Hawassa City Administration

Agricultural Department

Project Proposal On The Role Of Vertical Farming To Address Food

Insecurity, Environmental Protection And Ornamentation/Beautification Of
the City , in case of Hawassa, Ethiopia

In Case Of Hawassa City

Prepared by:

Mr. Zerihun Sarmiso

Cellular: +251972720527
E-Mail: [email protected]

Feb 2018
Hawassa, Ethiopia
 Table Of Contents

Project Identity
1. Project Overview 1
1.1. Project Location Background 1
1.2. Project Rationale 3
1.2.1. Problem Overview 5
1.3. Planned Activities 6
1.3.1. Programming Priorities 6
1.4. Significance of the Project 8
1.5. Source of fund 8
1.6. Social Situations 9
1.7. Economic Situations 9
1.8. Objectives of the Project 9
2. Vertical Farming 10
2.1. Advantages of Vertical Farming 10
2.2. Disadvantages of Vertical Farming 13
3. Main Activities 14
4. Target Beneficiaries 15
5. Implementation Strategies 15
6. Role and Responsibilities of Stakeholders 17
7. Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting 18
8. Measuring success 20
9. Impacts 20
10. Project Sustainability 20
11. Assumptions And Risks 21
12. Expected outputs 22
13. Survey Design 23
14. Conclusion 23
15. References 27

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 List of Tables

Table page
1. Agro-Ecological Requirements Of Some Vegetables Growing In Hawassa City
24

2. Sampling Frame Used To Identify Sample Households And FGD Participants 25

3.Details Of Work Plan 26

4. Logic Model 28

5. Detailed Implementation Plan 29

6. Detailed Budget Item 30

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 Project Identity
Project Proposal On The Role Of Vertical Farming
Title of the Project To Address Food Insecurity,
Environmental Protection and
Ornamentation/Beautification Of the City
In Case Of Hawassa City
Location of the Project: Hawassa City in SNNPRS, Ethiopia
Project Proponent/s/Supporter/s: -----------------------------------------
Project Beneficiaries: Urban poor, women, youth
Number of Beneficiaries --------------------------------------------
Location of Beneficiaries: Hawassa City Administration (in seven sub-cities:
Tabor, Mehal, Menariya, Adis, Hayikdare, Misirak and
BahelAdarash)
Implementing Person Zerihun Sarmiso

Project period: ----------------------------------------------

Date of Commencement
Date of completion
ETB_866573.00 (Eight hundred sixty six thousand five
Total Project Cost: hundred seventy three Ethiopian birr)

Address of Hawassa City Administration, Tel.

Department of Agriculture office: Fax:
P.O.BOX:

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 Project Proposal On The Role Of Vertical Farming To Address Food Insecurity,
Environmental Protection And Ornamentation/Beautification Of The City

In Case Of Hawassa City

1. Project Overview
This Urban Agriculture (UA)(Vertical Farming) promotion through Training and Information
Sharing for Food and Nutrition Security, Environmental protection and Ornamentation /City
beautification Project is an intervention project in Hawassa City administration, SNNPRS,
Ethiopia. It will be implemented for the period from my PhD dissertation and its coverage is
within seven sub-Cities’ communities in Hawassa City administration. The total estimated
population of the program communities is about 230,307. The direct beneficiaries are estimated
to be about 8.68% of the total population. The urban poor, women and youths would be given
primary attention in the course of implementation of the project.

Vision: Obtain market based agricultural product with improved agriculture technology to the
farmers and to the surrounding community with fair distribution of resources on 2020 E.C.
Mission: Through managing and conserving the natural resource based on the ecosystem by
using improved technologies, by providing development strategies and by supplies extension
services to improve the production and the productivities of the nearby community.
Value: Participating community on development strategies, providing facilities for farmers to
utilize improve seed and seedling, sustainable, capacity building on efficient and effective
utilization of natural resource for agricultural production.
Goal: Build the communities capacity to secure their own food, nutrition and income at household
level to alleviate poverty.

1.1. Project Location Background

Location and Descriptions of Hawassa City
Hawassa is located in the Southern Nations Nationalities and peoples Region on the shores of
Lake Hawassa in the Great Rift Valley; 275 km south of Addis Ababa and 1,125 km north of

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Nairobi, Kenya. The city lays on the Trans-African High Way-4: an international road that
stretched from Cairo (Egypt) to Cape Town (S.Africa).

Geographically the city lays between 6055’0’’ to 706’0’’Latitude North and 38025’25’’
Longitudes East.

Hawassa city is bounded by Lake Hawassa in the West, Oromia Region in the North,
Wendogenet woreda in the East and Shebedino woreda in the south.

Hawassa served as the Capital of southern Nations Nationalities and peoples Region, the Sidama
zone Administration and Hawassa city Administration.

The city administration has an area of 157.2 sq.kms, divided into 8 sub-cities and 32 kebeles,.
These Eight sub-cities are Hayek Dare, Menehariya, and Tabor, Misrak, Bahil Adarash, Addis
Ketema, Hawela-Tula and Mehal sub-city (Hawassa City Administration, Socio-Economic
Profile, 2007).

