Blog for People, Food and Nature

Chimere Diaw commands attention whenever he speaks. “Abako!” his voice booms over the crowded presentation hall. This initiates a Sudanese call-and-response to focus the audience’s attention. Infused with the energy he exudes, 140 conference participants stand up, answer back, and clap their hands in unison. A c…

How do we make landscape approaches sustainable in the long term? This was the question posed by Dr. Gete Zeleke from the Center for Water and Land Resources in his opening key note speech of the African Landscapes Dialogue. The dialogue, taking place this week in Addis Ababa, includes 140 researchers, practitioners, …

The African Landscapes Dialogue (ALD), which kicked off yesterday, 6 March 2017, in Addis Ababa, brought together more than 100 participants to discuss “integrated landscape management in practice.” H.E Dr. Gemedo Dale, Minister of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change, Ethiopia, officially opened the ALD in the…

Soil erosion had been a source of conflict for the farmers of Aba Gerima. Rains would cause soil to wash downstream, from one farmer’s plot to others, each year and damage crops. When the treatment of Aba Gerima watershed in Ethiopia began in 2012 with construction of physical and biological conservation mechanisms,…

I arrived in Aba Gerima just days before planting season began, during an unusual week of rest for the farming community. While my fortunate timing was unintentional, this afforded me the opportunity to speak with over 70 community members over the course of five days. I was in Aba Gerima to conduct research for my ma…

In the highlands of northern Ethiopia, farming families often live a very basic subsistence lifestyle. In the drought years, which are common, food and water is scarce. Severe soil erosion plagues the Yewol watershed highlands and there are extreme dry periods each year. There was little water management in the past a…