CLIFOOD Block Seminar 1: Introduction to state of the art in research on climate change and food security with respect to SDGs
As part of the qualification program for the SDG Graduate School CLIFOOD, six Block Seminars are planned per generation of PhD Scholars between the Hawassa University (HU) in Ethiopia and the University of Hohenheim (UHOH).
The first Block Seminar of the CLIFOOD SDG Graduate School took place at the Hawassa University from November 20th to 25th, 2017 and trained CLIFOOD scholars from HU and UHOH as well as young scientists and lecturers from HU.
The seminar included lectures, workshops and a field trip to Dale district (visit of drought prone agricultural systems, Enset growing farm household and Coffee processing cooperative). The highlight of the seminar was the public event with invitation of experts and key-note speakers from HU, UHOH, national Ethiopian and international research organizations.
The following lectures and workshops were given by experts from the Oromia Agricultural Research Institute, Bureau of Environment Oromia Regional State, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI, USA), Southern Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), and by professors from HU und UHOH:
| 1. Climate change, livestock production and food security |
| 2. Modelling Boran cattle population under climate change |
| 3. Modelling Software: „Berkeley Madonna “/ Nova (practical exercises) |
| 4. Ex ante assessment of adaptation to climate change variability |
| 5. Bush Encroachment of Borena Range Land and its impacts for environment and food security |
| 6. Crop models and uncertainty in yield predictions |
| 7. DAAD: opportunities, networks in Africa and Ethiopia (key-note speech) |
| 8. Adoption of Soil and water Conservation (SWC) and Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) technologies for integrated landscape management (key-note speech) |
| 9. SDG Interactions: From science to implementation (key-note speech) |
| 10. Introduction to agricultural structures in Germany and EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) (key-note speech) |
| 11. Introduction to research priorities of HU in line with Ethiopian strategic agricultural policies (key-note speech) |
| 12. Water-food-energy-climate nexus: call for innovations (key-note speech) |
| 13. Agricultural research priority agenda in Ethiopia and Sothern Nations Nationalities and People Regional State (SNNPR) (key-note speech) |
| 14. Research on regional climate change in Hohenheim |
| 15. Challenges of agricultural production in arid and semi-arid regions: research priorities of ICRISAT (key-note speech) |
The CLIFOOD subproject leaders also had the opportunity to present and discuss their research projects and to plan the activities for 2018. Also the CLIFOOD (PhD and postdoc) scholars presented their progress reports and could get the feedback from the colleagues, experts and subproject leaders.