An elevation of 1708 meters and rain fall mostly occurs in the summer season. In 2007 E.C the
daily minimum and maximum temperature are almost moderate and only for the few days of the
year when either minimum temperature is 10.7 oC or the average maximum temperature are
31.5oC (Hawassa City Administration, Socio-Economic Profile, 2007).

Data source: Hawassa City Administration, Socio-Economic Profile (2007).

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1.2. Project Rationale
Urban agriculture (UA) (Vertical Farming) has been drawing a lot of attention recently for
several reasons: the majority of the world population has shifted from living in rural to urban
areas; the environmental impact of agriculture is a matter of rising concern; and food insecurity,
especially the accessibility of food, remains a major challenge. UA has often been proposed as a
solution to some of these issues, for example by producing food in places where population
density is highest, reducing transportation costs, connecting people directly to food systems and
using urban areas efficiently. However, to date no study has examined how much food could
actually be produced in urban areas at the global scale. This estimate does not consider how
much urban area may actually be suitable and available for UA, which likely varies substantially
around the world and according to the type of UA performed (Hatfield et al., 2011).

It is a system of agriculture that uses environmentally sound techniques for raising crops like vegetables
that are free from synthetic compound or through organic farming. The methods used in Vertical
Farming seeks to enhance Food security, environmental protection whereas reducing air, soil and water
pollution and enhance ornamentation/City beautification while maintaining or increasing levels of
production. Moreover, it ensures nutrition security without sacrificing the long term health of the
ecosystems and vital cultures that provide our food and a key contribution of UA is in increasing
the dietary diversity through the incorporation of vegetables into the diet to address food
insecurity (Hatfield et al., 2011).

Department of Agricultural office of Hawassa City Administration therefore, pictures attainment

of improved livelihoods, free from poverty, environmentally conscious and assured in
sustainability. It is committed to promote vertical farming of some vegetable crops in urban areas
through organic farming in a carrying out of its obligation sustainable development initiatives
amongst small scale city residents as a means of empowering the communities towards better
living.

The department has been in operation recently in partnership or jointly with some institutions
(Capacity building for scaling up of evidence-based best practices in vegetable production in
Hawassa City). The organization has joined networks with some jointly working projects in
order to foster the development of sustainable practices regional as well as nationally. Around
100 Hawassa City residents have been trained to extend the skills immediately into practices and
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get fresh produces. This translates to more people having access to safe quality foods and
entrepreneurial gardening.

However, the department faces a human and financial capacity limitation and upon finding a
financial partner, it will be in a better position in achieving its long term goals and the same time
help members of the community who really need better farming methods.

For that reason, any enhancement of the food and nutrition security calls for farmers’
sensitization and encouragement to adopt strategic methods that will provide for food and
nutritional security at household level and sound management of the environment. In addition to
these, it also provides income generation to the household level.

The organization’s commitment to making central Hawassa City Administration a role model in
embracing sustainable farming practices in order to improve livelihoods and alleviate poverty
serves as the motivation to initiating participatory practices in promoting sustainable
development initiatives among the resource poor urban community members.

Therefore, Department of Agriculture of Hawassa City Administration - takes up the challenge of

generating awareness on the dangers of conventional agriculture, training on organic farming
based vertical farming as an alternative method and follow ups to ensure proper implementation
and sharing information for sustainability.

The target beneficiaries are the small scale holders/residents of the City who are most affected
by the prohibitive cost of agricultural production. The project therefore, is aimed at enhancing
food security and residents’ participation in environmental conservation for sustainable
production during our lifetime and for the future generations.

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1.2.1. Problem Overview

Since the introduction of the scientific agriculture, farmers and consumers have lacked
awareness and information on the dangers posed by chemical substances on the conventionally
grown products to the growers, consumers and the environment. The conventional agriculture
has provided for the usage of toxic materials in crop protection without putting into account the
other problems they will generate and their effects.

The land has been shrieked most given that in this form of farming, soil is no longer regarded as
a living system constituent who should be kept free of pollution by poisonous chemical agents
and consequently reducing its productive quality over time thus poor yields and eventually
subjecting households to food insecurity.

Human health has been put in danger in at least two major ways; the handlers of the synthetic
farm chemicals do not comply with the worker safety rules when in operation and on the other
hand residues of chemicals sprayed on crops ends up being ingested by the consumers of these
foods. This therefore has been responsible for adverse health effects such as disruption of the
hormone, nervous and immune systems.

Conventional agriculture does not consider its impact on the environment either. So much
pollution has resulted from environmentally careless practices such as chemical depositing
causing decimation of insects and other organisms’ populace, fertility decline, water, air and soil
pollution. Over dependence on external inputs has made small scale farmers fall deeper into
debts and progressive poverty levels because majority cannot cope with the ever rising prices of
the farm inputs.

Therefore, Department of Agriculture of Hawassa City Administration - endeavors to address

and change this situation by invoking communities’ consciousness and sensitivity of their
responsibility towards themselves, the ecosystem and the future generations.

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 Effect on Population
Declining crop yields have affected the population in a number of ways. The most immediate
effect is a reduction in household food reserves and a subsequent increase in the “hunger gap”,
the time period when households have insufficient food to meet dietary demands. A recent
National Needs Assessment conducted by FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture (website
reference) in April 2011 found that 80% of households in District C only have enough food in
their reserves to last 4 months, a shortfall of 8 months (FAO,2011).

