Breaking the "Fertilizer Poverty" and Food Insecurity Traps in Smallholder Maize Based Farming System in Southern Africa: Experiences and Lessons from Soil Fertility Network/Economics and Policy Working Group (EPWG)

Smallholder farmers in southern Africa face acute food insecurity because the productive capacity of their soils has declined. These resource-poor farmers increasingly cannot afford mineral fertilizers Farmers mentioned the lack of fertilizers for their depleted soils as the most important constraint- "Empty Soils, stomachs and pockets." In response to this challenge, Soil Fert Net researchers in southern Africa have developed and promoted a range of "best-bet" soil fertility management technological (SFMT) options for farmers. This paper presents a review of financial, adoption, institutional and policy analysis undertaken by EPWG members on the use of SFMT by smallholders. Financial and risk analysis tools, selected econometric models and policy analysis matrix were employed to measure profitability, incidence and intensity of adoption and to understand the effects of policy instruments necessary to promote SFMTs. Financial analysis of "best bets" indicates that (even with current unfavorable input and output prices) there are positive payoffs to investing in SFMTs. Adoption studies in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique revealed that farmers need to make a significant initial investment in terms of labor, land and capital before they start to obtain benefits. SFMTs are also management and information intensive and farmers' limited skills and knowledge are critical factors influencing adoption. Profitability and subsequent adoption decisions are sensitive to changes in maize grain price, crop yield and the cost of borrowing capital. The study recommend institutional and policy support and advocacy for better access to credit, input availability, market linkages to scale up the diffusion and promotion of SFMTs.Policy briefs, Policy analysis matrix, markets, cropping systems, legumes, N fertilizer, Crop Production/Industries, Food Security and Poverty,

Enabling geometry-based 3-D tele-immersion with fast mesh compression and linear rateless coding

3-D tele-immersion (3DTI) enables participants in remote locations to share, in real time, an activity. It offers users interactive and immersive experiences, but it challenges current media-streaming solutions. Work in the past has mainly focused on the efficient delivery of image-based 3-D videos and on realistic rendering and reconstruction of geometry-based 3-D objects. The contribution of this paper is a real-time streaming component for 3DTI with dynamic reconstructed geometry. This component includes both a novel fast compression method and a rateless packet protection scheme specifically designed towards the requirements imposed by real time transmission of live-reconstructed mesh geometry. Tests on a large dataset show an encoding speed-up up to ten times at comparable compression ratio and quality, when compared with the high-end MPEG-4 SC3DMC mesh encoders. The implemented rateless code ensures complete packet loss protection of the triangle mesh object and a delivery delay within interactive bounds. Contrary to most linear fountain codes, the designed codec enables real-time progressive decoding allowing partial decoding each time a packet is received. This approach is compared with transmission over TCP in packet loss rates and latencies, typical in managed WAN and MAN networks, and heavily outperforms it in terms of end-to-end delay. The streaming component has been integrated into a larger 3DTI environment that includes state of the art 3-D reconstruction and rendering modules. This resulted in a prototype that can capture, compress transmit, and render triangle mesh geometry in real-time in realistic internet conditions as shown in experiments. Compared with alternative methods, lower interactive end-to-end delay and frame rates over three times higher are achieved

Study on the prevalence of ectoparasite infestation of ruminanats in and around Kombolcha and damage to fresh goat pelts and wet blue (pickled) skin at Kombolch Tannary, Northestern Ethiopia

An attempt was made to study the prevalence of ectoparasite damage on live cattle, sheep and goats in and around Kombolcha town and on raw goat skin to assess their skin defect on processed wet-blue (pickled) skins at Kombolcha tannery, south wollo zone, North-Eastern Ethiopia. A total of 240 cattle, 175 sheep, 66 goats, were used to study the prevalence of ectoprasites on live animals as well as 344 fresh goat pelts and pickled (wet-blue) goat skins were used to assess skin defects. The result obtained from live cattle demonstrated a high prevalence of Amblyomma (28.33%) followed by Sarcoptes scabiei (23.75%), Boophilus (11.25%) Demodex (9.58%), Psoroptes (0.4 %), respevtively. The prevalence of ectoprasite infestation of live sheep revealed Mellophagus ovinus (sheep ked) (32.57%), Bovicola ovis (22.28%), Amblyomma spp (12.57%), Sarcoptes scabiei (14.28 %), Ctenocephaliedes spp (8.57%), Demodex (6.85%), Linognathus africanus (6.28%) and Boophilus spp (4%). The result from goats demonstrates a high prevalence of Sarcoptes scabiei (30.3%) followed by Linognathus stenopsis (9.09%), Amblyomma (4.54%), Ctenocephalides spp (3.03%), Bovicola caprea (1.51%) and Demodex (1.51%) in that order. Result obtained from fresh goats pelts revealed an over all high prevalence of Sacoptes scabie (53.29%) followed by Linognathus stenopsis (9.88%), Bovicola caprae (2.08%) and Demodex (2.08%). Examination of pickled (wet-blue) skins from follow-up skins show a high prevalence of scratch (74.25%) followed by “Ekek” (68.56%), scar (67.06%), processing defect (28.44%). “Ekek” (Typical scatter type cockle) was found to show a significant (

