Margeret Nyaga was one of the first PhD students to be engaged in the project and she is already in the middle of her data collection in the field.
Margeret holds a Master of Science degree in Range Management from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. Her research and academic interests are covering rangeland ecology (especially fodder production), range condition assessments and monitoring, rehabilitation of highly degraded areas, improvement of pastoral livelihoods and biodiversity conservation.
Margeret got to know about the Drylands Transform project early since she knew and was working with the Kenyan country coordinator Dr. Stephen Mureithi since her undergraduate studies. Due to the early interest in the project Margeret was privileged to join the field reconnaissance visit in January 2021 as a research assistant.
“The project sites were promising and very good to demonstrate to the community that degraded, less productive and neglected lands can be transformed into more productive lands”
Margeret is packing equipment for one of her field trips. Photo: James Drew
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Currently Margeret is one of the PhD students in the project, focusing on fodder production and the restoration of the drylands through the knowledge-sharing hubs called Livestock Cafés.
Margeret is currently collecting her dry season data on the most preferred fodder species by different types of livestock. This data collection will be repeated during the wet season later during the year. Margeret is also looking forward to setting up the experimental plots for different fodder grasses in the Livesock cafés.
The main challenge that Margeret can see witht the work in the project will be unreliable and unpredictable rainfall patterns.
Drylands Transform is a 4-year research project funded by Formas that started up during the Covid-19 pandemic in October 2020. It includes an interdisciplinary research team representing SLU and seven other universities and international organisations from Sweden, Kenya and Uganda.
Aida Bargues Tobella, Postdoctor
Department of Forest Ecology and Management, SLU
aida.bargues.tobella@slu.se, +46907868346
Denis Mpairwe, Professor
Department of Agricultural Production, Makerere University, Uganda
dmpairwe@caes.mak.ac.ug, dmpairwe@gmail.com
Ewa Wredle, Senior Lecturer
Department of Animal Nutrition and Management, SLU
ewa.wredle@slu.se, +4618672699, +46703235232
Gert Nyberg, Researcher
Department of Forest Ecology and Management, SLU
gert.nyberg@slu.se, +46907868255, +46702947577
Stephen Mureithi, Dr., Lecturer
Department of Land Resource Management and Agricultural Technology
University of Nairobi, Kenya
stemureithi@uonbi.ac.ke, +254 203592736-9