(By ROGER THUROW, Wall Street Journal) ARSI NEGELE, Ethiopia — Babou Galgo, a 61-year-old farmer, proudly showed off his prized harvest from last season: two shiny gold medals from the regional and federal government and a slick certificate praising his “outstanding performance in increasing agriculture production and productivity.”
What he had done was boost his corn yields on his small farm in southern Ethiopia an eye-popping sevenfold over the past several years. Even more impressive, he had boosted the well-being of his family as well: With the added income, they moved out of a traditional mud-brick tukul and into a brick and concrete house furnished with a refrigerator, television and DVD player, rare luxuries for a farmer in one of the world’s poorest countries.
Indeed, not long ago, Mr. Galgo would have had no need for a refrigerator as meager yields had him struggling to feed his family. “It’s the seeds,” he says, noting the reason for his reversal of fortunes. “Hybrids.”
Africa’s nascent push to finally feed itself is turning the clock back to the early part of 20th-century America. It was in the 1930s and ’40s when Iowa-based Pioneer Hi-Bred International popularized hybrid seeds in the U.S., swelling corn yields throughout the Midwest. Seven decades later, African farmers and U.S. companies are trying to recreate the same boom that turned America into the world’s breadbasket, only this time in the harsh climate — environmental and political — of Ethiopia and greater Africa.
If agriculture has a final frontier, it is Africa. After agriculture transformations in Asia and Latin America since the 1960s, Africa remains the one place where the farming potential has barely been scratched. African agriculture has less irrigation, less fertilizer use, less soil and seed research, less mechanization, less rural financing, fewer paved farm-to-market roads than any other farming region in the world. Conflict in many parts of the continent has chased farmers out of their fields, and neglect by both local governments and international development experts have let Africa’s agriculture infrastructure fall into dire disrepair.
American farming interests, like those of agricultural icons Pioneer and John Deere, have avoided large swaths of Africa in the past, believing that farmers were too poor to pay for their products or wary of political instability that has rocked some of Pioneer’s other African operations. But now, with global grain surpluses down, demand rising and prices soaring, the calculations at home and abroad have changed and progress can’t come fast enough.
In Ethiopia, only about one-quarter of the country’s total corn area is planted with hybrid seeds. Hybrids, produced from conventional breeding to increase yields and to thrive in harsher climates and to resist pests, usually can double or triple harvests over the standard seeds passed down through generations. And there are only several thousand tractors for more than 50 million people who depend on farming to survive.
“Africa is the only continent where per capita food production is declining, so the need is there,” says J.B. Penn, the chief economist of Deere & Co. and a former undersecretary at the U.S. Agriculture Department. The present food crisis “is solved only through higher production,” adds Paul Schickler, president of DuPont Co.’s Pioneer unit. “That is what is needed in Africa, through the use of better technology, genetics and agronomic practices.”
Chombe Seyoum sees the need and potential every day. A farmer himself, Mr. Seyoum began selling John Deere equipment in Ethiopia two years ago hoping both to accelerate the mechanization of his country’s farmers and to fulfill his father’s vision. In 1968, his father bought a small John Deere tractor and introduced machine farming to his region of the country’s southern wheat belt. Several years later, Emperor Haile Selassie was toppled by a communist dictatorship, farmland was collectivized and some of the Seyoum family’s machinery was confiscated.
Mr. Seyoum studied to become an engineer. But when the communists were ousted in the early 1990s, he returned to farming and saw how far his country had fallen behind as he worked to rebuild the family farm.
Now, from his office in Addis Ababa, he sells Deere equipment — 100 in the past two years. While drought and hunger still plague parts of Ethiopia, the fertile Rift Valley and highland regions, given good weather, have the country rivaling South Africa as the continent’s largest cereal and grain producer south of the Sahara. Rising corn and wheat prices have spurred demand for machinery from farmers hoping to expand their acreage. Making up for lost time, Mr. Seyoum welcomes customers ready to purchase big-ticket machinery.
“We are in a rush,” says one customer, Abdi Abdullahi Hussein. Mr. Hussein once worked with nomadic herders before seeing the business potential in farming this year. The spring planting season was fast approaching and he badly needed a tractor. He and a partner have about 60 acres and he intends to rent the tractor to others. “Our idea is to introduce technology in our area and plow more land,” he says.
