Latest blog posts from students

Hello world!
Welcome to MSC CCAFS Students. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
FINALE!! MScCCAFS CONFERENCE (07/09/2018)
Let me take this time to thank Irish Aid, ICOS & NUI Galway for giving me this opportunity to study Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security. Thank you CSIR for the work experience you have provided me with during my Home Based Research and lastly Thank you God.
Suitable feed interventions for the domains
I thought it would be good to share a table which summarises my findings. The table below shows the fours domains and feed interventions suitable for each domain.
The Farmers have spoken!
A summary of focus group questionnaire and in-depth interview responses from farmers to evaluate their perception on climate change and how they perceive the barriers of climate change to identify their ability to adapt and mitigate.
Crossing the Finish Line
After returning home to Ireland I spent the following few weeks before the deadline working on the write-up of my thesis. Once all the finishing touches were done I was finally ready to submit the final product! It has been a challenging experience but highly rewarding none the less. I had such an enjoyable […]
Final thoughts on Malawi CSA Country Profile Development Process
The country profile developed will provide a snapshot of a developing baseline created to initiate discussion at national and global levels about entry points for investing in CSA at scale in Malawi. However, achieving the objectives of CSA will require transformative changes in current policies, institutional arrangements, and funding mechanisms to foster broad‐scale adoption of […]
Intergrating feed interventions for improved livestock productivity
The domains’ map shows that feed scarcity is one of the factors which constrain livestock productivity, thereby compromising livelihoods in the mixed farming systems of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Therefore the recommendations of this study will be instrumental in closing the feed scarcity gap and improve livestock productivity for better livelihoods. However, it is very […]
Recommended or predicted feed interventions for each domain
Domain 16 was interpreted as an area of very low feed quantity, 12 months of feed scarcity, very low land availability and medium water availability. Suitable feed interventions The FEAST-Techfit table shows that interventions such as rehabilitation of degraded grazing land may be an attractive option for this domain as it shows very low land […]
The planet is in our hands
I completed my research study and submitted my Thesis entitled Resource mobilization for climate change, agriculture and food security research through collaborative partnerships. A final reflection from my study is the future of the planet is in our hands and that by working together we can secure the financial support needed to meet (ideally exceed!) the […]
Summer and Spring Historical mapped THI. Is ‘business as usual’ leading South Africa to doom?
Spring Historical and Future THI Maps illustrating THI based on highest THI index values. as per station it shows that the Limpopo province is the most heat vulnerable region in South Africa. overall the Northern parts of the country show the most vulnerability to heat stress. Summer Historical and Future THI Based on overall values […]
coffee wet mill
coffee wet processing facility/mill. Wet processing was found to be the most common method of processing coffee in Uganda, than dry processing method. During the study most primary processors indicated that their choice of wet processing is influenced by the consumer preferences. However, dry processors were mostly found in Central region of Uganda, and they […]
An insight to my research findings
I distributed a survey to 24 DFIs, contacted by email. In total eight organizations responded to the survey, namely: FMO, AFC, DBSA, CDB, CAF, XacBank LLC, SANBI and GEF Small Grant Programme . Due to the response rate being incomplete, the survey was distributed to three more entites that are not DFIs, two of which responded (SANBI and […]
CSA Policies, Financies, Institutions and Practices in Malawi : Sneak peak at main Findings
Policies: Malawi has made some strides in including climate change and climate-smart agriculture in its policy instruments though in-depth details about CSA implementation is still limited. Most of the policies lack coherence and are not strongly linked to each other Finances: Malawi has accessed some climate funds for adaptation, mitigation and productivity, however, stakeholder knowledge […]
FEAST-Techfit feed intervetions suitable for each domain.
The domains’ map shows that feed scarcity is one of the factors which constrain livestock productivity, thereby compromising livelihoods in the mixed farming systems of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The table below shows feed interventions which were discovered by Lukuyu and Duncan, (2014) using the feed assessment tool FEAST. The scores show the potential of […]
Key research findings and final reflections
Following a busy few weeks of write-up and last-minute incorporation of results, my MSc thesis has been submitted! Though challenging at times, it has been an enjoyable and rewarding experience overall. I’m grateful that I got the chance to carry out my placement in Vietnam, and my supervisors in CIAT and NUI Galway were supportive […]
Sustained Rural Youth Livelihoods
A livelihood is considered sustainable when it can cope or recover from stress and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, and provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for the next generation (Chambers & Conway, 1992). Five elements that are related to this have been identified (Scoones, 1998). These include: Livelihood strategies that create productive employment. […]
Next steps
Hello there, The thesis was submitted last week, but the project is not finished yet. Next steps are to create an instrument that will help Ecohabitats Foundation and Association of Northwestern communal actions of Popayan (Community committee "local stakeholders") for planning and decision making processes to out-scaling CSA. This week I had a few meetings in the […]
Counties, Regions, Districts found within the four selected domains
On my previous post I shared interpretations of all the 16 domains. However, for this MSc research project I selected four highly contrasting domains and those were domain 16, 7, 4 and 2. The main reason behind producing a map showing the 16 domains, was to identify specific counties in Kenya, specific regions in Tanzania […]
The Population Dynamics
Demographic trends indicate that population increase will largely take place in developing countries. The United Nations population projections show that the world population of 7.2 billion in mid-2013 will increase by almost 1 billion people in the next 12 years (UNDESA, 2013). This will reach 8.1 billion by 2025, 9.6 billion by 2050 and 10.9 […]
Haze
It is common knowledge to the general population of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia when the burning of forests to clear for the expansion of Palm Oil is happening. It has almost become a season in itself, the 'burning season', and has become apart of the yearly calendar for people who live in these countries. As […]