Fahad Khan Khadim, UConn CEE PhD student, on his field trip in summer 2019 to Koga irrigation area, Ethiopia.Fahad Khan Khadim, a final year PhD student in the environmental engineering program at UConn, who has been an integral part in the NSF PIRE Water and Food Security project, was awarded the competitive NASA postdoctoral fellowship. Fahad is supervised by Professor Emmanouil Anagnostou, the PI of the NSF PIRE program, and aside research, he has also served as a project manager at UConn for two years.

His postdoctoral research to be conducted at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is entitled “A machine learning based algorithm using radar and optical remote sensing products to model soil salinity”. Using remote sensing to model salinity is a relatively new area, and the experiences Fahad gained while performing research under the NSF PIRE project has helped him in many levels.

Fahad was quoted, “I have been working in the NSF PIRE project for over four years, and from start to finish I have experienced how the physically based sophisticated models work to benefit local farmers from rural communities in Ethiopia. This motivated me to pursue further research with similar objectives where I would be able to directly benefit the target groups. During my work as a PhD student, I gained some invaluable knowledge and experiences in fundamental subsurface/ soil processes, as well as data collection from the field. These were two aspects which motivated my postdoctoral proposal.”

Even though the NASA proposal revolves around developing an algorithm for salinity assessment for an irrigated study area in USA, in the future Fahad would like to implement this research in the deltaic mangrove coastal ecosystem of my native country Bangladesh, where soil salinity is a major threat to regional water-food security.

“We are proud to see our students wining prestigious awards such as the NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship program,” said Prof. Anagnostou. “Fahad has been an asset in my research program, and I have no doubt he will continue doing great progress researching ambitious interdisciplinary problems and excelling as a researcher.”

Ethiopian high school students have been an integral part of the Water and Food Security PIRE project’s Citizen Science Initiative for several years. This summer, the UConn and Bahir Dar team created an exciting opportunity for the project high school students to come together, celebrate their effort and to have a discussion on their experience as a citizen scientist. The planning culminated to the PIRE Impact Day hosted at Bahir Dar Institute of Technology (BiT), which took place on June 19, 2021.

Nine students were present early on a Saturday morning where they were welcomed by CSI lead, Dr. Seifu Tilahun, Associate Professor of Hydrology and Scientific Director of BiT and BiT graduate students Mr. Wondale and Mr. Berhanu. Dr. Tilahun highlighted the objective of the project for the local community, decision makers, and concerned stakeholders to enhance agricultural production in a sustainable way.

Mr. Wondale and Mr. Berhanu led the high schoolers through a guided exercise of how a hydrologist would interpret the data that was collected. The high school students enjoyed brainstorming the cause of the spatial and temporal variation in measurements and sites. Afterwards, the high school students answered a survey created by UConn Engineering graduate student, Genevieve Rigler, and project sociology lead, Dr. Elizabeth Holzer, Associate Professor of Sociology, to capture the student experience in the Citizen Science Initiative.

The event was considered a success by all parties and the feedback of the students will be integrated into the next season of their involvement. We were happy to see from the survey that the students noted an increase in their knowledge and their interest in STEM. The project is very grateful to all of the planning done by the BiT team and to the high school students for their hard work said PIRE project PI Emmanouil Anagnostou, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

After having a break due to the pandemic in 2020, UConn organized its in-person commencement On May 8^th, 2021, where Meijian Yang, a UConn Environmental Engineering PhD student, representing the NSF PIRE Water and Food Security Ethiopia project received his doctoral graduation award. He is one of the first students to complete his PhD degree from PIRE project.

Meijian successfully defended his PhD dissertation on April 5^th, 2021, which emphasized on research works pertaining to crop modeling in the Upper Blue Nile region. His research outputs have been effectively used to predict seasonal forecasts on crop yields for the selected communities in Ethiopia, and helped the project excel in multiple directions. Meijian started at UConn in Fall, 2016. Before coming to UConn, he received his Master’s degree from the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research and Bachelor’s degree from North China Electric Power University.

Meijian’s research, supervised by Dr. Guiling Wang, a UConn Environmental Engineering professor, focuses on advancing the understanding on crop response to hydrometeorological variability and make crop yield predictions in Ethiopia. To achieve this objective, he first calibrated and validated a process-based crop model (Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer, DSSAT) for five cereal crops – barley, maize, millet, sorghum, and wheat at both the site and agroecological-zone scales. Then using the calibrated model, he investigated the impact of past climate variability and trend on crop yield, quantified the effect of planting time soil wetting on crop yield as a strategy to mitigate crop loss, developed an analog model for seasonal crop yield forecast, and assessed long-term crop yield changes using DSSAT driven with downscaled climate projections.

During a personal interview with Meijian, he mentioned, “PIRE helped in many aspects of my research. First, PIRE provided rich resources to my research including data, model, computational and literature resources, which greatly advanced my research progress. Second, PIRE helped me developing an interdisciplinary and more advanced research through collaboration with researchers with different expertise. Third, PIRE helped disseminating my research work to scientific researchers, local farmers and agencies and promoted my communication and presentation skills through a variety of meetings and fieldworks.”

He also mentioned, “After accomplishing my PhD, I firstly feel relieved for a moment. Then, I start to realize that PhD is not simply a degree but a responsibility of pursuing higher level of scientific research and contributing to the society. So now I’m getting even busier and more stressed with my next step research.”

On behalf of the PIRE team, we wish him all the best for his future endeavors!

Recently, UConn PhD students, Ezana Atsbeha and Selam Negatu, returned from Ethiopia after lengthy ethnographic data collection. Here are some highlights from them about collecting data on the latest dry season forecast bulletin communication with the Covid-19 hurdles.

Ezana writes about his return to the field site to share the project’s most recent forecast bulletins. The names are pseudonyms.