Mr. Seyoum suggests an 85-horsepower tractor costing about $30,000. Mr. Hussein doesn’t flinch at the price; He has pooled his savings with neighbors’ who will share the tractor. In Ethiopia and throughout Africa, banks are reluctant to lend to farmers who have little collateral; pooling money is a common way to raise the funds. But he cringes at the four-month delivery time from Deere’s factory in Brazil. Instead, he ponders a 65-horsepower tractor, which will be available sooner.
“We’ve got a long list of people coming to us for tractor service,” says Mr. Hussein.
As Mr. Hussein leaves, another farmer arrives to complete a purchase of a combine. Haji Kawo, like most wheat farmers in Ethiopia, plants by hand and harvests with a machine. After years of hiring others to cut his wheat, Mr. Kawo decided to get into the harvesting business himself. He figures he can pay off the $70,000 combine within a year given that there are 20,000 small farmers in his area who need harvesting service. He envisions moving from farm to farm during the harvest season much like combine services that methodically move up from the southern U.S. and into Canada.
Offering to help with financing, Mr. Seyoum sees Mr. Kawo as a model farmer who can demonstrate the benefits of mechanization to others and drive sales. Ethiopian farmers “see a success somewhere, and they want to do it, too,” says Mr. Seyoum.
Melaku Admassu, an Ethiopian who runs Pioneer’s operations here, uses the same farmer-to-farmer sales method that Pioneer employed in the U.S. He began by handing out seeds from the back of his pickup truck, particularly to farmers like Babou Galgo who worked land near the major roads so more people could follow the growth of the hybrids. At harvest time, Mr. Admassu would return with small scales to weigh the yields and compare them to the harvests of farmers who weren’t using the hybrids.
“When I heard that only 1% or 2% of the U.S. population are farmers, and they feed the whole country, I couldn’t believe it,” Mr. Admassu says. “I started dreaming that if every farmer in Ethiopia increases production, we can change the whole country. We can change Africa.”
It has certainly changed lives in the Rift Valley lakes region. When Mr. Admassu first came to his village with the new seeds and advice on how to better till his land, Debebe Ayele, 47, was struggling to feed his family. “We were getting food aid,” he says. “I was ready to try anything to improve my situation.”
The new seeds were a risk. They were more expensive than the standard fare and they were new. He planted two acres the first year, then four and now he rents land from his neighbors to increase his acreage. His harvests multiplied and for the first time in his life he had regular surpluses to sell on the market. He replaced the thatched grass roof of his house with corrugated iron. He bought better furniture and better clothes. He wants his children to go as far as they can in school.
As Mr. Ayele recites his progress, Mr. Admassu beams. “When we see our farmers go from barefoot to shoes, we know that is because of increased production,” he says.
Farmer Galgo is ready for another upgrade. Sitting in his comfortable living room, beneath wall murals of Jesus and a peace dove, he tells Mr. Admassu, “I want to expand my land and buy a tractor. A big tractor, with a lot of power.”
Another tractor customer.
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Write to Roger Thurow at [email protected]
The legitimate synod of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has issued a resolution regarding Woyanne’s secret border agreement with Sudan. Click here to read [pdf, Amharic]
The Ethiopia and Sudan Border Issues Committee is organizing a protest rally in front of the Sudan and Woyanne-occupied Ethiopian embassy on Monday, June 2, 2008, to oppose the secret land deal between Woyanne’s Meles Zenawi and Sudan’s al-Beshir that carved up tens of thousands of square kilometers of Ethiopian fertile farm lands and gave to Sudan.
The Worldwide March Committee for Freedom and Justice, held from May 15-18 was a great effort by hundreds of organizers and participants in Ethiopian cities and communities throughout the world. We want to thank all of those organizers who worked so hard and devoted countless hours to bring it all together in a relatively short period of time!
Many Ethiopians rose up from the silence of the last many months to show that they have not forgotten those back home. More importantly, we have learned that we Ethiopians can successfully work together across many lines of differences that have separated us in the past.
