The early career fellowship programme was launched by FAC in 2010 to nurture the careers of the next generation of researchers working on the future of agriculture in Africa. The fellowship programme, now in its second round is so far benefiting eighteen upcoming researchers in various fields of research, fifteen of them from Sub-Saharan Africa. We caught up with some of the round one fellows on their research progress. 

 
Maru Bekele’s study is focusing on the impact of land acquisition for commercial agriculture on the livelihood of community members in Benshanguel Gumuz Regional States in Ethiopia.  He is being mentored by FAC researcher Ruth Hall. Reporting on his progress Maru says he has been to the field once and is planning to go back and collect data in September and October, after the rainy season. In April 2011, he successfully presented a paper on the preliminary findings of his research at the International Conference on Global Land Grabbing, jointly organised by Land Deals Politics Initiative ( LDPI) in collaboration with the Journal of Peasant Studies and hosted by the Future Agricultures Consortium at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. Maru has also submitted a draft PhD proposal to his mentor. He expects to produce a policy brief and a journal article before his fellowship concludes.

Yasin Salah is a fellow under the pastoralism and climate themes. His research is investigating the extent to which the pastoralist communities are relying on the indigenous gums and resins as an alternative income generating activity and the conditions under which it perform safety net function in the Garbatulla area of Northern Kenya. The research is also looking at whether the income generated from the sale of the gums and resins are used in supporting livestock keeping activity. Yasin has recently completed his field work. He is being mentored by seasoned FAC researchers Jeremy Lind and Lars Otto Naess and is also getting guidance from Susie Wren from Bio-Enterprise Development Programme based in Nanyuki, Kenya. Yasin says his mentors have been very instrumental in guiding his research, such as helping him to identify suitable study area location and in formulating clearly structured questionnaires. He is now in the process of data entry, analysis and literature review. From his research, he targets to produce a working paper, a policy brief and topical debate around the issue of pastoralists and climate change. He is on schedule to delivering all the outputs within the set time.

Leocardia Nabwire from Uganda has also made good progress with her research, which is looking at whether the strategy to modernise agriculture in Uganda is sufficient to deliver poverty reduction. In May and June 2011, she conducted fieldwork from farmer organisations, focusing on modernisation and commercialisation of agriculture in Kabale and Kisoro districts of Uganda. She has also been working very closely with a team from Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute who have supported her pre and post fieldwork research. She is currently analysing the field data and hopes to complete a working paper by end of this August, 2011 as well as submit two policy briefs by end of November, 2011.

Nancy Laibuni, a fellow from Kenya is conducting research on the structural characteristics of potato markets in Kenya under the agricultural commercialisation theme. She is being mentored by experienced FAC researcher John Omiti. She has already collected data and is currently analysing the data so that she can produce a research paper. She is also planning to write an article for submission to a journal as well as produce a policy brief from her research.

For more information on the fellowship and to know who our fellows are go to the fellowship page.