Farmers said that they were benefiting by cultivating vegetables on greenhouse technology

Ethiopia's population is growing rapidly, and agricultural land need has been growing parallelly. Furthermore, forests are deforested every year for more farmland. The solution is to develop modern farming in a greenhouse. ORDA Ethiopia Forest Landscape Restoration program (FLRP) with the financial support of the Norwegian Forestry Group is being implemented in Amahara region 4 woredas (Ebnat, Libokemkem, Farta, and Quarit woredas) to grow vegetables and fruits.

Growing vegetables in greenhouses are important to protect against pests, maintain the required temperature, and produce good quality and high produce. As a result, farmers are producing watermelon and tomatoes throughout the year on greenhouse and are delivering to consumers.

Among the beneficiary farmers, the young farmer Worku Jember and priest Amare Mulu, who are cultivating vegetables in greenhouse technology with the training and material support from the project are found in Libokemkem Woreda. According to Worku, he grew watermelon on a 126-square-meter greenhouse last winter and earned 6,000 birrs. In the second round, he is growing tomatoes and is started to deliver products to market. Similarly, priest Amare is cultivating tomatoes using greenhouse technology. His tomato products are being ripened, and he is supplying to consumers at affordable prices.

In general, by 31 greenhouse technologies, beneficiary farmers produced 44.85 quintal watermelon & 80.5 quintals cabbage in the greenhouses. 983,621 tree seedlings planted and covered 200 hectares of land, 865 hectares of area ex-closures managed by the project.