1.3. Planned Activities

1.3.1. Programming Priorities
Gender Equality

Is a state in which all people enjoy equal rights, opportunities and rewards, regardless of whether
they were born female or male. It means fairness and impartiality in the treatment of women and
men, according to their respective needs. However, gender inequality exacerbates food
insecurity, malnutrition and poverty. That trend is likely to worsen in the face of today’s
unprecedented challenges, including climate change, international migration, trans boundary
infectious diseases and the global economic downturn. Unless gender is addressed
comprehensively, the global community will not achieve the targets set by the 1996 World Food
Summit, and the UN Millennium Development Goals. Many countries have embraced
development policies and programmes that are more gender and socially inclusive (FAO, et al.,
2010).

“Urban agriculture is an important aspect of the development movement as it has the potential to
address some of our most pressing challenges, including food insecurity, income generation,
waste disposal, gender inequality, and urban insecurity“ said Nancy Karanja, a Professor at the
University of Nairobi, Kenya, and a State of the World 2011 contributing author.

Food Security

Food (as a physiological and social basic need) continues to be highly excluded in urban
planning and modernization. The issue of urban food security and nutrition is clearly connected
to complex economical, ecological and social systems.

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Vertical farming (Urban agriculture) allows more food to be grown in less space, uses less water,
produces less pollution and can be done virtually anywhere. Urban farming/vertical farming can
also be soil based either in the ground or in raised beds and can revitalize vacant lots. It provides
local healthier food choices, creates jobs and allows us to grow the food where the people are
(AVF, 2013).

Positive impact on household food security as it generates direct income for the household
concerned as well as providing direct access to the food produced. Households that engage in
farming may have access to comparatively cheaper food and to a wider variety of particularly
nutritious foods, such as vegetables. Under such conditions direct access to food may allow
households to consume greater amounts of food and a more diversified diet, richer in valuable
micronutrients (Katherine, 2002).

Number of Hawassa city residents, including many children, does not get enough to eat on a
daily basis. Therefore, vertical farming can address those food insecurity issues in certain level.

Environmental Protection

A health-focused food system should nourish the environment, protect against climate change,
promote social justice, create local and diverse economic development and build community.
Climate change represents a serious threat to urban food security. So that rising level of CO2
and other "greenhouse gases" is decried as the world's greatest environmental threat.

Cities are increasingly vulnerable to climate-related disasters. In this context, food security and
production systems are seriously affected and increase vulnerability of urban dwellers.
Adaptation of the agricultural, natural resource, food security sub- sectors, with a focus on
improved resilience of production systems and urban households depending upon them, is of
paramount importance in coping with the expected changes in climatic conditions.

Environmental benefits of Urban Agriculture include reducing the heat island effect, reducing
storm runoff and water pollution, conserving water through rainwater catchment and energy
conservation (Anirudh Garg and Rekha Balodi, 2014).

CO2 is the basic raw material that plants use in photosynthesis to convert solar energy into food,
fiber, and other forms of biomass. Voluminous scientific evidence shows that if CO2 were to

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rise above its current ambient level of 360 parts per million (ppm), most plants would grow
faster and larger, because of more efficient photosynthesis and a reduction in water loss.

Sustainability
There are many benefits to urban agriculture/vertical farming including social, economic and
ecological advantages. Urban Agriculture helps to create sustainability in cities. It also
reconnects individuals to their food, creates jobs, and mitigates negative effects of urbanization
on the environment (Anirudh Garg and Rekha Balodi, 2014).

1.4. Significance of the Project

Vertical farming converts abandoned urban properties into food production centers. No weather-
related crop failures due to droughts, floods, pests. Faster and high yields, grows healthier crops,
no pesticides needed, savings in water, reuse of nutrients solution, can grow round the year,
requires less land surface, reduces carbon dioxide concentration.

1.5. Source of fund

Currently, source of fund is not known. It is the key mechanism through which plan builds life-
changing personal relationships across national and economic boundaries, Promotes Agricultural
production, and productivity. Sponsorship funds allow plan to make long-term commitment to
communities. Although, funds are raised small scale farmers, payments are not made directly to
the sponsored families or small scale farmers/residents. Donations from sponsors go towards
small scale farmer/residents center development projects/ programs that benefit the community
as a whole.

1.6. Social Situations

Hawassa City found geographically in Sidama zone of SNNPRS. The majority of the population
speaks the Sidamic language and others speak official language. The residents has a unique
cultural and social systems like financial contribution, funeral and wedding ceremonies,
dialogue, celebrations, spiritual, etc.

Religious wise, protestant christens make 49%, followed by Ethiopian orthodox Christian 14%.
The rest 16%, 9% and 12% are Muslim, tradition followers and Catholic Christians respectively.

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1.7. Economic Situations
The economic base of the Hawassa city residents is dominantly by government workers and
different enterprises as major means of livelihood.

