Berihun Tefera
Name: Berihun Tefera 
Title/Department: PhD Student / Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
Phone number: +1 880 771 3020 (USA) and +251 911 35 55 09 (Ethiopia)
Email: berihun.adugna@uconn.edu and berihunt2@gmail.com
Website: http://www.bdu.edu.et/
Research focus: My primary research focuses on Hydro-climatic forecast information knowledge and practice assessment, dissemination, adoption and impact studies among the three political economies (Rain fed, Irrigation and Hydropower) in the Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia. I am also actively involved in socioeconomic survey and provide advice for ethnographers participating in the PIRE food and water security project. In addition, I facilitate and coordinate different data collection activities in the study area.
- What excites you most about your PIRE research? I am excited to be part of the PIRE food and water security project team because it provides me great opportunity to gain deeper understanding about the biophysical and socioeconomic constraints affecting the three political economies of the basin. In addition, PIRE research provides a platform where water resource management solutions at the interface of various disciplines ranging from hydrology/engineering to ethnographic and socioeconomic fields.
- What’s the most valuable aspect of your research for the people and communities? New scientific knowledge production and adoption in order to improve livelihood of low income communities is very challenging. Part of the challenge emanates from the fact that water use for irrigation, energy and drinking is a human activity and hence problems linked to optimal use of this scarce natural resource has a human dimension. Thus my research output in the social science will inform Hydro climatic forecast and engineering experts to refine their models and design effective decision support tool for important activities such as crop growing decisions.