Use of Climate Information in Malaria Stratification/Early Warning Systems/Impact Assessment for Malaria Interventions

A report on the training workshop and stakeholder meeting hosted by the Tanzania Meteorological Agency in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania October 16th-18th 2013

Climate Services Can Support African Farmers' Context-Specific Adaptation Needs at Scale

We consider the question of what is needed for climate services to support sub-Saharan African farmers' adaptation needs at the scale of the climate challenge. Consistent with an earlier assessment that mutually reinforcing supply-side and demand-side capacity constraints impede the development of effective climate services in Africa, our discussion of strategies for scaling up practices that meet farmers' needs, and opportunities to address long-standing obstacles, is organized around: (a) meeting farmers' climate information needs; (b) supporting access, understanding and use; and (c) co-production of services. A widespread gap between available information and farmers' needs is associated with entrenched seasonal forecast convention and obstacles to using observational data. Scalable innovations for producing more locally relevant historical and forecast climate information for farm decision-making are beginning to be adopted. Structured participatory communication processes help farmers relate complex climate information to their experience, and integrate it into their management decisions. Promising efforts to deliver rural climate services strategically combine communication channels that include participatory processes embedded in existing agricultural advisory systems, and innovations in interactive broadcast media. Efforts to engage farmers in co-production of climate services improve delivery to farmers and dialogue among stakeholders, but often with little impact on the usability of available information. We discuss challenges and options for capturing farmers' evolving demands, and aggregating and incorporating this information into iterative improvements to climate services at a national scale. We find evidence that key weaknesses in the supply and the demand sides of climate services continue to reinforce each other to impede progress toward meeting farmers' needs at scale across Africa. Six recommendations target these weaknesses: (1) change the way seasonal forecasts are produced and presented regionally and nationally, (2) use merged gridded data as a foundation for national climate information products, (3) remove barriers to using historical data as a public good, (4) mobilize those who work on the demand side of climate services as an effective community of practice, (5) collectively assess and improve tools and processes for communicating climate information with rural communities, and (6) build iterative co-production processes into national climate service frameworks

Seasonal predictability of Ethiopian Kiremt rainfall and forecast skill of ECMWF's SEAS5 model

Predictability of Ethiopian Kiremt rainfall (June to September: JJAS) and forecast skill of the European Centre for MediumRange Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) fifth-generation seasonal forecast system 5 (SEAS5) is explored during 1981–2019. The first empirical orthogonal function of observed rainfall explains 50.6% of the total variability and is characterized by positive rainfall anomalies largely confined over the northwestern and central-western regions of Ethiopia. Consequently, a Kiremt rainfall index (KRI) is defined for this region. The correlation coefficient (CC) between the observed and predicted KRI is 0.68 and 0.53 for May and April starts, respectively. Composite analysis of sea surface temperature (SST) and lowerlevel circulation based on excess and deficit years of Kiremt rains shows that the El Niño Southern–Oscillation is the main modulator of the Kiremt rainfall variability. The CC between KRI and Niño3.4 index is − 0.62, indicating that El Niño is accompanied by below-normal Kiremt rainfall, while La Niña is accompanied by above-normal amounts. The fifth generation of ECMWF atmospheric reanalysis (ERA5) shows that excess (deficit) Kiremt rainfall anomalies are associated with an anomalous low (high) pressure centered over northeast Arabian Peninsula and an anomalous in-phase (reverse) low-level Somali Jet. SEAS5 reproduces the spatial and temporal components of observed Kiremt rainfall variability, including the main climatic features associated with excess and deficit Kiremt rainfall in May and April starts. However, certain important observed features like above-normal SSTs in the Gulf of Guinea are not well predicted. Results indicate that Kiremt rains has some potential predictability and SEAS5 shows a moderate forecast skill. Probabilistic analysis shows highest values where predictability and deterministic skill are also highest

Antimicrobial resistance surveillance in Ethiopia: Implementation experiences and lessons learned

Introduction: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a global threat. High levels of AMR to commonly used antibiotics have been reported in East Africa. A situation analysis of AMR in Ethiopia also indicated high resistance levels. To prevent and contain AMR, Ethiopia established a national surveillance network. Objectives: This article describes the steps taken to prioritise AMR and establish the National Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System in Ethiopia, as well as present the challenges and lessons learned through implementation. Methods: In April 2017, Ethiopia had developed and approved the National AMR Surveillance Plan for laboratory-based AMR surveillance. The World Health Organization recommendations and Ethiopias’s current microbiology capacity were used to prioritise organisms for reporting. The surveillance system is comprised of a network linking the national reference laboratory with surveillance sentinel sites. Roll-out of the AMR surveillance network occurred in three phases in order to ensure successful implementation. Results: Electronic capture and transmission of data, supply chain for the microbiology laboratory and communication problems were challenges observed after implementation started. Support from Ethiopian Public Health Institute focal persons for data entry, regular scheduled communication establishment and procurement of supplies by the American Society for Microbiology were some of the measures taken to address the challenges. Conclusion: Ethiopia has demonstrated that setting up AMR surveillance in lower resource settings is possible with strong leadership and stakeholder engagement

