Grain Legumes for Climate Change and Food Security

Description

Two key challenges facing humanity today emanated from food insecurity and climate changes. Agriculture has a significant role in addressing both challenges and it is major economic sector of many developing countries including Ethiopia. Besides its economic importance the sector is also expected to respond to intense climate change. In this regard, grain legumes can be taken as a strategic crop having a potential to bring several benefits from nutritional and symbiotic points of view. They are often referred to as meat of the poor due to their high protein and dietary nutrients contribution to the daily diet of people in the developing countries. From symbiotic point of view N2-fixing legumes are known to play an important role in improving soil fertility due to their inherent ability to fix atmospheric N2 through biological N2 fixation, thereby contributing to the soil N economy. Although there are some research activities which are working towards exploiting legumes potential to achieve food security worldwide, limited work has been done in Ethiopia in this regards. Therefore, there is an urgent need to undertake a systematic and holistic investigation to fully exploit the wide ranging potential of the legumes in Ethiopia. Thus, the aim of this project is to explore the potential of grain legumes to address climate change and food security concerns in Ethiopia. A detail survey, field experiments and laboratory analyses will be implanted to attain the aim of the project.

Involved persons

• Dr. Tarekegn Yoseph
• PhD Scholar Tewodros Ayalew Dejene

Involved institutions

• School of Plant and Horticultural Sciences
• College of Agriculture
• Food Security Center (791)

Sponsors

Supported by the DAAD program Bilateral SDG Graduate Schools, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)