Fasciolosis: Prevalence, financial losses due to liver condemnation and evaluation of a simple sedimentation diagnostic technique in cattle slaughtered at Hawassa Municipal abattoir, southern Ethiopia

This study was carried out from November 2007 to April 2008 to determine the prevalence of fasciolosis and costs incurred due to liver condemnation and evaluate the sensitivity of direct sedimentation method for diagnosis of fasciolosis in cattle slaughtered at Hawassa Municipal abattoir. A total of 3251 adult indigenous cattle were slaughtered at the abattoir during the study period, of which 931 animals (28.63%) were found to be positive for fasciolosis. There was a statistically significant (χ2 = 33.10; p = 0.004) variation in prevalence between the study months where the highest (35.6%) and lowest (21.03%) prevalence were recorded in February and April, respectively. Fasciola hepatica (58.9%) was the predominant fluke identified compared to F. gigantica (10.6%). Mixed infections by both species and unidentified immature flukes were detected in 14.7% and 15.8% of the affected livers, respectively. The mean fluke burden in the affected livers was 55 flukes per liver. As to the severity of infection, 36.63%, 52.31% and 11.06% were lightly, moderately and severely affected, respectively. Moderately affected livers showed the highest mean fluke count (69 ± 1.91) followed by severely (48 ± 1.71) and lightly affected ones (25 ± 1.75) signifying the presence of acquired resistance and local tissue reaction as chronicity of infection supervenes. Taking liver examination as gold standard for diagnosis of fasciolosis, the sensitivity of the direct sedimentation technique was found to be 67.13% and the specificity 100% with substantial agreement (k = 0.74) between the two methods. The financial loss due to liver condemnation was estimated to be 106,400 Ethiopian birr (8312.5 USD) per annum. In conclusion, the observation of such a level of infection in the dry season, high fluke pathogenicity and substantial financial loss associated with condemnation of infected livers warrants the institution of appropriate control measures. Keywords: Cattle, fasciolosis, financial loss, Hawassa abattoir, prevalence, southern Ethiopi

A framework for realistic 3D tele-immersion

Meeting, socializing and conversing online with a group of people using teleconferencing systems is still quite differ- ent from the experience of meeting face to face. We are abruptly aware that we are online and that the people we are engaging with are not in close proximity. Analogous to how talking on the telephone does not replicate the experi- ence of talking in person. Several causes for these differences have been identified and we propose inspiring and innova- tive solutions to these hurdles in attempt to provide a more realistic, believable and engaging online conversational expe- rience. We present the distributed and scalable framework REVERIE that provides a balanced mix of these solutions. Applications build on top of the REVERIE framework will be able to provide interactive, immersive, photo-realistic ex- periences to a multitude of users that for them will feel much more similar to having face to face meetings than the expe- rience offered by conventional teleconferencing systems

Changes in soil properties following the establishment of exclosures in Ethiopia : a meta-analysis

Acknowledgements This work is part of the RALENTIR (Reducing land degradation and carbon loss from Ethiopia's soils to strengthen livelihoods and resilience) project, funded by GCRF (Global Challenges Research Fund) and University of Aberdeen. We are grateful to Abeyou Wale for his assistance in developing the map of agroecological zones of Ethiopia.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Impacts of Soil and Water Conservation Practices on Crop Yield, Run-off, Soil Loss and Nutrient Loss in Ethiopia: Review and Synthesis

