95 research outputs found
Pasha 130 : the Ethiopia and Tigray conflict is worsening hunger in the region
No full textEthiopia and its northern region of Tigray have been in conflict for about a year now. The political power struggle that had been going on for decades escalated a year ago when Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered a military offensive.
The conflict is putting hundreds of thousands of people in Tigray at risk of starvation and famine. Tigray is a dry place but farmers have long known how to manage the lands for production. The blockade on Tigray by the Ethiopian government, however, has meant that necessary equipment could not reach farmers. There have also been locust attacks which have significantly damaged crops.
Our guest in this episode of Pasha is Emnet Negash, who is from Tigray. He is a PhD student at Ghent University and assistant professor at Mekelle University in Ethiopia. He and his team at Ghent compared the state of ploughing in Tigray before and during the conflict. They found that 20%-30% of the land has been left fallow (compared to 5% normally) and only 20%-50% of the land was expected to produce reasonable yields – which might then be threatened by locusts again
Eyes in the sky to the rescue : monitoring the impact of armed conflict on cultivated land using satellite imagery in Tigray, Ethiopia
No full textOn November 4th, 2020 a deadly civil war broke out in Tigray, Ethiopia displacing close to 2 million people internally and more than 48,000 refugees in neighboring Sudan by August 2021[1]. Given agriculture is the livelihood of millions of people in Tigray, evaluation of the conflict’s impact on cultivated land and the consequent crop production is critical for government and non-government disaster relief institutions. Unfortunately, such evaluation is extremely challenging as the conflict is characterized by communication blackout leaving the region without access to cellphone or internet.
In this study, we used Sentinel-2 and Planet satellite imagery data to map loss of well cultivated land in 2021 due to the war. We developed multiple cultivation detection criteria based on the peak and falling limb characteristics of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series, validated using limited field observations of fallow and cultivated plots from the wet season in 2021 and 2022. We employed object detection machine learning model to identify harvest piles as an additional parameter to detect farming activity.
Our predicted change in cultivation map from 2019/20 to 2021 showed that the density of conflict incidents was positively correlated to the mean net loss of well cultivated land with R2 of 0.7 in Tigray highlands (elevation > 1200 m). Sub-regions with high estimated net loss of cultivated land due to abandonment of reported internally displaced people also resulted in high predicted loss of well cultivated land using NDVI based criteria in our study. In the absence of extensive in situ data, we demonstrate how satellite imagery along with good understanding of local farming practices can provide timely and useful information to assist humanitarian management efforts in times of crisis and recovery phase.
[1] Annys, Sofie, Tim Vanden Bempt, Emnet Negash, Lars De Sloover, Robin Ghekiere, Kiara Haegeman, Daan Temmerman, and Jan Nyssen. Tigray: Atlas of the Humanitarian Situation (version 2.2). Zenodo, 2021. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5805687
Climate and conflict as spatial drivers of agroecosystems in Ethiopia
No full textKlimaatverandering en gewapende conflicten zijn twee van de meest invloedrijke factoren die agro-ecosystemen in tropisch Afrika vormgeven, met een bijzonder ingrijpende impact op klimaatgevoelige economieën zoals Ethiopië. Klimaatmodelleringstudies benadrukken de cruciale rol van microklimatologische variaties die neerslagpatronen beïnvloeden en vandaar hun impact op de weerbaarheid van gewassen. Convectie-permitterende modellen en satellietwaarnemingen tonen aanzienlijke ruimtelijke en dagelijkse variaties in neerslag, vooral in orografisch complexe regio's. Deze bevindingen onderstrepen het belang van het gebruik van gegevens met hoge resolutie om het huidige en toekomstige klimaat te simuleren en landbouwplanning te informeren. Kwetsbaarheden in ecosystemen worden verder verergerd door gewapende conflicten, die landbouwactiviteiten verstoren, infrastructuur beschadigen en versnelde landdegradatie en verwoestijning veroorzaken. Ondanks de duidelijke microklimatologische diversiteit is de aanpak van Ethiopië voor het beheer van agro-ecosystemen vaak te algemeen, wat heeft geleid tot inefficiënties in de verdeling van hulpbronnen en instandhoudingsinspanningen. Deze bevindingen benadrukken de noodzaak van meer lokale, genuanceerde strategieën die rekening houden met zowel microklimatologische variabiliteit als de sociaaleconomische impact van conflicten om de voedselzekerheid en veerkracht van ecosystemen te verbeteren.Climate change and armed conflicts are