Emnet Negash

Ghent University | UGhent · Department of Geography

Flood‐based farming is a means of improving crop production in rain‐deficit lowlands. Such spate irrigation systems are growing in importance, although the effects of headwater hydrological deficit on downstream flood farming are lacking evidence. This study investigates the impacts of headwater hydrological deficit on the extent of spate‐irrigated...

Land use and the associated ecosystem service functions vary with changes in agroecological conditions. This study analyzed distribution of ecosystem service values along the agroecological gradient in Borena landscape. Land cover information was extracted from Landsat satellite images; and ecosystem service values estimated using established globa...

During the 2021 conflict in Tigray (north Ethiopia) crop cultivation has been hampered by warfare. Oxen have been looted and killed, farm inputs and tools destroyed by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers. Farmers felt vulnerable out in the open with their oxen. To produce, farmers evaluated risks involved with ploughing and organised lookouts. Overall,...

The consequences of prolonged precipitation-deficient periods are primarily substantial water deficit. The spatial characteristics of drylands and various socioeconomic factors worsen droughts’ impacts and deepen poverty among agrarian communities, with attendant food security (stability dimension) implications. This study utilizes a combination of...

In recent years, armed conflicts are globally on the rise, causing drastic human and environmental harm. The Tigray war in Ethiopia is one of the recent violent conflicts that has abruptly reversed decades of ecosystem restoration efforts. This paper analyzes changes in woody vegetation cover during the period of armed conflict (2020–2022) using re...

Small farms contribute to a large share of the productive land in developing countries. In regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, where 80% of farms are small (under 2 ha in size), the task of mapping smallholder cropland is an important part of tracking sustainability measures such as crop productivity. However, the visually diverse and nuanced appea...

READ THE ARTICLE AT: https://theconversation.com/ethiopia-how-a-lucky-village-in-tigray-survived-the-devastating-war-205023 _______________________ The war waged by the Ethiopian Federal Government and Eritrea against the Tigray regional government, which lasted from November 2020 to November 2022, caused massive devastation. Multiple war crimes we...

The Ethiopian highlands are home to more than 90% of the Ethiopian population and constitute for 90% of total area suitable for agriculture (Hurni et al., 2010). The livelihood of 66% of Ethiopia's population depends on subsistence agriculture, mostly rainfed. Little rainfall variability can therefore cause massive economic loss for farmers reliant...

On November 4th, 2020 a deadly civil war broke out in Tigray, Ethiopia displacing close to 2 million people internally and more than 48,000 refugees in neighboring Sudan by August 2021[1]. Given agriculture is the livelihood of millions of people in Tigray, evaluation of the conflict’s impact on cultivated land and the consequent crop production is...

EDITOR's NOTE: The people of Tigray owe their survival to no-one but themselves. This remarkable report is by a multi-author team from the universities of Mekelle and Ghent. It focuses on the small village of Dabba Selama and tells this story. As Tigray emerges from its imposed isolation and silence, this is one tale among many. In this case it’s a...

The war in Tigray, Ethiopia has displaced millions of people and created a humanitarian crisis. However, the impacts of the conflict on cultivated land area and local food production remains poorly quantified, hindering aid efforts. We used Sentinel-2 satellite imagery and developed multiple cultivation detection criteria based on Normalized Differ...

Continued ecosystem damage could eventually make Tigray part of a wider desert connecting the Sahel to the Afar Triangle, a scenario which may render the area uninhabitable. Access full text here: https://www.ethiopia-insight.com/2023/02/22/war-and-siege-inflicted-damage-on-tigrays-ecosystem/

Tigray's wartime landscape-a regional geographical study in the Tembien highlands (HANDOUT) Highlights • We made harrowing observations that are consistent with our past findings on failing crop yields, famine, and death toll in the Tigray war. • Many major findings hold true across the ten studied settlements and their surroundings. • In terms of...

--- ETHIOPIA INSIGHT --- The principles of academic freedom have been violated amid the civil war and universities have contributed to wartime abuses in a variety of ways. ----- FULL ARTICLE ---> https://www.ethiopia-insight.com/2022/12/24/ethiopian-universities-have-infringed-on-human-rights-during-the-tigray-war/

https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.951344 -------> Since late 2020, one of the worst wars has been raging in Tigray, Ethiopia's northernmost region. A humanitarian tragedy has been caused by the fighting (Dedefo Bedaso 2021; Annys et al. 2021). Intense fighting occurred throughout the whole region, and looting and damage were rampant. Farmers...