1.8. Objectives of the Project

General Objectives:
The objective of this project proposal is to see the feasibility of the vertical farming concept in
three specific and interrelated project areas. The first, addressing crop (vegetables and fruits)
production, the second natural resource (Environmental protection) and the last food in security
and to empower the urban people with knowledge to support their potential in order to raise their
living standards and to make them healthy and environmentally conscious.
Specific objectives:
 To improving food security in urban area ( Hawassa city level) by using vertical farming
system
 To minimize the food mile distance to the market
 Promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls
 Reducing solid waste problem at Hawassa city level by reusing materials for production
 To improve efficient utilization of land, water, nutrients and Agricultural inputs
 To improve beautification/landscape of the city
 Mitigating climate change at urban level and improve green economy development

2. Vertical Farming
Vertical farming is the urban farming of fruits, vegetables, and grains, inside a building in a city
or urban centre, in which floors are designed to accommodate certain crops (Anirudh Garg and
Rekha Balodi, 2014).

Growing food uses more land than any other human activity, but vertical farming is a way to
grow food without using up so much land. Vertical farms can be different kinds of structures
used to grow crops vertically, such as a multi-story greenhouse or structures built along the side
of skyscrapers.

If plants are grown within a building, it is possible vertical farms could reduce the irrigation
water needed to grow crops, especially if the water is recycled for multiple uses. Also, crops

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grown within a building wouldn’t have to be sprayed with pesticides because there would be a
lot less bugs and pests. But vertical farms are very expensive and require more energy in the
form of artificial light than open field farms, and may not be able to meet a high proportion of
our food needs.

2.1. Advantages of Vertical Farming

Anirudh Garg and Rekha Balodi, (2014) said that considering the advantages, there is one that
comes to our mind immediately. This is of course the space advantage. As the farming takes
place vertically, less space is needed, but still food can be provided for a large number of people.
A scientific study showed that a single square block of thirty stories can provide food for nearly
ten thousand people.

This can also be regarded as a good method to minimize the ecological footprint, which
measures how much land and water area a human population needs to produce the resource it
consumes and to absorb its wastes. Today humanity uses the equivalent of 1.5 planets and this
certainly has to be changed. But of course there are more benefits to be realized. Crops are not
exposed to extreme weather conditions and disturbances like floods, hurricanes or droughts.
Since the crops can grow in a controlled environment, they do not get infected and therefore
there is no need for pesticides and insecticides. By doing this, different health problems like
nervous system disorders, immune system suppression, breast and other types of cancer,
disruption of hormonal systems and irritation of skin and eyes can be avoided.

Natural resources are shrinking and this development will certainly go on indefinitely. Vertical
farming allows controlling the usage of water and minerals. The plants will use the amount of
water they need so that there is no wastage. Furthermore, nutrients and water can be recycled, if
they are not taken up by the roots. The garbage that comes from fast food and restaurants will be
composted and used as fertilizer, which also leads to waste reduction. It is obvious that this
controlled environment is the biggest advantage. It is possible to have an effect on the conditions
under which the plants grow, meaning that temperature, humidity, lighting and water supply can
be regulated by us. It is not necessary to depend on seasonal outputs any more. Crops can be
produced at any time and this leads to the fact that the output and production of crops is very
high throughout the year and can be guaranteed.

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Another advantage of vertical farming is the reduction of transportation. Farming will take place
in the bigger cities of a country, where most of the people live. This means that the crops can be
consumed immediately. If the food doesn’t have to be transported over long distances, not only
transport costs but also carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced, which is good for the
environment, especially in terms of global warming.

 Minimum input – Maximum output

Vertical Farming is a revolutionary approach to producing high quantities of nutritious and

quality fresh food all year round, without relying on skilled labor, favorable weather, high soil
fertility or high water usage.

Vertical Farm Systems growing cycles are consistent and reliable, allowing commercial growers
to confidently commit to delivery schedules and supply contracts. In a well-managed Vertical
Farm Systems there are no such things as 'seasonal crops' and there are no crop losses.

Vertical Farm Systems are fully enclosed and climate controlled, completely removing external
environment factors such as disease, pest or predator attacks. It also means our farms are not
dependent on fertile arable land and can be established in any climatic region globally
irrespective of seasonal daylight hours and extremes in temperature.

 Low water usage

Being a totally closed growing system with controlled transpiration losses, Vertical Farm
Systems use only around 10% of the water required for traditional open field farming and around
20% less than conventional hydroponics.

 Reduced washing and processing

Vertical Farm Systems growing environments are fitted with strong bio-security procedures to
eliminate pest and disease attacks. Total elimination of the need for foliar sprays, pesticides and
herbicides in cropping systems results in produce that does not require holding times or
expensive and product damaging washing or post-harvest processing.

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 Reduced transport costs

Vertical Farm Systems can be established in any geographic location with suitable power and
water supplies. Strategic positioning of facilities close to the point of sale or in distribution hubs
dramatically decreases the time from harvest to consumer and also reduces costs for refrigerated
storage and transport.

 Increased growing area

For the same floor area, Vertical Farm Systems multi-level design provides nearly 8 times more
growing area than single level hydroponic or greenhouse systems. This compact design enables
cost-effective farming installations in industrial estates, urban warehouses and other low cost and
typically under-utilized environments not previously associated with high-quality high-margin
agricultural activities.

 Maximum crop yield

Irrespective of external conditions, Vertical Farm Systems can reliably provide more crop
rotations per year than open field agriculture and other farming practices.

Crop cycles are also faster due to the systems’ controlled temperature, humidity, daylight hours
optimization and the use of bionomic biologically active organic plant nutrients. The systems can
produce market grade produce of several crops within just 21 days.

