Tearfund Canada and the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada are supporting the Ethiopia Kale Heywet Church Development Commission (EKHCDC) with a three-year food security and gender empowerment project in Zala Woreda. This is a continuation of a previous phase in the same area.
Zala Woreda suffers from chronic food insecurity due to worsening environmental degradation, deforestation, recurrent drought, overgrazing, soil erosion, and lack of access to improved agricultural inputs. Additionally, inadequate storage reduces the production available for household consumption and for sale. Consequently, farmers are left with little income and insufficient food resources year-round, even when weather conditions are favorable.
In response, EKHCDC will promote the scaling up of conservation agriculture (CA) for smallholder
farming households while also addressing critical agricultural issues such as soil fertility management, crop spacing, improved genetics, livestock integration, land use and watershed management.
Empowering women through self-help groups and gender awareness sessions will also be a key aspect of this project. This project will target 3,880 households (23,048 individuals).