On November 4th, 2020 a deadly civil war broke out in Tigray, Ethiopia characterized by communication blackout leaving the region without access to cell service or internet. Given agriculture is the livelihood of millions of people in Tigray, evaluation of the conflict’s impact on cultivated land and the consequent crop production is critical for g...

Hoewel de mensenrechtenschendingen in Qatar nu veel aandacht krijgen, blijven andere humanitaire rampen compleet onder onze radar. Een schrijnend voorbeeld hiervan is Tigray (Ethiopië). Bovenop een gewapend conflict, kreeg de regio de COVID-19-pandemie en een sprinkhanenplaag te verwerken. Professor in de geografie Jan Nyssen en zijn team (UGent)...

Due to war conditions, the local farmers had to largely rely on their own crop production, mainly by subsistence farming, in Tigray, North Ethiopia. We assessed the crop stands in 2021 and evaluated the level of resilience of the indigenous farming system. Quantitative data were collected from 161 farm parcels in various ecoregions of this tropical...

Due to war conditions, the local farmers had to largely rely on their own crop production, mainly by subsistence farming, in Tigray, North Ethiopia. We assessed the crop stands in 2021 and evaluated the level of resilience of the indigenous farming system. Quantitative data were collected from 161 farm parcels in various ecoregions of this tropical...

In view of our geographical research expertise in the tropical mountains of Tigray (north Ethiopia) since 1994, our focus was deflected from geomorphology and environmental management to casualty recording and survival strategies, after the Tigray War started in November 2020. We created the "Atlas of the Humanitarian Situation", in which we chroni...

262 agricultural plots were sampled in August 2022 by a team of geographers in six Tigray districts with contrasting biophysical characteristics. 15% of the observed agricultural plots were fallowed. Cereals had been planted on three-quarters of all the parcels. 71% of the tef lands were in bad condition, while 76% of the wheat and barley fields we...

Increasing drought patterns with profound effects on livelihoods and food security have been documented in Ethiopia. From previous studies, assessments at various timescales, Ethiopia is regarded as a drought-prone country in East Africa. However, there is no documentation available. This paper investigates the spatiotemporal patterns of drought ch...

Military conflicts strongly affect agricultural activities. This has strong implications for people’s livelihoods when agriculture is the backbone of the economy. We assessed the effect of the Tigray conflict on farming activities using freely available remote sensing data. For detecting greenness, a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) wa...

There was hunger in Tigray (north Ethiopia) throughout the most of 2021 due to the effects of the Tigray conflict (which began in early November 2020). Armed forces from Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the neighboring Amhara region fought against the forces of Tigray's regional government in the first half of the year; in the second half of the year, warfar...

In this database, we attempt to document the widespread involvement of Ethiopian public universities in the war in Tigray. In general, Ethiopian universities have provided financial and material support to the Ethiopian army and allied forces, practiced discrimination of their students and staff members of Tigrayan origin, including harassment and...

Conversion of native pasturelands to cultivated land led to a decline in soil fertility resulting in low agricultural productivity. This study attempted to investigate the magnitude and rate of pastureland to cultivated land conversion and the associated impact on selected soil properties. The study was conducted in three villages of Ofla district,...

At the beginning of November 2020, an armed conflict emerged in Tigray, Ethiopia’s northernmost region. The objective of this ‘Atlas of the Humanitarian Situation’ is to document and map the situation in which approximately 6 million Tigrayans currently find themselves. For this, we contacted key informants in different districts of Tigray to colle...

Conflict has deep historical roots in the horn of Africa, particularly in Ethiopia. Such conflicts often go hand in hand with humanitarian catastrophes including famine and mass-displacement (Annys et al. 2021). The Tigray region of Ethiopia has experienced such conflict induced catastrophes in the 1984/85 (Deckers et al. 2020), and now again (Nyss...

At the beginning of November 2020, after months of rising political tensions, an armed conflict emerged between the Government of Ethiopia and the - now ousted - Tigray Regional Government. As the conflict arose in the aftermath of a destructive locust plague and on top of the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, soon the realization came that the conflict w...