After an hour-long drive from Bahir Dar to Dangila, I picked up my key informant by the town’s biggest hotel and we drove to the woreda agriculture office compound. The day being a Saturday, the road was crowded with market-goers, and three-wheeled Bajajes weaving in and out of traffic. As we arrived at the agriculture office, I saw four men hanging around a half-finished building. I recognized two of them right away, one was Endale, a pleasant older man who leads one of the teams at the woreda agriculture office, and with whom I have worked during the previous forecast communication sessions. The second, a quiet young man, I met once in Gaita where he was an extension worker. I walked over to them and greeted everyone, while apologetically explaining that I cannot shake their hands due to COVID. Endale, in his usual humorous manner, pulled out a mask from his pocket and loudly proclaimed “Ezana, let me wear my mask, lest people say you are the only crazy guy here.” Everybody laughed at this, and one of the men I did not recognize stood up for me, jokingly rebuking Endale. I asked how things have been regarding COVID here, and Endale explained that they had a few scares, but nothing serious. One of their colleagues tested positive and the office was shut down for a while. The person was released from quarantine without many health problems, and life continued as usual. After more small talk, I suggested we hold the meeting in the unfinished building since the day was nice and we have more space there. Teshale, one of our key informants, told me not to worry much but agreed to my proposal. The others followed us to the building. I sat on one side of the room on a cinderblock, and they, on a wooden bench on the opposite side, while all the time reassuring me not to worry too much about the pandemic. As I was getting ready to start the meeting, Endale remarked that people are now used to my mask, and removed his, to even more laughter from the other participants.

Selam writes about how she shifted to collecting data by phone with the help of local key informants.

Starting from mid-March when the first COVID cases were reported in Ethiopia, all fieldwork activities were put on hold, and I was forced to return to Addis Ababa. Instead of doing face-to-face interviews and observations, I adapted to my new working condition by doing informal conversations and conducting interviews with farmers and extension workers over the phone. Throughout this process, I had relied on the willingness and cooperation of key informants like kebele and woreda level extension workers to establish and maintain contact with farmers and remain informed of ongoing events taking place in each kebeles. One extension worker from the woreda especially was instrumental in contacting farmers by traveling to and from Dangila and even providing his own phone to allow me to conduct interviews with respondents. He also assisted in obtaining relevant woreda and kebele documents. This experience thus showed how indispensable the people that we work with are at the local level. It particularly highlighted the importance of establishing trust and good working relationships with local extension workers in the field. Without their cooperation and assistance at this particular time, it would have been impossible to continue gathering all the necessary information needed to complete my research activities on time.

In March 2020, the Water & Food Security PIRE was in its fourth year developing and communicating seasonal forecasts with our communities in Ethiopia and learning more each month about the relationships between scientists, farmers, officials and other stakeholders in this process.  Then like elsewhere in the world, we were hit by the unlikely and unfortunate: the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic, which forced universities and businesses to go remote or shut down left the research team—a highly international as well as interdisciplinary group—to try our level best to contribute to our shared goals. We asked four researchers how Covid-19 has affected them: Kristen Kirksey, Rehenuma Lazin, Selam Negatu, and Jonathan Lala.

Kristen Kirksey

PhD student, Sociology, UConn.

My research and travel have been significantly affected due to COVID-19, and it has required a good bit of flexibility and creativity! As part of the social science team, I was scheduled to be in Ethiopia from March-June 2020, to assist with wet season forecast communication, as well as to collect data for my own dissertation. I left the U.S. for Ethiopia on March 2. At that time, there were just 100 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. and no cases in Ethiopia. The U.S. had implemented travel warnings for a handful of countries, including mainland China, Iran, South Korea, and Italy. Before leaving the U.S., I bought a bunch of hand sanitizer, an N-95 mask, and stocked up on over the counter medicines, just in case. But overall, I wasn’t too worried. Things changed quickly. I stayed in Ethiopia for about 10 days before returning to the U.S. I had barely overcome my jet lag, and I didn’t even make it out of Bahir Dar to our field sites. During my short time in Ethiopia, coronavirus cases in the U.S. began to surge, Ethiopia reported its first cases, and the WHO declared coronavirus a global pandemic. As the U.S. and other countries began expanding travel restrictions and closing borders, it felt urgent to return home. I worked with the travel office at UConn to get my return flight moved up and changed to a direct flight. After 2 days of delayed flights due to a sudden dust storm originating in the Sahara, I finally made it back to the U.S.

My social science colleagues in Ethiopia traveled from the field back to Addis Ababa shortly after I left. Ultimately, the forecast communication took place in an abbreviated format via phone, limiting its interactive components. In the weeks after returning home, I also reworked my dissertation, as it relied on interviews and other qualitative data collection in Ethiopia. I have been working closely with one of our partners, Dr. Muluken Azage, a professor at Bahir Dar University, and his graduate student, to collect the data remotely.

Currently, I am working from home in Virginia, and thanks to technology, I have been able to stay connected to my advisor, as well as my friends and colleagues on the Water & Food Security PIRE project who are working in various locations around the world. I am grateful that my position as a graduate research assistant has not been affected by the pandemic, and that my financial and living situation remain stable. My family and I have remained safe and healthy. Though my research was interrupted, in the grand scheme of things, it’s a minor bump in the road.

Rehenuma Lazin

PhD student, CEE, UConn

My role in the project is to perform the hydrological model simulations. Using the NOAA forecast data, I simulate the soil moisture conditions by maintaining water and energy balance in the hydrological model for the upcoming 7 months. Soil wetness information is an important parameter for cultivation and sowing, as well as for predicting crop yields. Apart from the forecast simulation for the bulletin, I perform the long term hydrological simulation for the past 40 years to analyze the trends of the hydrological components (Evapotranspiration, soil moisture, streamflow, etc.) in the Upper Blue Nile region in Ethiopia. Moreover, the outputs (infiltration, soil moisture, etc.) of my hydrological simulations are used in the sectoral models, such as the groundwater model (to estimate groundwater table) and crop yield model.

Luckily, my research has not been significantly affected by the pandemic. I am currently staying at my home in Willington, Connecticut, which is around 3 miles from the school. I did not have any plan to travel to Ethiopia or anywhere else during the fall semester, so I have not faced any travel restrictions for COVID-19. I have been working for almost 3 months from home. Since a major part of my research is simulation-based, and all the data I need are available online. We attend all the meetings through WebEx or Zoom and discuss our progress and concerns regarding research. Thank goodness for technology!! But I definitely miss my lab mates, working and laughing together, solving problems immediately whenever anyone is stuck at any point. Now, we communicate more through emails. Since everyone is very responsive, we can eventually solve the problems.

This pandemic reminds me of the phrase Health is wealth. We cannot take everything for granted, and we should appreciate every little thing in our lives. I cannot imagine the suffering of those who have gone through the pain caused by the virus and who lost their loved ones. May we all have the patience and strength to overcome this crisis.

