Alumni Workshop 2024 - Ethiopia

21st - 29th March 2024

'Nature based solutions and agro-ecological concepts'

Workshop Impressions

Agriculture is one of Africa's most important sectors, with about 80 percent of the population living in rural areas and depending directly on agriculture for their livelihoods. However, agricultural productivity in the sub-Saharan Africa is constrained by natural factors such as climate variability and change, but also policy and governance, economy and adoption of technologies are factors limiting the agricultural sector.

Realizing full agricultural potential while safeguarding nature and related essential ecosystems services will require significant paradigm shifts for agriculture, nutrition, and food systems. Nature-based promising innovations to address these and future constraints in the sector are emerging across the agricultural landscape, showcasing the combination of great science, technology, and collective action towards a more sustainable future for crop and livestock production on the continent. 

Program Summary

The DAAD Agriculture-Alumni Network organized a one-week traveling workshop to showcase the nature-based agricultural  innovations currently being implemented. Participants engaged with concrete examples of nature-based innovations in agriculture and food systems across various agricultural sites and research centres  in Ethiopia.

The one week program, (21st -29th March 2024) was organised jointly by the University of Hohenheim and Hawassa University, as a traveling workshop in  Ethiopia. 

Program Highlights

• The workshop included visits to three cities: Addis Ababa, Hawassa and Arba Minch.

• Institutional visits of research and academic centres, including: Hawassa University,  Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, CGIAR centres (ICRISAT and CIMMYT) and the Agricultural Transformation Institute of Ethiopia (ATI).

• State of the art workshops and seminars facilitated by scientists from CLIFOOD, based on the themes of nature-based solutions and agro-ecological concepts.

• Visits to agricultural systems adopting nature-based solutions, i.e., the coffee farming systems in Sidana and agro-ecological systems in Arba Mich.

• Cultural exchange: A visit to the Mercato market.