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The history and purpose of the Solagrow’ seed potato farm at Wenchi, Oromia:

supporting Ethiopian farmers to grow and to sell quality food crops.

Hidi - Jan van de Haar MSc, January 22nd 2016

Our potato seed farm in Haro Wenchi, Chitu-woreda, has been burned down by protestors at

December 11th, 2015. Colleagues and neighbours from Wenchi told us that afternoon that large groups

of protestors, mainly from neighbouring woreda’s from the Ambo and Woliso-sides, came to our farm

and burned down and destroyed all assets and seeds, including 700 quintal of the best potato seed

available in Ethiopia and even the medical clinic. Over 5 million birr was burned or robbed in just a

couple of hours, another 15 million birr income we will miss as this makes us to be out of the potato

seed business for almost the next two years.

To see your people burning down the result of 5 years of tough working to develop this part of the

muddy Haro Wenchi-valley, unveils the danger of blind anger combined with lack of knowledge. As the

majority of the protestors was not aware of the nature and the history of this investment, for them to

see a foreigner using farmland in Ethiopia automatically means to see a landgrabber supported by the

federal government. That’s why our people did this, not knowing what they actually did.

For me there is no need to defend ourselves towards people from outside – for example far-away

diaspora’s or pre-occupied journalists – who think that this massive destruction of Ethiopian potato

seed is equivalent to defending the right of Oromia to regain their stolen properties. For them this

event simply supports their wishful thinking and they even are afraid for facts and figures contradicting

their one-liners.

For those who like to understand reality and who are prepared to help Ethiopia on the long way to

peace and prosperity, historical facts are like stepping stones. This short clarification is meant to

support the right understanding of reality and to help Ethiopia in a constructive way.

We came to Ethiopia in 2007 to contribute to the food crop production of the smallholder farmers.

The climate at the cool Ethiopian highlands in many ways is similar to the climate at or under sea level

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of my home country The Netherlands: cold, windy and wet. A perfect climate for the production of

potato and potato seed. And potato on its turn is a perfect food crop for Africa, it needs less water and

produces more dry matter food per hectare than any cereal crop. That’s why – guided by the lecturers

of Alemaya University – we started experiments to see how improved Dutch potato varieties would

perform in Ethiopia.

My very first visit to Ethiopia was in the first week of November 2005, and when you know your history,

you will not be surprised that the people in Dire Dawa told me that I was the only remaining faranji in

East-Oromia……. Then I learned how deep the anger of a population can burn.

No democracy without potatoes

History shows us that democracy only will grow and blossom in a fairly well developed community,

that evolved to a higher and more inclusive level than the base of the Maslov-pyramid. And without a

sufficiently developed agricultural sector producing enough food for the whole population, democracy

will be as stunted as its children. That’s why a green revolution is a prerequisite to democracy. And

that’s why I am happy to see that Ethiopia adopted the development of its agriculture as one of its

main objectives. This is what we want to co-develop with our business here. To summarize it in a one-

liner: the level of democracy is linked to the level of daily bread (no, not cake).

Our business and Dutch experience is on the propagation of quality seed of improved varieties,

supporting our farmers to double or triple their yields. When all farmers in Ethiopia would use the

improved seeds of the food crops, Ethiopia could feed Sudan, Somalia and Kenya as well. That’s why

we decided to go to Ethiopia to share our knowledge on the propagation of improved potato seed, to

help our farmers to produce 500 quintal per hectare and not to get stuck at the national average of

100 quintal.

Acquiring land is becoming part of a community…….

When we moved to Ethiopia in 2007, we started to request 10 hectare of land to build a company

compound in Debre Zeit. The municipality administration was too co-operative and the farmers of the

plot of land assigned to us turned out to be angry on both us and the government and started to cut

all trees and to throw stones to our car. That is where I learned how the system of requesting land at

higher levels without approaching your potential neighbours will fail. We refused to accept this

“secured” land and started the other way round. After having browsed the whole Mojo-valley east of

Debre Zeit, we found a sandy hill which stony soil could be much more suitable for building our

company facilities than for the production of teff. We approached the farmers and the elders of the

kebele and asked them about the possibility to get this land to build our business. After four or five

meetings with hundreds of farmers, they accepted our proposal of leasing their land and to invest in

Hidi. They understood that getting full compensation for this three hectare of low-quality land was

more than fair and to get an agricultural investor starting business in their kebele would bring more

prosperity. Since 2009 we are living at this place and I invite you to come to Hidi to learn from the

farmers and the community how they evaluate the improvements coinciding with our investments (or

so-called “landgrabbing”). They will tell you. Welcome.