Selam Negatu

PhD student, Sociology, UConn

My research has definitely been interrupted by COVID-19. I am part of the social science team, and since January, I had been living near our field sites in Dangila, Ethiopia.  I had been doing some follow up interviews for the project, preparing for the dry season forecast dissemination, and carrying out interviews for my own dissertation about women’s empowerment in agriculture. Around mid-March, as Ethiopia saw its first COVID case, and the country began its lockdown, I decided to return home to Addis Ababa to be with my family.

Ezana, another social science graduate student, and I worked together to adapt the rainy season forecast communication activities from an interactive, in-person format to a format that we could carry out remotely. First, the forecast and companion documents were shared with our contact at the Dangila woreda agricultural office. He then set up meetings with the head of the woreda agriculture office, crop expert, irrigation expert and extension workers from Gaita and Dangishta kebeles. The participants looked over the forecast documents and discussed amongst themselves to compile questions and comments on the forecast bulletin. Ezana and I then called in to the meeting via phone, and while on speaker phone, we addressed their questions and comments. The following week, we carried out a similar meeting with our partners in Mecha woreda. It wasn’t ideal, but ultimately, I think it was effective. I’m glad that our team and our partners have remained flexible, positive, and committed to the project.

Jonathan Lala

PhD student, CEE, UW-Madison

My role in the PIRE project is predicting the timing [as opposed to the intensity] of the rainy season and seeing how that may affect crop yields and overall economic growth. I’ve published the prediction piece and am currently working with Meijian (UConn PhD student) on the yield piece and Liang on the economic piece.

Right now, I’m staying with my parents near Sacramento, CA. Unfortunately, my plans to attend the European Geosciences Union conference in Vienna in May were canceled due to COVID-19, along with some personal travel plans. UW Madison will be reopening for the fall, with some restrictions, so I will be heading back to Madison in July.

Fortunately, my research hasn’t been affected since it’s all computational. I already do all my work from my personal laptop. The only challenge regarding my research is that I’m much less productive at home than I would be at the office or a coffee shop! I’ve learned that I’m very fortunate to be doing a PhD right now, since I have job security and can still do my work from home!

As we have emerged into the third year of the project, with two wet season and a dry season forecast, UConn Sociology graduate student, Faith Curry, had the chance to organize a close in person interview with Sarah Alexander (UW Engineering graduate student), and Ezana Atsbeha (UConn Sociology graduate student), on their experiences while communicating the forecast bulletins. See the video to understand their thought process behind the final upshot, associated challenges and other socio-technical aspects.

Graduate and undergraduate students met on January 28th, 2020 to kickoff the spring Brownbag session series. The meeting encompassed a vibrant conversation with Ezana Atsbeha, UConn PhD student from Sociology Department, who shared information from the field, such as unexpected rain and the implications of that on the farmers with whom he regularly speaks. It was interesting to know that last year, it rained more than normal even in the start of the dry season (November and December) which partially stopped the early reservoir release operations. This brought a sense of positivity to the farmers in general, since the soil conditions were wet in the dry season without involving much reservoir irrigation. 

There were however, cases of some Maze crop damage, but whether they tie to the structural damages in one of the main canal sections, or the irrigation loss, or something purely related to the decision of changing the mainstream seeds for the season, needs to be further investigated. Another important information was that this irrigation season, there has been some quaternary and tertiary canals which were not fed by irrigation or in other words, deprived from irrigation flow completely. This needs more investigation as well, but at this point it merely agrees with the groundwater model results produced by Fahad, which shows that in non-regulated case simulations (i.e. when all secondary canals are fed with their maximum capacity from the available main canal release) there are at least 2-3 command areas which do not receive much irrigation!

Unexpected rainfall peaked the interest of both sociologists and engineers alike in the room. Sarah Alexander, a University of Wisconsin CEE PhD student, engaged the group to discuss what would empower or catalyze a change in behavior, as the models require a link between knowledge dissemination and a change in behavior such as buying more/less/different seed. Genevieve Rigler inquired with Ezana about crop rotation and government programs for collective farming. Lastly, Ezana reported from the field that farmers were inquisitive about the forecast bulletin! The meeting ended with a light fare and as always, deep conversation. They will be meeting next month to discuss further.

As the calendar year of 2019 has come to a close, several of the undergraduate students who went on the Ethiopia field trip reflected on their journey. 

“The trip to Ethiopia was very impactful on my current mindset. Experiencing the culture firsthand was an irreplaceable experience that I will always remember”, says Leonardo Abreu. 

Irreplaceable it certainly was. 

The UConn students arrived during the time when Ethiopian high school students were taking their exams. This meant that the internet was disabled, for the entire country. This included restrictions to social media platforms include WhatsApp, and SMS text messaging was disabled. Xinyu Lin recalled, “my experiences in Ethiopia made me reflect on Western society’s hyper-connectivity and find appreciation in being fully present in daily life.”

With that, the students enjoyed a full agenda of museum and city tours led by Dr. Atsbeha. One excursion included going to the oldest university in Ethiopia, located in Addis Ababa and being generously hosted by Dr. Abeje Kassegne. He introduced the UConn travelers to his sociology students, right before a torrential downpour where nearby construction was halted and the bajajs pulled over because the rain was too heavy to see. 

“Meeting university students that were around our age was interesting as we listened to their perspective on Ethiopia and the US,” Leo states. “They are so knowledgeable of their city, their history and their university” Amanda added after all the students went to the university museum. 

In addition to getting to know Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar, the students went to the field where they were paired with PIRE researchers and shadowed their daily research routine. “It was really enlightening, and very necessary, to see the context and community that the research I’m conducting is based in,” says Xinyu. 

“A major concern with international engineering projects (specifically, projects where the U.S. is involving itself in the Global South) is that they often do not involve true community involvement in or desire for the project. This work also frequently suffers from a lack of genuine understanding of the culture in which the project is being built. Such shortcomings lead to miscommunication at best, and long-lasting detrimental effects on the community at worst; in this case, only those who are “helping” are the ones being fulfilled by the experience. The UConn PIRE project bucks this trend,” says Sophie McDonald.

“Through the project, I am lucky to have worked with such an interdisciplinary team that values the importance of the sociological, human component of engineering work and is committed to mitigating the mentioned issues. I’m also so very, very lucky to have travelled with a group of kind, thoughtful, and overall incredible fellow undergrads,” Sophie concluded. 

The trip was shortened by two weeks due to the politics in Bahir Dar. For many students, this was a detail of the trip rather than the highlight. 