two of the most significant factors shaping agroecosystems in tropical Africa, with particularly profound impact over climate-sensitive economies like Ethiopia. Climate modeling studies highlight the critical role of microclimatic variations influencing rainfall patterns and hence their impact on crop resilience. In this work, convection-permitting models as well as satellite observations reveal significant spatial and diurnal variations in rainfall, especially in orographically complex regions. These findings underscore the importance of using high-resolution data to simulate current and future climate and inform agricultural planning. Ecosystem vulnerabilities are further exacerbated by armed conflicts, disrupting agricultural activities, damaging infrastructure, and accelerating land degradation and desertification. Despite the evident microclimatic diversity, Ethiopia's approach to agroecosystem management has often been overly generalized, leading to inefficiencies in resource distribution and conservation efforts. These findings emphasize the need for more localized, nuanced strategies that account for both microclimatic variability and the socio-economic impacts of conflict to enhance food security and ecosystem resilience
Women's involvement as an effective management tool in decision-making in Oromia region's public organizations
No full textWomen are the fuel that runs the engine of the organization and it is believed that their low involvement in the decision-making process creates tensions between management and staff. Therefore, the purpose of this study was aimed to determine the impact of women low involvement as a management tool in decision-making and its implementation in Oromia region public organizations by determining the causes of low women involvement in decision-making and the consequences of such action on implementation of decisions. In the study, cross-sectional, descriptive and inferential designs were used. As findings of the study; eventhough, the involvement of women in decision-making are increasing, until know there is low acceptability of their decision-making process by all communities. As per the chi-square test made (p<0.001, Phi= .207), there is statistically significant difference between men and women believe as the involvement of women in decision-making lead acceptable by all people. The serious consequences of low women involvement are, job dissatisfaction, low productivity and employee turnover and reduce various benefits of organizations. Implications: Hence, in order to reduce such problem the governemet and every organization should consider specifically the above factors
Behavioral factors influencing individual investors Investment Decision making in the share market a study on individual traders at Bedele town
No full textThe main objective of this study was to determine behavioral factors that influence the individual investors’
investment decision making in the share companies’ at Bedele Town. As there are very few studies about
behavioral finance in Ethiopia, this study expected to contribute significantly to the development of this field
in Ethiopia. To address research problem and to accomplish research goal, the research design that used in
this study was mainly Descriptive and Explanatory research design. The study conducted on the sample of
119 respondents selected by systematic sampling technique and structured questionnaires administered. To
Measure the quality of data, researcher used Cronbach's alpha test and to test the hypotheses of the study,
Factor analysis, KMO’s, mean scores, percentages, F test, Eigen values and multiple regression analysis
used. The result shows that behavioral factors influencing the investment decisions of individual investors at
Bedele town are Heuristics: Representativeness, Overconfidence, Anchoring, Availability and Gambler’s
Fallacy. Prospect variables: Loss aversion, Regret aversion and mental accounting while Market variables
are Price changes, Market information, past trends of shares, Fundamentals of underlying shares, Customer
preference, over, and under reaction to price changes. In addition, herding variables Impacts of other
investors’ decisions, Buying and selling, choice of trading shares, Volume of trading shares and Speed of
herding are influence the investment decisions of individual investors. This study also tries to find out the
impact level of behavioral factors on investment decision making of individual investors. The result shows
that, Representativeness, anchoring, and Gambler’s Fallacy have moderate impacts on the decision making of
individual investors While Overconfidence and Availability Bias have high impacts on the decision making of
individual investors. Loss aversion has moderate impacts on the decision making of individual investors while
Regret aversion has very low impacts and mental accounting have low impacts. Price changes, past trends of
shares and Customer preference have moderate impacts on the decision making of individual investors.
