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Showing posts from June, 2020

The charismatic farmer who made me feel that my college education was null and void

It was November 2016, the spring, the season every part of Ethiopia blossoms with flowers from wild plants, shining beauty from a mosaic of smallholder plots planted with different crop types and varieties of the same crop species and the greenery across the different landscapes and Agro-ecological zones. A team of experts of Agro-ecology from all over Africa came to Ethiopia to take part in the “Community Seed Knowledge” workshop organised by African Biodiversity Network (ABN) and the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD). The workshop was held in Dessie, a city located 400 km North East of the Ethiopian capital – Addis Ababa. On the day we drove to Dessie; we stopped in a small village in Harbu district of South Wollo Zone, one of the sorghum growing areas, and met smallholder farmers who have been involved in community seed bank project run by Ethio Organic Seed Action – an NGO working to save indigenous seeds. As we stopped by the roadside and got off our bus; the farme