All produce will be grown organically, with no pesticides and insecticides, as being in a
controlled environment there are no insects or garden pests that can attack the plants.

Another benefit of some consideration is that the crops will be further protected from inclement
weather, and therefore less crops will be lost to hurricanes, hail, drought and snap freezes,
because the temperatures within these vertical growing platforms will be set at ambient
temperatures. With global weather patterns becoming more unpredictable and with global
warming being a huge problem, vertical farming sounds like a solid option.

 Positive outcome

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Greens severely adopts green technologies to achieve the 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle). This
also helps to achieve sustainability for the good of the environment and to grow safe, high
quality and fresh vegetables for consumers. The small amount of energy and water needed to
grow vegetables, and the close proximity of the consumer potentially reduces transportation
costs, carbon dioxide emissions and risk of spoilage.

The vegetables are harvested everyday and delivered almost immediately to retail outlets. Although Sky
greens’ vegetables cost about ten percent more than the imported vegetables, they are literally flying of
the selves with consumers happy to buy Singapore-grown produce. As one of the consumer mentions,
”The prices are still reasonable and the vegetables are very fresh and very crispy.”

2.2. Disadvantages of Vertical Farming

Anirudh Garg and Rekha Balodi, (2014) reported that there are still some negative aspects about
vertical farming. Money plays a major role. Especially the initial phase will be cost intensive.
Between 100 and 200 million dollars will be needed to build a vertical farm. One advantage is
that everything can be controlled by us, but on the other hand, this can also be a disadvantage
because everything has to be controlled by us, which leads to many problems.

Even if the crops in a glass skyscraper will get some natural sunlight during the day, there is the
necessity of artificial light, which is very expensive. Another aspect is pollination. Since it is
going to be an insect- free environment, pollination will have to be done by hand. This is also
labor and cost intensive. Thinking about costs, it is also important to say that urban land is more
expensive than farm land. Although almost any kind of plant can be grown in nutrient-rich water,
there are still some plants which are not suitable to grow in a controlled environment. This
means that there will be a fewer variety of foods.

Food coming from vertical farming will be more expensive than ‘traditional food’ and thus,
many people will not be able to afford it. Regarding both sides of vertical farming, there are
mixed reactions about the concept of it, as a report on the discovery channel showed. The public
is still skeptical and some would even prefer buying their food from the farmers’ markets. This
shows the importance of convincing the public. Otherwise this concept cannot succeed.

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3. Main Activities

In order to achieve the organization’s strategic goal and objectives, the following activities will
be implemented.

 Awareness Creation
 Trainings
 Conducting trial/experiment on vertical planter
 Follow Ups & extension
 Exchange Visits
 Information
 sharing and Networking
 Monitoring
 Evaluation and Reporting

4. Target Beneficiaries
The primarily target beneficiaries of this project are small scale farmers/residents of food
insecure.

5. Implementation Strategies
The community needs to be sensitized on the dangers vertical farming and the availability of a
convenient farming alternative. To achieve this, the deployed field team use different methods.
These includes public meetings, field days, church gatherings, posters, visits to existing farmers’
groups and spontaneous farm visits to establish contacts and enhance outreach. During this stage,
importance, advantages and benefits of project and the vertical farming modus operandi are
highlighted and discussed in details. Interested residents are assisted to form manageable
common interest groups (CIG) and the training modalities and community action plans are set.

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 Training of target groups

The method used in training involves introductory lessons on vertical farming and other
sustainable ideas carried out indoors. After this familiarization with the concepts, the trainees are
subjected to demonstrations to aid in acquiring of relevant practical skills and finally
participatory action based on-farm training. Discussions and sharing of ideas and experiences is
highly encouraged at this stage and upholding is equally emphasized. Thematic approach based
on food security, long term environmental protection building, empowering women and
sustainability management practices are concerned.

 Follow Ups and extension

Trained farmers are offered post training services geared towards smooth transition to
sustainable practices. These include continuous and regular visits by the field based staff in order
to guide advice direct and motivate them. Planning for real at this stage emerge given that the
community members come up with various strategic livelihood improvement projects. The
agents usually discuss their priorities with them and then link them with relevant business party.

 Awareness Creation

 Exchange Visits
This is an important activity aimed at facilitating farmers/residents learning from their successive
counterparts, discuss and share experiences and gain motivation. Respective trained groups and
other interested individuals are assisted in organizing trips to visit other areas and witness for
themselves that what they learn is practicable. This enhances farmers’/residents’ interaction and
promotes farmer/residents to farmer learning.

 Information Sharing and Networking

Department of Agriculture of Hawassa City Administration works very closely with other
likeminded organizations in order to improve on service delivery. This aids in complementing
one another’s work, learning from each other and avoid collision or duplication of services. This
also helps keep away from confusing the community and wasting time and resources. This
therefore has called for formation of corporate networks which are vital in strengthening

15
organization’s uniformity, ability and quality of information and services provided to the
beneficiaries.

In this respect Department of Agriculture of Hawassa City Administration, attends relevant

meetings and workshops to gather knowledge, information and deliberate on important aspects
of the sector. Joint collaborative activities such as policy formulation and development, advocacy
and public awareness on topical issues across the networks are also taken part in.