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…..therefore, first ask this community!

Hidi is nice to live (yes, Holland is a bit too cold…..) but for the production of potato seed you need

land with the said cold and windy climate. Together with my agronomists we studied the map of

Ethiopia to find the suitable highlands. Then they went out to search for land, in Gurage, around Debre

Birhan, around Ambo and in Arsi. The first suitable place they found was the valley of Haro Wenchi, a

shallow valley at 3,100 meter altitude with a wet sandy-peaty soil without any stones. The remote

place had two big limitations: only during the dry months of February up to May the land was free of

water, while all other months the marshy land was covered by stagnant water. And secondly, the road

from Ambo or from Woliso was a perfect challenge for brave tourists in 4x4-vehicles, but not for potato

trucks. For the latter limitation the zonal office told us that within two years this road would be asphalt.

For the first restriction I trusted my Dutch genes, enabling us to drain this muddy land by dikes and

canals, just as we did in Holland for centuries.

And again we started our approach bottom-up, although this valley was governmental land. We invited

the community for a meeting to ask their opinion on our plan to invest on this land. The first reaction

of the farmers was that no crop ever could grow in this muddy and grassy plain. They learned from

their parents that the only way to grow a crop in Wenchi was to use the hilly parts surrounding the

Wenchi-valley. And they still do. We explained to them that we would try to drain one-third of the area

to see whether we could turn these marshy parts into arable land to grow potato seed. And after

several meetings, the Wenchi-community agreed and together with their leaders we went to Chitu-

woreda, and then to zonal office in Woliso. And jointly we requested Oromia government to issue this

100 hectare of land to Solagrow. And that is what they did within a short period of time. Then at the

end of 2009 – the driest summer in the last 30 years – we measured the requested plot of land and

marked the borders. Even after that dry summer, we had to cross the muddy parts, passing places with

more than half a meter of mud and water. And the zonal officials kept on asking why we would like to

get such dirty muddy land.

Becoming part of community, means jointly building on communal interest

Soon after we received and fenced the land, the community requested for a meeting to adjust the

plan. They were afraid of getting disconnected from the three small springs in the valley, where their

cattle used to drink. Then we jointly agreed to give back around 20 hectare of the higher grassy parts

around the main spring. In another meeting the community was complaining about missing a road

crossing our land, which made them to walk a long distance around our borders. That why we agreed

to make a cross-road of 12 meter wide which our company paved with stones to provide our

neighbours with a good road, to cross the valley even during kremt. After a few months they asked for

a meeting in which they complained about the salaries we paid for our newly recruited employees

from the Wenchi-village. Just like in Holland, salaries are never too high. We suggested the community

to start to drain the second part of the idle valley and to commence the same low-budget business as

we did and then to pay their employees the right salaries. They smiled and continued to enjoy the good

salaries we paid. After this, if there was any question or concern, together with our staffs and the

representatives of the community, we solved any issue in good harmony.

Also we drilled a bore-hole for drinking water and supportive irrigation. But even up to today we are

waiting for ELPA to connect Haro Wenchi with electricity. The good thing is that even without pump

the borehole was providing quite a bit of fresh and clean water. Our neighbours and our employees

were using this water, and it was even enough to irrigate the 11 greenhouses for minituber production.

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To care for the health of our employees and their families, a couple of years ago we constructed a clinic

at our farm. One full-time experienced medical nurse was assigned to support the Wenchi community

in medical care, which service was provided for just three birr.

