The Dynamics of Resettlement with reference to the Ethiopian Experience

This paper is a summary of a thesis submitted to the Kimmage Development Studies Centre, Dublin in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MA in Development Studies. The paper focuses on the dynamics of resettlement with reference to the Ethiopian experience. Because of rapid economic growth, population pressure and the degradation of natural resources, the resettlement of people to new locations has become a dominant development discourse in many parts of the world. Research evidence suggests, however, that many such initiatives have not brought positive results. Broadly, there are two divergent arguments as to why resettlement often fails to improve the situation of the people concerned. Some argue that it is an inherently complex process, emanating from unfair wealth distribution. Others, on the contrary, say that it is an inevitable consequence of development and that what matters is the presence of efficient and effective frameworks to plan and implement it. The aim of the research I conducted in 2006 in a government-sponsored resettlement scheme in Southern Ethiopia was to assess these arguments, with the help of empirical evidence provided largely by the affected people themselves. This evidence suggested that the resettlement scheme had both positive and negative aspects. This paper argues that resettlement could be a viable strategy for solving the pressing problem of food insecurity in Ethiopia, but if it is implemented on a large scale, without in-depth feasibility studies, proper planning or adequate resources, it could have multiple negative impacts, both on resettlers and the environment. Resettlement may indeed offer improved livelihoods for those who move voluntarily, provided it is done on a manageable scale with sufficient government resources; that it is implemented within a relatively small geographical area and within a relatively homogeneous ecological zone; and that it is planned and executed with proper care and support for the resettlers

The Role of Plant Breeding Under Changing Climate

Climate change is now unequivocal, particularly in terms of increasing temperature, increasing CO2 concentration, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea level, while the increase in the frequency of drought is very probable but not as certain. Even though climate change is one of the major current global concerns, it is not new. Several climate Changes have occurred before, with dramatic consequences in history. Plant breeding is the activity of developing diverse plant varieties that can contribute usefully to cropping and production systems. These breeding efforts are directed at plant improvement. But ‘improvement’ is a subjective and relative goal and it is useful to regularly break up plant breeding objectives and procedures into clearly defined and manageable units. Owing to the imperatives of food security, plant breeding must combine the objective of ecological intensification with that of adaptation to overall societal and global changes. Keywords: Climate change, Green revolution, Genetic gain DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/11-4-04 Publication date: February 28th 202

Health and labor productivity : the economic impact of onchocercal skin disease

Teams from two institutions studied the economic impact of health status on productivity and income. They studied whether onchocercal skin disease caused economic damage to the labor force at a coffee plantation in southwest Ethiopia, and how much. The research team estimated the daily wage equation for wage employees. Empirical analysis revealed that permanent male employees, the core of the plantation labor force, suffer significant losses in economic productivity (in the form of lower daily wages earned) as a result of onchocercal skin disease. Depending on the severity of onchocercal skin disease, and controlling for such factors as age, daily wages were 10 to 15 percent lower among those exhibiting skin-related problems.Environmental Economics&Policies,Disease Control&Prevention,Labor Policies,Health Economics&Finance,Public Health Promotion,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Youth and Governance,Health Monitoring&Evaluation

Holography Beyond AdS

We continue our study of string theory in a background that interpolates between $AdS_3$ in the infrared and a linear dilaton spacetime $R^{1,1}\times R_\phi$ in the UV. This background corresponds via holography to a $CFT_2$ deformed by a certain irrelevant operator of dimension $(2,2)$. We show that for two point functions of local operators in the infrared CFT, conformal perturbation theory in this irrelevant operator has a finite radius of convergence in momentum space, and one can use it to flow up the renormalization group. The spectral density develops an imaginary part above a certain critical value of the spectral parameter; this appears to be related to the non-locality of the theory. In position space, conformal perturbation theory has a vanishing radius of convergence; the leading non-perturbative effect is an imaginary part of the two point function.Comment: 16 pages; v2: reference update

Role of Participatory Forest Management in Woody Species Diversity and Forest Conservation: The Case of Gimbo Woreda in Keffa Zone South West Ethiopia

