The faculty of Agriculture in collaboration with ESSA organized a two day workshop at the UoN towers. The ESSA Project Titled: “Earth observation and environmental sensing for climate-smart sustainable agro pastoral ecosystem transformation in East Africa - is an action implemented by University of Helsinki (Helsingin Yliopisto), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), Delft Institute for Water Education (IHE), University of Nairobi (UoN), Addis Ababa University (AAU), Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO), Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research under the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Council Secretariat (EARCS), Ethiopian Agricultural research Council Secretariat (EARCS), Regional Center for Mapping the Resources for Development (RCMRD). The UoN team is composed of WMI, Department of Geospatial and Space Technology and Faculty of Agriculture. It is funded by European Union. The action has a duration of 48 months with an overall objective of increasing the understanding of the dynamics of and interlinkages between tropical upland forest cover and semi-arid lowland landscapes, and the multi-functionality of agro pastoral landscapes, through a system-wide view of food and nutrition security, diversified livelihoods and ecosystem sustainability and improvement.
The project is aimed at providing Pastoralist households transit to a climate smart agro pastoral systems in sub Saharan Africa. The programme currently covers Kenya and Ethiopia. To achieve its objectives, the programme aims to understand the connection between tropical upland forest cover and semi arid lowland landscapes, and the multifunctionality of agro pastoral landscapes, through a system-wide view of food and nutrition security, diversified livelihoods and ecosystem sustainability leading to improvements.
The workshop attracted scholars from the partner institutions as well as students who presented the various projects they are working on. The projects mainly focused on finding local solutions for pastoralists in Kajiado and Taita Taveta counties.
The projects expects to increase scientific knowledge of smart agro pastoral systems and enhanced on the ground capacity of National Agricultural knowledge and Innovation System, Sustainable livelihood transformation framework from pastoralism to integrated agro pastoralism, Enhanced potential of income diversification to support the transition towards climate-smart agro pastoral systems among pastoralist households in Ethiopia and Kenya, and Improved quality and availability of Earth observation and environmental sensing methods for environmental change and landscape degradation assessment and for monitoring improvements and climate-smart agro pastoral system transition in pastoral areas.
