Reducing land degradation and carbon loss from Ethiopia's soils to strengthen livelihoods and resilience (RALENTIR)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Aberdeen
Department Name: University of Aberdeen Business School
Abstract
Land degradation is a major problem in Ethiopia. Recent estimates put the size of degraded land in Ethiopia at more than one-quarter of the entire country, which affects nearly a third of the population. Land degradation takes many forms and has many different effects, with the most adverse impacts on poor people, who depend heavily on natural resources. Forests, soils, water, biodiversity, and economic and social services derived from the ecosystems are all affected. Climate change and extreme weather events, such as the recent El Niño effect, significantly increase the risk of soil erosion, and losses of soil nutrients.
The impact of degradation and measures to restore land are inherently unequally distributed across the population in time and space. Restoring degraded common lands through the establishment of "exclosure" areas where traditional community access is restricted is widely used in Ethiopia. These restrictions particularly affect those without access to other sources of firewood and grazing. Such inequalities and local perceptions of justice need to be taken into account if soil restoration is to be sustainable in the long run.
This project aims to improve the design of measures to combat land degradation while considering equity and justice, strengthening risk management and benefits for communities, particularly poor and marginal groups, increasing the capacity of local people to adapt and improve their lives.
The project draws on an interdisciplinary approach covering anthropology, agricultural and forestry science, economics, environmental modelling, hydrology, sociology, and soil science. In case study areas within the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region in Ethiopia (SNNPR) covering different agricultural and climatic zones, the project will design interventions with the Ethiopian Bureau of Agriculture to
- Train and provide access to exclosures to selected eligible landless youth and women to enable them to undertake new productive activities in 1) beekeeping or 2) livestock management.
- Demonstrate and train local farmers in simple measures to address gully formation
The research aims to find out the impact of the new interventions on the participants, how the interventions were communicated and promoted within the communities, how they were experienced by different groups, and their impact on preferences and attitudes to natural resource management within the community.
The project will collect soil, hydrology and socio-economic data. This will be used with environmental and economic modelling to measure the impacts of the interventions on the direct participants, and preferences for natural resource management in the wider community, and the potential long-term effects on land degradation, thus helping to improve the design local natural resource management.
With local and regional practitioners, development agents and representatives of local communities, the project will draw together all the results of the research to develop recommendations for improving frameworks to planning land degradation measures aligned to communities' aspirations, values and notions of justice.
The impact of degradation and measures to restore land are inherently unequally distributed across the population in time and space. Restoring degraded common lands through the establishment of "exclosure" areas where traditional community access is restricted is widely used in Ethiopia. These restrictions particularly affect those without access to other sources of firewood and grazing. Such inequalities and local perceptions of justice need to be taken into account if soil restoration is to be sustainable in the long run.
This project aims to improve the design of measures to combat land degradation while considering equity and justice, strengthening risk management and benefits for communities, particularly poor and marginal groups, increasing the capacity of local people to adapt and improve their lives.
The project draws on an interdisciplinary approach covering anthropology, agricultural and forestry science, economics, environmental modelling, hydrology, sociology, and soil science. In case study areas within the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region in Ethiopia (SNNPR) covering different agricultural and climatic zones, the project will design interventions with the Ethiopian Bureau of Agriculture to
- Train and provide access to exclosures to selected eligible landless youth and women to enable them to undertake new productive activities in 1) beekeeping or 2) livestock management.
- Demonstrate and train local farmers in simple measures to address gully formation
The research aims to find out the impact of the new interventions on the participants, how the interventions were communicated and promoted within the communities, how they were experienced by different groups, and their impact on preferences and attitudes to natural resource management within the community.
The project will collect soil, hydrology and socio-economic data. This will be used with environmental and economic modelling to measure the impacts of the interventions on the direct participants, and preferences for natural resource management in the wider community, and the potential long-term effects on land degradation, thus helping to improve the design local natural resource management.
With local and regional practitioners, development agents and representatives of local communities, the project will draw together all the results of the research to develop recommendations for improving frameworks to planning land degradation measures aligned to communities' aspirations, values and notions of justice.
