SEASON #2 MILESTONES
OVER 1 MILLION TREES STUMPED
OVER 7,500 SMALLHOLDER FARMS REVIVED
46,000+ FARMERS TRAINED ON GOOD AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES
1,500 COFFEE FARM COLLEGES SETUP
A COFFEE FARMER’S JOURNEY TO SUCCESS
Meet SHIBIRU WORASSA WATA
Shibiru Worassa Wata, a 53-year-old coffee farmer lives in Tumtacha kebele, Dilla Zuria district of Gedeo zone, Ethiopia. Shibiru and his wife Tadelech Ademe have 10 children and a mother to support.
They own 3 hectares of land where they farm coffee, enset, timber (Cordia africana), complemented by a small butchery on market days. Their main source of income is from their coffee farm, but the yield has been very low, and they have been struggling to make a living for several years. In recent years, Shibiru has struggled to improve the yield of his coffee trees.
In January 2022, he was invited to TechnoServe’s Regrow Yirga coffee training program on best farming practices funded by USDA Food for Progress. Shibiru joined the Regrow Yirga Coffee Farm College program’s 2022 cohort and showed great interest in the two-year practical training program for coffee farmers. He learned about mulching, sucker selection, preparing and applying compost, intercropping and more, but he was particularly interested in stumping old trees, as he learned it could rejuvenate them and increase yields by three-fold.
With the tools provided by TechnoServe, Shibiru stumped 1500 coffee trees from his 3-hectare coffee farm.
“I didn’t think twice when I heard about the importance of rejuvenating an old coffee tree. Some of my coffee was not producing well, even though the trees were still standing, they did not flower or bare cherries. My understanding of stumping and regeneration has guided my decision to cut the old coffee trees”
The Regrow team has provided Shibiru and Tadelech with practical advice and the necessary tools to stump the trees. He is now confident that stumping was the right decision for his farm. After one year, with composting and sucker selection, he is already seeing the hopes of the new trees, which are growing healthier and more productive than ever.
“I’m so happy to be in my coffee farm every day, seeing the progress of my rejuvenated trees. I’m glad that the other farmers are also starting to see the benefits of stumping, too. Soon, the whole community will be following my lead”.
Shibiru stumped an additional 150 trees in February 2023 and received a coffee exporting license from the federal government. He is planning to process specialty quality coffee, which he hopes will increase his household income.
“TechnoServe showed me how to be productive in ways that I never knew were possible. I have seen the results of the training on my own farm. My rejuvenated coffee trees are flourishing and are very promising. I have big ambitions for my coffee farming and exporting business, and I hope to change the lives of my family and my community”.
Shibiru and Tadelech are sending their young children to school and plan to diversify their income by buying a business vehicle for their oldest son who will use the vehicle to transport coffee beans to market. They have been able to improve their family home above and invest in off-farm businesses such as transport and meat processing. Their story shows that even small farmers can make a big difference by adopting new techniques and practices. With the right support, farmers can improve their yields and incomes, and help to ensure the future of coffee production.