Sabine joined ILRI on 6th April 2011 as a postdoctoral fellow with IWMI and ILRI in the context of the ILRI-led CPWF Volta basin project on integrated management of rainwater for crop-livestock agro-ecosystems. Sabine will be based at IWMI office in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, reporting to Augustine Ayantunde (ILRI) and Charlotte de Fraiture (IWMI). Her task will be to identify solutions that enhance environmental and livelihood benefits of integrated water, livestock and crop management strategies and mitigate negative effects, such as land and water degradation and conflicts.  Sabine is a soil scientist by training and she conducted her PhD thesis in the Group of Plant Nutrition at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. The overall project aimed at assessing the biophysical and socioeconomic trade-offs of introducing cover crop legumes as forage or as green manure in a smallholder crop-livestock system in Nicaragua, and was implemented in collaboration with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) as well as national partners. Sabine’s main focus was on plant environmental adaptation, symbiotic nitrogen fixation and soil nitrogen dynamics. Later on, she was involved in extension work when elaborating information material on legume use for the farmers.

We hope Sabine will visit Addis and Nairobi during early May so many will have the chance to meet with her.