Water plays a major role in smallholder farmer crop production, and CARE International’s Graduation with Resilience to Achieve Sustainable Development (GRAD) program aims to sustain food security for food insecure households in rural Ethiopia.
In this picture from CARE taken by Josh Estey, shows Desta Seba, 28, and his wife Hana Eliyas, 25. They have four children. The family farms 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of land, cultivating bananas, chat, coffee, haricot bean, inset, maize and teff.
They have three goats, eight chickens and four cows. They only eat meat once a year. Before GRAD the family would eat two meals a day consisting of inset and maize. Through GRAD they have been able to save money for the first time in their lives and they can now buy such essential items for their family as salt, soap and baby food.
GRAD aims to graduate 50,000 thousand food insecure households from the Ethiopian government’s productive safety net in 16 targeted woredas (villages) and increase each household income by $365 dollars a year.
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