Improving Organic Resource use in rural Ethiopia (IPORE)

Completed

Not Energy Related
Renewable Energy Sources(Bio-Energy, Applications for heat and electricity)

Basic and strategic applied research

SOCIAL SCIENCES (Development Studies)
AREA STUDIES (Middle Eastern and African Studies)
BIOLOGICAL AND AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES (Biological Sciences)
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES (Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences)

Systems Analysis related to energy R&D (Other Systems Analysis)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Environmental dimensions)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Policy and regulation)

Professor E Phimister
University of Aberdeen Business School
University of Aberdeen

Standard

ESRC

01 July 2016

31 October 2017

16 months

£150,288

Scotland

Global Challenges Research Fund

Professor E Phimister, University of Aberdeen Business School, University of Aberdeen

Mr GY Edo, Natural Resources Research Directorate, Southern Agricultural Research Institute
Mr A F W Fekadu, Natural Resources Research Directorate, Southern Agricultural Research Institute
Dr A Fischer, Social, Economic and Geographical Scie, The James Hutton Institute
Professor P D Hallett, Inst of Biological and Environmental Sci, University of Aberdeen
Dr SJ Langan, WAT, Intl Inst Applied Systems Analysis IIASA
Dr W Mekuria, Nile Basin & East Africa Office, International Water Management Institute
Professor J Smith, Inst of Biological and Environmental Sci, University of Aberdeen
Dr T Tefera, Environment Gender & Development Studies, Hawassa University

The shortage of organic resources in rural Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for improving long term energy, food and water provision is one of the region's greatest challenges. The Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region in Ethiopia (SNNPR) provides an excellent case study for transdisciplinary research on how community sustainability and resilience might be improved by better use of organic resources. Organic resources are scarce, with seasonality causing significant variation in available water across the year, while diverse cultural norms and institutional arrangements, framing access to land, water and energy, emphasise that the success and impact of interventions depends on complex interactions between what science makes possible and how decisions are made by individuals and communities.In a Nexus Network grant, engagement with farmers, householders and policy makers from Halaba District and the wider SNNPR identified key Nexus challenges as complex, multi-dimensional and inter-connected. The interaction between the use of organic resources for energy, water and food in the region is dynamic, extremely complex and highly spatially variable. As elsewhere in SSA, most of the rural population use solid biomass for cooking and heating, with wood, dung and crop residues the main energy sources. However, these resources are also crucial to long term sustainable food production and water use. Dung and crop residues provide organic fertilisers that improve water holding capacity of the soil. Demands on organic wastes for fuel and livestock feed reduce the use of dung and crop residues as soil amendments, which reduces biomass production and organic inputs to the soil.Soil carbon loss and deforestation have also been a cause of significant soil erosion in Ethiopia, while many households have responded to diminishing biomass availability by planting fast growing and water hungry tree species on home plots, such as Eucalyptus, which negatively impact food production and potentially reduce groundwater availability. Governance arrangements which frame access to resources are also key. For example, traditional open animal grazing practices can determine the amount of crop residues retained in fields and undermine the maintenance of water harvesting structures.Shortage of organic resources also results from the difficulties faced by farmers in responding to changing (and increasingly erratic) seasons. Water scarcity in the typical extensive livestock system means that farmers spend significant periods away from the homestead, taking their livestock to water; this reduces time available for other activities. Lack of proximate water in the dry season (or throughout the year due to absence or breakdown of community pumps), impacts the time spent by household members (typically women and children) collecting water, and also affects school attendance.The spatial variability in organic resources, and formal and informal cultural norms and social institutions means that successful policy interventions need to be adapted to the specific local context. This requires appropriate locally specific scientific and socio-economic data, and engagement with policy makers and other stakeholders so that proposed solutions are jointly owned.This project will increase our understanding of the interactions between food, energy and water associated with organic resource use in this specific geographical and social context, and will help identify appropriate locally adapted solutions to improve community sustainability and resilience. This will provide a model for application of transdisciplinary Nexus thinking to improve policy design.

05/12/17