The hills and valleys of the trip would not have been the same without the help of Dr. Phoebe Godfrey who attended with the students. She helped engineering and science students practice the sociological perspective in a tangible way throughout the trip. In the same way, the sociology graduate students already present in Ethiopia offered invaluable experience and guidance to the undergraduates, such mentorship was a unique experience afforded by this research.

In the PIRE project, a Citizen Science Initiative (PIRE CSI) is in place that helps collecting soil moisture information which are collected by farmers and high school students, and later on used in the advanced hydrological models (CREST and MODFLOW). From the summer of 2018, we have installed a few state-of-the-art soil moisture sensors that help collect more distributed information, in addition to our already existing TDR measurements. The new sensors developed by the team of UConn engineers, led by Dr. Baikun Li and Dr. Guiling Wang, is environment friendly and very inexpensive. These could save nearly 35% of water consumption and cost far less than what exists. Current sensors that are used in a similar way range from $100 to $1,000 each, while the one developed at UConn cost $2, according to the researchers. 

Dr. Li, Dr. Wang, and the UConn sensor development team was featured recently in UConn Today. Dr. Wang, a soil moisture hydrologist, says “On the science side, the new sensor will help address the scarcity of in-situ soil moisture data that has been a major challenge for the advancing of hydrological science; on the humanity side, there is great potential for this low-cost new technology to be used in the developing world to help improve agricultural productivity”. 

These sensors were installed with the help of Ethiopian partners during the summer of 2018 alongside a team of UConn graduate students. Originally the sensors measure soil electrical resistivity, which provides an understanding of the amount of water contents available in the soil to allow exchange of ions. Later on, the resistivity data is converted into soil moisture variable through calibration with TDR records. Since the summer of 2018, approximately 150s of these sensors have been installed in different locations of the four field sites in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. In each location, two sensors are placed at 20-cm and 40-cm depths. The farmers have been trained to use these sensors and so far, the data collection and monitoring has been a great experience!

For the full UConn Today article, click here

Genevieve Rose Rigler, PIRE undergraduate researcher, spoke as the only undergraduate student at the annual Women Who Build Summit on February 21, 2019. The event was hosted by the Construction Institute at Goodwin College with professionals from the field of architecture, engineering and construction in attendance for the educational presentations, motivational stories and networking opportunities.

The speaking opportunity first began when Carolina Cudemus, Genevieve’s Professional Women in Construction mentor of two years, invited her to serve on the Women Who Build Summit Planning Committee. Through the series of weekly phone conference calls, she was then asked to speak as one of three panelists at the breakout session she had helped plan.

The session was titled “Do You Know What You Want?” She shared her career journey which included detailing the personal and professional growth afforded to her via her work with PIRE.

When asked about faith in her abilities to make pivotal life decisions, she answered,

“There is always an inherent risk to making career decisions, or decisions in general. If you know the answer before you began, this would be a limiting factor to the many benefits the process of creativity yields. Not knowing is not a bad thing; there is a lot to be learned in the process of saying yes.”

She concluded with her gratitude that her journey, arduous at times, led her to be working on the PIRE project.

Xinyu Lin, an undergraduate researcher on the PIRE project, has been selected as one of nine inaugural BOLD Scholars at the University of Connecticut. The BOLD Women’s Leadership Network – launched at five universities across the country led by female presidents who have demonstrated a commitment to collaboration, innovation, diversity, and inclusion – facilitates opportunities for young women leaders to utilize their unique identities and experiences to create positive social change. BOLD provides scholarship and fellowship funding, leadership programming, and connects Scholars with women faculty, staff, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, and alumni through a strong inter-generational network. Xinyu will be conducting a leadership service project over the summer centered around her interests in environmental stewardship and addressing climate change.

Her work on PIRE will focus on the sustainability of water resources in Ethiopia. She plans to develop an integrated groundwater footprint of Ethiopia, under the mentorship of Dr. Zoi Dokou, which will present both the quality and the quantity of groundwater available for use and at the same time investigate barriers to water access, since Ethiopia has among the lowest access to clean water.

More information on the BOLD program is found here: https://ugradresearch.uconn.edu/bold/

“Engineered systems are only as powerful as they are practical for the users”, notes Genevieve Rigler, civil engineering undergraduate, at the end of the guest speaker lecture on November 29 by Dr. Abeje Kassegne’s, one of PIRE’s Ethiopian-based international collaborators.

PIRE students came to celebrate the end of the semester with a guest visit from Dr. Kassegne, professor of Sociology at Addis Ababa University. Dr. Kassegne’s research focuses on migration and community development, agricultural extension, rural livelihoods and indigenous farming systems, making him a valuable member of the PIRE research team and community, which was apparent through his thoughtful andragogy marked by rich discussions throughout the presentation.

He began with an overview of Ethiopia, stating that it is the second most populous country in Africa with a population of 105 million, 65% of which are under 30 years old. The physical landscape lends itself to the issue of drought and the effects of climate change which makes for an interesting intersection between social science and scientists.

“The population has a robust culture variance with many ethnic and religious group. The ethnic-based federalism is hailed by some and criticized by others. However, there is optimism for the future as the new leadership shows as populist, progressive, pro-Ethiopian and inclusive. Recent political success includes the border conflict with Eritrea being settled amicably, thousands of political prisoners being released, the reformation of the justice system, the establishment of the Ministry of Peace and, most recently, the election of the first female President by members of the Ethiopian parliament” he states.

Dr. Kassegne went on to explain the preservation and evolution of social science through political history. “Sociology provides knowledge, perspective and expertise of Ethiopian realities from an in situ point of view. Appreciating indigenous knowledge and indigenous conflict resolution mechanisms will be a valuable entry point for Ethiopian social scientists in the immediate future”.

Sociological expertise for the lifecycle of the research and project in the field is manifold, PIRE sociologists work to:

1. Examine the social organization of irrigation (e.g. the water users’ association)
2. Promote and integrate gender in the design and implementation of irrigation projects
3. Understand conflict resolution mechanisms in the use of irrigated water

Dr. Kassegne’s visit illuminated the social landscape for students yet to travel to Ethiopia and offered valuable insight for graduate students currently conducting their work and for the engineering undergraduate students who will develop their research project and methods in the spring of 2019.

The next discussion between Dr. Kassegne and the PIRE students will be in the summer of next year, in Ethiopia.  