Experiences, ideas and information are shared during these gatherings. They are later analyzed
and processed to a level that suits the organization and then disseminated to the deserving
grassroots recipients. Print materials received from other stakeholders are distributed to the
farmers and interested individuals. In addition, Department of Agriculture of Hawassa City
Administration produces a newsletter (ECOSTYLE) that gives the farmers, organizations and
individuals a source of learning and platform to share ideas. It provides for farmers to speak out,
express and share their views, feelings and ideas.

6. Role and Responsibilities of Stakeholders

 Role of Department of Agriculture of Hawassa City Administration
The Department of Agriculture of Hawassa City Administration is one of the 6 sectors in the
administration which is responsible for the overall Hawassa City Administration level Agricultural
and rural development polices implementation with collaboration with different stake holders
that includes financial, human, and material resources management.

At the sub-city level, the sub-city agricultural development agents is responsible for the day-to-
day implementation and monitoring of annually planned activities at grass root level with
communities and development agent from different fields. Mainly, its role focuses on facilitation
of effective and efficient implementation of program inputs, activities and outputs as per the
agreement with the jointly working projects and the Hawassa city administration sectors and
other partners. Besides, the Department of Agriculture has responsibility to produce action plan
and report in annual and quarter bases to the Hawassa city council, agricultural and natural
resource management bureau of SNNPRS and other relevant government bodies. In addition at

16
grass root level Plan has assigned vertical farming facilitators who work hand-in hand with
government sectors extension workers and the communities. Hence, the overall role of vertical
farming is largely a facilitating function while the implementation, monitoring and evaluation
responsibilities are jointly carried out by communities’ government and local NGO partners.

 Roles of the community

In order to implement the stated objective implementer will fully follow Participatory approach.
As participation of all stakeholders at all program level could strengthen sense of ownership,
empowerment and sustainability; Plan would involve the concerned civil societies, community
and Small scale farmers in all steps of program process of identification, planning,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation. The participation of the community’s in terms of
forwarding innovative ideas and in monitoring grass root implantation processes will also
contribute much significantly towards quality project delivery.
7. Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting
Monitoring
Scrutiny on the development of the project is continuous. The work by the field personnel is
assessed on quarterly basis where they are supposed to report in writing progressively to the
management, and discuss the progress in the staff business meetings held four times per year.
The management on the other hand keeps records and presents them for auditing. Compiles
progress and general reports, keep them safely and sends to the relevant partners. These reports
are used for the evaluations.

Moreover, regular field visits are made by program frontline staff for the day to day follow up of
implementations carried out by implanting partners and community repetitive. The other
monitoring tool and mechanism is using quarter and annual performance report which is
regularly submitted to the concerned governmental bodies.

Evaluation
The organization’s progress is monitored and reported by the respective personnel submitting
reports on how well their respective objectives have been met to the management. The
management compiles them for documentation and further reporting to the board and funding
agencies. The management is responsible for preparing and presenting the financial records to an

17
auditor. The auditor inspects and prepares the audited financial reports which are later sent to the
fiscal sponsors.

Evaluations are conducted yearly first by inwardly examining the extent of meeting the set
objectives, what factors helped or prevented maximum output. During this, farmers/residents
from different areas are visited to provoke discussions. Our partners, depending on their choice,
or a consultant appointed by them visit us and some parts of our coverage to get firsthand
observation of the work we carry out with the support we get from them. This is usually done at
their own convenience.

Reporting

Besides, external evaluation is conducted by an independent consultant. The consultant writes a

report and recommendations which are used for developmental adjustments and more
importantly to help the donor assess the organization’s extent of use of the grant in meeting the
community’s needs.

8. Measuring success
In order to examine the efficacy of the organization towards achieving the goals and objectives,
some important pointers are used. They are based on the set targets for the time frame and their
extent of changing the conditions of the beneficiaries’ lives for better.

They include the number of awareness meetings conducted, number of farmers trained, rate of
adoption leading to decreased dependence on external and detrimental inputs as well as the
conspicuous change of attitude by the farmers and their neighbors manifested in regular
exchange visits and replication of the techniques.

Increased production per unit area as a result of improved soil fertility ensures there is more
produce for food and the surplus is offered for sale thus raising the income for households.

9. Impacts
Lasting effects as a result of the project includes better living standards and reduced poverty
levels among the community members. This will be brought about by the raised income levels
18
and improved health conditions in extension of more and healthy food availability and reduced
subjection hazardous practices and inputs.

Sustainability environmental sanitation will be experienced as a result of reduced pollution

increased. Adversities in climatic change such as global warming will be mitigated.

10. Project Sustainability

The knowledge and information imparted to the community is one that will be used to encourage
them utilize resources in an inexhaustible way. This will let communities exploit resources
during their lifetime and handover to the future generations in first rate order. These skills will
therefore make generations regard themselves as custodians of nature given resources and not
consumers.

The system used during knowledge transfer involves institutionalization where trained
individual farmers are organized into groups and encouraged to manage their own operations.
They establish formal leadership in their respective groups which is directly responsible for
group’s running and linkages with other developmental networks and for information sharing.

The groups’ members are subjected to all the skills relevant to all their undertakings to ensure
building the communities’ human capital. This will guarantee continuity and at the same time
induce intra community knowledge and ideas transfer through schemes like Farmers Field Visit
(FFV), Demonstration Plots and Exchange Visits.