We have learned that we can accomplish exponentially more together than in separate factions—the biggest obstacle to our success in the past. In fact, we would never be where we are today if we had been a more united people. In actuality, even a core group of united people who are willing to work intensely for the greater good, representing the diversity of Ethiopian citizenry can be more effective because of that unity than groups with more resources or members.
Instead, we have learned that we do not necessarily come closer to freeing the country by creating more political parties or civic groups, but instead what is of utmost importance is having a core group of people with commitment, vision, organization and who trust each other.
A major intent of the Worldwide March was to remember our fellow Ethiopians who died back home since TPLF came to power. That mission was accomplished. Most of the people within the executive committee were overwhelmed and touched by the stories reported to them of how people commemorated this day in many different ways—through candlelight vigils, prayer, community gatherings, marches and public meetings.
In eleven countries, Ethiopians presented a petition asking these donor countries to stop supporting this repressive regime and to instead, to start encouraging a democratic process and the opening up of freedoms within Ethiopia. By these actions, Ethiopians showed that our people who died for freedom, did not die in vain and that many of us will not rest until justice and reform comes to Ethiopia.
In Geneva at the United Nations, two letters were presented to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to urge them to take action on Ethiopia and on behalf of Ethiopians refugees who are suffering in Libya, Egypt, Israel, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and many countries.
A second accomplishment was that we Ethiopians demonstrated that we have not forgotten those who are still suffering intense hardships back home. We know of the extraordinarily high inflation in the country that makes food aid essential for the survival of millions, only worsened by the heartbreaking news that a drought is coming to Ethiopia from which 6 million Ethiopians may die.
Neither have we forgotten how many Ethiopians are continuing to face torture, threats and intimidation. We know of the many thousands who are still imprisoned, people like Teddy Afro who was detained for what strongly appears to be a bogus crime. He has been punished like many of his fellow Ethiopians for simply speaking the truth about the oppression found in the country.
In the midst of all this, the phony election last month has left Ethiopians with only one choice of a political party, the same party of the ruling government that is repressing the media, taking away their freedom of expression, giving away their land to Sudan and committing the ongoing genocide in the Ogaden—the EPRDF government of Mr. Meles Zenawi!
Thirdly, our grief over the many deaths and continued suffering of our loved ones has reminded us that shared grief can find greater relief when connected together as one. Some people may have been disappointed by the division within the political parties and the failure of our political leaders to guide us, but despite this, we have found that there are people who will never give up.
Those people are men and women, young and old, from all parts of Ethiopia—from the east to the west to the south to the north. They are from all of the many different ethnic groups, religions, political parties and civic groups. These people came out from many different countries in the world, agreeing to work together because they knew it was the only way to free their country. They knew they could not wait for another foreign country to free them, but that they had to take on the responsibility themselves.
The Worldwide March Committee is developing a next step action plan which would involve the creation of a Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia—like we have been suggesting for over a year. An important step in this initiative would be to bring together political parties, civic organizations and religious organizations so as to develop a vision and strategy of how to free Ethiopia and how to build the foundation for a new Ethiopia where justice, freedom and harmony could be sustainable.
What we need to do is to have a national conference—with political, civic, religious and other groups involved—in order to discuss and develop a plan for the country’s political future, one based on consensus. This national conference would have two goals: (a) to address the demand for political freedom; in other words, what do we want for Ethiopia and how can we best resolve our differences so we can work together to accomplish it, and (b) what is a viable plan, with all its components and steps, for bringing about the changes we want?
Right now, things look very grim and dark in Ethiopia and everyone knows it. One of the biggest fears many have is that the discontent, division, frustration and anger could boil over and erupt. Many fear that we might be sitting on a time bomb that could explode before we have been able to put into place a strong, multi-ethnic body that could guide the people through such difficulties. None of us want a disaster to unfold. Because of that, we must think ahead and strategize as to how we can avert that kind of disaster, yet not compromise on the push towards the changes we need.
Right now, Meles is using repression and control, but this will not work forever. It is in the interest of every single living Ethiopian to really think of the seriousness of this situation as a motivation to come together with the genuine intention of making some concessions for the good of everyone. If people refuse to so, all of us will suffer for our joint failure.
