Gerset Farm Project
By: Kesete Ghebrehiwet
https://shabait.com/2021/02/10/gerset-farm-project/
NATION BUILDING
Feb 10, 2021
The construction of Gerset dam, which triggered the transformation of traditional farm practices to advanced irrigation systems, is a stepping stone toward the expansion of mechanized farm projects and change in the living standards of local communities. Farm activities that have been flourishing in Gerset and its surrounding areas are the result of the construction of major dams, in the Goluj sub-zone.
Fruits and vegetables, cereals, oilseeds, and date palms are grown and animals raised at the project’s farm. Gerset farm project has now shown remarkable progress with its ample harvest: harvest of fruits from a plantation of around 230 hectares, tomatoes from 100 hectares, onions from 50 hectares, and pepper from a few hectares. A nursery station within the farm project has been providing seedlings, and graduates of horticulture do research to provide select seeds.
Above all, Gerset farm has been a training center for young graduates who are now armed with practical experiences that are instrumental in moving the farm project forward. Over 500 professionals, who have over five years of experience in Plant Protection, Horticulture, Agronomy, and Agricultural Engineering, and other disciplines have been running and making a difference in all major farm activities of Gerset farm. Mr.
Amine Tesfamichael, Manager of Gerset Farm, said besides the contribution they have been making to the development of the farm, the graduates are making use of the opportunity provided for them to hone their skills.
Mr. Amine believes that Gerset farm is highly strategic owing to the availability of abundant water resources and the vast farm plains convenient for the cultivation of a wide range of plants using an advanced irrigation system.
While the achievements registered so far are commendable, Mr. Amine noted, there have been deficits of supplies of irrigation materials which have been deterring the possibility of moving the farm activities to a higher level of excellence.
The journey traveled so far has shown the overall potential of Gerset farm, and the expansion plans have been carried out based on this development.
We are now looking forward to addressing technical challenges and to increasing production through the introduction of more advanced irrigation systems, improved supply of electricity, and efficient distribution facilities for a judicious utilization of the available water resource,
Mr. Amine added.
Around 5,000 hectares have been cultivated to date in the Gerset farm. This farm zone, which was once barren, has now been transformed into an agricultural hub that supplies farm products to the local food markets at a fair price. Around 1,000 hectares have been cultivated through drip irrigation while seasonal rain-fed agriculture covers over 4,000 hectares.
Over 2,000 inhabitants of Gerset, who are from almost all ethnic groups of the country, and residents of Aklelet and Tesenei work on the farm. They are each given 45 kilos of crop and 500 Nakfa of pocket money a month and are given transport services from their homes to the farm fields.
The change in the lifestyle of the local communities is the result of the ever-flourishing farm project. The women, who used to be confined to their homes, now work at the farm project. The residents are now aware of the benefits of the farm which enabled them to cultivate their farms using the knowledge they acquired at the project and the technical assistance they get from the young graduates of agriculture.
According to Mr. Amine, the launching of the farm projects in the area opened a venue for multifaceted benefits that are instrumental in improving the living standards of the local communities. The benefits include, among others, the provision of electricity to the households, the supply of potable water, the provision of transportation and veterinary services. By working on the farms the community members now easily manage to earn their living and send their children to nearby schools.
Gerset farm, which is run by Eritrea’s Crops and Livestock Corporation (ECLC), has been improving its livestock resource with the introduction of Hameria cattle and Gerej sheep species. Mr. Amine said that the male sheep and bulls have been sent to medical and educational institutions to meet their demands of meat.
Sharing his observation of the change in the ecosystem of Gerset and its environs, which he visited during the struggle for independence in 1988 and again in 2000 in the post-independence period, Mr. Amine said,
Transforming an area which was characterized by thorny shrubs into a green agricultural hub that provides employment opportunity for the people of the area and supplies a variety of agricultural produce to the larger Eritrean population is a dramatic achievement.
What has been accomplished to date would definitely pave a way towards extending the farm areas to meet export demands in the future.
Once we are able to grow tomatoes in two seasons and provide Alebu Banatom factory with sufficient supply to enable it to operate in its full capacity, the farm activities will impact the country’s agro-industry,
Mr. Amine elaborated.
Fruits from the project’s farm have been distributed to local markets while the country is in partial lockdown due to the Coronavirus outbreak. What is more, more and more citreous fruits have been sent free of charge to quarantine centers. For instance, over 2,000 quintals of mangoes and oranges have been transported to the quarantine centers in the central region.
The ECLC has been assisting the farmers in the area by renting tractors at a nominal price and offering free of charge veterinary services and pesticides. The medicine supply center in Goluj has been meeting the demands of farmers in the sub-zone.
All types of citreous fruits, cereals, and cash crops tested in Gerset have been showing remarkable yield, which is a testament to the fertility of the area. Once mechanized farm activities are expanded to cover more hectares, there will be a dramatic transformation in the country’s agriculture sector, and the employment opportunity that comes with these developments will change the socio-economic status of the local communities.