Digital Platforms in Climate Information Service Delivery for Farming in Ghana

AbstractPhone-based applications, Internet connectivity, and big data are enabling climate change adaptations. From ICT for development and agriculture perspectives, great interest exists in how digital platforms support climate information provision for smallholder farmers in Africa. The vast majority of these platforms both private and public are for delivering climate information services and for data collection. The sheer number of digital platforms in the climate information sector has created a complex information landscape for potential information users, with platforms differing in information type, technology, geographic coverage, and financing structures and infrastructure. This chapter mapped the existing climate information services and examined their impact on policy and practices in smallholder farming development in Africa, with a focus on Ghana. Specifically, the chapter provides highlights of digital platforms available to smallholder farmers and agricultural extension agents, analyzes the public and/or private governance arrangements that underpin the implementation of digital climate information delivery, and assesses the potential of these platforms in scaling up the use of climate information. The chapter contributes to understanding the dynamics of climate information delivery with digital tools in Africa, and suggests a future research agenda

Role of Iron-Rich Georgia Soils in Controlling Nitrate Contamination of Ground Water

Proceedings of the 2003 Georgia Water Resources Conference, held April 23-24, 2003, at the University of Georgia.Nitrate contamination of ground water is widespread in the USA, and is often associated with nutrient losses from grazing and row-crop agriculture. Studies in Georgia find, however, generally lower levels of nitrate in ground water than in many other parts of the country. The mechanisms controlling the fate of nitrate and related N compounds in groundwater are poorly understood, but the commonality of iron minerals in Georgia soils suggests iron may play a role. We monitored ground water for several solutes for a year and examined the data thermodynamically. The redox states quantified as electron activity pE between couples of N-species (NO₃⁻, NO₂⁻, NH₄+) were found to lie on the intersection of the stability field of freshly precipitated Fe(OH) ₃ with Fe²⁺ on a Pourbaix (pE-pH)diagram. Moreover, the evident redox potential relationship between these couples seems stable through time as well. This strongly suggests that the energy generating nitrification and denitrification reactions are being drawn toward equilibrium with Fe(OH) ₃/Fe²⁺₊redox couple. These observations support the hypothesis that nitrate reduction proceeds largely by oxidation of Fe²+ to an amorphous solid that subsequently recrystallizes to a meta-stable ferric hydroxide. An inverse relationship between [Fe²⁺] and [NO₃-] in GA waters noted in other studies, suggests that this phenomenon might exercise a regional control on [NO₃-] in ground waters of the southeastern USA

Tillage-Based Water Conservation on Farms in the Southeastern United States

Proceedings of the 2007 Georgia Water Resources Conference, March 27-29, 2007, Athens, Georgia.Conservation tillage, particularly no-till, has a significant role to play toward achieving agricultural water conservation goals envisaged in Georgia’s Comprehensive Statewide Water Management Planning Act of 2004. We base this on scientific evidence from across the country and our own research showing that conservation tillage allows substantially more of rain and/or irrigation water to infiltrate/percolate into the soil compared to conventional tillage methods, thus reducing much runoff waste. In one study spanning May 1, 1997 to May 5, 1998 near Watkinsville, GA, we found an extra 6.93 inches of rain water infiltrated into the soil profile in a no-till cotton/rye system compared to conventional tillage. This represents 14% of the average annual rainfall and is equivalent to more than 188 billion gallons of water from one million acres of cropland, which is about a third of Georgia’s harvested cropland. Annual irrigation use in Georgia fluctuates between 100 and 300 billion gallons. Additionally, conservation tillage reduces sediment that alters critical habitat and stream flow, and reduces non-point source contaminants that require additional assimilative capacity in those streams. While the current agricultural water conservation plan rightly targets potential waste in irrigated agriculture through retrofitting irrigation system components, conservation tillage offers water conservation both in irrigated and non-irrigated agriculture. For this potential to materialize, aggressive leadership that provides both political will and appropriate resources is needed across all government agencies and non-government organizations (NGOs) involved in natural resource policy formulation, research, education, extension, and outreachSponsored and Organized by: U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Natural Resources Conservation Service, The University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of TechnologyThis book was published by the Institute of Ecology, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2202. The views and statements advanced in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent official views or policies of The University of Georgia, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Georgia Water Research Institute as authorized by the Water Resources Research Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-397) or the other conference sponsors

Studies on transition metal complexes of herbicidal compounds. II: Transition metal complexes of derivatized 2-chloro-4-ethylamino-6-isopropylamino-S-triazine (atrazine)

2(2-Hydroxyethyl)hydrazino-4-ethylamino-6-isopropylamino-s-triazine (HEATZ), a derivative of 2-chloro-4-ethylamino-6-isopropylamino-s-triazine, atrazine (ATZ) – a well known herbicide has been studied for complex formation with cobalt(II), nickel(II), and copper(II). Analytical, conductance, thermal, and spectral studies suggest that HEATZ is a monobasic NNO donor and it forms binuclear octahedral metal complexes, possessing alkoxide bridging. Cobalt(II) complex exhibits thermochromism. Antimicrobial studies on E. coli and S. aureus show the absence of growth inhibitory activities for HEATZ and its metal complexes which is attributed to the combined effect of derivatization of ATZ and metal complexation