Typha Project Nigeria
Supported by TRIMING, funded by the World Bank, 2017-2020.
Typha Project is converting a huge articulutral threat into economic opportunities to improve livelihoods of local communities, in a sustainable manner.
Four local and foreign academic actors working together to merge expertise and collaboratively unite towards innovative solutions to resolve this threat.
Typha Project is turning local community members into co-researchers, as a fifth partner, with particular emphasis on women.
Typha Project is born as an action research component of TRIMING (Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria), funded by the World Bank, 2017-2020.
Typha Project is located in Hadejia Valley Irrigation District in northern Nigeria, where invasive Typha has become a priority for the Federal Government. This weed has invaded water infrastructure and agricultural lands, with serious consequences on economic activities, health and welfare of local communities.
Typha Project turns local communities into co-researchers through focus groups. with particular emphasis on women participation.
Two novel technologies are being developed to convert Typha threat into economic opportunities for the people in the area. These are pointing to the most serious poverty issues in this particular context: access to clean and affordable energy and shortage of animal feed especially during dry season.
Transferring these novel technologies will be of considerable value to help diversify the economy and create significant welfare improvements for the Nigerian people.
As Typha is a threat beyond northern Nigeria, lessons learned in this project could be applied in other similar contexts.