ERi-TV - ዲጋ ገርሰት - ዞባ ጋሽ ባርካ - Aerial view of Gerset Dam, Eritrea
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Logo is just the beginning
By: Billion Temesghen
https://shabait.com/2020/09/09/logo-is- ... beginning/
NATION BUILDING
Sep 9, 2020
As global warming keeps threatening the inhabitants of our planet, Eritreans have been working hard on their piece of earth to fight desertification, erosion and the scarcity of water. In Eritrea,
every drop of water must be saved and stored at all costs;
they even made that their slogan associated with projects related to water and food security, the provision of social services and industrialization.
When some five years ago people began watching government trucks and vans leaving Asmara at dawn and heading south, they wandered where all those vehicles were flocking to and for what purpose.
What was there? What we heard was that a dam, known as Logo Dam, was being built in the vicinity of Adi Halo, a small village atop a hill. But what was unknown was that a big project was under way whose purpose is to serve as a pilot for what the Government envisions Eritrea mostly to be like. The project is not just about a dam. It is much more.
Eritrea has a long coastline and so many resources in its massive Red Sea waters, but it does not have abundant fresh water. The erratic rainfall in the country has left most of Eritrea’s land arid – a disadvantage to a people whose livelihood mostly depends on farming and raising animals. Thus, to address the problem, since the dawn of Independence, the Eritrean Government has been working to insure a sustainable provision of clean potable water.
Asmara is one of the cities that had seen hurdles in meeting clean water demand with its increasing population. In an effort to deal with the problem, the Eritrean Mapping and Information Center (EMIC), working under the umbrella of the President’s Office, did a case study in early 2012 to address the issue of water scarcity in the capital.
Asmara was originally built for fewer inhabitants, and the water supply infrastructure in
Mai Nefhi, Tecor, Beleza, Valle Gnecchi and
Adi Shacca dams, which cater to the city, no longer have the capacity to meet the demands of a growing capital. Even during a good rainfall season, what can be harvested from these dams is much less than 12 million metric cubes of water, which is the current amount in demand.
Hence, EMIC’s first mission has been alleviating the weight from these dams by constructing a new one, that is capable of supplying them with water. The Logo Dam’s construction was initiated on such premises.
Mr.
Tedros Beyene, GIS Expert at EMIC for the Southern Region Department, says that the Eritrean Government has been working hard to make the provision of water sustainable in all parts of the country. He added that the novelty of the construction of the dams lay in the growth-related projects embodied in the new approach of “
reserving water” that Eritrea is promoting in its development plan.
Based on the policy, the department provided an efficient work plan for the construction of the two dams, Logo and Misilam. Mr. Tedros says that the two projects required massive investment from the government, the expertise of hundreds of professionals and massive labor.
The first step towards the realization of the plan was an analysis of existing water basins in the area. The department concluded that the Southern Region is hosed down by five water basins. Out of which, about 75% of the water bodies flow into Mereb River, while the rest stream down through the eastern escarpments flowing to Haddas River. The region is also washed by other thirteen sub-basins. These ones flow directly to the Red Sea.
Seasonal rainwater from the northern part of Mountain Soira joins the river of Eindeli, topped by brooks from the mountains of Tekera and Ayakulu. These basins flow carrying rich soil, a vital addition to the side projects included in the main project of water conservation. When exploited to the maximum, areas watered by these brooks become perfect terrain for spate irrigation.
As noted above, the plan goes beyond just conserving water. The aim is to ensure well-rounded social development by utilizing both land and water resources. Its foundation began towards the end of 2013.
But why the Southern region and not the other regions? Mr. Tedros says that the Southern region has been selected to be a model because of its population density, infrastructure, abundance of land suitable for large scale agro-industry, and its accessibility to other cities and parts of the country.
This is how the catchments of Adi Halo and Gherghera areas became the sites for Logo Dam and Misilam Dam. Looking back, Mr. Tedros said that before the final draft of the site where Logo Dam is now located, the preliminary study conducted had been improved several times. While determining the dam sites, EMIC also considered several factors, such as water conservation capacity and cost, among others.
Originally, the construction of Logo Dam was projected to be in Adi Kefelet, measuring twenty five meters high and 400 meters long. The capacity was expected to be an estimated 8 million cubic meters of water.
Then the office reconsidered going a little lower towards Zaul, where a 660-meter-long dam could be built with a capacity to hold 14 million cubic meters of water. At the end, EMIC and other stakeholders agreed to build Logo Dam at its current location, suggesting the link of two dams, the saddle dam (functioning as the assisting dam) and the main dam, making Logo Dam what it is now. At 42 meters high, Logo Dam’s volume is 32 million cubic meters of water. With the good rains this summer, the dam at the moment has 14 million cubic meters of water.
Generally, Logo Dam is now functioning as the center of a multifaceted development project.
#UnderstandingEritrea is a series of articles that highlights the development path, anchored on the preservation and utilization of soil and water resources that Eritrea is following. Logo Dam is just the beginning.
