Shrinking Potatoes

Mohammad Sani, 32, a father of seven, is a farmer in Girawa Wereda, 75km from Harar, in the eastern Hararge Zone, Oromia regional state. He was digging his quarter hectare land in front of his house, by hand, on Wednesday; three months ago he planted a variety of potato, known as China, that has a poor resistance to disease, and all of it was lost to blight, a disease that kills plant tissues.

There are improved varieties of potato that could resist blight, but those were accessible only to model farmers.

That day, the upper half of Gara Muleta Mountain, 3,420m, which is found 10kms from Mohammed’s farm, was shrouded in mist, which Mohammad said was “uncommon at this time of year”. The past two months have seen the area often covered with rainless mists, which Gadissa Ejigu, deputy head of the zonal Agriculture Bureau, says was the cause of the blight.

“I never expected that this would happen,” he exclaimed.

Potato was a major food item for his family; the loss of it led him to sell his cow, three weeks ago, he says.

The blight has destroyed the potato crop in 15 well known potato growing kebeles out of the 45 kebeles in Grawa Wereda; the rest have sustained partial damage, says Tesfaye Leta, deputy head of the Wereda Agriculture Bureau. Grawa has 144,219ha of land suitable for potato farming.

Gadissa also said that the potato crops in other Weredas of the zone, including – Bedeno, Meta, Melka Belo, Bedesa, Gursum, Jarso and Dederv – were totally lost to blight. These nine Weredas are all found in highland areas, which depend on rain, and they are the ones that have been affected by the blight. The 10 lowland Weredas, which rely on irrigation, have been spared the disaster.

The damage covered 4,616.7ha, out of the 7,654.5ha of land covered by potato for the meher season.

During the same season, in 2011/12, the zone produced a total of 437,416ql of potato from 8,916ha.

“At least 40pc of the production was going to the market, including – Djibouti, Mogadishu, Hargesa, Dire Dawa and Addis Abeba, while the rest was consumed at home. However, there is even not any for consumption for this year,” said Gadisa.

With 33,191 holders, eastern Hararghe was the second largest holders constituting zone, next to the west Shewa zone, with 76,348 holders.

The Oromia region contributed 42.9pc of the 4.75 million quintal of potato produced in Ethiopia, in 2011/12. Oromia had 28,166.61ha of land covered with potato, compared to 59,508.67ha all over the country, during the year.

“There were at least 15 Isuzus that take potatoes from Grawa and distribute it to these places, but now there is not even one,” said Tesfaye.

Most of the 25 to 30 Isuzus running in and out of the Wereda were carrying khat, Fortune learnt.

The price of a kilo of potato is also up from three Birr, a year ago, to 11 Br now.

The plan for the agriculture bureau was to provide improved varieties to model farmers first, from whom the other farmers would get their seed the following season, according to Gadissa.

Next to khat, potato is the most produced crop in the zone. It is produced in the belg and meher seasons, twice a year. The farmers produce 150 to 450ql of potato from one hectare of land, used partly for home consumption; they sell the rest to buy other crops and materials they need. This time, most of those farmers will have nothing to offer to the market or to retain for home consumption.

Mohammed sold 15ql of potato last year, each for 250 Br.

“I find even up to 18 big potato stems sometimes, from one potato plant,” he said.

A hectare of land yielded 150ql to 450ql in an area where land holding averaged a quarter to half a hectare per household. The farmers mostly used that land for either potato or khat.

“That scarcity of farmland has meant that the farmers are unable to have various crops on their farmland,” said Tesfaye.

The blight has also damaged khat leafs on some farms and even dried eucalyptus trees. The damaged potato totally dries, hindering it from producing any stem. Even if it has started to grow some stems, it stops growing there, starts to blacken and harden and requires too much heat to cook, according to Tesfaye. When uprooted, not more than five tiny potato spuds showed under each plant at Mohammed’s farm.

“Potato is so sensitive to any disease, even if chemicals are used,” Tesfaye said.

Mohammed went to the bureau a month ago, as the blight devastated the flowering potato within two weeks.

After finalising an assessment on May 23, 2013, the bureau found that, out of the 1,040ha potato in the Wereda, 983ha was totally damaged, which is 94pc of the total product. An emergency committee, formed from the water, administration, health and agriculture bureaus, went to the Wereda administration on May 6, 2013, and returned with a report that 27,000 families needed urgent food aid.

The same committee also toured through the Weredas and reported that farmers in Grawa Wereda needed 1,100 quintal of wheat (HR 1685 variety), 160ql of teff and 60ql of haricot bean seeds for the current season and emergency food aid, whose quantity officials declined to comment on.

Although there are 31 agricultural experts and 108 DAs at the Wereda, according to Tesfaye, “we could not do anything,” he said.

“The damage happened so fast. What survived was that of the model farmers who had access to an improved variety. We asked the government and NGOs to supply the farmers with emergency food aid to fill the gap until the next season,” Tesfaye said.

The zone has also asked Haromaya University to provide blight resistant wheat, teff and haricot bean seeds, as well as to develop more resistant seed varieties.

“The leaf blight occurs sometimes, but has never had an impact to this extent. Although there are some improved seeds already in the market, the farmers do not know which one is resistant. We will give training to the farmers and the agricultural workers,” said Gadisa.

There ar e 293,000 families in the  Wereda, as of 2011, which the bureau wants to redirect from potato to other crops, with the supply of 3,000ql of improved wheat seed and 600ql of haricot beanfor the nine Weredas.

A group of agricultural officials from the Oromia Regional State, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Disaster Prevention & Preparedness Commission (DPPC) and USAID visited the zone on June 17, 2013, and promised to supply the seed and aid within a short time, according to Tesfaye.

“We signed an agreement with Care Ethiopia, WFO and other NGOs to provide improved seeds and some emergency food aid last week,” said Gadisa, speaking to Fortune on Thursday, June 28, 2013.

Gadissa says that his bureau will not let the farmers plant potato again, because of their limited capacity to use chemicals, which can be used to fight the blight. The new emphasis is on wheat and haricot beans.

“If I had the capacity to access the improved seed and chemicals, I would rather continue producing potato, since it yields more from a hectare,” Mohamed says.

Mohamed has tried Mencozeb and two other chemicals he could not name, in order to fight the blight back, but with no success.

“There are chemicals that the farmers have been trying, but even the right chemical does not work if not used at an early stage. However, the blight has damaged the farms and the farmer was not ready with the chemicals; our workers were also not able to identify the right chemical,” said Gadisa.

Mohammed was told by agricultural workers at the Wereda on Monday, to prepare his plot for wheat. Several other farmers in the area were also digging their plots in the same way.

Mohammed is devising a scheme in case his crop entirely fails: go to Haromaya Town and work as a daily labourer in construction and irrigation works, where they pay 20 Br a day, in order to feed his family.


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