Nuru Ethiopia has been working in the South Ethiopia Regional State (formerly SNNPR) since 2012. During this time, Nuru Ethiopia has reached over 180,000 people by supporting 214 agribusinesses. Member-owned agribusinesses equip subsistence farmers to become thriving entrepreneurs, support local food systems, and boost local economies. Esipe Dicha Farmers’ Cooperative Union is one of the agribusinesses supported by Nuru Ethiopia. 

View in South Ethiopia Regional State, 2024

What is a cooperative union? 

Farmers’ unions, like Esipe Dicha, represent primary cooperatives and their interests. By bringing smaller primary farmer cooperatives together, unions the cooperatives with greater bargaining opportunities as a collective, supporting improved access to quality and affordable inputs. When it’s time to harvest and sell produce, farmer unions provide primary cooperatives and their members with access to bigger, more consistent markets, as produce can be aggregated from multiple cooperatives to sell to larger buyers. Furthermore, unions support long-term sustainability, as cooperatives shift from relying on Nuru Ethiopia to participating in, contributing to, and benefitting from farmer unions instead.

Esipe Dicha Union is located over 300 miles from Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. As travel to the union covers many rutted-out dirt roads that wind over Rift Valley mountains, the commute from the capital can easily take more than eight hours in a vehicle. Its remote location also makes it a highly valuable resource to the surrounding areas, as rural livelihoods support is limited or altogether nonexistent in many of the surrounding communities. 

Esipe Dicha Union sign outside offices and storage facilities, 2024

History of Esipe Dicha

Esipe Dicha Union was established in 2007. The union gradually grew to support 5,000 farmers through 51 primary cooperatives, and it stored aggregated grains in its warehouse, ensuring that farmers would not experience post-harvest loss, as is often the case when farmers lack access to air-tight, waterproof, and pest-resistant storage facilities. The union secured a contract with the government’s school feeding program – a program that provides locally-sourced food to school-aged youth to support food security. 

Esipe Dicha was thriving in many ways, and then the unimaginable happened. In 2018, the warehouse burned down during a period of unrest in the community. As all bookkeeping records were analog and largely stored at the warehouse, the union not only lost its warehouse, but the records also went up in smoke. Esipe Dicha leaders were devastated, and the union lost the contract with the school feeding program. The primary cooperatives no longer trusted the union, and many did not see the value in continuing to work with Esipe Dicha. But the union leaders believed that Esipe Dicha was worth salvaging, and they committed to finding a path forward. 

Nuru Ethiopia Supports Esipe Dicha 

Nuru Ethiopia began working with Esipe Dicha in 2021. A large part of the work initially centered around re-establishing trust between primary  cooperatives and the union. Nuru Ethiopia supported union leaders in visiting farmers at their homes to reestablish a healthy partnership. This was a time-consuming, but necessary step in addressing farmers’ concerns and planning ahead to support farmers’ needs. 

Nuru Ethiopia also facilitated exchange visits between Esipe Dicha and the Nuru Ethiopia-established Hidota Union, providing opportunities for these two unions to learn from one another. Just like the Nuru Collective prioritizes learning exchanges between organizations, Nuru Ethiopia does so with its cooperatives and unions. One Esipe Dicha leader noted, “Exchange visits help everyone to share experiences of standing after failure.” 

Learning event to demonstrate climate-smart agricultural practices, 2024

Group of farmers at learning event, 2024

Support from Nuru Ethiopia came in many forms as the union leaders worked to rebuild the agribusiness. Nuru Ethiopia provided business and agricultural training to strengthen the capacity of agricultural advisors within the union, and for a time, Nuru Ethiopia even financially supported the union manager’s salary. The union was further supported by help from the local government in rebuilding its facility. 

“They [Nuru] brought us from failing to standing.” – leader at Esipe Dicha Union

Esipe Dicha: Building Back from Ashes

Today, Esipe Dicha serves the interests and supports the market connections of 62 cooperatives whose memberships total more than 10,000 farmers. The union has committed itself to improving its professionalism far beyond where it was in 2018. As an example, Esipe Dicha no longer utilizes paper records, but instead has shifted to online workspaces and digital financial records. This not only keeps records from future physical damage, but it creates transparency and accountability among union leadership. 

“Nuru gives us a chance to rethink our union. I was desolate when the union was burned. We received support, and now we support others. Government officials are ambassadors for the union. Cooperatives are working together. Nuru is highly invested for farmers.” – leader at Esipe Dicha Union 

Esipe Dicha leaders, 2024

Esipe Dicha has established a feed processing facility that allows the union to aggregate grains from the primary cooperatives and sell it. This grain facility is an important resource to local herders and livestock farmers who would otherwise have to travel great distances to access grain. Furthermore, the aggregation allows  cooperatives to make higher returns on their grain sale, as Esipe Dicha Union provides cooperatives with access to larger markets. 

“We grew in capacities and confidence. We are confident now to work with federal partners…Nuru is our eye lens. It helped us work for the future. Nuru was our biggest opportunity. We were asleep, but Nuru opened our eyes.” – Esipe Dicha Union leader

A true marker of its rebuild, Esipe Dicha Union has successfully renewed its contract with the Ethiopian government to be the sole supplier of grain for the school feeding program in four woredas (districts) of the South Ethiopia Regional State. This school feeding program ensures that students at 41 schools are receiving nutritional support through locally-produced food sources. Esipe Dicha has also become a major supplier of improved seed, fertilizer, post-harvest technologies, and different consumable food items like cooking oil, flour, salt, and sugar. 

