The cover of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences featured SANREM-supported work on biodiversity conservation and poverty traps in Zambia’s Luangwa Valley as a special feature. Continue reading
New SANREM CRSP program director Adrian Ares
Adrian Ares has been named program director of the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program, managed by Virginia Tech’s Office of International Research, Education, and Development. He will begin his new position July 6.
Ares comes to Virginia Tech from Oregon State University, where he is a faculty research associate in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society.
Ethiopians build a stream crossing as part of a labor-based road construction project in Amhara province.
The SANREM CRSP has received an associate award from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to train Ethiopians to improve the construction and sustainability of their roads.
Many roads in Ethiopia are poorly designed and constructed, which leads to premature road failure, high maintenance costs, and serious environmental problems. The roads concentrate the flow of water, which increases erosion and causes sediment to build up on nearby fields, damaging crop growth. A better road design could lessen erosion and more efficiently disperse water to ponds for agricultural use during Ethiopia’s dry season.
A new book details SANREM studies and makes recommendations to significantly increase cacao production in Vietnam by growing the crop under cashew canopies. The book, “Vegetable Agroforestry and Cashew-Cacao Systems in Vietnam,” includes research by a team of scientists from LTRA-5. They sucessfully tested adding cacao, also known as cocoa, to cashew farming systems in Nghia Trung, Vietnam.
