ElShadai Wukro AITEC Farm
Elshadai Relief & Development Association was established in 1989 to care for children victimized by the civil war that was waged in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia at the time.
Elshadai Children’s Village in Wurko (ECV-W) is located 45 kms from Mekelle, the regional capital of Tigraט, northern Ethiopia. The village provides both basic necessities and education from pre-school to grade 8 for around 200 children. After successfully completing their postsecondary education, students have gone on to become health professionals, engineers, educators, public/community workers, accountants, technicians, entrepreneurs, etc.
The farm produces as a mean of self sustainable economic development and to provide students with nutritious food. Currently most of the operational needs of the boarding school and school are met through the farm’s activities.
The farm consists of a 0.5 hectare demonstration and training plot (established in 2016), a state of the art solar irrigated avocado orchard that has been implemented in cooperation with MASHAV (established in 2017). A sprinkler irrigation plot (established in 2018) A research apple orchard (established in 2019) and is currently a testing ground for new technologies that include an automated milking machine, a mini-greenhouse, a weather station and a mechanical seed planter.
In addition the farm operates 10 Ha of irrigated fields which will be transformed into a modern drip irrigated farm. Elshadai farm aims to support the logistical requirements of farmers by providing both backward and forward linkages.
ElShadai Kallamino AITEC Farm
Following the successful implementation at ElShadai Wukro, a second farm has been develop at Mekelle, at ElShadai Children’s Village Kallamino (ECV K) , adjacent from TDA-Kallamino
ECV K operates 10 hectares of farmland and a dairy farm to supply the needs of the children at the village and to generate income for the village. The program has established a 1 hectare vegetable demonstration and training site and a 1 hectare fruit tree demonstration and training site. The program includes a reservoir and pressurized irrigation system. The Fruit trees include Avocado, Lemon, Lime and Orange trees. The sites aims to build capacity of ECV-K to develop on-going trainings and workshops in the field of agriculture with an emphasis on skills building for regional agronomists and future experts.
