Haile Wako, 47, is a father of four who has been growing beans since boyhood. Haile and his family live in Boffa village in Ethiopia's Central Valley region. "I decided to grow beans because I knew I could make 400 birr (about US$48) a month," Haile says.

Left: Haile Wako, Ethiopian farmer. Middle: Haile and wife beside new house. Right: Haile and new lorry.

Haile has been an outgrower for Ethiopian Seed Enterprises for five years now, producing highly marketable foundation seed for local communities, NGOs and co-operative unions. Amongst the varieties he grows are Mexican 142, Awash 1 and Awash Melka. Haile offers employment or jobs to community members. Six permanent field workers and 30 casual labourers are employed during the growing season.

He is also a bean trader in his own right, selling up to 200 tons of seeds purchased from other farmers and 300 tons from his own fields. Using the proceeds from beans, Haile has purchased a water pump and a lorry and built a brick house for his family. He also has money to lease the extra land he needs for his expanding bean enterprise. Currently, Mr. Haile owns 25 ha of the newly introduced navy bean variety called Awash Melka which is the product of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and the regional bean network-ECABREN (Eastern and Central Africa Bean Research Network) funded by a consortium of donors to PABRA (Pan-African Bean Research Alliance).

PABRA, Kawanda Agricultural Research Institute, P.O. Box 6247, Kampala, Uganda
Tel +256-414-567670, fax +256-414-567635, email r.buruchara@cgiar.org

Send comments to website manager >>