NBI and ASARECA explore corporation in water use efficiency
“There are clear areas of corporation among us. We can work around water management and in establishing and out scaling water efficient infrastructure for households and farmers in the sub-region,” NBI Executive Director, Dr. Matemu.
By Ben Moses Ilakut.
The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) and ASARECA have held ice-breaking talks to explore areas of mutual interest and collaboration. In a meeting on November 18, in Entebbe, Uganda, ASARECA Interim Executive Director, Dr. Enock Warinda, and the NBI Executive Director Eng. Sylvester Matemu, agreed that both institutions deal with efficient use of similar resources, especially soil and water to make a change in the livelihoods of the regions citizens.
“There are clear areas of corporation among us. We can work around water management and in establishing and out scaling water efficient infrastructure for households and farmers in the sub-region,” said Dr. Matemu. “This has a direct implication on agriculture just as it does to livelihoods.”
Dr. Warinda interested Eng. Matemu in Technologies, Innovations and Management Practices (TIMPs) developed by ASARECA coordinated scientists in the National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs) in the sub-region
The meeting came a day after NBI invited ASARECA Interim Executive Director, Dr. Enock Warinda to their headquarters in Entebbe, Uganda to witness the hand-over of a land title from the Government of Uganda to NBI. The secretariats of NBI and ASARECA are all located, in Entebbe, Uganda within the proximity of ‘each other’.
Dr Warinda reiterated his earlier remarks that ASARECA and NBI partnership is strategic because all the 11 Nile Basin countries excluding Egypt, but including Eritrea, the observer member, are part of the ASARECA 14 member states.
The Nile Basin Initiative is an intergovernmental partnership of 10 Nile Basin countries, namely Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, The Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Eritrea participates as an observer. It is an all-inclusive basin-wide institution established in 1999 to provide a forum for consultation and coordination among the Basin States for the sustainable management and development of the shared Nile Basin water and related resources for win-win benefits.
The Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) is a not-for-profit sub-regional organization of the National Agriculture Research Systems of fourteen countries namely: Burundi, Cameroun, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Kenya, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. ASARECA is mandated to coordinate and convene human, physical, financial and institutional capital to implement Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) initiatives in Eastern and Central Africa (ECA).