Status
ImplementationAid type
Project-type interventionsEthiopia
Location
-
€ 2,000,000
Committed
Committed
€ 0
Used
Used
Description
Moringa Stenopetala, Shifera in Amharic, is known in Ethiopia as the miracle tree, for its very high nutritional value and scientifically proven positive health effects. In the Southern Ethiopia Region, where it is native, moringa is traditionally cultivated mainly by women farmers, marginally for self-consumption, also due to its extreme climatic resilience, growing in semi-arid areas without irrigation. In project areas, climate change, drought, and loss of soil fertility are limiting the production of major cereal crops, especially for small-scale farmers, who have half a hectare for subsistence rainfed agriculture. The scarcity of improved inputs and sustainable techniques to conserve moisture and increase soil fertility, fight plant diseases or properly treat crops, further reduce yields and negatively affect the environment. Small-scale producers are also marginalised by supply chains for potentially commercial crops, such as beans or moringa, where a few intermediaries set prices individually. In the moringa supply chain, one of the main bottlenecks is in the supply of the raw product, while the few microenterprises that do exist have difficulty accessing the means to add value. The government extension services are trying to promote associationism between young people and women in order to aggregate value to the productions, but the results are limited both by the technical deficiencies and high turnover of their staff, and by the low technical and entrepreneurial capacities of the associations. Therefore, in the project areas most of the population is considered moderately or severely poor and more than half of the households experience moderate or severe food insecurity (World Bank 2023). In this situation, moringa can represent a triple opportunity: economic, given the growing global and local demand for the plant and its processed products; environmental, due to the improvements the tree can bring about in soil fertility and CO2 absorption; social and cultural, for women, who already traditionally cultivate the plant and already use it for their families' daily diet. The She-FERA project intends to improve the production of small-scale farmers by promoting, through enhanced extension services and improved inputs, those crops that are most resilient to climate change, such as sorghum, and that associated in agroforestry with moringa and legumes, can improve soil fertility and thus bring improvements in terms of quantity produced, nutrition capacity, and market potential. She-FERA also strengthens associationism, particularly of women and young people, with the creation of nurseries and dryers for moringa with low-cost replicable techniques, and the connection of production with microentrepreneurs in the supply chain, assisted in the creation of added value and integration with national food production systems. Together, these actions aim at the sustainable growth of the promoted agro-forestry supply chains, in line with OSS8, in particular by increasing the income of micro-producers, women and men, and micro-entrepreneurs in food systems, in line with OSS2.3 and 2.4, and by fostering access to nutritious food and food security for the most vulnerable (OSS2.1). She-FERA enhances the expertise of the associated partners in this challenge: CESVI for the agro-environmental component, Ayuda en Accion for moringa, PAD for community and nutrition awareness, the University of Arba Minch for research and standardisation of best practices.
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| Year | Committed | Used |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | € 2,000,000 | € 0 |
Agency
| Type | Name | Channel code |
|---|---|---|
| Government | AICS - Italian Agency for Cooperation and Development | 11000 |
Channel reported
| Type | Name | Channel code |
|---|---|---|
| National NGO | CESVI FONDAZIONE ONLUS | 22000 |
Project data
Sectors
Policy markers
SDGs
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