The Organic Resource Use in Rural Africa Network held a workshop at Hawassa University, Ethiopia on 5 December 2015 as part of the discussions between the Ethiopian and UK academic partners, with various stakeholders.
A range of participants including people from local and regional government; regional and local bureaus dealing with water, energy, agriculture and natural resources; local and international scientific experts from the Southern Agricultural Research Institute (SARI); Hawassa University; the International Water Management Institute and the Centre for International Forestry Research took part in the workshop.
The lively group discussions provided an illustration of the usefulness of bringing together experts and policy makers across the water, energy and food nexus, and emphasized the scale of the challenge in finding ways to increase available biomass to improve food productivity, which fit with what local people want in the face of decisions many are forced to make due to the extreme variations in water availability.
For more information on the workshop see the Organic Resource Use in Rural Africa Network project page.
Image of the team in Ethiopia working with local stakeholders and discussing organic resource solutions for the rural poor, with many thanks to Professor Paul Hallett from the University of Aberdeen.
