Community and stakeholders Workshop on the Use of Prosopis Julifora (Mezquite) to Improve Welfare of Communities in the Arid and Semi-arid Zones of Tanzania, Mwanga District from 11th to 14th January 2020.
Dr. Oscar Koech from the University of Nairobi (UoN), Department of Land Resource Management and Agricultural Technology (LARMAT) participated in a workshop under the project “Studying the Use of Mezquite to Improve Welfare of Communities in Arid and Semi-arid Zones of the World”. The project is funded by GCRF, Research England, as part of an Interdisciplinary Research Project Award 2019 led by Dr. Gonzalez Carranza as Principal investigator from the University of Nottingham with partners from Kenya- Dr. Oscar Koech- Co-PI and Tanzania led by Prof. George Kajembe and Dr. Charles Kilawe of the Sokoine Agriculture University. The workshop brought together partners from Mexico, UK, Kenya, and Tanzania within the collaborative research and outreach. The project's long term ambition is to improve the welfare of less advantaged community groups in the drylands of developing countries, including Mexico, Kenya, and Tanzania using Prosopis resource. This will be achieved through the sharing of knowledge and technologies in the utilization and commercialization of the tree products. The project seeks to support efforts towards sustainable utilization of the Prosopis tree through the sharing of traditional and indigenous knowledge from the project member states (Mexico, UK, Kenya, and Tanzania) and enhance the research capability and innovation on the use and management of Prosopis. This workshop facilitated the exchange of knowledge and ideas between the communities of Langata Bora village in Tanzania with researchers from UK, Mexico, Kenya and Tanzania. The team was able to come up with strategies to explore sustainable invasive Prosopis management in the three counties.
