Socio Economics of Majidyya village

A field questionnaire campaign was designed and conducted for Muhareb Watershed, which include Muhareb and Al Majidya villages, as well as the neighboring village of Al Ktefeh. In total 50 questionnaires were processed for evaluating local communities baseline and feedback on soil and water conservation activities undertaken

Challenges to Adoption of Improved Legume Varieties: A Gendered Perspective

Limited availability and access to seeds of improved varieties are often blamed for the low adoption of legume-based rotations. In this paper, we use a case study of chickpea and lentil production in Ethiopia and a gendered lens to identify other determinants of farmers’ decisions for the adoption of improved legume varieties. Mixed methods were used to collect sex and age disaggregated data through 360 household surveys, 11 focus group discussions, and 8 key informant interviews. The analysis focused on key adoption parameters, including access to land, labor, improved seed varieties, fertilizers, pesticides, agriculture information, and credit. The main challenges identified include: differential access to timely and adequate seeds of improved varieties, quality fertilizers, and pesticides; availability of credit at an affordable interest rate; and equitable access to information. As compared to men, we found women’s access to these resources to be low and women’s cost production to be relatively high. Farmland remains a main constraint for the youth. Farmers responded to the challenges by recycling seeds and mono-cropping lentils, despite declining soil and crop productivity, and increased occurrence of pests and diseases. In the case of chickpea, we found that cultural norms also discouraged the adoption of the improved variety

Assessing Effectiveness of Community Conversations and Communities of Practices in empowering communities in Doyogena, Menz, and Bonga

Participatory engagement of communities is key to establish clearer understanding of existing challenges, collectively identify plausible solutions, and to ensure sustainable adoption of innovative technologies and practices. Community Conversations (CCs) offer unique opportunities to facilitate dialogue among groups of a community and key local government and research institutions on selected topics of interest. Initiated through a joint ICARDA-ILRI effort and building on the Community Based breeding program (CBBP), CCs were conducted in several districts in northern and southern Ethiopia to, inclusively and collectively, identify key challenges in the management and marketing of sheep; facilitate group learning and joint analysis; and seek context-specific solutions to address them. Common topics of the CCs included community breeding, feed production and management, animal upkeep and health, antimicrobial use and resistance, marketing, and gender roles. The CCs were subsequently complimented with the organization of Communities of Practice (CoP) that comprised of representatives of woreda-level experts in selected fields of practice including – agriculture, livestock, gender, natural resource management, animal health, socioeconomics, extension, communication, and others as needed. The CoPs created space for woreda-level inter-disciplinary dialogue, peer-learning, project and resource coordination, and promotion of integrated context-specific solutions that are in line with woreda and regional strategic plans. Multiple topic-specific modules have been developed over the years to support facilitators of CCs, as well as reports on the outcomes of the conversations held. In June of 2022, a joint ICARDA-ILRI field trip was organized to meet with members of CC groups in selected Kebeles located in Doyogena and Menz to: • assess the effectiveness of the CCs and CoPs in facilitating sustained community engagement and bringing about changes at the household and community level, • learn about prevailing technical and organizational challenges, and • explore opportunities to address selected challenges through the SAPLING Initiative The findings of the assessment mission are summarized below. Section II and III present the findings from Doyogena and Menz respectively. The report concludes with presentation of general lessons learned from the visits and potential actions to address identified challenges and/or capitalize on gains made

Data collection tool for the follow-up survey targeting farmers in Egypt

The data collection tools was developed to collect follow-up data among farmers that participated in the iNASHR project in Egyp

Challenges to Adoption of Improved Legume Varieties: A Gendered Perspective

Limited availability and access to seeds of improved varieties are often blamed for the low adoption of legume-based rotations. In this paper, we use a case study of chickpea and lentil production in Ethiopia and a gendered lens to identify other determinants of farmers’ decisions for the adoption of improved legume varieties. Mixed methods were used to collect sex and age disaggregated data through 360 household surveys, 11 focus group discussions, and 8 key informant interviews. The analysis focused on key adoption parameters, including access to land, labor, improved seed varieties, fertilizers, pesticides, agriculture information, and credit. The main challenges identified include: differential access to timely and adequate seeds of improved varieties, quality fertilizers, and pesticides; availability of credit at an affordable interest rate; and equitable access to information. As compared to men, we found women’s access to these resources to be low and women’s cost production to be relatively high. Farmland remains a main constraint for the youth. Farmers responded to the challenges by recycling seeds and mono-cropping lentils, despite declining soil and crop productivity, and increased occurrence of pests and diseases. In the case of chickpea, we found that cultural norms also discouraged the adoption of the improved variety

