Soil Science prof. sees benefits for all from Ethiopian project

U of S students, from right, Paul Jungnitsch and Angela Taylor make quite an impression by showing digital camera images to people from the Hamer tribe in Ethiopia. The students were in Ethiopia this summer for a six-week study-abroad project in Soil Science, looking into land degradation in Ethiopia's Great Rift Valley and ways to improve soil productivity. See Page 8 for a photos and a brief story about the CIDA-funded project, led by U of S Adjunct Professor of Soil Science, Dr. Ahmet Mermut. Photo by Dr. Ahmet Mermut

As his six-year project to help Ethiopia with its serious problems with agricultural land degradation approaches its final year, Soil Science Adjunct Professor Dr. Ahmet Mermut is pleased and proud of the beneficial effects it is having for the U of S and a number of Agriculture students.

From top to bottom: The U of S group views the Nile gorge. The students take a close view of one of the test crops that are part of the LISA project. U of S student Paul Jungnitsch is invited to cut the cake at an Ethiopian high school graduate party. Photos by Dr. Ahmet Mermut

The CIDA-funded 'Low-Input Sustainable Agriculture (LISA) project', has U of S Soil Science faculty working with four universities and national labs in Ethiopia on that country's agricultural over-use on marginal lands.

Mermut explains that this allows for a few Ethiopian students to visit the U of S, and a few U of S students to travel to Ethiopia. Most recently, three U of S students spent June 15-July 28 in a study-abroad experience as part of the LISA project. Angela Taylor, Nick Flaman and Paul Jungnitsch worked with Ethiopian resource people as well as with four U of S Soil Science faculty looking at declining soil productivity in the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia. This included working with test crops of maize, haricot beans, and tef, studying the value of leaving plant residue on the crops rather than the Ethiopian practice of using it for livestock feed and house construction.

"The idea is that this low-input method of increasing agricultural production may be a better fit," Mermut says.

He adds the U of S can share its expertise in dryland agriculture with developing nations like Ethiopia, and at the same time students benefit.

"I'm still very excited about the project," he says.

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