On Monday, November 12, the Food and Water Security PIRE team held an informational session for students interested in joining the project as an undergraduate researcher. The event started with baked goods and coffee from the local Cafemantic eatery as the students trickled into the classroom, finding safety from the cold. After ample time to warm up and settle down the presentation began with opening words from Dr. Elizabeth Holzer, the Project Investigator, “this project is unique in its’ dual-natured approach, it is a partnership between sociologists and our environmental engineering friends”, she enthusiastically stated before introducing Dr. Zoi Dokou, Project Manager and UConn Environmental Engineering professor. “Ethiopia’s very short rainfall season coupled with the extreme hydroclimatic environment makes it a very challenging situation for the engineers to model. However, it also makes it the most valuable for the stakeholders and farmers,” Dr. Dokou states.

Dr. Dokou proceeded to give a summary of the research completed since the beginning of the project in 2016, the pending objectives to be completed by 2021 and the engineering side of the research. Her technical engineering and explanation of the models being formed for this project was contrasted with the words of PhD student, Nabil Tueme who also serves as the PIRE Undergraduate Coordinator, “we often treat scientific investigation as apolitical or value-neutral. Yet, science is a socially situated human practice.” Nabil further explained how the sociological understanding is imperative to the long-term success of the engineering solution. To capture this idea she stated the project’s goal, “how do the relationships between scientists, farmers, water managers and other authorities, influence the production, dissemination and outcome of new scientific knowledge?” and informed the undergraduate students of potential research topics, should they choose to apply.

“How can we be sure we are positively influencing these villages?” asked a student, to which Dr. Phoebe Godfrey, fellow Undergraduate Coordinator and UConn Sociology Professor answered, “intention matters; measuring positive and negative effects is very complex and that is a great question, one that sociologists seek to answer and it is certainly good grounds for your research proposal”, she states. Dr. Godfrey introduced the spring workshops that selected students would partake in before their trip to Ethiopia in June which includes linguistic training in Amharic, Ethiopia’s nationally spoken language, guest seminar speakers, engineering project highlights through sociological perspective in a reading and discussion-based format. She opened the floor to questions regarding the informational material presented. With a hand raised, current PhD environmental engineering and sociology student, Sardor Musayev asked, “Will we be having fun?”, to which the room once filled with pensive thought broke into warm laughter. “Yes, we will be learning and growing together, and that is always fun”, said Dr. Holzer. “Today is about finding out what question you personally want to be answered in the scope of this research project. It is especially unique for selected undergraduate students because you may have the opportunity to collect the data yourself in Ethiopia”. Dr. Holzer then opened the rest of the meeting to the question and answer session so undergraduates could ask their questions and talk with the current PIRE graduate students with whom they may travel in Summer 2019.

For a summary of the project and for information if you are an undergraduate, the powerpoint may be downloaded: PIRE Informational Meeting 11-12-18

PIRE graduate and undergraduate students gathered on November 5th for one of their last brownbags, where civil engineering PhD student Sara O’ Alexander from University of Wisconsin spoke on the development of the project bulletin followed by sociology PhD student, Selam Negatu, from the University of Connecticut on understanding women’s empowerment.

The developer of the bulletin, Sara, led the discussion of preliminary versions of a forecast bulletin that can be used as part of the PIRE communication strategy to share modelling and rainfall prediction results with the communities we are working with in Ethiopia. She got feedback from the graduate student team that could inform future iterations of the product. Students had a robust discussion on what figures were understandable, what elements were still unclear or hard to interpret, and suggestions for improving the communication of results. The importance of understanding local knowledge and current climate related discourse, as well as what information is valuable to farmers and water managers, emerged as key questions that the team will focus on moving forward.

Selam began with stating first that the term empowerment elicits various definitions and responses within the social science research sphere; overall there is a lack of agreement since empowerment may range to mean participation, power, choice, freedom, an enabling process or the capacity and skill to use available resources and opportunities to maximize one’s own potential.

“Understanding the issue of women’s empowerment is a conceptual tool to forward the gender equality agenda”, she states.

“Failure to observe engagement of women in the management of communal resources such as water for irrigation derails intended outcomes of interventions”.

Selam’s research interest entails: how women’s empowerment is conceptualized and is practiced in development programs in Ethiopia, what is meant by development/empowerment from the bottom and how that is translated into practice in the context of water security, if non-participation is disempowerment or is it an expression of women’s agency and lastly how to move away from consultation, Tokenism, “add and stir approach” to women’s empowerment. Answering these questions could have immediate impacts on improving water supply and gender within the communities with which PIRE is working, including:

• Time saving: Irrigation schemes helped women in accessing water for domestic purposes, such us cleaning and for construction. This has brought positive changes in the reduction of their workload and in saving time (Romano, 2013).
• This can enable women to participate in other economic activities, young girls will be freed from carrying water to attend school, and adult women can engage in  more productive work on the farm (Awulachew et.al, 2005).
• Increased security for women once exposed to violence while collecting water (Calow et.al, 2013)
• Irrigation provide significant benefits to rural women by enabling women farmers to increase their cash incomes and diversify family nutrition and food sources (IWMI,2010; Calow, et.al, 2013)
• Active participation of women in water projects challenges gender specific roles and contribute to changing traditional perceptions about women’s status, skills and capabilities held by the community, the family and sometimes women themselves.

Recruiting engaged undergraduate students from engineering and liberal arts backgrounds is pivotal to the objectives of PIRE, to that end, substantial efforts were made to ensure application information was thoroughly publicized across the University of Connecticut campus.

The preliminary stage of outreach began with contacting student clubs and organizations listed on the UConntact website that expressed interests and objectives similar to that of the project, these groups included: Women and Minorities in Economics, Honors in Diversity, Spring Hill Valley Farm and The UConn Chapter of National Organization for Women.

Additionally, the six cultural centers as supported by Diversity and Inclusion were contacted, including the African American Cultural Center, Asian American Cultural Center, Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center (PRLACC), Rainbow Center and Women’s Center.

The Human Rights Institute housed by Global Affairs, whose aim is to promote interdisciplinary research and teaching across the university, was also contacted and encouraged to forward the PIRE media to their student database.

On October 17, Project Manager and Professor Dr. Zoi Dokou, Undergraduate Coordinator and PhD student Nabil Tueme and undergraduate civil engineering student Genevieve Rigler represented the PIRE project and collected an email list of interested students at the Research Connections 2018 event.