Explaining farmers’ reluctance to adopt recommendations for sustainable ecosystem management

Abstract Introduction The lower Syr Darya River Basin is an integral part of the Aral Sea Basin that is shared by four riparian countries. In Kazakhstan, the water is mainly used for agricultural purposes. However, the poor quality and insufficient quantity of water and the overall degradation of natural resources due to unsustainable management practices threaten the profitability of the sector. The situation is even worse for downstream users. Three alternative scenarios for sustainable water and land management were developed using the RIOS and SWAT models as decision support tools. The scenario that offered the highest water and land productivity was presented to farmers to assess their willingness to forgo their current practices and adopt proposed management practices. We introduce willingness to forego (WTF)—a qualitative approach and a variant of the concept of opportunity costs to look beyond hypothetical markets to trading current benefits for future returns. We also tap into literature on agricultural risk management to provide additional insight into farmers’ rationale behind their choices. Result Generally, despite their stated preference to conserve ecosystem services, farmers’ actions were found to be inconsistent with the proposed sustainable management. WTF analysis revealed that farmers’ desire to maximize current benefits and more importantly to minimize future risks override all sustainability considerations. Their WTF current benefits mainly depended on their location along the canal and hence their access to water and land, overall cost of production, market conditions that informed their crop choices, and the cost of adopting recommended packages. While the results remain specific to this case, they are consistent with the literature that links farmers’ behaviors to ecological performances. Conclusions The study highlights the limitations of decision support tools and other valuation approaches including willingness to pay (WTP) and willingness to accept (payment) (WTA), to capture the delicate trade-offs that need to be considered to ensure household food and income security and encourage adoption of sustainable ecosystem management practices. Adequate information on potential effects of proposed conservation measures on yield, markets and hence farm profits, and availability of other alternatives are critical in shaping farmers’ decisions

Explaining shifts in adaptive water management using a gendered multi-level perspective (MLP): a case study from the Nile Delta of Egypt

Understanding the logic behind farmers' choice of adaptive water management practice is important to appreciate the opportunities and challenges they face and to scale targeted solutions effectively. This paper aims to understand the main drivers of change that induce adaptation in water management. The Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) framework that juxtaposed the within and across micro-, meso-, and macro-level drivers was applied to a case study of the Nile Delta to identify key drivers of change and farmers' adaptive responses. The framework helped in contextualizing key gender, temporal, and spatial dimensions of the drivers, and to identify their individual and interactive effects on farmers' adaptation decisions. We find that farmers' gender-differential water management choices are influenced not only by the individual changes in the three spheres of influence but also their interactions. The study highlights the benefits of using MLP to identify challenges that should often be tackled simultaneously to improve agricultural water delivery and use. We demonstrated that adaptation choices in water management are more sustainable when farmers' decisions are supported by enabling environments, including local regulations, norms, national institutional frameworks, and policies. They are also informed by and responsive to global trends such as climate change and markets

Climate Security in the MENA Region

The evidence on conflicts around the world since the turn of the century points to a simple conclusion: conflicts, grievances and insecurities are increasingly being affected by changing climates, environmental degradation, food insecurity, and the struggle to control a finite pool of natural resources. This paper aims to understand the linkages between climate, conflict, agriculture, and migration in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) region and offer a road map for the region while emphasizing the role of research and development. We do this by first clarifying what climate security means and how it links to risk and resilience (Introduction). We then present causal impact pathways to describe how climate exacerbates drivers of conflict and insecurity (Section 2). This is followed by an overview of indicators summarizing the state of climate security in MENA and a discussion of the limitations of such indicators (Section 3). We also identify climate security and climate peace hotspots in the region using spatial analysis (Section 4). We then present existing research for development efforts and discuss their potential to contribute to climate security by mitigating its drivers with a specific focus on gender inequality (Section 5). We offer entry points for improving climate security using sustainable finance (Section 6). This is followed by a series of case studies (Section 7 to 11) and finally Section 12 concludes by emphasizing the key findings of the paper