our work

in Eritrea

Eritrea overview

The State of Eritrea, is a country in Eastern Africa, with its capital at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the south, Sudan in the west, and Djibouti in the southeast.

Self Help Africa is working on a combination of directly implemented and partner-led projects in Eritrea. The programme goal is to support local smallholder farmers, promoting crop diversity to aid food security and help farmers cope with the challenging conditions they face.

Full Name: The State of Eritrea
Population: 6.08 million
Population Growth (Yearly): 1.4%
Capital: Asmara
Area: 118,484 SQ KM (45,747 SQ Miles)
Major Languages: Tigrinya, English, Arabic, Numerous indigenous languages
Major Religions: Christianity, Islam, Traditional Beliefs

Eritrea projects

This project aims to contribute to a future in which smallholder farmers are empowered and capacitated to successfully use crop diversity to ensure their food security and that of their communities, to thrive in challenging conditions and to make their farms resilient.

The existing seed systems in Eritrea are largely informal and the quality of the seeds is poor. The yields from cereal and potato are very low, despite huge potential, and this poses a major challenge to food and income security of the farmers and the wider community.

This four-year seed enterprise project led by Vita is seeking to improve access to good quality seed for potatoes and cereals for 10,000 rural farming families in the Debub, Maekel and Anseba regions of Eritrea.

The purpose is to strengthen the informal seed sector, empower farmers, and develop viable seed businesses in the region. This will enable communities to adapt to changing climate by promoting better natural resource management and soil fertility management.

500 local seed growers

10,000 subsistence farmers (8,000 cereals, 2,000 potato in Debub, Maekel and Anseba regions.

This project has been designed based on the need to bring about an inclusive, sustainable and climate relevant transformation of the Eritrean dairy value chain to enhance food and nutrition security, reduce poverty, and create job opportunities for young people by improving access of the rural poor to innovation and new technologies and by strengthening the capacity of national innovation support services.
In Eritrea, the dairy sector is seriously constrained by fodder and water shortages leading to a low-quality national herd which is unable to contribute the income and nutritional benefits normally associated with livestock farming.
This project aims to improve the productivity and profitability of the diary sector, develop dairy value chains in each of the three host Zobas: Debub, Anseba, and Mackel. In doing so, the project aims to increase dairy consumption for its nutritional benefits.

800 producer households (approx. 4,000 people)
An estimated 50 academic/scientific staff at research and educational institutes,
1500 DAs and 320 SMSs, of which 20% will be women

Country Profile

Read the Uganda Profile

TO CONTACT US ABOUT OUR WORK IN ERITREA:

KENYA OFFICE
P. O. Box 25503, 00100
Nairobi.
Tel. +254 703 946477
E-mail: [email protected]

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