Impact of Compost Use on Crop Yields in Tigray, Ethiopia
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Crop cultivation in Ethiopia has a long history of at least 5000 years (Clark, 1976), and implements for cutting and grinding seed have been found in stone age sites, such as Melka Konture by the Awash River in central Ethiopia, dating back much earlier. Just when crop cultivation started in Ethiopia has not been determined, but its long history is also reflected in the high agricultural biodiversity, including endemic crops, the best known of which is the cereal teff (Eragrostis tef). However, since 1974, Ethiopia has been portrayed as a food deficit country with its people and animals suffering from drought and famine. In January 2002, over 5 million people were identified as being food insecure, and this number had risen to around 14 million by the end of the year because of the failure of the rains in much of the eastern parts of the country. In 1995, the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD) developed a project to work with local farming communities of small holder far mers in Tigray using an ecological, low external input approach. In 2006, the FAO Natural Resources Department provided funding to help collect additional yield data from 195 plots in farmers’ fields during the 2006 harvesting season, and pay for entry and statistical analysis of the data.