USAID administrators from The Ethiopia Mission and the Washington-based Bureau for Food Security and the ILSSI External Advisory Committee have visited research sites on 17-19 May 2017 in farmer’s fields where ILSSI and related SIPSIN projects are being led by Bahir Dar University faculty (Dr Seifu A Tilahun) and more than 15 MSc and PhD students. The objective was to see firsthand the field research that has been underway since 2014 and to interact with staff, students, and farmers engaged in this research. Innovation Lab for Small Scale Irrigation (ILSSI) and Sustainably Intensified Production Systems Impact on Nutrition (SIPSIN), a part of the Sustainable Intensification Innovation Laboratory (SIIL), cooperate in field based research and analysis in research which is centered on a collaboration with Bahir Dar University. ILSSI partners include Texas A&M, the lead institution, the International Water Management Institute, the International Livestock Research Institute, the International Food Policy Research Institute and North Carolina A&T.
It was agreed that ILSSI continues to evolve in a very impressive way. With the its current engagements at field level, the advisory committee sees clear evidence that the project is moving towards its goal of affecting the livelihoods of people through the successful generation and adoption of small scale irrigation product and know-how.
The advisory committee was also impressed with the involvement of students in conducting field research while using the data for graduate thesis.
The participants were USAID mission from USA embassy in Addis Ababa; USAID from USA DC office; IWMI; ILSSI Advisory Committee; faculties from Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University; ILRI.
