It is a struggle to feed a growing family on land that is subject to droughts and soil erosion. But for Ethiopian smallholder farmers like Abebe Moliso, that's exactly the challenge that life has given them. A land management programme called MERET is helping them deal with it. AWASSA-Abebe Moliso, a farmer living in a small village near the southern Ethiopian town of Awassa, still remembers the days before he was introduced to a joint conservation and water harvesting project known as MERET, or the Managing Environmental Resources to Enable Transitions to more sustainable livelihoods programme, which is supported by the Ethiopian government and WFP. "Before MERET, my land was very weak," Abebe says. "It was too rocky and I had trouble growing." With his wife, Tsehaynesh Desalegn, and eight children to feed, coaxing and nurturing a healthy harvest from the soil around his home is a matter of survival for Abebe. Rehabilitating land Land degradation
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