Maichew, April.23(ENA)--Work on the sinking of 12 deep water wells has got underway with an outlay of nearly six million Birr in Alamata Woreda in Southern zone of the Tigray State, the Woreda administration said.

The waters from the wells would be used by farmers in five rural localities through dripping and spraying irrigation methods in a bid to attain a food-secure status. The Relief Society of Tigray (REST) has earmarked the reported fund for the implementation of the projects.

The digging of the wells is expected to finalize next Ethiopian year and nearly 400 hectares would be developed through irrigation, it said.

Some 840 beneficiary farmers are expected to grow cash crops so that they can generate additional incomes and improve their livelihoods.

The irrigation schemes will extricate the beneficiary farmers from dependency on rains, which has been erratic exposing the woreda to recurrent drought, it indicated.

The new dripping and spraying irrigation system is proved water saving and profitable, it added.

Some 70 farmers who had been made beneficiaries of a water well dug last year in Limat locality of the Woreda have been securing up to 1,000 Birr in profits from the sales of commercial crops they have been developing on 25 hectares.

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