Topoclimate, orographic rains on windward slopes and leeward rain shadow control the rainfall variability in tropical mountains (Van den Hende et al., 2021). Such rainfall variability has a substantial societal impact. For instance, they can cause differences in the wealth of rain-fed agriculture farmers among the windward and leeward sides of the...

At the beginning of November 2020, an armed conflict emerged in Tigray, Ethiopia’s northernmost region, in the aftermath of a destructive locust plague and in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In the conflict, the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) and its allies – formal and informal military factions of the adjacent Amhara region...

Event website: https://cfas.howard.edu/tigray, and Event recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eivJjTWqmc

Ethiopia and its northern region of Tigray have been in conflict for about a year now. The political power struggle that had been going on for decades escalated a year ago when Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered a military offensive. The conflict is putting hundreds of thousands of people in Tigray at risk of starvation and famine. Tigra...

This study aims at characterizing agricultural drought in Ethiopia and understanding the effects of drought on crop yield. Monthly, seasonal and annual Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) values were calculated using MODIS (MOD13Q1) from the year 2003 to 2017. The relationships between NDVI, VCI, and c...

Ethiopia is a mountainous country known for its distinct topography ranging from alpine environment to desert-like conditions along the rift valley. Topoclimate, orographic rains on windward slopes and leeward rain shadow control rainfall variability in tropical mountains (Van den Hende et al., 2021). Such variability has a substantial societal imp...

Collecting field data on 161 sampling sites in very difficult conditions has allowed us to evaluate the status of cropping in part of the Tigray region of Ethiopia, by the end of August 2021. We have observed that local farming communities are remarkably resilient, also in times of conflict and instability. Relying on indigenous knowledge and local...

Since fighting broke out in November 2020 between the Tigrayan regional government and the Ethiopian army, the conflict has wreaked havoc on the lives of people living in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Over 9,500 civilian deaths have been documented, with many more unrecorded. In addition about 2 million people have been displaced and at least 400,...

The damage to human and material resources of the Tigray universities (Ethiopia) inflicted by nine months of war against Tigray is presented in a qualitative way. We used interview methods, and only triangulated findings are represented. It is a story of large-scale destructions...

Since November 2020, a civil war is taking place in Tigray (north Ethiopia), where about 75% of the active population are farmers. Here, we present the state of ploughing in Tigray’s war conditions, early in the 2021 rainy season and discuss contextual factors. Early May 2021, around Mekelle, very few croplands have been ploughed, as compared to th...

The consequences of prolonged precipitation-deficient periods are primarily substantial water deficit, with the spatial characteristics of a place being (semi)arid, and various socioeconomic factors worsening its impacts and deepening poverty among agrarian communities.This study utilizes a combination of climate, remote sensing and field survey da...

The consequences of prolonged precipitation-deficient periods are primarily substantial water deficit, with the spatial characteristics of drylands and various socioeconomic factors worsening its impacts and deepening poverty among agrarian communities, with attendant food security implications. This study utilizes a combination of climate, remote...

Agriculture remains the dominant source of food production and the livelihood foundation for majority of the rural poor in the sub-Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia. Access to agricultural-water is, however, a limitation hindering crop productivity and end food insecurity in the drylands. In rain-deficit lowlands such as in the Raya-valley, flood-...

This study analyzes the impact of land use/land cover (LULC) changes on the hydrology of the dry Afromontane forest landscape in northern Ethiopia. Landsat satellite images of thematic mapper (TM) (1986), TM (2001), and Operational Land Imager (OLI) (2018) were employed to assess LULC. All of the images were classified while using the maximum likel...

Integrated watershed management (IWSM) technologies have been implemented around the world, including in the northern highlands of Ethiopia during the last few decades. However, their role in improving soil-health along different geological formations is not well studied. This study was, thus, aimed at quantifying the impact of IWSM on soil-health...

Irrigated agriculture in the rainfall‐deficit semi‐arid lowlands of the Raya valley rely on spate systems to produce food crops. Climate and land‐cover dynamics upstream are, however, threatening runoff response reaching these spate systems. The objective of this study was thus to analyse the hydrological response of dryland catchments to changing...

Spate-irrigation, a system foreseen as a potential means of improving agricultural production in rainfall deficit lowlands, is profoundly threatened by climate and land-cover change upstream. Yet, the actual implications of these changes on spate has not been well studied. The objective of this study was thus to analyze the hydrological-response of...