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"I enjoy farming" Shitu Huba, a smallholder farmer in Holeta

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Shitu Huba is a 45 years old smallholder farmer who lives in Holeta, Oromia region of Ethiopia. She has eight children, and she is the head of the family. Farming is the livelihood for her family. She grows cereals, fruits and vegetables both for consumption of her family and as a means of cash income. “My parents were farmers, and I grew up watching and exercising farming, which made things easier for my farming today” said Shitu when she spoke about her farming experiences. She practices mixed farming with both crop production and livestock rearing going side by side. She uses her compound for a complex set of function including the production of diversified home garden vegetables. She uses manure from her livestock, poultry droppings, and remains of animal feed as inputs for her compost set in her backyard. “Anything compostable goes to my compost pit” said Shitu when explaining about her compost preparation.

Farmyard manure and compost are the main inputs she uses to enhance soil fertility of her backyard. She grows diversified vegetables in her backyard including; beetroot, collard greens, Kale, tomato, lettuce, green beans, etc.

She also grows essential herbs like rosemary, rue and lemongrass in her garden. Newly planted avocado seedlings, citrus, coffee and Enset (false banana) are some other crops you can observe as you walk through her backyard.

As part of its Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) project, Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD, https://www.isd-bio.org/) recruits farmers every year to support them on organic production and facilitation of lucrative market for their organically grown vegetables. Shitu was recruited in 2017 and she has been strongly involved in the EOA project. She is one of the outstanding farmers in Holeta area. “With support from ISD, I started vermicomposting to prepare compost for my garden in addition to the conventional composting and I use plant extracts mainly garlic extract for plant protection purposes” says Shitu when she talks about how she manages soil fertility and crop pests and diseases in her dynamic backyard.

She became a member of the organic vegetable growers’ farmers group who sell their organic produces in the farmers’ market in Addis Ababa. The market is organised every two weeks in Addis Ababa, Bole area in Natani Cafe. The cafe has given them space for free to encourage the farmers and organic consumers. The market day served as a platform for farmers and consumers to meet and discuss. Shitu has never been absent in the market day with her organic vegetables.

She rotates the vegetables to different plots in the backyard, and vegetables are always present in her garden. She feeds her family from these organic vegetables and not everything produced go to the market. “My vegetables are not only for market; I feed my family these organic vegetables and what is surplus goes to the market,” said Shitu.



Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 21, 2020 at 11:46 AM

    Empower women and the will empower the socioeconomic aspects of the community in return.

    ReplyDelete
  2. oromiaNovember 2, 2020 at 5:46 PM

    Really it's the most environmentally, socially and economically health practice.
    The question is how such practice are more practice by most smallholder farmers in both urban and rural areas?

    ReplyDelete
  3. oromiaNovember 2, 2020 at 5:48 PM

    Really it's the most environmentally, socially and economically health practice.
    The question is how such practice are more practice by most smallholder farmers in both urban and rural areas?

    ReplyDelete

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