I've not had communication from Desalegn for the past few months but today I saw that he posted an update about the Crops for Widows. When I was there last year, the widows were requesting improved seed to plant and fertilizer. It was difficult because I wanted them to have heirloom seed and make use of compost. Their viewpoint is that the improved seed (genetically modified) gives them more to harvest - something they need to make it through the coming months. The fertilizer helps grow the crop of course. The drawback is that it's short sighted. But how do you teach them to plan long term when they don't even have food for the next 3 months? Heirloom seed is something they can harvest for food but also save some to harvest for seed. They could store the seed and then plant it the next season without having the expense of buying bags of seed. Harvesting crops for seed is time consuming, I know. I've been doing it recently with herbs that I planted this past spring. Likewise, the use of compost would provide nutrients to grow the crops without the expense. Both, the improved seed and the chemical fertilizers are expensive.
Regardless of them doing it different than what I had planned, I'm thankful that it was done. Crops planted and ready to harvest. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU friends who so generously donated towards the crops program in the past. Please take a few minutes and check out the link to Desalegn's blog post.
In December I'm planning to return to Ethiopia on a visioning trip with Children's Hope Chest. I'll get to meet their staff and see various sites at different places in development. I'm eager to see the development plan for Shanto and how it might include livestock and crops!
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