Thirty years ago (1984), northern Ethiopia suffered its most devastating drought in modern history. Since then, farmers have turned vast swaths of drought-prone land into productive ecosystems, triggering a historical shift in the way that governments and communities tackle a changing climate in the Horn of Africa.
How did hundreds of thousands of hectares of eroded, barren land become productive to avoid the impact of the 2011 drought that killed thousands in neighboring Somalia and Eritrea?
This is a story of people and their relationship with their land. It's a story of hardship, hope, and perseverance.
These are Ethiopia's resilient farmers.
A conservation officer compares a before and after photograph. The area, bisected by a large gully as a result of years of erosion, now retains sufficient water for fruit trees and other vegetation to grow.
-Erkeno Wossoro, head of southern Ethiopia's soil and water conservation program for the United Nations WFP.-
Most conservation projects have limited resources and limited timeframes. Fortunately, there's "Farmer's envy" as farmers call it, from Latin America to East Africa. A farmer will always keep an eye on the neighboring farmland. If harvests seem better elsewhere, it's gotta be something the farmer is doing different. After all, the natural resources are the same.
This farmer was proud of copying his neighbor's project for years. "Everything he did, I tried". Projects like this continue to spread throughout thousands of hectares of drought-prone land.
Communities that built good structures to retain rainfall could see vegetation changes within a couple of years. As aquifers are replenished underneath, a barren landscape starts to heal and farmers begin to believe.
When I asked what the biggest change was after the conservation project had been around for a few years, most farmers said: being able to reach water underground within a meter of digging.
It's all about being systematic and disciplined, explained one of the community leaders. The office is decorated with years of data from the soil and water conservation program that has brought the community back from the brink of famine in the 1980s.
Hundreds of nurseries are popping up all over the country, where farmers grow the vegetation that will populate their watersheds.
"I started this project with nothing. Now look at us: My family owns a shop and we're finishing a three level building. The community now has electricity, and we have a large savings account to get us through bad times."
Gebre Michael, Lead farmer, also says it all happened when people started seeing the water.
A farmer teaches his son downstream about irrigation pumps.