The meeting focused on the project P083_Ethiopia_Kenya “Gender Inclusion Partnership: Peanut Production Improvements and Aflatoxin Mitigation for Food Security and Nutrition in East Africa” | (GenParPAflm), which is jointly implemented by Haramaya (PI), Egerton University and the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna. The project is active since June 2023 and will run until June 2025. It aims to improve groundnut production and gender participation while addressing aflatoxin issues to promote food safety and security in East Africa. In this project, two MSc students, one from Haramaya University and one from Egerton University, are conducting their thesis research as part of this initiative.
In addition, the recently launched KoEF185_Weedy Peanut-EA project "Prevalence, Economic Importance and Management of Yellow Witchweed (Alectra vogelii B.) in Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) in East Africa" focuses on identifying parasitic peanut weeds, germplasm screening, and management. This project, also a partnership with the same institutions, includes the support of a PhD student who has already started his fieldwork at HU.
These projects not only foster valuable collaborations with regional and international partners, but also increase the university's global visibility and contribute to human capital development by supporting graduate students.
As such, the Haramaya and Egerton project teams contribute significantly to the Africa-UniNet and KoEF programmes' mission of strengthening regional and international cooperation and the UN's SDGs agenda in the implementation of demand-driven and problem-solving research in East African countries.