11.Assumptions and Risks

Assumptions

Assumptions related to the project includes:-

 The community members will have an interest in sustainable methods of farming – vertical
farming i.e. avail themselves for the trainings, and play their duly part during training and
implementation of the project in order to make a lasting impact.

19
 The social-economic political and weather conditions will allow for the process of
awareness, training and more importantly adoption and implementation of the ideas.

 The change agency will continue with its mandate without changing focus and its mission.

Risks

The risks that surround the development of these undertakings include:

Reversion: Some of the trained farmers may revert back to their old ways of farming i.e.
conventional farming.

Weather Conditions: Large number of our target group relies on rainfall for their
agricultural activities which has of late been characterized by erratic situations thus
interfering with on farm implementations.

Commercial Interference: Some merchants promoting their synthetic products and or

transgenic seeds may influence the farmers’ perception. This in most cases will occur to
individual farmers on the lookout or in need of making quick gains.

Group’s Disintegration: Sensitized and trained community members might be unable to

hold together onto their convenient groupings making it difficult for follow ups and sharing
of ideas.

12.Expected outputs
This project aims at training farmers. The farmers are then followed up to assist in adoption of
the ideas and their implementation.

Food security improves as a result of improved crop production. Diversification of crops leads to
improved nutritional status of the communities. Food production expectation is a rise by ---%.

20
Advocacy in environmental protection will go a long way into city beautification. This ensures
sustainable ways of acquiring food without causing pollution on environment. The general
environmental conditions will largely change for the better.

Increased nutrition and food production will pave way for sale of surplus and therefore
increasing the household income levels hence reduced poverty.

Vertical farming methods are less costly and utilize locally available materials thereby reducing
overdependence on expensive inputs. This translates that the farmer’s affordability of required
inputs will be increased.

13.Survey Design

In this survey, the descriptive method will be employed to make intensive investigation of the
impact of the horizontal urban expansion on the livelihood of peri-urban agricultural community.
Data source and Type
In order to attain the main goal of the project, both primary and secondary sources of data will be
collected and used. The primary data will be collected from focus group discussions; in-depth
interview of the key informants, participant observations and questionnaires. The secondary data
is collected from all available written documents & electronic sources.

Sampling Methods and Frames

 Sampling methods
Both random sampling and non-random sampling methods will be employed in such away to
reduce the sampling error. A systematic random sampling technique will be employed as the
random sampling to assure the representativeness of on-target group- households that are subject
to food insecurity and thus have low income, to assess now-how how to recycle/reuse urban
waste and protect environment through vertical farming of some vegetable and fruit crops.

14.Conclusion

Vertical farms in urban areas are a relatively new phenomenon, but interest in this approach is
growing, and the number of vertical farms in the Hawassa city is expanding currently. There are

21
 several variations of vertical farms being tested throughout the world, and new innovations and
technology will likely increase the energy efficiency and profit margins of these farms in the
future.

In the near term, most vertical farms will focus on high-return and short-rotation crops such as
salad greens, lettuce with nearby restaurants will buy all of the production. Whether vertical
farms will become more widespread in Hawassa city is uncertain, but the innovative vertical
farms currently under construction or already in production are being closely observed by urban
planners and the sustainable agriculture community.

Table 1. Agro-ecological requirements of some vegetables growing in Hawassa city

S.No Types of

Plant spacing
Row spacing

No of seeds
vegetable

Depth (cm)
conditions
Longitude

Temp. in
Latitude
Altitude

Rainfall

Soil pH
crops
m.a.s.l

In mm

/gram
(cm)

(cm)
Soil
Leafy vegetables c
0

1 Lettuce
38°28

acidic
7°3′N

Mode
rately

and 7

25-30
b/n 6
1708

1200
100

600-
15 -

0.6
18

30
′E

2 Swiss chard     8-  

30-40

10-20
24

1-2

50-70
3 Cabbage/ head     10-35  

200- 380
50-75
cabbage
30-40

0.5-1
Fruit vegetables
2 Chili      
40-50
18-35

60-75

70-90
0.6
Source: Henk Waaijenberg (2003).

Table2. Sampling frame used to identify sample households and FGD participants

Sr.no Name of sub –city Number of households Total

Male Female
1 Tabor 33,877 30,464 64,341
2 Addis Ketema 13,162 13,158 26,320
3 Hayik-dar 13,221 12,442 25,663
4 Mehal Ketema 10,982 10,638 21,620
5 Bahl-Adarash 11,007 10,919 21,926

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 6 Misrak 17,979 16,278 34,257
7 Menharya 18,511 17,669 36,180
Total 118,739 111,568 230,307
Source: Hawassa City Administration, Socio-Economic Profile (2007)

Table 3. Details Of Work Plan

Activities Work schedules Remark

s.n

M
A

D
F

S
o

J
1 Writing project
proposal
2 Project proposal
presentation
3 Baseline surveying
4 Launching of project
to selected stake
holders
5 Preparation of
training material
6 Training for selected
households
7 Implementation of
project plan
8
Follow up ( M &E )
7 Field visit