Participatory forest management was started more than one decade ago in Ethiopia as one of the ways applied to reverse deforestation and depletion of natural resources. However, there are no adequate site specific empirical and quantitative studies on the effectiveness of PFM approaches in conservation of woody species diversity and forest conservation. Therefore, this study was designed to assess the impacts of PFM on woody species diversity in selected forest user groups in Gimbo Woreda, South West Ethiopia. Vegetation data were collected from different PFM user groups and adjacent Non-PFM forest blocks. A total of 63 plots measuring 20 m × 20 m were employed to collect species composition and structural data. Data for all the sapling and seedlings were also collected within subplots of 5 m X 5 m and 2 m X 2 m respectively. Accordingly a total of 73 different woody plant species (72 at PFM and 54 at Non-PFM blocks), representing 64 genera and 35 families were recorded, with 53 species shared. Woody species diversity and evenness were higher in the forest with PFM (H´ = 3.04, E = 0.76) compared to the forest without PFM (H´ = 2.8, E =0 .70). The overall average values of sapling and seedling density were also significantly (p < .05) higher in PFM than Non-PFM forests. However, no significant variations were observed in basal area and dominance of the species between the two forest blocks. Thus it can be concluded that participatory forest management is showing signs of delivering impact in terms of woody species diversity conservation in the study area. However, there is a gap in some of forest user groups in terms of forest protection from an illegal activities. Therefore it is important to conduct further assessments in the remaining forest user group’s to have baseline data for further study and performance evaluation over all forests under PFM approaches. Keywords: Forest User Group, Regeneration, Species diversity, Human induced disturbance. DOI: 10.7176/JEES/9-6-01 Publication date:June 30th 201

Analysis of export instability and export promotion policies in Zimbabwe, 1980-1987.

A Working Paper in Economics on trade policies and export promotion in Zimbabwe during the period 1980-1987

Lime Application Rates on Selected Soil Chemical Properties of Acidic Soils

Liming has been recently started to amend acidic soils in the study area but meager information is available about effects of Dejen lime on soil properties. The objective of this study was to investigate the application dose effect of locally available liming material on selected chemical properties of Dystric Nitisol. Soil samples received 0, 1.1, 2.2, 3.3 and 4.4 t ha-1 Dejen lime and incubated for one month at constant moisture and temperature. Finally, its pH, exchangeable acidity, Al, Ca, Mg, K, Na, Mehlich 3 and water soluble P were estimated. Lime rates significantly (p < 0.01) increased soil pH, exchangeable Ca, Mehlich 3 and water soluble P but exchangeable acidity and Al significantly (p < 0.01) decreased. Application of 2.2 t ha-1 Dejen liming material increased soil pH and available P by 0.6 units and 9.2 mg kg-1, respectively but exchangeable acidity decreased by 0.72 cmol (+) kg-1. Thus, application of > 2.2 t ha-1 lime alleviate acidity related problem of the soil for crop growth but supplementary nutrient (mainly P) is required for optimum crop yield. Application of 2.2 t ha-1 Dejen liming material substantially improves soil acidity related problems but supplementary soil nutrient is essential to increase crop yield in the study area. Keywords: Dejen, exchangeable acidity, lime incubation, Nitisol DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/12-1-02 Publication date: January 31st 202

Moving G\"{o}del's universe holographic screen with TTˉT{\bar T}

In this paper, we show that for one sign of the deformation coupling single-trace $T{\bar T}$ deformation moves the holographic screen in G\"{o}del universe radially inward. For the other sign of the coupling it moves the holographic screen radially outward. We (thus) argue, on general grounds, that in holography (single-trace) $T{\bar T}$ deformation can be generally thought of as either moving the holographic boundary into the bulk or washing it away to infinity. In Anti-de Sitter this breaks the spacetime conformal symmetry. We further note that moving timelike holographic boundary into bulk creates a curvature singularity. In the boundary the singularity is understood by states with imaginary energies. To make the theory sensible we introduce an ultraviolet cutoff and thereby move the boundary into the bulk. In this paper we first obtain the Penrose limit of the single-trace $T{\bar T}$ deformed string background and then perform $T$-duality along a space-like isometry to obtain a class of (deformed) G\"{o}del universes. The string background we consider is $AdS_3\times S^3\times {\cal M}_4$. The single-trace $T{\bar T}$ deformation is a particular example of the more general $O(d, d)$ transformations.Comment: v3: 23 pages; references added; comments added; typos fixe