West Shoa zone to rehabilitate over 265,000 hectares

Addis Ababa January 3/2022 Preparation is well underway in West Shoa Zone to undertake environmental protection and rehabilitation work on over 265,000 hectares of land during the winter season, Agriculture and Natural Resource Office announced.

The environment protection and rehabilitation work will be undertaken in two months’ time starting this month, the office said.

West Shoa Zone Agriculture and Natural Resource Office, Oromia State, Basin Development Head, Feyera Ouluma told ENA that the environment protection and rehabilitation work will be carried out on 529 river basins.

He further said as part of the project, terracing will be built on over 50,000 hectare of farmlands, adding that the environmental activities include fencing off the degraded areas for regeneration.

Some 424, 000 local farmers will be participating in the rehabilitation work, he said.

According to him, awareness raising training has been offered to the farmers who are going to participate in the projects.

He said tools necessary for the environmental protection work have already been readied.

Tolera Feyessa, who is resident of Ambo Wereda said the environmental protection and rehabilitation work that has been undertaken for years has significantly improved the productivity of his land.

"I used to get only three tons per hectare before, now I managed to get five tons per hectares" he added.

Over the last eight years, West Shoa zone has managed to rehabilitate over 900,000 hectares of degraded land.