Planned Impact
The project will have a range of societal and economic impacts on non-academic users in Ethiopia. There will be direct impacts for groups of farmers and local communities, and members of certain marginal groups such as landless youth and women. There will be more indirect impacts on a wider range of individuals within local communities, and on policy makers and practitioners involved in promoting, designing and implementing the Ethiopian government policy on rural natural resource management.
In the short term groups of landless youth and women will increase their capacity and access to resources required to successfully to undertake new productive activities within exclosures. In the medium and longer term, these activities will increase their incomes and improve livelihoods.
In the short run, groups of farmers and the local community members will gain understanding of simple and cheap techniques for gully restoration, and from this how to improve soil conservation within their localities increasing human capital and the capacity of individuals and communities to address future land degradation risk e.g. associated with increased flooding due to climate change. In the longer term, where individuals and communities use these techniques to enact the gully restoration measures, these will reduce soil erosion and land degradation risk, increasing ecological resilience.
Within communities, the project will impact on attitudes to and understanding of natural resource management and its interactions with the locality. In the long term this will increase the chances that community institutions will promote the importance of community level and individual action to support soil conservation, improving the capacity and willingness of the community to initiate measures which reduce future soil erosion and land degradation risk.
In the short run communities, policy makers and practitioners will have a better understanding of how local resource management plans can be adjusted to enhance the local benefits in way which is seen as equitable by the community. In the long term, by successfully scaling up these lessons, this will improve the chances that new exclosures area will be supported by local communities making the likelihood that the Ethiopian government hits its ambitious targets for new areas of this type more likely, reducing land degradation risk in Ethiopia and hence strengthening resilience and sustainability of livelihoods. Land and soil degradation is a major problem in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The lessons are therefore expected to have relevance for policy makers across a range of countries.
Key local practitioners (district level NRM experts, Development agents, model farmers, local level administrative bodies) will also improve their understanding of methods to gather standard biophysical (soil, vegetation, etc) via training, increasing local capacity to evaluate future proposed land degradation measures, increasing the chances of the success of future community investments in soil and land conservation measures.
The exclosure experiments will create possible demonstration sites which would allow long term monitoring of the impact of exclosures allowing the Ethiopian government to improve its evaluation of the long run impact of these areas.
In the short term groups of landless youth and women will increase their capacity and access to resources required to successfully to undertake new productive activities within exclosures. In the medium and longer term, these activities will increase their incomes and improve livelihoods.
In the short run, groups of farmers and the local community members will gain understanding of simple and cheap techniques for gully restoration, and from this how to improve soil conservation within their localities increasing human capital and the capacity of individuals and communities to address future land degradation risk e.g. associated with increased flooding due to climate change. In the longer term, where individuals and communities use these techniques to enact the gully restoration measures, these will reduce soil erosion and land degradation risk, increasing ecological resilience.
Within communities, the project will impact on attitudes to and understanding of natural resource management and its interactions with the locality. In the long term this will increase the chances that community institutions will promote the importance of community level and individual action to support soil conservation, improving the capacity and willingness of the community to initiate measures which reduce future soil erosion and land degradation risk.
In the short run communities, policy makers and practitioners will have a better understanding of how local resource management plans can be adjusted to enhance the local benefits in way which is seen as equitable by the community. In the long term, by successfully scaling up these lessons, this will improve the chances that new exclosures area will be supported by local communities making the likelihood that the Ethiopian government hits its ambitious targets for new areas of this type more likely, reducing land degradation risk in Ethiopia and hence strengthening resilience and sustainability of livelihoods. Land and soil degradation is a major problem in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The lessons are therefore expected to have relevance for policy makers across a range of countries.
Key local practitioners (district level NRM experts, Development agents, model farmers, local level administrative bodies) will also improve their understanding of methods to gather standard biophysical (soil, vegetation, etc) via training, increasing local capacity to evaluate future proposed land degradation measures, increasing the chances of the success of future community investments in soil and land conservation measures.
The exclosure experiments will create possible demonstration sites which would allow long term monitoring of the impact of exclosures allowing the Ethiopian government to improve its evaluation of the long run impact of these areas.
