Regional workshop in Oman on socioeconomic assessment

As part of the activities of the regional project on “Adaptation to climate change in WANA marginal environments through sustainable crop and livestock diversification” the International Center for Biosalinse Agricultue (ICBA) organized a regional workshop on “Guidelines and methods for socioeconomic assessment and farm surveys” in Muscat, Oman from 6 to 8 Januarys 2013. The workshop was followed by a farmers’ field day on “Techniques for on-farm forage processing, handling and utilization” on 9 January. The course was organized by ICBA in collaboration with the Directorate General of Agriculture and Livestock Research (DGALR) of Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in Oman. The workshop was attended by 30 participants from Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Yemen.

The workshop aims at meeting the Interest and demands for regional experts’ capacity building (for member countries that joined the project at later stage and for countries with less capacity in such areas). The workshop objectives were to enhance basic methods and skills in socioeconomic studies as relevant to the applications of the ACC project, basic methods and skills in farm surveys and practical application and farm surveys.

Dr Abdullah Dakheel, Project Coordinator chaired the sessions where all participants reviewed during the workshop the relevance of the socio-economic studies to the forage and climate change adaptation project and dealt with surveys planning, implementation and data analysis.

A field day to Omani farmers was attended by the participants of the workshop in addition to around 15 farmers. A field practice on the techniques for on-farm forage processing, handling and utilization was given on 9 January by Dr Hassan El-Shaer of the Desert Research Center in Egypt.