A brochure to coherently summarize the project objectives and undergraduate involvement was created and then designed by Claudia Dijmarescu, media specialist and civil engineering undergraduate PIRE student. The brochure was successfully published into two cycles of the newsletter sent to all Honor Program students and a newsletter to PRLACC students. Twenty copies of the printed version of the Informational Meeting advertisement were distributed to the Homer Babbidge Library, McHugh Hall, Francis L. Castleman Building, Neag School of Education, Office of Early College Programs, ITE Building and the Weston A. Bousfield Psychology Building.

The Informational Meeting was held on November 12, 2018 with twenty students from manifold backgrounds were in attendance.

ENVE 5090 – Advanced Topics in Environmental Engineering  

“The Water, Food, Energy Nexus in International Development”

Tuesdays 12:20 pm – 3:20 pm

Innovation Partnerships Building (IPB), Room 212A

 The challenges surrounding water, energy and food are linked in complex and intractable ways.  This course adopts a project-based approach to learning anchored in UConn’s Water and Food Security NSF-PIRE project, a major international research and educational collaboration based in the Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia.  The course introduces students to the water-energy-food (WEP) paradigm and prepares them to potentially participate in fieldwork in Ethiopia through the Water and Food Security PIRE project.  This interdisciplinary course is taught by faculty in civil and environmental engineering, sociology and agricultural and resource economics.

The course is distinguished by the North-South cooperative design that incorporate faculty expertise and student engagement from Ethiopia and the United States as well as its link to the PIRE international fieldwork project.  The course is designed as an introduction to WEP for students from different disciplines who lack prior background in one or more of the related fields of civil and environmental engineering, sociology and agricultural and resource economics.

The course is also open to undergraduate students with permission from the instructors.

For more information contact: Prof. Emmanouil Anagnostou (manos@uconn.edu) or Prof.  Liz Holzer (elizabeth.holzer@uconn.edu)

On March 8, the PIRE graduate student held their second interdisciplinary workshop at UConn. The meeting was attended by six engineering students and three social science students. Meijian Yang from the University of Connecticut presented initial results from his work on crop yield modeling. He discussed potential impacts of solar radiation, temperature, precipitation, and fertilizer on crop yields. Sarah Alexander from the University of Wisconsin joined the meeting remotely, and presented her work on precipitation predictions on the local scale. Due the large amount of variability in precipitation within the Blue Nile Basin, Sarah is exploring methods for predicting and disseminating precipitation information that will be useful for local communities. Following each presentation the students had lively and productive discussions.

The students will continue meeting once per semester for a workshop. These workshops are excellent opportunities to stay connected with our colleagues in other disciplines and foster interdisciplinary collaboration.

Ying Zhang, PhD student  at University of Wisconsin (now a postdoc at John Hopkins University),  Dr. Semu Moges and Dr. Paul Block, have recently published a journal paper on objective cluster analysis and its usefulness as a precursor to seasonal precipitation prediction at local scale with an application at western Ethiopia.

The study proposes advancing local-level seasonal precipitation predictions by first conditioning on regional-level predictions, as defined through objective cluster analysis, for western Ethiopia. To the authors knowledge, this is the first study predicting seasonal precipitation at high resolution in this region, where lives and livelihoods are vulnerable to precipitation variability given the high reliance on rain-fed agriculture and limited water resources infrastructure. The combination of objective cluster analysis, spatially high-resolution prediction of seasonal precipitation, and a modeling structure spanning statistical and dynamical approaches makes clear advances in prediction skill and resolution, as compared with previous studies.

Zhang Y., Moges S., and Block P. (2018) Does objective cluster analysis serve as a useful precursor to seasonal precipitation prediction at local scale? Application to western Ethiopia,  Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 22, 143-157, doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-143-2018

Dr. Semu Moges, Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut and Sustainable Development Mainstreaming Advisor Consultant to the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity of Ethiopia, delivered a seminar presentation to the PIRE: Food and Water Security group at the University of Connecticut on February 30, 2018. In his talk he underlined the importance of Water, Energy, and Food nexus modeling as a scientific tool for sustainable development.

The aim of the research presented at the seminar is to develop a comprehensive water-energy-food (WEF) nexus modeling framework for evaluating the current and emerging national development plans in Ethiopia and provide alternative sustainable development pathways through scenario analysis and taking Ethiopia as a case study. Ethiopian Growth and Transformation Plan II (GTP II), national vision 2025 of achieving middle income country status by 2025 and various other energy and food development plans are considered. Preliminary results indicate economic development represented by energy consumption per capita to the planned level of middle income country by 2025 has significant impact on other resources development and utilization than population growth, urbanization and climate change combined. The results also indicate the limits of planned hydropower energy export to neighboring countries, agricultural land expansion limits and preferred crop production. The study is ongoing and it used to demonstrate the power of scientific tools such as water-energy-food modeling for quantitative understanding of sustainability.

Several researchers from the PIRE participating institutions attended the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, held in New Orleans on 11-15 December 2017, and presented their work on Food and Water Security in Ethiopia.

Sarah Alexander, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, gave a poster presentation on the development and evaluation of season-ahead precipitation and streamflow predictions for sectoral management in western Ethiopia. Co-authors of this work are Paul Block and Shu Wu.

Meijian Yang, a graduate student at the University of Connecticut, gave poster presentation on the simulation and prediction of cereal crop yields in Ethiopia.  This work is co-authored by Guiling Wang, Kazi Farzan Ahmed, Michael Eggen, Berihun Adugna and Emmanouil Anagnostou.

Zoi Dokou gave a poster presentation on the development of a groundwater model for the Lake Tana region using multi-year reanalysis-derived recharge rates. This work is co-authored by Mohsen Kheirabadi, Efthymios Nikolopoulos, Semu Moges, Amvrossios Bagtzoglou and Emmanouil Anagnostou.

Emad Hasan gave presentation on the assessment of lake level variability and water availability in Lake Tana using a groundwater flow model and GRACE satellite data. Co-authors of this work are: Zoi Dokou, Pierre-Emmanuel Kirstetter, Aondover Tarhule, Emmanouil Anagnostou, Amvrossios Bagtzoglou and Yang Hong.

Meijian Yang presenting his work on crop yield modeling	Zoi Dokou presenting her work on groundwater modeling

On November 15, 2017, PIRE graduate students held a brownbag meeting at UConn. The meeting was attended in person by engineering and social science students from UConn, while students from University of Wisconsin and Bahir Dar University attended via teleconference. The meeting began with short introductions and informal updates. The bulk of the meeting was spent reviewing a report on site selection drafted by social science students following site visits in the summer of 2017. Ezana Atsbeha, Selam Negatu, and Berihun Tefera led the discussion and answered any questions that attendees had about the prospective sites. The meeting ended with a brief conversation about data requests and potential interdisciplinary collaborations.

