Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Long-term Europe-Africa Research and Innovation Partnership for Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture

Titre : SOILMAN : Mapping, management and resilience of ecosystem services for food security and response to climate change in Ethiopia

Pays/Région : Ethiopia

Date : Start date 2013-10-01 // End date 2017-09-30

Identifiant : 240-SOILMAN
Type de projet : Applied research project

Présentation
Ethiopia is a food insecure country with the second-largest population in sub-Saharan Africa. The country is endowed with a variety of agro-ecological zones and farming systems that differ in terms of food and nutrition supply and income supply and security and potential to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The country is also regarded as center of diversity for several legumes, and their associated nitrogen-fixing rhizobium bacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. However, Ethiopia suffers from land degradation and, as a consequence, insufficient food resources. Climate change imposes a new threat to the already fragile environments. Legumes in symbiosis with appropriate microbes provide important ecosystem services. They can replace nitrogen fertilizer and enhance the uptake of phosphorus. Especially in agroforestry systems they can also increase soil organic carbon stocks to mitigate climate change, simultaneously improving soil fertility and food productivity, and their climate-resilience. There are however knowledge gaps in the understanding of the system and its potential to simultaneously support food and nutrition security, income security and mitigation of climate change, and the resources are under-utilized. This project will identify properties of soil, symbiotic microorganisms and agroforestry practices which improve the production of ecosystem services (BNF, AM, C sequestration) for food security in a changing climate. Preconditions for socio-economic feasibility of the management practices will be investigated, and local and scientific knowledge integrated for successful implementation. The consortium encompasses the best available Finnish and African expertise in these fields. Through the consortium collaboration, novel ways of covering important interfaces between basic research and its applications, which is recognized as being in great demand, will be taken into use.

Coordinateur : University of Helsinki
Partenaires : Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE) Addis Ababa University Southern Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) Hawassa University

Financement principal : Academy of Finland

FNSSA project database