The second year of farming at Wenchi, in 2010, the constructed drainage system of central canal with

a number of side-canals kept the farm land free of stagnant water. That’s why we started to import

basic potato seed from Holland, a tedious and expensive challenge. The seeds arrived in time and also

the 2010-rains started early. We were excited to see the 30 hectares of potato seed developing well,

a nice fresh-green crop in this new polder. But the excitement gradually turned into concern, as 2010

seemed to be the year with the most abundant rains in Ethiopia for the last 50 years, as you can see at

the summer rainfall graph of Ethiopia. Our brave employees were harvesting the seed potatoes during

the never-ending heavy rains, struggling to bring the 3,000 quintals of potatoes by donkey to the main

road in the village. From there we used trucks to bring the seed to the main farm in Debre Zeit, which

was expected to be warmer and dryer. But due to rotting caused by this extreme rainfall, we lost almost

90% of our seed.

The next years we continued to test a number of rotational crops. But it seemed that the extreme

climate of Wenchi, combining high radiation with low temperatures at night (down to minus 15 Celsius

in December) and 23 degrees at daytime can’t be tolerated by most food crops. Only potato, linseed,

barley and some highland beans are surviving, providing an acceptable yield. Even this year we were

testing the suitability of the unique potato-climate of Wenchi for the labour-intensive production of

hybrid seeds. During those years we only used up to 35 hectare of land, due to the required crop

rotation of potato.

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Wenchi-farm provided and – God willing – shall provide quality seeds for thousands of farmers in

Oromia

During a meeting with the Wenchi farm manager last November, we decided to start the establishment

of a Wenchi Producer Group. As Solagrow got connected with markets for potato (even being partner

in a new potato processing factory in Mojo), for malt barley and for the export market for linseed, we

were able to support our neighbouring farmers in the production of quality potato, barley and linseed.

As we learned, the most significant problem of Ethiopian farmers is the access to markets. And

Solagrow is able to provide the farmers with quality seed and crop technology plus to connect them

to the required markets. Parallel to this Wenchi-approach, we almost finished the establishment of

similar Producer Groups in Meta Walga, Woliso Zuria, Korke, Bilo, Maruf, Imela and Birbirsa, for which

the potato seed farm at Wenchi would serve as supplier of potato seed.

At December 11th, over 700 quintal of sprouting basic seed of the improved varieties Belete, Jalene,

Mondial, Caesar and the processing variety Taurus were waiting for planting at Wenchi and at the

farms of those Producer Groups. They were burned. And our poor farmers lost their chance and have

to be patient for another two years…….. During the last four weeks we started to import minitubers of

Belete from Kenia and tissue culture plants from The Netherlands to recover from this loss as soon as

possible, as well as to find substitutes for the lost crates, potting soil, machines and greenhouses.

Hopefully, starting from early 2017 we can supply our Producer Groups with new quality seed again.

Many colleagues and friends from Ethiopia are upset on this loss. Some try to explain that the angry

crowd was not aware of what they actually did. And many others advise us never to return to Wenchi-

area, but to find other regions where thousands of poor farmers are waiting for a Dutch company to

support them with seeds and markets. And even my relatives in Holland are joking with me. The Dutch

newspaper of December 12th, reported the upcoming famine in Ethiopia due to the low rains in 2015

and its need for food aid, the next page told them that the Oromo protestors burned 50 tons of the

best Dutch potato seed…..!! Who is able to explain this to the outside world. Let us keep on trying to

do this.

What Ethiopia needs and what the farmers in Wenchi need, is a normal life with enough food and

enough income to build their families and their farms in freedom, guided and protected by the

government. This all starts with sufficient production of food, to feed your family and to sell to the

families in the cities. That is why we started nucleus farms in more than 10 locations in Ethiopia, in

Hidi, Filtino, Bekoji, Wenchi, Ambo-Korke, Welkite, Hosanna, Bahir Dar-Merawi, Mekki-Xepho and

Ziway-Elka. In each of those places we “grabbed” land, by requesting the government to provide

governmental land or by renting land directly from farmers.