Moving forward, graduate students will hold brownbags once per semester. These meetings are an excellent opportunity to stay connected with our colleagues in other disciplines and foster interdisciplinary collaboration.

Dr. Mesfin Mekonnen, a world renowned expert in Water footprint assessment from the Water for Food Global Institute, delivered an illuminating guest seminar at the University of Connecticut on March 24, 2017. In his talk he underlined the dependence of national water consumption on local and international water resources.

When water is sourced elsewhere for the production of commodities that are imported and consumed, consumers have a “water footprint” outside their national borders. His presentation highlighted the fact that many countries have significantly externalized their water footprint, without examining whether the water consumption is sustainable in the producing countries. For example, 10% of the water footprint of Chinese consumers is outside China. In the US it’s 20%; in Mexico 43%; and in European countries like Italy, Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands it’s 60-95%. By overlaying the global water footprint maps of selected countries with maps showing unsustainable water use, he quantified the unsustainable water footprint of various countries and the commodities that are primarily responsible. See the clip below for more information on his presentation.

Two social science graduate students, Kristen Kirksey and Nabil Tueme, as well as Liz Holzer, social science PI, have been taking Amharic class since August 2016. Currently in their second semester, the students have mastered reading and writing Amharic, as well as vocabulary related to greetings, telling time, phone conversations, and planning travel. The class meets daily and is taught by Worku Mulat, Project Manager.
 

The PIRE Water and Food Security Project team held its annual meeting from January 12-13, 2017. The University of Connecticut team was excited to welcome PIRE team members from the University of Oklahoma and the University of Wisconsin. The meeting was an excellent opportunity to get updates on team members’ work, especially those from varying disciplines, get useful feedback, and to identify opportunities for collaboration.

Day 1 of the meeting began with introductions and a brief project overview from Dr. Emmanouil Anagnostou. Dr. Anagnostou stressed that the project’s overarching goal is to provide relevant forecast information to rural farmers. This information may include weather conditions, hydrological data, and potential crop production.  In addition to farmers, the forecast information will be useful to government agencies, irrigation managers, and reservoir operators.

Following Dr. Anagnostu’s presentation, Dr. Elizabeth Holzer presented information on potential research sites in the Amhara region. This was an opportunity for all participants to ask questions and provide feedback on the sites. Social science graduate students will visit the sites this summer to gather follow up information.

The afternoon consisted of presentations on available hydro-meterological data by Dr. Dokou, forecasting and economic analysis by Dr. Block, crop yield modeling by Dr. Wang, and e-PING app development by Dr. Emad. Day 1 concluded with a group dinner where participants had an opportunity to socialize and network with colleagues from other disciplines. Day 2  commenced with two presentations: Agent Based Modeling by Dr. Mellor, and linking climate, water and society by Dr. Block. The rest of the morning primarily consisted of round-table discussions about data requests for social science students visiting Ethiopia this summer and potential research papers for the project.

The meeting was concluded by deliberating project site selection criteria, publication guidelines, project timeline, and milestones. Overall, the PIRE annual meeting was informative and productive, and it was a great opportunity to connect face-to-face with our colleagues from around the country. We are looking forward to continuing this collaborative work, and we look forward to the next meeting.

Dr. Belay Simane from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia is scheduled to deliver a lecture at UConn on January 24, 2017. The talk is entitled, “Building Resilience at the Community Level in Africa: the Role of Climate Smart Villages for Green Growth.” The event is sponsored by UConn PIRE and all are welcome.

Date: January 24, 2017,  12:00-1:00 pm

Location: Harry G. Manchester Hall, Room 344

Climate change and food security are two of the most pressing challenges in Africa and the continent has a long history of failed agricultural development projects. A major reason for these failures is that proposed solutions to development often follow a top-down approach: they are introduced by international organizations and approaches are developed in other cultural and agroecological contexts. Alternatively, they are imposed by government authorities in an attempt to promote large-scale adoption of favored practices. Recognition of the above shortcomings is the basis for launching the ongoing work in Ethiopia that focuses on the problem of agro-ecosystem based “climate-smart landscape management,” prioritizing adaptation measures to achieve food security, reduce land degradation, and improve  water management.

Establishing climate smart villages (CSV) aims to meet the goals of increasing agricultural productivity and smallholder farmer incomes while enabling adaptation and resilience to climate change and reducing emissions along the way. For small scale subsistence farmers, it’s a way of doing agricultural development that uses resources efficiently and wisely so as to reduce the high level of risk threatening their livilihoods. Resilience strategies are tailored in collaboration with communities, rather than one-size-fits-all, and there is enormous scope for farmer-to-farmer learning and a great potential for scaling up CSVs.

UConn PIRE signed an MoU agreement with Abay Basin Authority (ABA) of Ethiopia on December 14, 2016. The MoU agreement is expected to facilitate data exchange, access to laboratory infrastructure, and human resources for the UConn PIRE project in the Blue Nile Basin.

The Abay River Basin is one of the 12 major river basins in Ethiopia. The Abay Basin Authority is a high level body that was established and became fully functional in 2011. It is responsible for undertaking and facilitating the implementation of integrated Water Resource Management in the basin.

UConn PIRE signed two previous agreements with National Meteorology Agency of Ethiopia and Bahir Dar University. The three agreements articulate the scope of collaboration and expected input from each institution to successfully launch the PIRE project in the region.

UConn and Bahir Dar University (BDU) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on research and training. The MoU will remain in effect for the five-year duration of the PIRE project, with the possibility of renewal.

As stated in the MoU, BDU will lead the effort of grant writing, support and coordination of the Ethiopian research team, and access to lab space for PIRE team members in Ethiopia. The agreement also requires BDU to create a conducive environment for UConn staff to visit and teach at BDU. This long-term partnership provides a unique opportunity to provide quality training and capacity building of qualified BDU staff in water resources management, modeling, and forecasting. It also motivates staff of the two institutions to formulate joint research studies.

Professor Emmanouil Anagnostou will coordinate the collaboration from the UConn side, while Dr. Seifu Tilahun plays a similar role at BDU. The signing of the MoU between the two institutions of higher learning is instrumental for effective implementation of the PIRE project and paves the way for long term research collaboration.

The University of Connecticut is excited to welcome 4 graduate students to the PIRE project’s Social Science team.

