"Gardening makes me happy"

His name is Alemu Asalefew - a 65-year-old man living in the heart of Addis Ababa. He has a small space in his backyard and uses it to grow different vegetables types including tomato, lettuce, pepper, kale, Swiss chard, beetroot, cabbage etc. “Seeing the vegetables grow from day to-day makes me feel happy beyond the food production” says Mr Alemu when asked about how important gardening is for him. One morning, we went to visit him and we found him in his backyard assessing his vegetables and he said “this is where you will find me if I am not in the house”.

His main means of keeping his garden fertile is by preparing compost from compostable household waste, and his backyard looks so fertile. He showed us his composting pit, and he also said that he visited a vermicomposting and he is keen to try them in his garden with conventional composting side by side.

His vegetables look so clean with no sign of pest and disease attack. When asked if pest and disease are challenges for his vegetables; he said that there are these tiny insects which look like lice and they are too many in number when they occur. These insects highly infest the cabbage there was a time that l lost part of my cabbage because of these insects. The insects he was referring are “Aphids” and he said he started spraying a mix of dishwashing soap and wood ash which worked well for him to control them. He also used neem extracts. Mr Alemu said that there are experts from the urban agriculture offices and NGOs who provide him with technical support on pest and disease management.

Through the technical guidance and support from the urban agriculture team, Tena Kebena Ginfelene Enatseda and Institute for Sustainable Development, Mr Alemu implements organic crop production techniques. He uses locally made, non-toxic recipes for pests and disease management and compost to enhance soil fertility.

The vegetables seemed too much for his family consumption and we asked him if he takes the vegetables to the market. His response was “NO” and said that they use it for home consumption and share it with their neighbours. He also added that he never thought about taking his vegetables to the market. “I do gardening because it makes me feel happy and to some extent source food for my family but it turned out to be too much for home consumption and I am happy to keep sharing the vegetables with my neighbours.”

Mr Alemu in his backyard - doing his routine tasks

Swiss Chard

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