It was a gift with strings attached, but that was just fine with Bekelech Basa. The single mother of six children from this small community about five hours southwest of Addis Ababa was given a goat on the condition that she give up its first-born kid. It’s just one example of how aid is changing. […] Read more
From Ethiopia: Aid agencies focus on helping others to help themselves
In Ethiopia: Pivotal to survival, donkeys get no respect
If author Anna Sewell were alive today, chances are she’d be writing a follow to her best-selling novel Black Beauty about the plight of Addis and Ababa — donkeys in Ethiopia. Her 1877 story about a horse raised awareness of the inhumane treatment of horses in England and sold 50 million copies worldwide. It is […] Read more
In Ethiopia: Agricultural growth a multifaceted challenge
With nearly 50 per cent of Ethiopia’s GDP rooted in agriculture, it goes without saying that growing the industry is its best short-term hope of boosting the economy. After all, between 80 and 90 per cent of Ethiopians farm for a living. It has the highest per capita density of cattle in Africa and is […] Read more
In Ethiopia: Conservation gospel falls on fertile soil
A row of derelict tractors on an abandoned state farm is a fitting reminder that industrialized agriculture has a checkered future in this populous East African country. With their faded red paint, gutted engines and rotting tires gradually being swallowed by the prickly underbrush, these 1970s-vintage symbols of progressive agriculture represent a technology that has […] Read more
In Ethiopia: Too many people, too little land and a changing climate
The highway southwest of Addis Ababa to Wolayto-Soddo is wide and smooth, but there is no such thing in Ethiopia as setting the cruise control and just cruising, as one would expect to do on the wide open Canadian Prairies. With nearly 80 million people, Ethiopia is densely populated and most of its people live […] Read more
In Ethiopia: First impressions of a far-off land
The sun was just peeking above the horizon as the Boeing 777 banked south just over Cairo, Egypt and headed for Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital that serves as the hub for all of Africa. We’d been travelling ahead in time, losing a night as we left Washington, D.C. at around 11 a.m. on Saturday, […] Read more
Video: CWB directors on road ahead of plebiscite deadline
Farmer-elected directors of the Canadian Wheat Board held a series of meetings across the Prairies earlier this month to discuss the implications of the federal government’s plans to end the board’s single desk. Manitoba director Bill Toews told the more than 300 farmers attending the meetings at Oak Bluff, Man., that Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz’s […] Read more
Ugly perennials getting admiring looks
In a back corner of the Ian N. Morrison Research Farm here is a nursery of what most farmers would consider butt-ugly plants with spindly stems, tiny seeds, and weedy characteristics. But they might just be the salvation of grain farming if the impact of climate change falls hard on the Canadian Prairies. The plots […] Read more
Western Man. evacuation order creates confusion
Mark Emilson, a cattle producer from Vogar, Man., said producers in his area have been told they must move hundreds of cattle to higher ground as floodwaters continue to swell Lake Manitoba, but people don’t know where to go. Provincial officials warned producers at a meeting Monday night that up to 100,000 head of cattle […] Read more
Editors’ Picks: Self-grooming cows yield more milk
A group of dairy cows in New York, able to make their own spa dates with a self-grooming device, has been found to yield more milk and develop fewer cases of mastitis. Researchers at Cornell University’s Quality Milk Production Services department at Ithaca, N.Y. and the Sprucehaven Farm and Research Center at Union Springs, north […] Read more
Canadian Cattlemen Presents: Depth of Field