 Ezana Amdework Atsbeha holds a BA in Sociology and Social Anthropology and an MA in Sociology from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. He has been involved in teaching and research since 2005. He has engaged in various research activities on urban and rural development, civil society organizations, as well as children and youth. He has co-published a book on the socioeconomic aspects of traditional alcohol drinks and a research monograph on peasant entrepreneurship. Ezana is an active member of key think tanks and professional associations in Ethiopia. His current research interests include environmental sociology, rural-urban and international migration, and urbanization.

 Kristen Kirksey holds a Bachelor of Arts in Medicine, Health, and Society from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Public Health from Tulane University. During her MPH studies, she completed a qualitative evaluation of a reproductive health pilot program in the Dejen Region of Ethiopia. Most recently, she worked at the New Orleans Health Department as the program manager for a maternal and child health program. She has presented at the American Public Health Association and CityMatch (National Organization of Urban MCH Leaders) Conferences. Her interests include social determinants of health, specifically reproductive health.

 Selam Esayas Negatu is a lecturer at Addis Ababa University. She has B.A. in Sociology and Social Anthropology and an M.A. degree in Sociology from Addis Ababa University. Her M.A. thesis work focused on a comparative assessment of the role of the School in the creation of deviant behaviors in Addis Ababa. She has also served as Chairperson of the Department of Sociology since 2014. Her research interests include issues related to family, education, youth development, and gender.

Nabil Tueme graduated from Assumption College of Massachusetts in 2014 with a BA in Sociology. She is broadly interested in political sociology.

 The students are wrapping up their first semester of gradate coursework, including courses in sociological theory, research methods, and social stratification. They have also taken on a number of Research Assistant duties for the PIRE project, including carrying out literature reviews, researching and writing grants, and planning for brownbag seminars that will begin in 2017. We are excited to have them on board!

The Water Systems and Society research group led by Dr. Paul Block within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Wisconsin – Madison invites applications for postdoctoral and PhD positions in the field of Hydroclimatology and Water Resources Management. Our research themes are centered on a systems-based approach to managing water resources, bridging models and methods across climate science, hydrology, management, the environment, economics, and policy.

Two positions are available, as described below, building on our research group’s extensive experience in Ethiopia and the Nile Basin. The positions may be filled at either the postdoctoral or PhD level, depending on applicants, and are expected to commence in Fall 2017.

NSF PIRE: Taming Water in Ethiopia: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Improve Human Security in a Water-Dependent Emerging Region

The selected candidate will support research on season-ahead hydro-climatic prediction, integration with hydrology and water resources management models, reservoir operations and optimization, and agro-economic modeling. Strong interest/skill in model building coupled with climate science and water resources systems knowledge is desired.

NSF INFEWS: Understanding multi-scale resilience options for vulnerable regions

The selected candidate will support research on hydropower/energy modeling under climate change, integrating with agricultural and economic models developed by partners, and discovering tradeoffs with alternative energy sources and water demands. Strong interest/skill in model building coupled with water resources systems and economics knowledge is desired.

PhD applications should apply to the Water Resources Engineering graduate program.

Postdoctoral applicants should send Dr. Block a full CV, 1-2 relevant publications, and 3 or more references.

Please contact Dr. Block by email (paul.block@wisc.edu) for additional information. Priority will be given to applications submitted by January 15, 2017.

Engineering students from University of Connecticut and Bahir Dar University are collaborating to rehabilitate a traditional irrigation system near Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. This student-student partnership helps future engineers of both institutions to test classroom theories in real life engineering projects to enable local farmers grow various crops during dry seasons.

In the initial phase of the collaboration they are planning to renovate existing irrigation systems for the community. A design brief prepared by the students indicates renovation is required to reduce the excessive water leakage in the distribution system by implementing engineering solutions. They also have a plan to build new small-scale irrigation structure to expand the service to nearby communities.

Recently Bahir Dar University elected five engineering students to establish an engineering students club at Bahir Dar University for the first time. Bahir Dar University’s president zeroed in on the initiative: “The idea of small scale engineering project is very much appreciated and I will provide full support to Bahir Dar University Engineering students. Access to seed money will be made available to form the club so that our students can collaborate with their counterparts from University of Connecticut on equal footing.”

The PIRE project will soon sing an MoU with Bahir Dar University; thus the engineering students’ partnership is timely as opportunities are lining up to translate their plan into action. Consequently, UConn engineering students are excited to work with their peers in Bahir Dar for the next five years. Learn more from design brief of the proposed Engineering project.

UConn successfully launched its PIRE Food and Water Security Project at a kickoff meeting in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia from July 11-14, 2016. The meeting included a two-day workshop with presentations and breakout sessions devoted to rain-fed agriculture, irrigation, hydropower, and international teaching and learning; field trips to irrigated and rain-fed communities, a hydropower dam, the Blue Nile Water Institute and the Abbay Basin Authority; and meetings with key officials including the regional minister for education.

The kickoff meeting intended to serve as a platform where researchers, university administrators and stakeholders could develop an understanding of project objectives, discuss expectations, and identify opportunities and risks for the collaboration. The conference achieved its intended goals on all fronts. Most importantly, the main stakeholders renewed their commitment and several new local stakeholders (including the President of Bahir Dar University and community leaders in potential field sites) expressed new commitment to the project.

The conference received considerable media attention from both regional and federal mass media outlets. Interviews were made by both US and Ethiopian researchers as well as stakeholders, and broadcasted live on national TV stations. The UConn PIRE team used the occasion to inform viewers of its commitments towards realizing water/food and human security in Ethiopia and the value they placed in knowledge transfer and cultural exchanges between the peoples of the United States and Ethiopia.

The report presents the main action items team members will pursue in the near future, summaries of the presentations and discussions from the workshop, and descriptions of the field sites. Read more

UConn and the National Meteorological Services Agency (NMA) of Ethiopia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

UConn has launched an Amharic course for the first time, beginning in Fall 2016. The course is offered to the social science research group of the UConn PIRE  project.  The team is scheduled to conduct survey and ethnographic research in a region where local farmers speak only Amharic. In order to develop reasonable skills to speak and write Amharic, participants are expected to spend about 1,320 contact hours. In addition to formal classroom learning, Ethiopian graduate students from the sociology department will mentor Amharic students five hours per week.

The research team attending Amharic class is showing marked Amharic language learning in a short time. It is anticipated that knowledge of the local language will help the researchers effectively cross geographical and cultural boundaries to conduct meaningful scientific research in Ethiopia.