Suchergebnisse

The Raya-Kobo valley is characterized by good groundwater resources potential (excess of 198 Mm3) located in northern Ethiopia. The total area of the valley is approximated to be 3510 Km2. Despite this potential of groundwater, the area has been suffering from droughts. Establishment and expansion of cooperative societies, small business enterprises and irrigation farming were given priority as interventions to address the food security problem in the valley. These interventions were designed and implemented in the last several years by the regional governments administrating the Raya-Kobo valley, and groundwater is used as a source of water for irrigation farming for more than nine to ten years. Nevertheless, food insecurity is still a major problem in the area. The present study has been conducted to investigate the extent of contribution of the groundwater based intervention in the elimination food insecurity. The study was conducted by collecting, analyzing and interpreting all the existing relevant data of the study area. Groundwater potential was compiled from the author's previous works and recently conducted research works. The impact of the groundwater based irrigation on food security issues was assessed using informal and formal interviews and focus group discussions. Limited area coverage of the irrigated land and the long time taken for the extension works in those drilled productive wells are the major limitations in the Kobo valley that makes the groundwater based irrigation unable to release the farmers of the area from the food insecurity. In Raya valley, besides to these problems, absence of responsible office, failure of pump, and the long time taken for pump maintenance are also the major factors. In Raya-Kobo valley food security is highly related to the availability of water. Irrigating the whole potential irrigable area, increasing and sustaining availability of groundwater and management of the irrigation scheme are vital to eradicate food insecurity from Raya-Kobo valley.

The Raya-Kobo valley is characterized by good groundwater resources potential (excess of 198 Mm3) located in northern Ethiopia. The total area of the valley is approximated to be 3510 Km2. Despite this potential of groundwater, the area has been suffering from droughts. Establishment and expansion of cooperative societies, small business enterprises and irrigation farming were given priority as interventions to address the food security problem in the valley. These interventions were designed and implemented in the last several years by the regional governments administrating the Raya-Kobo valley, and groundwater is used as a source of water for irrigation farming for more than nine to ten years. Nevertheless, food insecurity is still a major problem in the area. The present study has been conducted to investigate the extent of contribution of the groundwater based intervention in the elimination food insecurity. The study was conducted by collecting, analyzing and interpreting all the existing relevant data of the study area. Groundwater potential was compiled from the author's previous works and recently conducted research works. The impact of the groundwater based irrigation on food security issues was assessed using informal and formal interviews and focus group discussions. Limited area coverage of the irrigated land and the long time taken for the extension works in those drilled productive wells are the major limitations in the Kobo valley that makes the groundwater based irrigation unable to release the farmers of the area from the food insecurity. In Raya valley, besides to these problems, absence of responsible office, failure of pump, and the long time taken for pump maintenance are also the major factors. In Raya-Kobo valley food security is highly related to the availability of water. Irrigating the whole potential irrigable area, increasing and sustaining availability of groundwater and management of the irrigation scheme are vital to eradicate food insecurity from Raya-Kobo valley.

Sustainability transitions as processes of fundamental change in societal systems are open-ended, nonlinear and uncertain. Respective research and governance approaches, e.g. transition management, propose a reflexive way of governing, aiming for a number of social effects to help facilitating a transition. Effects include empowerment, social learning and social capital development. Jointly mentioned social effects shall allow for reflexivity and innovation in developing socially robust and contextualized solutions to sustainability challenges that work in practice. Still, understanding mentioned social effects and their interplay more in depth is needed to design and assess transition management processes. While such understanding and related assessment framework is under development in transition management literature, transdisciplinary sustainability research can provide a rich body of tools and experiences. Building on a review of respective literature, this article develops an evaluation framework focusing on social effects as important and hitherto under conceptualised aspects of sustainability transitions literature. This framework is used to empirically investigate the effects of two specific transition management processes at local scale. Doing so, the article provides a conceptual and empirical understanding of how social effects contribute to a transition towards sustainability. Results highlight the importance and possibilities of addressing sustainability as an inherent quality of social effects aimed for.