Growing Hope: Ato Temesgen Abate's Impact on Dairy Production in Ethiopia

Ato Temesgen Abate is a dedicated Dairy Production Improvement Project Manager at Project Mercy's cattle farm at ChaCha in Ethiopia. He is spearheading a three-year project that aims to increase dairy production in the region. The project is working with 20 kebeles around the ChaCha region and has created awareness among 6,750 farmers on the importance of hybridizing local cows with Jersey breed cows using artificial insemination techniques for better dairy production.

To facilitate this, 40 artificial insemination technicians in the community were chosen to take training on these artificial insemination techniques at the National Animal Resources Institute with the help of Project Mercy. The project's three-year goal is to provide 4,500 artificial insemination services, which will hopefully produce 2,000 cow births and help 2,000 farmers become owners of a Jersey hybrid cow. In the past 2.5 years, Project Mercy has given these artificial insemination services to 4,553 farmers, resulting in 440 births and 657 pregnant cows expected to give birth in the next six months.