Date: Wednesday, 28 February 2018
The National Commission for Higher Education (NCHE), in collaboration with the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), Ministries and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), established Eritrea Research Fund ERF in 2013. The finding of good research help in to encourage a vibrant culture of research in Eritrean Institutions of Higher Education.
The National Higher Education and Research Institute hosted a workshop on the 16th of February, the second of its kind this year, where the findings of Studies concerning agriculture, marine science, health, education as well as biodiversity and geology were presented.
Today Q and A presents some of the researchers who presented their individual research studies at the workshop.
First of all I presume that there has almost been no study about the economic importance of seaweeds because seaweeds have not been fully explored yet. However, they can have great economic importance if studied well. Agar and alginate can be produced easily from seaweeds. They can be used to produce plastics and also for thickening in the form of powder. Agar can also be used as a culture media in many biochemistry laboratories. Despite this, we are still importing agar. Seaweeds can be used in producing fertilizer since they are rich in ash. They can make the soil rich and this can increase production of grains and others. Seaweeds can also cure many diseases and reduce the expenses for treatment. The nutrients found in seaweeds are calcium, iodine, fiber and vitamins. The aim of the study is to analyze benefits of seaweeds and make them a big part of our economy.
Farmers make a lot of effort during the cultivation period to get enormous production. But, their efforts will be meaningless if the storage is not good. Eritrean farmers have their own methods of storing their harvest, but t h e humidity in the place of storage tends to increase the n umb e r of pests. The farmers use different ways to prevent their grains from going bad. One of the ways is keeping their grains in separate stores and consume the infected once first. But this is not a viable storage for farmers. What I saw throughout the study is that the main problem is storage. This obviously calls for a great governmental intervention as food security is one of the main concerns of the State of Eritrea. I recommend hermetic storage and airtight storage. They are helpful for food security. On top of this, farmers have to store their products in places where there is no humidity and the moisture of their products must be below 14 degree centigrade.
As Education is one of the basic rights humans are entitled to, children with intellectual disability and autism need special treatment and educational support. To overcome isolation and to make disabled students equal to other students, providing special classrooms was one of the endeavors the government and its stakeholders did in the past. So, the overall aim of the study is to identify the achievements and challenges at learner and organizational levels; as well as challenges in the initiated special class education service for children with intellectual disability autism and the other disorders. The achievements include student promotion to the next grades, giving vocational training to students, raising awareness and behavioral management of the teachers, and the creation of friendly relations among parents, teachers and students.
Eritrea is rich in bio diversity. The climatic conditions of our country, the abundant bio diversity of the Red Sea and the richness of the land make Eritrea unique. But our knowledge of bio diversity and natural resources in Eritrea will be clearer if continuous and detailed studies are done from now onwards. Similarly, the African continent is rich in natural resources and the wide spread of granite stone in the Arabian Nubian shield (ANS), in particular in the Nubian part o f North East Africa (NE), can be mentioned as Eritrea is located there. Therefore, the aim of the research is basically to study the extent of their availability and to study if economic benefits might be gained from the rocks. Apart from the study done in Nakfa, Nefasiet and Augaro regarding the availability of Intrusive rocks, research has also been conducted in Adi Tekelizan, Segeneiti and Mereb. In Dekemhare recent studies have show the existence of granite stone. Throughout the study conducted in Dekemhare, facing stones o r dimensional stones were found which were in the past brought from Gelb Subzone.