Research results published regarding the impact of soil and water conservation practices in the highland areas of Ethiopia have been inconsistent and scattered. In this paper, a detailed review and synthesis is reported that was conducted to identify the impacts of soil and water conservation practices on crop yield, surface run-off, soil loss, nutrient loss, and the economic viability, as well as to discuss the implications for an integrated approach and ecosystem services. The review and synthesis showed that most physical soil and water conservation practices such as soil bunds and stone bunds were very effective in reducing run-off, soil erosion and nutrient depletion. Despite these positive impacts on these services, the impact of physical soil and water conservation practices on crop yield was negative mainly due to the reduction of effective cultivable area by soil/stone bunds. In contrast, most agronomic soil and water conservation practices increase crop yield and reduce run-off and soil losses. This implies that integrating physical soil and water conservation practices with agronomic soil and water conservation practices are essential to increase both provisioning and regulating ecosystem services. Additionally, effective use of unutilized land (the area occupied by bunds) by planting multipurpose grasses and trees on the bunds may offset the yield lost due to a reduction in planting area. If high value grasses and trees can be grown on this land, farmers can harvest fodder for animals or fuel wood, both in scarce supply in Ethiopia. Growing of these grasses and trees can also help the stability of the bunds and reduce maintenance cost. Economic feasibility analysis also showed that, soil and water conservation practices became economically more viable if physical and agronomic soil and water conservation practices are integrated

A Framework for Realistic 3D Tele-Immersion

Meeting, socializing and conversing online with a group of people using teleconferencing systems is still quite different from the experience of meeting face to face. We are abruptly aware that we are online and that the people we are engaging with are not in close proximity. Analogous to how talking on the telephone does not replicate the experience of talking in person. Several causes for these differences have been identified and we propose inspiring and innovative solutions to these hurdles in attempt to provide a more realistic, believable and engaging online conversational experience. We present the distributed and scalable framework REVERIE that provides a balanced mix of these solutions. Applications build on top of the REVERIE framework will be able to provide interactive, immersive, photo-realistic experiences to a multitude of users that for them will feel much more similar to having face to face meetings than the experience offered by conventional teleconferencing systems

Forest and landscape restoration opportunities in the western catchment of Lake Ziway, Central Rift Valley, Ethiopia: technical report

Forest and landscape restoration measures could address landscape degradation, increase ecosystem services, and improve livelihoods. However, mapping potential areas for forest and landscape restoration measures and identifying enabling and constraining factors is crucial for effective implementation. This study was conducted in the western catchment of Lake Ziway, Central Rift Valley, Ethiopia, to identify potential forest and landscape restoration options, map potential areas, assess the benefits and cost of options, and investigate success and failure factors for implementing interventions. The study adopted the Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM), which enables selecting and mapping forest and landscape restoration options. Data were collected using field surveys, key informant interviews, focus group discussion and literature reviews. We also employed GIS and remote sensing methods to characterize the long-term land use and land-cover dynamics and changes in the status of land degradation. Cost–benefit analysis was conducted to assess the economic viability of identified restoration options. The results suggested that over the last 20 years (2002 to 2022), the western catchment of Lake Ziway experienced severe forest and landscape degradation due to anthropogenic and climatic factors, resulting in multiple environmental and socioeconomic consequences. This study identified seven context-specific forest and landscape restoration measures to address the problem. They vary in cost, trajectory and specific economic and social outcomes. Most options were economically viable with additional environmental and social benefits. For example, the benefit of carbon sequestration for home garden agroforestry was estimated at USD 27,032.5 ha-1 over 20 years. It was also found that a considerable portion of the catchment area was potentially suitable for agroforestry practices (40%), particularly for scattered trees on farmlands. However, the potential areas suitable for full afforestation or reforestation and tree buffers are smaller (6%). Integrating multiple forest and landscape restoration measures in the catchment could maximize the environmental and socioeconomic outcomes. Opportunities to effectively implement and scale up the identified forest and landscape restoration options include the availability of adequate active labor, the diverse benefits of measures, and the existence of supporting policies and strategies, multiple potential financing mechanisms and active development of governmental and non-governmental organizations. However, the absence of guidelines for implementing legal issues, weak coordination among responsible institutions, and inadequate finance and incentives have been identified as major constraints to scale up forest and landscape restoration measures. The findings of this study may serve as a guide for the planning, design and implementation of restoration measures in the study catchment and similar future projects in other catchments