Once a Desert, Ethiopia Turns Wasteland Into Fertile Farms

The Ethiopian desert, full of drought and famine just a generation ago, is turning green with crops. Thousands of villagers are taking up ancient tools to transform the desert into a terraced landscape that acts like a giant irrigation engine to drive the growth of thriving vegetable farms.

The terraces trap the desert’s rare rainfall, forcing it to soak into the ground slowly instead of running off the land carrying away topsoil in flash floods. Portions of Ethiopia’s Tigray province have also banned free range grazing livestock which used to devour plants needed to kept soil in place. Eucalyptus and acacia trees have made a comeback, their strong roots reinforcing the soil.

Even the deep ravines cut by past flash floods have been repurposed to put water back into the sandy soil. Villagers have built dams along the length of the ravines, forcing water to flow more slowly and collect in large pools.