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So the main solution for stability in and around Wenchi is to continue to help the farmers’ community

to grow their food crops, to gain income from the market, to feed and educate their children, to get

appropriate health care and to improve livelihood. This is the only real ground for a stable and balanced

community, getting more and more

embedded in a righteous system of

an nation with more and more

inclusive political and economic

institutions. Yes, the anger of

protestors will have its reason, and

the death of young people is

unbearable, but never blind

destruction brought construction

and never it will do. Development

and progress is not the fruit of

shouting and burning, it starts from

your ten fingers. It starts from the

food crops that your fingers plant

and nurture. And this starts from

the seeds. So let us continue to achieve what our company together with the Wenchi-community were

planning to achieve, starting from 2009. This process will take years, and we hope that our children

together with the youth of Wenchi will see the fields full of green crops and their families flourishing

similarly.

Reporters should consider why they got two ears and two eyes, and just one tongue

This is what journalists and commenters should know and consider. At January 13th, a reporter named

Paul Schemm sent me an email with some questions. He was preparing an article about Wenchi and

asked me to reply the same day. This is what I did. In the same last-minute email I warned him to make

sure to understand the reality before writing, as some of his questions were quite biased, to my

opinion. His article in the Washington Post starts in this way: “The cows are back in the valley near the

village of Wenchi in Ethiopia’s highlands, after being driven out five years ago by the arrival of a Dutch

agricultural company. They returned in the past few weeks, after villagers burned the warehouses filled

with seed potatoes that were to be planted on communal grazing lands that authorities had turned

over to the Solagrow PLC company”. Even though Paul cited mr. Drabuma Terrafa who was telling him

the truth on the reason behind the destruction, Paul likes to reshape the reality according to his own

imagination, making Drabuma to contradict Paul’s message. He likes to tell the Yankees the old story

about what Jan and Kees are doing wrong in Ethiopia, without bothering about truth or facts. But a

“re-porter” originally is someone who carries home what he found, not someone who presents what

he created. We would like to invite professional journalists to support Ethiopia in reporting the truth,

helping the people and the public opinion to find constructive answers on sad developments and

emotions and not to neglect the messages of witnesses just to safeguard the “world according to the

reporter”.

It is good to see that most of the interviewed people are witnessing the real reason behind this

destruction of our farm: they are fighting their government because of the Finfine Masterplan and the

subsequent loss of their sons and friends during the clashes with police. But for a reporter it is not

difficult to find an inhabitant of Wenchi who will confirm that he would be happy to get the Solagrow-

land back. It would be nice to receive well-drained arable land for free, that no one was touching for

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centuries and now has been reclaimed from mud by an investor. The majority of the Wenchi-

community is waiting for us to return, to continue the employment of our forty employees, to involve

the Wenchi-farmers in producing barley and potatoes for the beer and crisps market and jointly to

improve livelihood in the Haro Wenchi valley.

Let us grow potatoes: stability and democracy will germinate from it

This morning new potato seed was transported to Wenchi farm, as our staffs like to continue their job

and the land at Wenchi is still as good to produce potato seed for the farmers all over Oromia. During

the meeting with the community at December 22nd 2015, they asked us not to forget them. And as

long as we are accepted by the Wenchi-community to support them in their food crop production, we

would like to continue. If not, we easily can find another community in Ethiopia who loves to get an

seed investor contributing to their area. But let us

forget the disaster of 2015 and let us jointly work to

build Ethiopia, (re)starting from Haro Wenchi. And let

Paul come back to see the results after five years from

now, God willing.

You can help Ethiopia to develop its agriculture, as its

primary necessity. Yes, we can. Although it seems to

be incredible difficult, sometimes even impossible.

The potential of this large country with its abundant

rains is amazingly large. Millions of farmers are waiting

for quality seeds, cropping techniques and markets.

The know-how and the tools to achieve this are

available. What we need to do, is to support and coach these farmers, not by just sending a next

project-team that will tell the outside truth in two weeks, as this approach has been proven to fail.

What we need, are young and strong farmers, who are willing to live for the next ten or twenty years

at a small demo-farm in the remote places of Ethiopia. Sharing the day-by-day reality of highland

farming, coaching the Ethiopian neighbours, jointly discovering the secret of productive cropping.

That’ll work, that’s life. Welcome! Galatoma.