Seeds of Survival (Ethiopia)

Hailu Getu

Hailu Getu is an Ethiopian agronomist working for the survival of these seeds and his people. Through Seeds of Survival, an internationally-sponsored program, Hailu and his colleagues search for agricultural solutions to many of the country's problems.

"When I was a child, I remember these mountains used to be covered with forest. Now that area has been completely taken over by cultivation. It is very amazing for me, in the last 30 years, this area becoming completely deforested. When we had the drought this came as a surprise both to the farmers and again to the outside world, because Ethiopia before that time was self-contained. We'd never had such an alarming drought. Everybody rushed exotic materials to the country and this - not having the right adaptability, and the resistance to local diseases - this resulted in disastrous crop failures. After the droughts, international agricultural aid finally arrived. But it wasn't as effective as expected. The local grains were replaced with laboratory breeds, genetically "improved." Local farmers quickly realized that the new seeds were less productive in the harsh climate of the highlands. They required the abundant use of pesticides and fertilizers, neither of which starving Ethiopians could afford.


In this dry corner of Africa, with its enormous exports of coffee and bananas, poverty and starvation are still present. Clearing vast tracts of forest destabilizes not just weather patterns but the physical and cultural survival of the people that know and depend upon the land. Collaboration between scientists and the farming communities forms the cornerstone at Seeds of Survival. Without the advise and input of local farmers, agronomists risk developing sterile theories. Likewise, without information from botanical and genetic research, Ethiopia would be hard pressed to climb back from its devastating impoverishment.

Ethiopia's dictatorship fell in 1991, but the country still has numerous challenges to meet, many of them still a result of colonial administration. Agrarian reform has yet to be addressed. Transportation is slow and roads built before independence are in disrepair. Across the high plains, in some places over 3000 meters or 10 thousand feet in height, irrigation is inexistent. Unsafe drinking water is responsible for 80 percent of the country's diseases.

Solutions to the poverty that still afflicts the country exist. The needs and development of Ethiopia requires a willingness on the part of the scientific community to recognize and foster traditional agricultural methods and culture. From the the traditional wisdom of Mankind's first farmers comes the daily bread of the third millenium. Conserving and protecting biological diversity, in all its forms across the globe, can nourish the vital seeds of our future."