Market information and Fundamentals of underlying shares has high impacts on the decision making of
individual investors while over and under reaction to price a change has low impacts regarding market
factors. In relation with Herding effect, individual investors at Bedele town follow moderately the Impacts of
other investors’ decisions; they more or less tend to consider the others’ behaviors of Buying, selling, choice
of trading shares, Volume of trading shares and Speed of herding. Furthermore, the study tries to find out the
relationships between these behavioral factors. The study revealed that, Heuristics and prospect factors are
significant and have positive impacts while market and herding factors have insignificant and have positive
impacts on the investment decision making of individual investors in share companies at Bedele town
War and siege inflicted damage on Tigray’s ecosystem
No full textContinued ecosystem damage could eventually make Tigray part of a wider desert connecting the Sahel to the Afar Triangle, a scenario which may render the area uninhabitable
Climate and land-cover change in dryland-catchments, and their effect on spate-hydrology of farming community in semi-arid lowlands of Raya-valley, northern Ethiopia
No full textHow did the community surrounding the Horn’s oldest monastery survive the Tigray War? Dabba Selama revisited
No full textEDITOR's NOTE: The people of Tigray owe their survival to no-one but themselves. This remarkable report is by a multi-author team from the universities of Mekelle and Ghent. It focuses on the small village of Dabba Selama and tells this story. As Tigray emerges from its imposed isolation and silence, this is one tale among many. In this case it’s a story that shows the formidable resilience and survival skills of rural people, skills of enduring exceptional hardship that have lain unutilized for a generation, but have again been drawn upon. Dabba Selama is reputedly the hardest-to-access monastery in the world, carved into a clifftop. It and the adjoining small village count themselves lucky to have escaped the most vicious ravages of the war, because by good fortune, they were not massacred by federal, Eritrean or Amhara forces, and they were lucky to be well-endowed with productive soils and good rainfall. But even these conditions—the best-case scenario in Tigray today—they suffered terribly from the hardships of a protracted siege. The social fabric was stretched to breaking point, but didn’t break. The scars of the war can be observed on the landscape. Cut off from towns and external supplies, without government services, the impressive gains in environmental preservation and forestry of the previous thirty years have been lost. People have turned back to ecologically-destructive practices such as charcoal burning for fuel. The report draws upon detailed interviews conducted by Tigrayan field researchers who have worked in the community for years, and thereby gained the confidence of the people. Over that same extended period, their partners in Mekelle and Ghent have worked with them and gained the mutual trust so essential for this kind of field research. The collaboration included conceptualizing and designing the research, GIS mapping, drawing on the project’s extensive archives of data and photography, and interviewing. The team included Jan Nyssen, Hailemariam Meaza, Sofie Annys, Emnet Negash, Biadgilgn Demissie, Zbelo Tesfamariam, and Tesfaalem Ghebreyohannes. The report shows how information can be gathered and analyzed from the most difficult and hard-to-access parts of Tigray. It poses the question, why the United Nations and international humanitarian donors have not been doing this in partnership with local researchers. Read the full report: https://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/2023/03/16/survival-in-the-remotest-mountains-of-tigray/ When the people of Tigray stood at the abyss of war and atrocity in 2020 at the hands of leaders in Addis Ababa and Asmara, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front failed to provide leadership to prevent the foreseeable calamity. One of the villagers is quoted, “We were led by ourselves during the war.” As some kind of peace returns, the people who led themselves through the valley of death deserve our respect and support. --> https://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/2023/03/16/survival-in-the-remotest-mountains-of-tigray
The role of integrated watershed management on soil-health in northern Ethiopia
No full textIntegrated watershed management (IWSM) technologies have been implemented around the world, including in the northern highlands of Ethiopia during the last few decades. However, their role in improving soil-health along different geological formations is not well studied. This study was, thus, aimed at quantifying the impact of IWSM on soil-health under dolerite and sandstone geological formations. Twelve soil samples were taken from two watersheds with IWSM and another 12 soil samples from two watersheds without IWSM at 30 cm soil depth. Physical, chemical, and biological properties of these soil samples were then analysed in a laboratory. Soil moisture content, Soil organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorus (Pav) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi spore density of soils were significantly high in watersheds with IWSM as compared to watersheds without IWSM. Although insignificant, total porosity, cation exchange capacity, Exchangeable bases and micronutrients also had higher mean value on watersheds with IWSM practices than watersheds without. Thus, this study reviled that an introduction of these IWSM practices has a positive impact in improving soil-health. Moreover, IWSM practices implemented on dolerite geological formation showed a higher impact on soil-health as compared to management practices implemented on sandstone geological formation
The Effect of Human Resource Management Practice on Employee Turnover: The case of Ethiopian Airlines
No full textThe purpose of this study is to examine effects of human resource management practice on
employee turnover with a special reference to Ethiopian airlines in Addis Ababa city. And
human resource management practice was evaluated by recruitment and selection, career
development, training and development, performance management, compensation, and health
and safety. The study employed explanatory research, with quantitative approach. To achieve the
objective of the study, primary data was collected from Ethiopian airlines employees. The study
was carried out in Ethiopian Airlines head office located in Addis Ababa. Out of 9212 permanent
employees 384 were selected using simple random sampling techniques. The data was collected
through close ended questionnaire and was analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis and
inferential analysis methods. Correlation analysis was assessed to figure out the relationship
between HRM practices and employee turnover, multiple regression analysis was done to assess
the influence of HRM on employee turnover, ANOVA and Cronbach Alpha was also tested. The
results show that the selected human resource management practices contribute immensely to
employee turnover. In order for Ethiopian Airlines human resource management team to tackle
the employee turnover problem they have to effectively use different HRM strategies
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