Lloyd Ward
Research & Development
Tree Initiative
Morrell Agro Industries’ tree initiative began in Ethiopia in 2008. A variety of fruit trees and food crops were planted on the Farmer Training Center property in June of that year. Lloyd Ward became involved in the project in late 2009.
Since then, Lloyd identified 162 varieties of trees and plants that were not grown in Ethiopia. These varieties were to be introduced and tested in various Ethiopian climates. They were shipped to government research facilities in Ethiopia so that they could be planted there and tested for quality and growth.
These adaptation trials must be run so that the trees can be certified for release throughout the country. The trials must be done before MAI can take control of the trees and plant them. Dr. Solomon, the Assistant Minister of Agriculture in Ethiopia, just wanted to be sure that they would grow well in the country.
It was a struggle initially to get the trees shipped over Ethiopia, but all 162 varieties have now arrived in the country. While the majority of the varieties are new to Ethiopia, Lloyd learned that a few were already present, as well.
The trees have been in the Ethiopian government’s hand for awhile now. Based on the way that plants and crops grow in Ethiopia, these little MAI trees should be seeing considerable growth. One of Lloyd’s biggest frustrations in this project is not knowing what is going on with the trees and not knowing how to find out. He would like to know how long they want the adaptation trials to go before MAI is allowed to start taking the trees and spread them throughout Ethiopia.
The wheels of bureaucracy are slow, but Lloyd said, “My hope is that within a year we’ll be sharing those trees with Ethiopian farmers.”
Until the trees are released for use by the Ethiopian researchers, MAI can buy trees from nurseries in the country and plant them on various properties. There are many native fruit trees in the country, such as apples, oranges, lemons, and limes. Wes Haws has over 500 trees now on site at Beltu.
Sisal Initiative
Sisal is large green plant, which is probably in the cactus family. It resembles a huge aloe vera plant, with very coarse leaves that are pointy on the ends, and it can grow to be six feet tall. Sisal is used in Ethiopia as fencing. Farmers will grow sisal in order to fence animals in or out of their property.
Sisal factories in Addis Ababa process the fibers that come from the plant. They have to import all of the fibers from other African countries, such as Uganda, even though Ethiopia is full of the product. The rich soils in the country create a wonderful growing environment. Sisal should grow in the Ethiopia just as well as in the rest of Africa, and yet no local people are harvesting sisal or turning it into fibers. The Ethiopian sisal factories are anxious to see if MAI can find a way for them to gain access to local sisal plants and fibers.
Progress on the MAI sisal initiative has been slow. Mekonen Geteneh, along with Lloyd Ward and Mike Rhodes, has been testing the economic possibilities of the sisal plant for local Ethiopian farmers. Mekonen bought sisal leaves from the farmers and then paid them to manually extract the fiber from the sisal plant.
MAI found that they had paid the farmers too much. After the fiber was sold, they determined that it was not going to be a cost effective project to do by hand. Manufacturing sisal fiber is a profitable venture in neighboring countries, even with higher labor costs, so the possibility exists for Ethiopia, as well.
Lloyd said, “We’re not giving up on sisal. We feel it will work, but we need to not pay more for the leaves than we can get for the fiber.”
MAI has experimented two or three different ways to try and make sisal economically viable, and although progress has been slow, they now have valuable information, such as what doesn’t work. If it can be learned how to harvest the leaves in an economical manner, the fiber in the leaves can be sold and potentially be a cash crop for the local people.
After testing the sisal plant in Ethiopia, Mekonen was able to get 3% fiber from the sisal leaves, which is the same amount that the government in the country has been getting. Throughout the world, in South America and Africa, where they grow sisal for fiber, the average is 3-4% fiber. So, MAI has been manufacturing the product successfully, the project just needs to be fine tuned.
There are a couple of options that MAI is looking at to make sisal more economically viable. In November, Mike Rhodes, Joe Morrell, and Lloyd Ward will be back in Ethiopia. They will be looking at getting more decorticators into the country. Near Lake Awasa there is a poorly run sisal plantation. If MAI can find some success, they may be able to lease that. Other alternatives will be explored, but they will all require that Americans be on the ground in the country to get things up and running.
Ideally in August or September, when the local farmers in Ethiopia are running out of food and their harvest is still two months away, MAI can tell the people to go and gather sisal. They would then be paid for it. Instead of just being offered free food, they will be able to take care of themselves.
Abera Chala, a local employee of MAI in Ethiopia, paid his way through school during if his early teen years by utilizing sisal. He would use sisal fibers to make a rope, which he would sell for 20 burr. While many people in Ethiopia are not as ambitious or hardworking as Abera, he may be able to show MAI staff members how to make ropes from sisal. His skills and ideas could be passed on to villagers on the verge of famine.
Training Manual
Morrell Agro Industries has been working on the development of a training manual for farmers in Ethiopia, especially those in the Langano area. Once completed, the manual will provide details for growing and harvesting wheat and barley.
Evan Maxfield is putting together the planting guide, detailing seed population and planting depths, which are both very important concepts for the local farmers to understand.
Lloyd Ward is recommending fertilizer amounts. Fertilizer urea and diammonium phosphate are the only two fertilizers currently in use in Ethiopia. It has been a struggle to recommend specific amounts; even in the United States there is not a hard set amount. Too little or too much nitrogen can negatively effect crops, and variables of rain, climate, soil, and farming practices all had to be taken into consideration. Lloyd wanted to go with a range, linked with desired production, for the pounds of nitrogen to apply per acre. He developed a formula and created a chart that will be included in the training manual.
Mike Rhodes is working on a weed control guide, which will be included in the training manual. Originally, this was going to include suggestions for weed spraying, but it was decided that a hands-on approach would be better, where the farmers go out and pull the weeds. MAI would really like to help them understand that weeds are thieves in the fields, stealing nutrients and moisture from the crops. They have the labor and the time to control the weeds better, but they just don’t realize how much weeds affect crop yield.
MAI hopes that this training guide will be successful. It will first be used in the Lake Langano area. If it is successful, it will be distributed to other areas of the country.