Organisations
Publications
Smith J
(2021)
The role of soils in provision of energy.
in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
Smith J
(2019)
Treatment of organic resources before soil incorporation in semi-arid regions improves resilience to El Niño, and increases crop production and economic returns
in Environmental Research Letters
Smith J
(2020)
A systems model describing the impact of organic resource use on farming households in low to middle income countries
in Agricultural Systems
Wardle JM
(2021)
Article
in Current Research in Environmental Sustainability
Yakob G
(2022)
Changes in Soil Properties Following the Establishment of Exclosures in Ethiopia: A Meta-Analysis
in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Yami M
(2022)
Challenges in the Governance of Community-Managed Forests in Ethiopia: Review
in Sustainability
| Description | The project and its associated research is ongoing. Research and Non-research findings so far help address SDG 2 Food security and specifically 2.3 (agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers), SDG 13.1 (strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters), SDG 15.2 and 15.9 (restore degraded land and soil; integrate ecosystem values into national and local planning, development processes, poverty reduction strategies and accounts) in Ethiopia. From Published research • Important for agricultural productivity, meta-analysis from Ethiopian exclosure systems (restricted areas used to restore degraded common lands) demonstrate that these can increase soil organic carbon and total soil nitrogen up to an effect size greater than two depending on soil type, exclosure age, landscape position and agroecology. The findings provide a base line information for the future expansion of exclosures (an important plank of Ethiopian government policy to address land degradation), a guide where to focus implementation, and criteria to be used when planning and establishing such measures. • Modelling with the ORATOR model being used and developed within the project demonstrates how significant climatic events e.g. El Niño events, causes significant long-term degradation of soil in Ethiopia, reducing crop yields and soil carbon but how decisions by farmers on organic resource use might (partially) mitigate these effects. Emerging findings from ongoing research • Halting gully formation is most effective when starting at the most active part of the gully formation. This indicates that halting the upward migration of gullies (i.e., gully head retreat) is crucial to halt the upward expansion of gullies and reduce the amount of sediment produced at these active gully parts. • Stopping the uphill advancement of gully heads by reclaiming gullies at an early stage of their formation and development (i.e., while they are shallow) is effective, less costly than reclaiming a bigger gully, and can easily managed by local communities. Non-research findings • Working with local communities to reclaim gullies may help change people's perception on gully formation and reclamation, lower costs for gully reclamation, and enhance the effectiveness of gully rehabilitation measures. • Provide Incentives, training and provide resources to selected disadvantaged youth and women to enable them to undertake new productive activities e.g. beekeeping or livestock management drawing on the resources of the exclosure areas can increase income and diversification of livelihoods, and community support for Natural Resource interventions. • The provision of incentives and short-term trainings ensure equity in sharing of benefits obtained from Natural Resource interventions, particularly in sharing the benefits from managing grazing lands. |
| Exploitation Route | Scale up on gully management measures being explored by Ethiopian Bureau of Agriculture |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment |
| URL | https://www.abdn.ac.uk/business/research/ralentir-795.php |
| Description | Land degradation in Ethiopia is caused by a wide range of factors including deforestation and agricultural practices and affects the food security of nearly a third of the country's 110 million population. This project aims to improve the design of measures to combat land degradation focusing on. • The management of restricted "exclosure" areas used to restore degraded common lands. • Simple measures to address gully formation In case study areas within the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region in Ethiopia (SNNPR) we have designed interventions with the Ethiopian Bureau of Agriculture including to • Provide Exclosure Incentives, training and provide resources to selected disadvantaged youth and women to enable them to undertake new productive activities in 1) beekeeping or 2) livestock management drawing on the resources of the exclosures. • Demonstrate and train local farmers in simple Gully Management Measures to address gully formation The overall evaluation of the extent to which the interventions have made Social and Economic Impacts, improving Environmental sustainability is ongoing. However, in the activities documented there already emerging evidence of project impact which specifically help address SDG 2 Food security and specifically 2.3 (agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers), 2.4 (helping to maintain ecosystems, strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, and extreme weather, and that progressively improve land and soil quality), SDG 13 Climate Challenges and specifically 13.1 (strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters), SDG 15 Life on Land and specifically 15.2 and 15.9 (restore degraded land and soil; integrate ecosystem