Properties of New Reclaimed Soils in the Merowi Irrigation Project of North Sudan

This study is a correlation analysis between main productivity limiting soil parameters of desert soils of North Sudan. The indications are based on data of 52 soil profiles representing the desert plain as the main land form of the region. The results show a high significant correlation of cation exchange capacity with both clay and silt in two soil depths. This positive correlation is a new guide for better understanding of the colloidal behaviour of desert soils. The salinity and sodicity interactions of the studied soils were tested via correlation analyses of ECe, ESP and SAR for salinity and sodicity, respectively. The high positive correlation between ECe and ESP indicates a strong association of saline and sodic soils in the desert plain of Northern Sudan. The high positive correlation of ESP and SAR enables a formula to estimate ESP by using the SAR data

Food for Work Program and its Implications on Food Security: A Critical Review with a Practical Example from the Amhara Region, Ethiopia

A systematic evaluation of food-for-work (FFW) programs in Ethiopia is seriously lacking. Most of the few available reports indicate that these programs have reached very few achievements in terms of food security and reduction of poverty at large. As expressed by Holden et al. (2005), FFW programs are commonly aimed to produce or maintain potentially valuable public goods necessary to stimulate productivity and thus income growth. Natural resources management, like rural road construction, erosion control and afforestation of degraded lands can be mentioned as valuable measures which could stimulate productivity and agricultural growth. The poverty reduction and food security impact of food or cash for work activities are larger if they offer not only seasonal job opportunities to the rural community but also long term employment possibilities. This is more likely if the projects are regionally dispersed and combined with basic education. In the Ethiopian context, it was always questionable if the continuous boom in food aid (regardless of cash or food for work purposes) was the solution for the long standing food insecurity and poverty crises in the country. The study discusses the efficiency of FFW programs that aimed to reduce rural poverty and ensure food security on the one hand, and the impact of the food aid on resource and time allocation of the participating households for own food production on the other. The study is based on a field research conducted at a FFW program project, in the Amhara region, Ethiopia run by the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) with the view of improving food security in the Amhara region, Ethiopia. A household theoretical model is used to analyze the sample data, whether FFW program may indeed reduce household food insecurity and/or has some crowding-out effects on labour allocation of participating households for own field production