Mr. Rikiba Nocha and Ms. Shitu Shimelis are one of our farmers in Daye Bensa. The couple have 10 years of farming experience. The past 8 years, the couple were selling their coffee at the market. They heard about Daye Bensa’s out growers association two years ago and Rikiba reflected on how joining the union has been for him and his family, “Before joining Daye Bensa, I was doing trial and error because I never had a training on coffee farming so among many of my coffee trees, I may get small amount of coffee. I didn’t know how to take care of my farm. My farm has shown a great result due to the training I received from Day Bensa.” Ms. Shitu also added, “The compost not only showed a great result to our coffee but I managed to plant vegetables as well and we have been using it for our daily meal.”

Mr. Rikiba Nocha and Ms. Shitu Shimelis picking cherries from their farm. Photo: Martha T.

Mr.Rikiba Nocha and Ms. Shitu Shimelis inside their farm. Photo: Martha T.

Daye Bensa currently has 1,468 farmers from the three kebeles, Shantawene (563), Bombe (626) and Keramo (279) in Bensa Woreda. Due to the trainings provide by a professional trainer for these farmers, in a good harvest a famer would sell upto 8,000kg. The farmers have supervisors who follow up on the progress and report weekly to the department. In addition to coffee farm trainings, farmers also learn about financial saving.

Mr. Siraj Ne’echo is another farmer from Keramo Kebele. Mr. Siraj has been working on the farm for the past 15 years. Like many other farmers, Mr. Siraj used to sell his coffee at the public market near his home, “I used to sell my coffee in the market with small amount of money because there are a lot of farmers near my area. After I joined the union here, I received a very good training with 1,200 seedlings and now I have around 4,000 coffee trees on my farm.” Mr. Siraj has built a new house with the money he saved at the union and said he has a better life, “I learned a lot about saving and Daye Bensa gives us additional money when we come to sell our coffee. My families are happy with the earning I have and we are better financially than before.”

Mr. Siraj Ne’echo Photo: Martha T.

It is Daye Bensa’s hope that farmers take excellent trainings, earn more and bring excellent coffee to our clients.