values into national and local planning, development processes, poverty reduction strategies and accounts). Interventions: Exclosure Incentives The livelihoods of groups of youth and women has been improved by the provision of training in beekeeping and livestock management provided, and the direct provision of beehives and animals to these groups (SDG 2 Food security). The following project activities which have already taken place evidence the process through which these direct livelihood impacts are taking place. Beneficiaries During early 2021, following the selection of the two case study watersheds, the project team worked with kebele (district) level administrative personnel to develop criteria for selecting beneficiaries for each intervention at each site. The final agreed criteria aim to prioritize the following: • Sheep: Female, Age, Head of households, Main income from casual work, Housewife, Government safety net supported women, School dropouts, physical ability, Motivation and interest, Experience in Goat/sheep production, Women with disabled/sick husbands, ability to get or grow supplementary livestock feed • Beehives. Age, Dropped Out of High School, Physical Ability, Experience in Apiculture; Land Less Than 0.125 Ha, Motivation and Interest to Participate • Oxen: Age, Poverty level, land less <0.125 ha, Motivation and interest, physical ability, ability to get or grow supplementary feed, Experience in livestock management. At each of the two sites, the number of beneficiaries were to be selected into the following groups: • Beehives: Youth focused groups organized into 4 groups with 8 members per group (32 beneficiaries, 15 modern beehives per group ) • Oxen: Youth focused groups organized in 3 groups with 5 members per group (15 beneficiaries, 4 oxen provided per group) • Sheep: Women working as 30 individuals (2 sheep provided per individual) The beneficiary selection took place between May and July 2021. The Kebele administrative bodies in collaboration with the Kebele level agricultural office or extension workers identified potential beneficiaries based on the criteria, with further involvement of the Kebele Food security Committee, with the final selected beneficiaries endorsed by the district agricultural office. A validation of the beneficiaries was then conducted by the local research team. This process aimed to be inclusive consistent with SDG10.2 (Promoting social, economic and political inclusion). Concerns were expressed by the communities about the need for beneficiaries to be selected on the basis of previous experience (particularly for beekeeping), The community bodies themselves ultimately made the choices on the final composition of the beneficiaries and these were then validated by the research team. The evidence from the beneficiary and other surveys undertaken shows the beneficiaries are more disadvantaged relative to the wider community with typically lower access to livestock, lower dietary diversity etc. Beneficiary Training Throughout the project, in collaboration with the District and Kebele administrative bodies, the agricultural office or extension workers, the partners have identified the training needs of the beneficiaries and aim to support these. Where specific general needs have been identified formal training sessions were provided in both communities. A first set of these took place 30 July 2021, where initial training for the beneficiaries was given on modern beehive construction, sheep and oxen husbandry to each group. A second formal set of training sessions were provided in October 2022 on honey production, harvesting and post-harvest honey handling and marketing, bee pest control methods, on management, housing, feeding and marketing of oxen and sheep. Attendance of these events was well attended (with 136 participants at the first training and 134 at the second training) and observations of these events (recorded as part of the data research collection process) also suggested high levels of engagement by participants. Beneficiary Livelihoods Effects A fuller evaluation of these will be possible once the second beneficiary survey is undertaken later in 2023, but the following provides a broad picture of the current status of the activities across the treatment areas (February 2023). • Beekeeping Halaba: All groups are active. Two groups harvested honey. One group has sold and started saving in the common bank account. Hossana:All bee hives were distributed to 32 farmers to let them work around the homesteads. 16 farmers transferred bee colony to the modern bee hives. Others planning for transfer March to April 2023. • Ox fattening: Most of the group members have sold and re-purchased oxen. Plan to sell second round during the onset of rainy season. Have opened bank accounts but typically not started saving. • Sheep fattening: Beneficiaries have sold fattened sheep and sought to replace by sheep or heifer or goat. Interventions: Gully Management Measures During May 2021, a team from IWMI and SARI established field experiments to implement different gully rehabilitation measures in the treatment areas. The field activities started with the discussion with experts working in the district and Keble level agricultural offices. For example, in Ababora Watershed, with the assistance of local communities, nine paired gullies were selected, with three treatments established, and base measurements were taken. Regular monitoring of the sites has been undertaken by the team collecting data on gully dimension and gully head retreat. Periodic maintenance of the treatments has also been undertaken including regrading of gully banks, planting grasses on regraded gully banks. The data