9
Feed back of
implemented project
10 Interim Report
Submission
11 Field days
12 Impact survey
13 Annual report

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 Table4. LOGIC MODEL

INPUTS ACTIVITIES OUTPUTS IMMEDIATE INTERMEDIATE ULTIMATE

OUTCOMES OUTCOMES OUTCOME

Human and The things you Product or service Short-term results Medium-term results Longer-term results
physical resources “do” with your stemming from a emerging from the emerging from emerging from the
inputs – the completed group of outputs that often immediate outcomes intermediate
actions activities represent a change that usually outcomes that the
in knowledge or skill represent a change in project is working
behavior or practice towards, but which
you alone cannot
achieve

 Introduction  Increased  Increased food

• Seeds • VF meetings adoption of CF production • Improved food
• Funds introduction completed practices  Increased number security for
• Personnel meetings with  VF selected of months that households in each
• Vehicles communities, and registered  VF community crop production sub-city
• Program equipment local  Inputs extension design meets annual
• Offices governments procured and functioning household
• planting and regional distributed  Vegetable food
materials/equipments governments  Training needs
• VF selection workshops  Improved
and registration completed accessibility of
• Procurement  Project locally produced
and distribution monitoring high quality fresh
of inputs completed vegetables
• Training  Field days
workshops on organized
VF
• Project
monitoring
• Organization

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 of field days

Table 5. Detailed Implementation Plan

DETAILED MAJOR DETAILED EXPECTED TIME RESOURCES IMPLEMENTOR

IMPLEMENTATIO ACTIVITY TASKS OUTPUT REQUIRED
N PLAN (IES)
OBJECTIVES

Community Awareness Hold public Changed Continuou Transport, Management

sensitization on Creation meetings, attend attitudes, people s publicity
importance of groups meetings, aware of vertical materials and field staffs
vertical farming church farming
gatherings, farm existence.
visits and field
days.

Organize the Form Common Set training Groups for Beginning Transport, Field staffs
community for Interest Groups modalities i.e. training of the Trainers
training. (CIGS) dates and venue. project (human
period resource)

Transfer of Training Indoor training, Knowledgeable Continuou Trainers, Field staffs

knowledge and on farm coaching farmers s transport,
demonstrate. and practical. training
materials
(chalks,
boards etc)

Train and practice on On -farm Farmers’ Confident and Continuou Demo garden, Field staffs
different techniques. demonstrations implementation. action based s trainer and
farmers. equipment.

Assist in transition Follow ups and Visits to guide, Increased Continuou Information Field staffs
and implementation. extension advice, train capacity and s personnel
more, share independent
information and farmers,
learn from them. increased
production.

Enhance farmer to Exchange visits Organizing, High motivation, After Transport, Field staffs and
farmer learning and learning, self confidence, trainings meals and
interaction. discussions, replication and farmers information
sharing of ideas up scaling. /learners.
and experiences department.
by farmers.

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Table 6. Detailed Budget Item
Expenditures
EXPENDITURES Description Unit Quantity Cost/Unit (ETB) Budget Total

For three For three

years years

1. Seed Inputs

1.1 Lettuce kg 10 600 6000 6000 12000

Cabbage >> 15 535 8025 8025 16050

Swiss chard >> 6 535 3210 3210 6420

Chili >> 3 1800 1800 3600

Subtotal Seed Inputs 19035 19035 38070

Control measures (cultural) Lt/kg 1200 8000 8000 16000

Total stationary expenses Birr (ETB) 50,000 50,000 100,000

Transport km 6000 6000 12000

Fuel and lubricant Lt/gallon 7000 7000 14000

2. Workshops

2.1 VF Training Workshops workshops 2 50,00 100,000 100, 000 200, 000

Subtotal Workshops 100,000 100, 000 200, 000

3. Monitoring and Evaluation

3.1 Baseline survey 1 25,000 25,000 25,000 50,000

3.1.1 Training training 2 50,000 50,000 50,000 100,000

3.1.2 Enumerator allowance enumerator 5 4000 20,000 20,000 40,000

3.1.3 Transportation Km 1000 30 30,000 30,000 60,000

3.2 Annual impact survey 2 5,000 100,000 100,000 200,000

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 TOTAL 415035 415035

Five percent ( 5%Contigency ) 515035 515035 866573.5

TOTAL PROJECT BUDGET

TOTAL PROJECT BUDGET ETB 866573.5 (Eight hundred sixty six thousand five hundred
seventy three Ethiopian birr).
6. References
AVF.2013. The Association for Vertical Farming Munich, Germany, 233r of June 2013.
[online]. Available: htt://vertical farming.net/en/vf/why/.
Brown, K.2002. Urban Agriculture and Community Food Security in the United States: Farming
from the City Center To the Urban Fringe Prepared by the Urban Agriculture Committee
of the Community Food Security Coalition.
FAO, IFAD and WFP 2010. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2010 - Addressing Food
Insecurity in Protracted Crises, FAO, Rome.
Garg, A. and Balodi, R.2014. Recent Trends in Agriculture: Vertical Farming and Organic
Farming. Adv Plants and Agric Res1 (4):00023.DOI:10.15406/apar.201401.00023.
Hatfield et al.2011.Climate Change and Agric in the United States: Effects and Adaptation.
Hawassa City Administration, Socio-Economic Profile, 2007.
The State of Food and Agriculture, 2010-11. Women in Agriculture: Closing the Gender Gap for
Development, FAO, Rome.

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