The Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), through its capacity building program, formerly known as SAFE, has been supporting mid-career students to undertake field-level Supervised Enterprise Projects (SEPs) in nine Ethiopian universities since 1996. The program was introduced at Mekelle University (MU) in 2011, and to date, has supported 407 students, including 33 who are currently in the pipeline.

Among these students are Hadush Welay, 37, a father of five, and Silas G/Egziabher, 28, a mother of four, both third-year students in the Department of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension. They have been implementing their SEP on the farm of G/Yohannes G/Eyesus, a 41-year-old smallholder farmer in Tahtay-MegariaTsemri kebele of Ahferom District, Tigray region. G/Yohannes, a married father of two, cultivates 0.25 hectares of land with the support of his family members in the SEPs implementation

Project Focus

The project aimed to identify and promote high-performing improved teff varieties suitable for the local environment. The students established 78 demonstration plots, each measuring 2m x 2m, and utilized 13 local and improved varieties.  They applied a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications to ensure the reliability of their findings. Their research focused on identifying high-yielding, moisture-stress-tolerant, drought-resistant, and heat-tolerant varieties uncommon in the area.

The students sourced improved seeds from the Axum center of Tigray Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) and mobilized the farmers’ resources. They applied NPS/Urea fertilizers following as per the recommendation. Prior to the intervention, local farming practices in the kebele relied on broadcasting local seed varieties without fertilizers, limiting yields to approximately 8 Qt/ha.

Results and Impact

Hadush and Silas’s research idntified Bosiet was the best-performing teff variety, yielding 22 Qt/ha with excellent spike lengthand tillering capacity. The project introduced farmers to improved practices, including row planting, the use of improved seeds, fertilizers application, and other Good Agronomic Practices (GAPs).

Farmers gained valuable insights from the SEOs and began transitioning from conventional methods to scientific recommended approaches.

Scaling and Future Support

The Students have called continued support from SAA to help scale best practices to other communities in the kebele. They also expressed their commitment to furthering these initiatives in their roles as development agents. Both students, originally from the same kebele where they currently work, have agreed to take their expertise to other kebele as assigned by the district administration.

The SEPs have demonstrated the transformative potential of integrating research, education, and practical implementation to enhance agricultural productivity and improve farmers’ livelihoods.