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Duckweed hunting in Hawassa

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By  A geochemist without borders Last weekend (weekend of July 24th) most of the Emory students [...] and I took a weekend trip to Hawassa, .... On  Sunday  we drove 45 minutes to Hawassa with one goal in mind: find duckweed. While there are many aspects to the research project we are working on, the entire project hinges on successfully cultivating duckweed, a tiny aquatic plant, and it is my job to ensure that we succeed. Despite being native to Ethiopia and a fast growing invasive ‘weed’, duckweed has remained elusive thus far. Ani identified duckweed growing in the baptismal  ponds  of Lalibela, the famous rock-hewn churches in northern Ethiopia, but being a holy site, he wasn’t able to collect any. We had a tip that duckweed is present in Hawassa – the authors of a research paper I read collected duckweed in marshes around Lake Hawassa – so we couldn’t return to Addis empty handed. Yup, it’s a hut. The stairs lead to a bedroom and bathroom. Behind the wooden wall are s

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Conserving natural pasture should be encouraged in Shebedino district: Study

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Full Length Research Paper Assessment of potential of natural pasture and other feed resources in sweet potato production system of Shebedino District, Sidama Zone, SNNPRS, Ethiopia Potential of natural pasture in Shebedino district, Southern Ethiopia was assessed. Based on availability and practice of supplementation of sweet potato vine (SPV) for livestock, 6 representative kebeles were selected from among 3 towns, 4 Degas, 15 sweet-potato-producing (SPP) and 13 sweet-potato-non-producing (SPNP) Kebeles. From each Kebele 30 households (HHs) were randomly selected and interviewed. Grazing land was protected (June-December/2013) and forage samples taken using a 0.5 m × 0.5 m quadrate from three strata. District average land holding was 0.43±0.45 ha/HH, SPP having larger land holding than that of town kebeles. In towns with no grazing land, 40% of HHs feed byproducts to livestock. In SPP and SPNP Dega Kebeles, private grazing land provided 37 to 43% of feed. All farmers feed SPV

Travel writer, East Africa: ‘The people were kind, humble, proud’

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Photo: Tim Hurley  Ethiopia and Kenya “Safari” is one of the few African words to make it into the English language - it means “journey”, and “njema” means “‘good”. My contact in the Irish education charity Camara in Ethiopia wished me “safari njema”. Having flown through the night it was amazing to touch down in Africa for the first time, just as the sun was dawning on a new day. Driving from Addis Ababa Airport towards the city to the hotel, the contrasts were striking: old beaten up blue-and-white taxis, repainted by hand with grainy paint-brush strokes, mixed with a small few shiny new cars on a new main road to the city. There’s a lot of building going on, revealing a city working hard to drive itself into the modern world. Of course, it also has the wonderful all-year-round pleasant heat of a sub-tropical, high-altitude climate, which made for a pleasant change from the rain and sleet I left behind in Ireland. My first trip to one of the schools that Camara works with

የብሔር ብሔረሰቦችና ሕዝቦች ፕሮፋይል ሊዘጋጅ ነው

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በኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ የሚገኙ ብሔር፣ ብሔረሰቦችና ሕዝቦች ፕሮፋይል (ገጽ ታሪክ) በ2008 ዓ.ም. ለማዘጋጀት መታቀዱን ምንጮች ገለጹ፡፡ የፕሮፋይል ዝግጅቱ ዋና ዓላማ ለማንነት ጥያቄዎች የመጀመርያ ምላሽ መስጠት የሚያስችል እንደሆነ የገለጹት ምንጮች፣ በኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ ብሔር የቱ እንደሆነ፣ ብሔረሰቦችና ሕዝቦች የሚባሉት የትኞቹ እንደሆኑ ለመለየት የሚያስችል እንደሆነ ጠቁመዋል፡፡ ከዚህ በተጨማሪም ለሌሎች ኢኮኖሚያዊና ማኅበራዊ መረጃዎች እንደ ምንጭነት ሊያገለግል እንደሚችልም አስረድተዋል፡፡ የፕሮፋይል ዝግጅቱን ተግባራዊ ለማድረግ የብሔር ብሔረሰቦችና ሕዝቦች መለያ መሥፈርት ተረቆ፣ ለፌዴሬሽን ምክር ቤት በቀጣዩ ዓመት መጀመርያ ላይ እንደሚቀርብና እንደሚፀድቅ ገልጸዋል፡፡ ይህ የመለያ መሥፈርት በአሁኑ ወቅት በዝግጅት ላይ እንደሆነም ምንጮች ተናግረዋል፡፡ ይኼንን ተከትሎም የፌዴሬሽን ምክር ቤት የፕሮፋይል ዝግጅቱን በበላይነት የሚመራ ቦርድና ጽሕፈት ቤት ያቋቁማል ተብሎ ይጠበቃል፡፡ የሚቋቋመው ቦርድና ጽሕፈት ቤት በፌዴሬሽን ምክር ቤት በሚፀድቀው የመለያ መሥፈርት መሠረት የብሔር፣ ብሔረሰቦችና ሕዝቦችን ፕሮፋይል የሚያጠና ኩባንያ በጨረታ እንደሚቀጠር ለማወቅ ተችሏል፡፡ በሥራ ላይ የሚገኘው ሕገ መንግሥት ከመፅደቁ ከሃያ ዓመት በፊት በሽግግር መንግሥቱ ፀድቆ የነበረው ብሔራዊ ክልላዊ የሽግግር መስተዳድሮች ማቋቋሚያ አዋጅ በሚሰጠው ትርጓሜ መሠረት ‹‹ብሔር›› ወይም ‹‹ብሔረሰብ›› ማለት በአንድ ኩታ ገጠም መልክዓ ምድር የሚኖር፣ አንድ የመግባቢያ ቋንቋና የአንድነት ሥነ ልቦና ያለው ሕዝብ ማለት እንደሆነ ይገልጻል፡፡ በማስከተልም በኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ 64 ብሔር ብሔረሰቦችና ሕዝቦች መኖራቸውን ያስቀምጣል፡፡ በ1987 ዓ.ም. ፀድቆ ሥራ ላይ በዋለው የኢ