Esipe Dicha Union grain processing and storage facility, 2024

Following aggregation and processing, grain is stored at Esipe Dicha Union storage facility

Furthermore, Esipe Dicha is the lead supplier of seed distribution in the area in the event of a natural disaster. In 2023, Esipe Dicha was called upon to respond to a flooding disaster, and earlier this year, the union responded to a landslide that killed over 150 people. The union’s emergency response was remarkable, as it provided logistical support, provision of food aid, and technical support to rehabilitate the impacted farmers. 

One local government extension worker said, “We expect this union to do even more things. This is just a starting point. […] This union is considered a model for others.”

Plans for Esipe Dicha’s Future 

The union is expected to continue growing in its activities. Esipe Dicha’s goals are focused around:

• further digitizing its business service
• establishing aggregation facilities in each woreda (district) centers
• supplying additional technologies to members
• creating additional job opportunities for youth
• offering additional access to credit
• engaging in environmental protection through nature-based solutions 

“The next years will be bright for us; it’s all up” -Tesfaye Estifanos, Union Manager

Tesfaye Estifanos, Esipe Dicha Union Manager, 2024

The union is expected to continue its growth trajectory, becoming a center for innovative business solutions and services for farmers. Esipe Dicha sees its role as providing a platform for the voices of smallholder farmers and women to influence policymakers and garner attention from both government and development partners. 

”Nuru gave us the capacity to rethink and rework our union…we received a lot from Nuru, and now we are ready to support others.” -Kasna, Finance Director

Kasna, Esipe Dicha Finance Director, 2024

Endagara Cooperative: An Esipe Dicha-supported Agribusiness

Nuru Ethiopia-founded Endagara Cooperative is just one of the 62 primary cooperatives receiving support from Esipe Dicha Union through its union membership. Through the member-owned cooperative, 356 farmer members gain access to quality inputs, like drought-tolerant seeds, agricultural training supported by Esipe Dicha Union, financial literacy training on savings, and access to low-interest loans. The cooperative prioritizes engaging women through goat and sheep-fattening activities that equip them to purchase goats, fatten them, and then sell them through local markets. On average, Nuru Ethiopia-supported farmers earn an increased income of  $609 annually, and through animal fattening alone, women have earned an average of $77 of additional income–a significant increase for households facing extreme poverty (living on less than $2.15/day). This additional income For women in this rural community, opportunities to work outside the home and be engaged in the local community remain limited. When women participate in Endagara Cooperative, they have opportunities to increase their income, support household expenses and food security, but they are also given an opportunity to connect with other members of the community and exercise their leadership skills. 

Nuru staff members from across the Nuru Collective visiting with Endagara Primary Coopearative, September 2023

“We are very happy we solve our own problems and challenges. No words can express how happy I am.” -Woman Farmer, Endagara Cooperative

Similarly to Esipe Dicha’s support to the region during flooding, local cooperatives like Endagara Cooperative are a lifeline to farmers during dire circumstances. From 2021-2023, the area surrounding Endagara Cooperative faced a severe drought that led to food scarcity, livestock loss, and death. To support community members, the cooperative purchased grains from outside the region and sold them at a low cost to farmers. Through Nuru Ethiopia’s support, the cooperative also gained access to drought-tolerant mung bean seeds–a crop capable of growing despite limited rainfall. When mung bean was ready to be harvested, the crop was sold to meet critical income needs as well as eaten, providing quality protein to farmer families amid a season of severe deficit.

“I was the first registered farmer in this cooperative. Because of Nuru, I give thanks. The cooperative helped during drought season. That was the real test, and it helped with inputs. We changed ourselves, and I wish for other farmers to have this opportunity. I hope Nuru can scale to more areas.” -Woman Farmer, Endagara Cooperative

Another farmer noted, “We always appreciate Nuru’s contribution. Nuru is truly light for our community. We’ve never seen anything like this in this woreda. We feel Nuru is always with us. If you ask anyone around here, they can tell you what Nuru has done.”

Nuru Collective members visit Endagara Primary Cooperative storage facility, September 2023

Esipe Dicha Host Exchange Visit to Share Lessons Learned

”Now we stand on two legs to serve our community” – Esipe Dicha leader

Esipe Dicha is capitalizing on its lessons learned, ensuring that more cooperatives like Endagara are given opportunities through cooperative unions. In October 2024,  Esipe Dicha Union hosted an experience-sharing event for two recently established cooperative unions: Mello Koza Hibiret Lelewt Union and South Omo Pastoralist Union. Board members, managers, and agribusiness advisors from both unions attended the event to learn more about Esipe Dicha’s learnings. The event also provided an opportunity for Esipe Dicha to share about Nuru Ethiopia’s capacity-strengthening functions and how these benefits are passed down to cooperative agribusiness members.  Following the event, the two new unions are eager to work with Nuru Ethiopia. Union managers and agribusiness advisors from Mello Koza Hibiret Lelewt Union and South Omo Pastoralist Union onboarded with Nuru Ethiopia through intensive support from Esipe Dicha Union. This was helpful for new union teams to understand the union government system, service provision, training, and extension activities available. Nuru Ethiopia is now supporting four unions in South Ethiopia Regional State. 

Esipe Dicha Experience Sharing Event, 2024

Learn More About Nuru Ethiopia and Agribusinesses

Esipe Dicha recently held their Annual General Assembly in October, where they celebrated another year of significant net profits for their farmer members over the past year.

Do you want to learn more about the impact Nuru Ethiopia-supported unions have on cooperative agribusinesses and their farmer members? 

–Read this case study from Agribusiness Market Ecosystem Alliance (AMEA). 

-Read Nuru Ethiopia’s latest impact report, which highlights the impact of Esipe Dicha Union as well as Hidota Union, another Nuru Ethiopia-supported farmers’ cooperative union. 

-Nuru Ethiopia equips cooperative agribusinesses and unions to thrive through strategic partnerships, like SCOPEinsight. Read about how Nuru Ethiopia partners with SCOPEinsight.