Steps Forward - Terracing

Much of the agricultural activity that goes on in the Gohatsion zone where CPAR-Ethiopia maintains a satellite base camp in Were-Jarso Woreda, can be described as semi-pastoralist. The vast majority of farmers in this district maintain small plots of land (approx. 5ha per capita) on which they also herd cattle, raise sheep/goats, and/or cultivate a variety of household-scale crops. The region is more commonly referred to simply as The Blue Nile Gorge; Jarso woreda is situated at the very top of the road which connects northern Oromia to the south. (Image Left: Herding cows; highland terracing site which prevents severe soil erosion)

Due to the dramatic contours of the terrain as well as the persistence of traditional agricultural practices which result in low productivity and often exhaustion of the soil (for example: clearing land via slashing and burning, turning soil by means of manual sowing, etc) food security in this area is a very real concern for arguably the entire population, currently over 161 000 people. (Image Right: Terraced highlands on lip of the Blue Nile Gorge, Jarso Woreda)

During the famine of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the CPAR team, based in the neighbouring town of Selale at the time, demonstrated an incredible ability to reach far beyond the boundaries of one town all the way into the lowlands of the gorge where the team extended training on terracing. Terracing is an agricultural technique of strategically leveling arable hillside land and dividing the wide-set ridges by planting rows of shrubs or lying stone for the purpose of cultivation. It is an effective tool used worldwide for improving soil conservation. Resultantly, terracing is promoted and implemented by CPAR and our program participants to this day as a means to prevent, deter, or halt erosion entirely, particularly now in the highland communities.

In addition to these benefits, terracing also reduces the waste of surface runoff waters which play a crucial part in the irrigation of crops, especially in Ethiopia, in rural regions such as Gohatsion, which are prone to severe droughts. (Image Above: Lowland slope terracing)

Terracing is a prime example of how careful management of environmental resources can positively impact the capacity of rural communities to prevent and cope with natural disasters from landslides, to droughts, to the resulting devastation of food insecurity crises and famines. (Image Above: Recently planted shrubs in highland area)