Ethiopian Environment and Forest Research Institute (EEFRI) conducted a four day long forum at Adama few weeks ago. While approached by The Ethiopian Herald, Abiyot Berhanu (PhD), Director of the institute explained about the objective of the forum, researches conducted by the institute and outcomes.
Regarding the forum he said that it is one of the annually performed programs in which the institute evaluates its ongoing research projects; transform into practice via participation of the society and begin new ones.
The institute is working on environment, forest and climate change. In this research arena, various projects are performed in which some of them need extended time especially those related to forestry. Forest development needs long time for various kinds of trees to get ready to give products. Selecting the right type of tree for timber and other purposes, nurturing, adopting and growing may take even years for some trees. So it is not a short term or an instant duty.
However, many results have been gained in the forest sector, environmental protection, pollution prevention and climate change. Many research outcomes have been provided to beneficiaries. Out of these are 67 information supplying formula, 16 technologies in which 8 of them are at pre scaling up stage.
“The institute in its short time of acting life, not more than five years, has performed relatively satisfying deeds. We carryout prescaling up practice of the technologies on selected fitting places before transferring them to beneficiaries,” said Dr. Abiyot.
Among the tangible outcomes transferred to beneficiaries, bamboo is the good example. There are Ethiopian origin bamboo species and the society use them for different purposes. Besides, the institute has selected and imported fast growing and highly productive bamboo species, adapted and provided to the society.
Wood species which are used for various purposes like housing; household equipment and timber have also been transferred to the society. There are many more new species of eucalyptus tree which are fast growing, highly productive and strong to be used for timber in addition to commonly known ones. These species, as to the director, have been imported and provided to the society passing through various experiments.
Regarding the highly degraded 11 million hectares of land that needs immediate rehabilitation, the director said, “Unfortunately we are losing the forest and this resulted in washing away of top soil, losing soil fertility and great imposition on agricultural production and productivity.”
In order to tackle this hazard, the institute has been working on selecting tree species that protect soil from erosion. The performance is on good status as the testing process and pre scaling up are underway on an experimental site and actual land. There are effective tree species like acacia decurrens that brought up good in this regard and indigenous species are also under the testing stage. They are even better than imported ones except lack of fast growing, the director noted.
On the other hand, a research that converts water hyacinth to alternative fuel is underway. Previously, water hyacinth that invades the water body has been gathered and burned on open air. This is wastage of time and human labor in addition to causing environmental pollution.
Therefore, the conversion research of water hyacinth to charcoal has reached a pre scaling up stage and transferring to the society. The research includes the technology such as charring kiln for water hyacinth biomass conversion into briquette and briquetting machine that enable produce quality and high energy emitting biomass.
Yalemsew Adela is a researcher and head of one department at EEFRI. He is one of the presenters at the forum. He said that their research is focusing on how invading weeds of dry land and water bodies can be converted to useful product such as income generating and problem solving.
Their major target is water hyacinth that is invading lakes Tana, Koka and other parts of the country. The people gather the weed and pile at the lake shore. So, the research has been conducted to check whether it can be converted to alternative energy.
The research pointed out that it can be converted to charcoal that is used for household cooking. It contains more than 3,000 kilo calorie and burns for about an hour and during this time it can serve activities that need energy. Simple devices such as charring kiln for water hyacinth biomass conversion into briquette and briquetting machine are produced and provided to the society.
This research, as of Yalemsew, addresses many problems. Removing this weed from the water body is not limited to cleaning the water, but also gives opportunity to the fish to reproduce. It facilitates the public easily movement on the water using light boats which is hard when the water is covered by hyacinth.
Protecting the water body to stay healthy contributes for the other ecosystem stay healthy too. For instance, the people who are dependent on fish for food consumption divert to consume other resources if losing sufficient amount of fish form the lakes as a result of the weed that makes sea animals’ reproduction very hard.
In addition, the technology is highly essential in easing the provision of clean drinking water for many towns that are dependent on lakes or other water bodies for household water consumption. Without this technology that cleans the weed from water and converts it to alternative energy, it is hard to get clean water. Unless otherwise, it is highly costly to remove the weed, purify the water and provide it to the users, said Yalemsew.
Regarding acceptance of the technology among the people, Yalemsew said that the devices are highly efficient as they are designed to be manipulated and repaired easily. The target groups of the technology are the farmers who reside around the water bodies and they can buy the device with fair price from small and medium enterprises those responsible for the manufacturing and able to repair with appropriate training.
The research initiates the farmers to engage in the gathering of the weed with joy understanding that it can be converted to useful product, added Yalemsew.
The Ethiopian Herald March 10/2020
BY BACHA ZEWDIE