The Worldwide March Committee has learned that there is still a way to forge a future, as long as we place our faith and hope in God that even when it looks to be impossible, God can help us find a way through this dark valley, especially if we travel this road together.
During these last weeks, we have built new friendships with people throughout the world who we only met through the phone and Internet. We are now enjoying the richness of new relationships and after many intense meetings and discussions with a shared purpose in mind, we feel we know each other despite many of us never meeting in person. This is part of the new family of Ethiopia, but we are still looking for our other family members. If you want to be part of this, please feel free to contact us.
The problem of Ethiopia cannot be solved by one ethnic group, one political party or by one religion. All of us are needed. We are asking Ethiopians to join with us in seeking a new political culture in Ethiopia. In this new political culture, the self-seeking politics of ethnic power barons is replaced by a de-ethnicized, inclusive politics drawing on African traditions of consensus, respect, integrity and participation. The existing repressive politics where leaders grasp for power to ensure their accumulation and that of their followers ignores the ordinary Ethiopian who must suffer government rather than being served by it.
In the existing house of politics where elites rule for themselves, changing the political leadership, only changes the participants who `eat’. The ordinary Ethiopian can only stare in wonder at the rapaciousness of the ruling clique. Currently, human rights are proclaimed to satisfy the national and international community but when human rights clash with the interests of the powerful, then they wither and die. Our rights and lives are exceedingly fragile subject to the whims of the powerful.
The Worldwide March Committee has a vision of a new house. The house we have right now in Ethiopia has become the house of the elite that pushes out the vulnerable and the weak from its protection. Ethiopians are not brought within the house but rather left to languish in the undeveloped bush outside. While the leaders are sheltered and feasting within, the ordinary person is wet and starving beyond the bright lights of the exclusive house.
Now it is time for all of us to build a new house where we will invite everyone to come back in to the hut to live, but it cannot be built by one person. It will require many hands. We want to build a new house where all can enjoy their rights and acquire meaningful opportunities to enhance their lives and those of their children.
All Ethiopians, whether male or female, old or young, whatever one’s ethnic identity or religious affiliation, no matter what region of the country, are invited to participate in this national endeavour of transformation under the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia.
We call on donor countries and international institutions to respect our goals and to join with us in the creation of this new Ethiopia under a new political culture of respect, participation and life enhancement.
Keep posted for the next events. We have only begun our march ahead to freedom and justice for Ethiopia. The way before us may be difficult, but with God, nothing is impossible!
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For further questions, please contact the Worldwide March Executive Committee at: [email protected]
Oregon State University freshman Teddy Badege wanted to combine two of his passions and create something for people like him, who support both the OSU Beavers and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
So the 19-year-old printed up 300 T-shirts, which look nearly identical to official OSU merchandise. Only instead of O-State in orange lettering, the name O-bama stands out against the black background.
Badege starting selling shirts for $15 each about two weeks ago. He’s nearly out of them. He sold nearly 40 on election day Tuesday. But he’s more thrilled with Obama’s win in the Oregon primary election.
“I think he’s the right candidate (who) will lead this nation in a new path. And I really think the nation needs his guidance to come out of a lot of the recessions, for lack of a better term,” said the Corvallis High School graduate.
“He definitely does represent the young generation, specifically college students and all walks of life.”
The Illinois senator also is a great inspiration, who exemplifies what a black man can accomplish, said Badege. He was born in Ethiopia, but has lived in Corvallis for 16 years. He attended Obama campaign events in Albany and in Portland on May 18, when an estimated 75,000 people showed up at Waterfront Park.
Badege, who interns for the Obama campaign, also is the equipment manager for the OSU football team.
The latter job helped him get in touch with the company that does OSU’s official gear.
He’ll have to do a new printing of 100 black shirts, and is considering adding white and orange T-shirts.
Badege figures that sales will step up as fall approaches, since he’s confident that Obama will be the Democratic nominee by then. And then, there’s the OSU football season as well.
Although he is making some money from the shirts, Badege is donating some of that money to Obama’s campaign. He also gave a few shirts to Obama’s brother-in-law, new OSU basketball coach Craig Robinson, in the hope those might be passed on — and maybe a certain Democratic candidate might end up wearing one.
