with Mr. Gebremedhin Woldewahid from CGIAR / ILRI Addis Abbaba. They want to use the Groasis Waterboxx in order to plant trees that produce flowers for their bees. Visit http://groasis.com . Ethiopia is famous for its white honey. There is more request than production. So the growers want to keep more bees. Then they need more flowers. Therefore they want to plant fruit trees — amongst them Mango — to have a double harvest: fruit and honey. The North of Tigray — Ethiopia is very dry. There are little wells. They have no water to irrigate. There is also no electricity for pumps. In order to plant, they need the Groasis Waterboxx.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUkWUttWbRg

RITTOG: Ethiopia – The North, Part 1 [3.10.2012]
After the rough and rocky road across northern Kenya, we were wondering what Ethiopia would present to us: the famine stricken poverty seen on those newsreels in the 1980s, or something different, something more beautiful?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGK5Yp1vXB4

IDRC/CRDI: Improving Food Security in Ethiopia [2.08.2012]
In Ethiopia, small-scale farmers face an intensification of extreme weather events under climate change as rainfall becomes more erratic and temperatures rise. This video shows how researchers supported by the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa program contributed to the identification and implementation of farming techniques that improve yields and protect food security under these conditions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pUsov9OGes

Farm Africa and Prosopis clearance in Afar, Ethiopia [10.07.2012]
Prosopopis is an aggressive and fast-growing thorny plant that invades land, making it impossible to grow food crops. This video shows how Farm Africa has worked with pastoralist communities in Afar, Ethiopia to clear their land of prosopis so they can grow enough food to eat and sell and also produce pasture for their livestock to eat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PwC3qZ4YhQ

UN Environment Program lauds Ethiopia’s Move towards Building Climate Resilient Green Economy [8.06.2012]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWU5DIeTjFo

AfricaRice: Rice: Ethiopia’s Millennium Crop and a food security crop [16.04.2012]
Ethiopia, Africa’s oldest independent country and the cradle of an ancient civilization, is fast emerging as one of the big rice-producing countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNuAPCE03Kc

The Centre for Investigative Reporting: Ethiopia: A Battle for Land and Water [28.02.2012]
Food for Nine Billion: A controversial resettlement program in Ethiopia is the latest battleground in the race to secure prized farmland and water. The Anuak people claim they are being resettled so that the land they farm can be sold to foreign investors (e.g. Saudi Star Agricultural Development plc, that will export the rice it grows to the Gulf nations).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NirEpFYN2dM

2011

Channel 4 News: Ethiopia and the ‘agriculture revolution’ [9.12.2011]
With the goal to double agricultural production, Jonathan Rugman has special report from Ethiopia on the revolution in agricultural production – companies like the Indian company Karaturi Agro Products plc are obtaining cheap leases from the government to revolutionise food production. But small tenant farmers say they now have less food to eat than before because these companies are farming on land which they once farmed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjir2K8r4X0

Karuturi Global on farming in Ethiopia [29.07.2011]
Karuturi Global management says – “To start with there will be 20,000 hectares of oil palm, 15,000 hectares of sugar cane and 40,000 hectares of rice, edible oils and maize and cotton. We are building reservoirs, dykes, roads, towns of 15,000 people. “This is phase one. In three years time we will have 300,000 hectares cultivated and maybe 60,000 workers. We could feed a nation here.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt22chvx_yQ

2010

Supporting female farmers in Ethiopia [10.08.2010]
In 2010, 39% of women in Ethiopia were earning less than $1 a day. This video shows Ethiopian farmer, Belaynesh’s life and why funding from charaties like Oxfam is desperately needed. Determination is everything. Run for Oxfam.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/marathon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kQrhgNGRfA

Gashaw Tahir, an American citizen, returned to his birth country of Ethiopia to find the green hills that surrounded his home eroded and ruined due to deforestation. So he decided to do something extraordinary: Plant one million trees.

1 Million Trees for Ethiopia // EARTH DAY UPDATE [22.04.2010]
Empowering women and giving them financial freedom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrW4ybt56fA

2009

One: How climate change is affecting Ethiopia [9.12.2009]
Bob Geldof, co-founder of ONE, returns to Ethiopia where he sees how climate change is threatening the development gains made in recent years. With less water availability, tree planting and other methods are being adopted.
www.one.org
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0OFchuac-o

Trees for the Future: Ethiopia Project For Trees For The Future [5.11.2009]
Mark Leisher Production was hired by Trees For The Future to travel to Ethiopia and document the tree planting efforts, working in cooperation with Dr Shimeles Ashenafi of Greener Ethopia, in the Silte Zone of Southern Ethiopia. Livestock were taken off the land for three years by local communities to allow assisted natural regeneration. During the 10 days we travelled over 2,000 kilometres.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMFbUEz9CAw

Worldfocus: In birthplace of coffee, Ethiopian farmers plant other crops [28.10.2009]
Because Ethiopian farmers are fragmented and disorganized, they cannot leverage for higher coffee prices. However, this is changing owing to the work of the Ethiopian government working with USAID. Owing to low coffee prices and fragmented smallholder producers, Worldfocus correspondent Martin Seemungal reports on why farmers are deciding to plant corn and khat, a leafy drug that is chewed with stimulating effects somewhere between caffeine and cocaine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_PJBXRWFeY