“I was really impressed by the huge impacts of small initiatives.”
Belgian Ambassador to Ethiopia visited FAO project in Somali Region
His Excellency Mr Didier Nagant de Deuxchaisnes, Belgian Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union visited a resilience-building project in Somali Region. The project aims to contribute to eradicating hunger in Ethiopia by 2025 through enhanced livelihoods and poverty reduction; economic diversification and decent work opportunities for rural communities.
Having visited poultry and forage production cooperatives, Mr Nagant de Deuxchaisnes said, “I was really impressed by the huge impacts of very small initiatives. We could see how small farmers’ lives can be changed. This is very interesting for me to see that small initiatives can do huge impacts on the lives of local communities. This encourages me to tell my authorities to continue supporting organizations like FAO who developed such local programs.”
Poultry Production
His Excellency visited a poultry production cooperative in Gota community in Somali Region. The poultry production initiative was introduced to the community with the purpose of improving household food and nutrition security and creating means of income. Poultry production requires small space and less expensive running costs which is more relevant for resource-poor communities to manage but provides high-protein nutritious food and income in a short period of time.
The poultry production cooperative was established by 15 most vulnerable and economic poor community members. The members were give training on poultry management including cooperative management, preparing feed and watering, chicken and coop management, and small business skills. With the support of local agricultural university, improved chicken coops were constructed and provided to the cooperative, together with 150, twelve-week old chickens. The cooperative collect eggs for own consumption and making some income by selling in the local market. With the income from the poultry production, the cooperative members have started fruit production at household level.
Forage production
Gota communities are agro-pastoralists , who rely on their animals and some crop production for a living. Animal feed production was introduced for the purpose of ensuring production and productivity of their livestock. The communities grow two grass varieties - Elephant Grass and Sudan Grass. The members planted two rounds and harvested twice. This boosted the milk production of their cows. The community members said that the forage production saved their animals during the El Nino-induced drought that affected their district this year.
Protecting livelihoods
His Excellency was also given a briefing about a destocking project supported by the Belgian Government. The project was aimed to protect the livelihoods of the drought affected pastoral communities and provide food to vulnerable households.
Mr Nagant de Deuxchaisnes said, “We fully support and are working with organizations like FAO to intervene in El Nino response and other programs. We have a lot of admiration for the Ethiopian people and Government for very positive reaction to this very challenging situation and able to manage multifaceted problems. I think they focused more on very urging problems and made good priorities.”
“The support from the Government of Belgium has been very instrumental to implement destocking services,” said Mr Amadou Allahoury Diallo, FAO Representative in Ethiopia. “Vulnerable families were able to access nutritious food and their livelihoods have been protected.”
Mr Allhoury added, “The rain arrived but the situation remained the same; we need to help rebuild the livelihoods base of those who lost their livestock assets, and strengthen animal feed and health supports.”
The destocking service benefitted 3 214 livestock sellers and improved the nutritional intake of 4 354 households. Additionally, FAO and partners supported livestock-dependent pastoral households with 14 300 multi-nutrient blocks to feed their core breeding animals.