Iain’s update on ILRI Ethiopia – February 2013

On 8 February the Mexican Ambassador to Ethiopia, H.E. Alfredo Miranda, visited us to hear about our research and in particular our links with Mexico. Mexico, as an emerging economy, wants to play a bigger role on the international stage. Alexandra and I met him along with Olaf Erenstein and Bruno Gerard from CIMMYT, whose headquarters are in Mexico. He was particularly interested in the contribution that Mexican agricultural researchers can make and how the CGIAR Centres can facilitate links to Africa. We are developing collaboration with Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP) on forages and animal disease. The Ambassador is a member of the Zebu Club and occasionally enjoys walking around the campus with his wife at the weekend. However he knew virtually nothing about what we do. We will need to think about how we inform our visitors to the campus about our work.

I visited Washington DC on 9-12 February to attend a meeting of the Advisory Board of the USAID Livestock and Climate Change Collaborative Research Support Programme (LCC-CRSP). The CRSPs support research in developing countries with a particular focus on leveraging US university expertise. The LCC is managed by Colorado State University and funds a number of projects in the USAID Feed the Future countries, including two projects in Ethiopia. I took the opportunity to visit USAID and IFPRI. USAID staff were particularly interested to hear about the new ILRI strategy and were very supportive of it.

Staff and residents will be pleased to hear that we have commenced on a feasibility study on how to secure our water supply. This will include investment in water storage, a better distribution system (old leaking pipes are already being replaced), use of a retention pond, construction of an additional oxidation pond and rain water harvesting. In the longer term we will be developing a multi-year plan to upgrade the facilities and infrastructure on the campus. I would like to hear from staff and residents what they think should be in that plan and will arrange a mechanism for consultation. So watch this space. . .