Badege also hopes to head to the Democratic National Convention in August as an Oregon delegate.
Coming to America for twins Ananya and Azaria Habtemariam and their younger brother, Kaleab, meant crossing the Atlantic Ocean from their African homeland of Ethiopia.
Kaleab Habtemariam, 13, (from left), Merawit Tefera, Azaria
Habtemariam, 17, and his twin brother Ananya, sit May 2 in
the backyard of their Rockford home.
[Photo: SUSAN MORAN | RRSTAR.COM]
Merawit, their mother, was granted political asylum by the U.S. in 2000 because she married an Eritrean. Ethiopia and Eritrea have battled over their border. After reaching America, Merawit traveled to Illinois to live with a cousin who had settled in Rockford.
She made the trip having to leave her husband, daughter and three boys behind. In 2005, her three sons were able to join her in Illinois. Merawit’s husband still is seeking political asylum. Her only daughter, a nurse who is unable to find work in Ethiopia, is pursuing a visa that would allow her to enter the U.S.
Ananya and Azaria, now 17, will graduate with the Guilford Class of 2008. Kaleab, 13, attends Kennedy Middle School.
“I am thankful to God,” Ananya says. “Thankful for God’s grace to be in America. I am happy that I left Ethiopia. America has more opportunities. Unlike America, Ethiopian education is not available to all. And, unlike Ethiopia, American education teaches how to relate your education to real life.”
Ananya also appreciates the American culture that allows for different opinions and ideas.
“Ethiopia has one political party,” he said. “America allows more than one.”
Social life in Ethiopia
Not everything about Ethiopia is negative in Ananya’s view. One of the pluses he points out is the social life nurtured by Ethiopian culture.
“The people in Ethiopian communities are close,” he says. “For instance, one does not drink coffee alone — if alone, you would call someone to join you before you would drink your coffee.”
When he first entered school in the area, Ananya remembers the hard time he had making friends.
“Even though I knew how to speak English, I did not know the social customs of what to talk about.”
Pharmacy study plans
This fall Ananya will enter Northern Illinois University to study to become a pharmacist, although he says that choice might change. Whatever major he chooses, he said, his fondness for math will definitely be an asset.
Azaria said he also is glad to be in America. Like his brother, he points out the educational opportunities in America that he would not have in his homeland.
“There is no guarantee to Ethiopian students with high grades that they will be admitted to a college,” he said. “There are not enough educational facilities for all students who have the grades for admission. Even after college graduation, there are not enough jobs for every graduate. My sister, Tezeta, who is 22, is a nurse and does not have a job.”
One of the major differences Azaria sees between American and Ethiopian cultures has to do with religious holidays.
“The biggest (religious) holiday in Ethiopia is Easter, whereas in the United States it is Christmas. Before Easter day, Ethiopians fast for 55 days from morning to 3 p.m.,” he said. “During the fast the evening meal does not include meat. Ethiopians also pray each night and in church during the fast. I think Ethiopians are more religious and take religion more seriously than Americans.”
Engineering a future
Azaria has also applied to NIU, where he plans to major in electrical engineering.
After he receives his master’s degree, Azaria plans to devote some of his time to help other immigrants adjust to America. He and his brother already have experience in this area: they have both been math tutors for Guilford foreign high school students through a special Rock Valley College tutoring program.
Kaleab, like his brothers, said he is grateful to have had the chance to come to America. He too mentions how difficult it was in the beginning to make friends to replace ones left in Ethiopia.
“One reason it was hard for me to make friends,” says Kaleab, “was because of the language barrier.”
Although Kaleab knows how to speak English, his accent and the American accent presented challenges in understanding.
Kaleab is taking advantage of the educational opportunities available to him by studying hard and staying focused. His career goal is to become a surgeon. As for Rockford’s cold weather, he definitely favors the milder temperatures of Ethiopia.
It is not easy for Merawit and her sons to be away from their other family members.
They continue to pray and hope for a future reunion. In the meantime, they said, they will keep building their future here in Rockford.
So the 19-year-old printed up 300 T-shirts, which look nearly identical to official OSU merchandise. Only instead of O-State in orange lettering, the name O-bama stands out against the black background.