Project News

Tilahun Tadesse, PhD (Center Director, NRRTC)

In the Jigna Kebele of Fogera wereda, Ethiopia, there is a locality named "Damba". There was a farmers' cooperative established in 1978 which become legal entity in the 1980s with members of 500 households. In July 1984, a team of North Koreans composed of nine experts come to the area with a project entitled "Ethio-Jigna Development Project". The Koreans started to do their research on rice and horticultural crops. Concerning the rice, the Koreans tested a number of rice genotypes including some brought from North Korea. After the test of the collected genotypes, one variety, which is latter named x-Jigna brought from North Korea found to be appropriate to the area. After the adapted genotype was identified, a most fertile land with a size of 10 ha was selected for production. This is the first wider rice plantation in Ethiopian history. The land size cultivated by the cooperative covered with rice was increasing year after year. Initially most of the work was done completely manually with transplanting. As the rice production area is getting bigger and bigger, the Koreans opt for direct row seeding using row makers made of wood and even to broadcast planting. The Koreans had left in 1990 and the cooperative get dismantled. However, almost all the farmers continued with their rice farming individually. Since the farmers in Fogera had realized the importance of rice, the area coverage and the number of farmers engaged in rice production continued to grow dramatically just after 1991. The farmers who worked with the Koreans served as sources of seed to other farmers in Fogera.

The pictures show researchers interviewing farmers who worked with North Korean experts and the office used by the North Korean team.