collected showed the effectiveness of the simple gully treatments to improve Environmental Sustainability using treatments which individuals and local communities are able to implement. Field Day: Halaba 26th November 2022 A field day focused on the demonstration of gully head treatments and gully bank stabilization as well was organized by IWMI and SARI with the collaboration of Woreda and zonal agricultural offices. More than 55 participants attended the field day and observed ongoing natural resource management activities and shared ideas. The objectives of the field day were to (a) Showcase some achievements in stopping the upward retreat of gullies using low-cost gully rehabilitation measures, (b) Showcase the importance of incentives to the sustainable management of natural resources, (c) Encourage farmer-to-farmer education and increase the adoption and sustainability of interventions, and d) discuss with the Woreda and zonal agricultural office experts and leaders on how to scale out the project activities. During the field day a tour of different gullies was undertaken and the effectiveness of the simple and low-cost gully rehabilitation measures in stopping the upward retreat and rehabilitation of gullies observed by participants. Emerging Scale-up After looking at the rehabilitated gullies, the practitioners, particularly the regional, zonal and Woreda agricultural offices were interested in expanding these efforts. As a result, the head of the zonal agricultural office allocated four gullies to the development agents and ordered them to collaborate with the local communities and implement gully head treatments. In addition, the Director of Natural Resources Management from the Regional Bureau of Agriculture promised to scale-up the observed gully head rehabilitation measures to other areas of the region. An initial scale-up of the gully management measures and their evaluation has been planned for five new kebele. Training: Other • Training workshop (1 day) provided by Dr Bori (IWMI) to Southern Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) staff on Research Topics and Methods for Assessing the Ecological Impacts of Land Rehabilitation Measures (Awassa, November 2020) • Training in R software received by Mr Getahun Yakob (SARI) via University of Aberdeen R training workshops (April 2021) • Training in Discrete Choice Methods received by Mr Yitna Tesfaye Gebreab (Hawassa University) via University of Aberdeen DCE training workshop (September 2022) Gender Equality and EDI The process of the project development and implementation has provided opportunities for involvement of all. The original project as developed by a team of international researchers from Ethiopia, UK and Sweden who had collaborated over a number of years. Thirty percent of the 30% of original co-investigators were women, 45% were African researchers, 55% were non-UK researchers. The development of the original proposal was developed in an open and inclusive manner among the team. Since, the beginning of the project one female and one male co-investigator has left the project, replaced by one female and one male co-investigator from the respective research institutions (James Hutton Institute, Hawassa University). Of the six papers published from the project, four have female lead authors and two have African lead authors. As documented above, women were a particular target as beneficiaries, with close to 50% of the beneficiaries (and all beneficiaries in the sheep intervention) female. The female participants have received benefits associated with the interventions. Improving Female Beneficiaries livelihoods has possible impact on power relations within communities. The evaluation of such effects is part of the on-going research but there is some informal evidence that some female beneficiaries have felt they have increased their participation in decision making within the community as a result of the interventions. In terms of unanticipated costs, the beneficiaries other activities were not equal across genders. For example, in the process of determining the beneficiary slection criteria, some local community stakeholders expressed concern about women being selected to participate in the beekeeping intervention, as this was said to be culturally and religiously prohibited. In this case the project team did try to mitigate this by highlighting the issue of gender equity, and suggesting whereby the group could divide tasks along culturally appropriate gender lines. However, the low level of female participation in bee-keeping suggest that such community ultimately these community concerns did limit female participation in this activity. The project has run though both COVID and the unanticipated ODA cuts, which both caused enormous disruption to the management and co-ordination of the project activities. The ODA cuts presented a significant potential challenge both to the project and EDI in the project as pro-rata cuts across partners would, given their funding models and lack of reserve resources, have most adversely affected the Ethiopian partners institutions. The UK government breaking their contracts and commitments also reinforces the continuing narrative from the British colonial era that the UK is not a trustworthy partner for Africa, potentially sowing distrust between international partners. Within the project, with the assistance of the University of Aberdeen finance office and Covid funds made available by the Scottish Funding Council, we mitigated the effects by ensuring cuts were not proportionate but were borne primarily by the UK partners. This meant that, after allowing for COVID delays, most activity in Ethiopia has been able to continue. As elsewhere, Covid induced a move to a much greater reliance to regular online general project and group specific meetings (social science, biophysical). These have been undertaken in English. While all researchers are provided with equal opportunity to contribute to these, there is no doubt that this environment does not allow the same level of interaction and engagement as face-to-face meetings. There are likely to be indirect gender effects here (particularly through Covid given the typically higher female family responsibilities) but also for project team members where English is not their mother tongue. The numerous smaller group meeting have help mitigate these latter effects due to their higher level of informality. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Description | Internal UKRI-GCRF Funds: (PI Jo Smith). The potential of enset based farming systems to reduce soil degradation and improve food security in Southern Ethiopia |
| Amount | £19,582 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | RG16702-11 |
| Organisation | University of Aberdeen |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2023 |
| End | 03/2023 |
| Description | PhD Scholarship : Fees and Subsistence |
| Amount | £108,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Aberdeen |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2020 |
| End | 08/2023 |
| Description | PhD Scholarship : Fees only |
| Amount | £63,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Aberdeen |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2021 |
| End | 08/2024 |
| Title | Operational Research Assessment Tool for Organic Resources |
| Description | The model, known by the acronym ORATOR, "Operational Research Assessment Tool for Organic Resources", is designed to account for the impact of different uses of farm resources on soil organic matter (section 2.2), crop production (section 2.3), animal production (section 2.4), water use (section 2.5), fuel availability (section 2.6), on- and off-farm labour (section 2.7), and farm income and expenditure (section 2.8) (Fig. 1). It is designed to be quick and simple to use, only requiring input data that are readily available on-farm, but also achieving predictions that are sufficiently accurate to robustly demonstrate options for improved resource use. Different inputs of organic resources to the soil affect resource use in the whole system. Increased inputs of carbon (C) to the soil lead to increases in the soil organic matter, which impacts the water holding capacity and nutrients available to the crop. This affects crop production, which has an impact on animal production using on-farm feeds. The water holding capacity of the soil and growth of crops and animals all affect the requirement for water. Crop production determines the amount of crop residues available to feed to animals and for use as a fuel, and so determines fuel availability (both as crop residues and as dung) and the labour required to collect additional fuel (such as wood). Water use, crops grown and the animals on the farm also impact labour used in farming operations. This then affects labour and time available for off-farm activities. The income and expenditure of the farm are a function of the purchases made by the household (e.g. food, feed, fuel & fertilisers) and the labour and products available within the household (e.g. grain, milk & animals for sale). |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | Use to assess potential methods to increase soil organic matter and reduce nitrogen waste in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. |
| Description | Beneficiaries Training - May 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Initial training for the intervention beneficiaries was given on modern beehive construction, sheep and oxen husbandry to each group by experts from the Ethiopian Bureau of Agriculture and Southern Agricultural Research Institute. There were 136 participants at this event. Observations of these events suggests a high levels of engagement by participants. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Beneficiary Training: October 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Further training for the intervention beneficiaries was given on honey production, harvesting and post-harvest honey handling and marketing, bee pest control methods, on management, housing, feeding and marketing of oxen and sheep modern beehive construction, by experts from the Ethiopian Bureau of Agriculture and Southern Agricultural Research Institute. There were 134 participants at this event. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Field Day Halaba Ethiopia 26 Nov 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This field day for the local community where project interventions were taking place was organized in conjunction with the local district administration to showcase (a) the achievements in stopping the upward retreat of gullies using low-cost gully rehabilitation measures, (b) the importance of incentives to the sustainable management of natural resources, and (c) encourage farmer-to-farmer education and increase the adoption and sustainability of interventions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Training Workshop : Methods for Assessing the Ecological Impacts of Land Rehabilitation Measures |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Training provided by Dr Bori (IWMI) to Southern Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) staff on Research Topics and Methods for Assessing the Ecological Impacts of Land Rehabilitation Measures (Awassa, November 2020) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |