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In this short video, ILRI's Alan Duncan introduces the IFAD-funded 'Fodder Adoption Project' based at ILRI

In a country where almost half of the population barely survives on less than a dollar a day, microcredit offers poor people a unique opportunity to engage in small businesses or improve their agricultural production. With the support of IFAD, microfinance institutions such as the Amhara Credit and Saving Institution (ACSI) extend small loans to poor people in rural areas to help them improve their incomes and overcome poverty.

Diramo is 70. She lives in the village of Siminto in Ethiopia where she was born. She grew up as a herder, moving with her family’s animals to find water and food, feeding her children with the milk and meat. But now the abundant grasslands that the cattle fed on are gone and the people are no longer able to migrate in search of pasture. They grow what crops they can but droughts are frequent.

Moyale is a small community in the Borena region of Ethiopia next to the Kenyan border. It is at the heart of a food crisis that has left at least 11m across the Horn of Africa needing aid.

In a living room in Addis Ababa, a youth group is in the middle of a discussion about how drinking alcohol can have a negative impact on one's health. This is session 9 out of 19 in a series funded by the Canadian International Development Agency that uses peer education to teach young people (15–24 years) about HIV and AIDS. Each group meets about once a week and it takes approximately seven months to complete the program. A trained facilitator—a young person who has already participated in the discussion series—leads the sessions.

Imagine walking for two hours to get to school. And then walking two more hours to get home again. Whether slogging through mud in the brief but intense rainy season or travelling under the heat of a blazing hot sun, kids in a small Ethiopian farming community make the daily trek with a spring in their step. Their energy levels are high.

Healthy food helps children grow and develop. Without sufficient nutrients, their minds and bodies will start to shut down.
In Ethiopia, almost half of all children under five suffer from malnutrition. Many are developmentally challenged as a result.

Ethiopia is the home of coffee. Unfortunately, dependence on Ethiopia's gift to the world has made small-scale coffee farmers vulnerable to global price drops. The world coffee crisis, which has seen prices at a 35 year low, is creating severe hardships for Ethiopia's 1.2 million coffee farmers. Many cannot cover the basic cost of production and are operating at a loss. Says one frustrated coffee farmer, "What I understand is that people in your country drink it, but I receive nothing."

In Ethiopia farmers use a wide variety of seeds to obtain their crops from an incredible variety of different kinds of fields. Gathering information on what kind of seeds farmers want and why is essential to help farmers and the country preserve its rich genetic resources.

A video presenting Biodiversity through different experiences filmed in 4 countries (Cambodia, Chad, Ethiopia and Viet Nam) in three different continents. Biodiversity is vital for the production of food and to conserve the ecological foundation needed to sustain peoples' livelihoods. It is vital for adapting crops and animals to a range of environmental conditions and contributes to important functions, like nutrient cycling, pest and disease regulation, pollination, maintenance of water quality, soil health and erosion control. Biodiversity provides many services to agriculture, but agriculture too can serve biological diversity.

Statement BY Mr. Belay Ejigu, Acting Minister of Agriculture, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

Natnael Goshu sits atop the two 20-litre containers that he and his mother have hauled to the football field in front of St. Michael's Church in Harar. On the far side, a water tanker, operated by the Harari Regional Water Bureau with support from UNICEF, delivers clean water to residents of the beleaguered medieval town. "I am here with my mother to collect water," said eight-year old Natnael. "We used to have water inside our home, but then, a few weeks ago, all the water dried up. Now, getting water is a problem for us."

A constant flow of people carrying water containers of all shapes, sizes and colors, makes its way up and down the steep incline to the only clean water supply in the village of Bwambwa Wuha. Built with UNICEF assistance, the protected spring serves the village's 2,035 residents.

Somali Region is seriously affected by the hiv/aids pandemic. Infection rates are dif ficult to measure in an area, where the vast majority of the app. 4 million people live a nomadic life in rural areas with little or no infrastructure. In Jijiga, however, recent surveys indicate that one in five is infected. According to Dhaba Fayissa, UNICEF Technical Advisor on HIV/AIDS based in Jijiga, ignorance, poverty and drought compound the disease.

Three-quarters of Ethiopians depend on agriculture for a living but the challenges are enormous. Find out how our simple strategies have already helped small-scale farmers in Ethiopia and how we are scaling-up the work to ensure thousands more have a secure future.

“Now Oxfam wants to prove that small-scale agriculture can be made viable – not just for a few communities but for large numbers of people over a very wide area. If we can persuade donors such as the World Bank to back small-scale farming with ‘big-scale' aid, it will be a huge step towards helping to make poverty history for millions of people.”

“I have an improved beehive, which makes a significant difference. For instance, I have a much bigger yield. Before I had 5-6 kgs of honey per year - which has increased to 25 kgs of honey. The hives are easier to clean and inspect…so I see if there are problems with the bees…like disease or insect invasion. It is easier to access the combs and my own safety has improved.

"From the income I earn I can send my children to school. All four of my children go to school. School is free but there are other expenses to go to school…uniforms, books and pens. It's very difficult to cover these expenses. In some cases it costs 100 Birr (£7) within a month.

“There is poor yield because of drought. Before I used to use dung from cattle but now there are no cattle and I don't have enough dung to fertilise the coffee. Because of erosion, the fertility of the soil has decreased. Before the land was covered with enset and now it's gone due to the drought and all the enset has been used. The trees are going as people are selling firewood and charcoal to buy food - so there is deforestation. The environment has changed and the situation has deteriorated. The co-operatives tell me that the failure of the coffee price - it was 3 Birr (21p) a kilo and now it's 90c (7p) per kilo - is because the world price has fallen.