Aim

We work every day to restore the health of Tigray’s natural resources and production landscapes so that rural communities can develop, and live food secure and prosperous lives. Our long experience demonstrates that by helping rural communities to better manage their natural resources and improve land productivity, they can produce more on a sustainable basis, generate living incomes from their farms, and gradually overcome poverty.

 

Challenge

It is currently estimated that up to half of all arable land in Tigray is moderately to severely eroded changing once cultivable lands into barren wastelands. Soil erosion is said to be occurring at a rate of 30-70 tons per hectare each year, while vegetation cover is thought to be as low as 2-3 per cent and will deteriorate further if management practices are not changed.  As land degradation intensifies the negative impacts of drought, productivity decline will worsen.  The World Bank has estimated that a 2.2 per cent fall in productivity has occurred each year since 1985 mostly due to soil erosion.

 

The causes and consequences of environmental destruction are many and they are interconnected:

• Cultivable land has become increasingly scarce as population grows but livelihoods remain reliant on subsistence agriculture.
• Soil erosion leading to desertification and loss of a production base.
• Deepening impacts of climate change.
• Unsustainable agricultural practices including the use of dung for fuel rather than as organic fertilizer.
• Rampant deforestation – current forest and woodlot cover is only about 1.6 per cent.
• Vicious cycle of over-use of land in order to meet basic food security causing decreased fertility. Even the practice of fallow is slowly disappearing as the pressure for more land for agriculture, fuel, construction and grazing mounts.