Achievement

IGERT faculty Paul Leslie is leading a multi-institutional collaborative research project using mixed-methods to understand the patterns and processes of livelihood diversification. The team has combined household survey data with rainfall records, ethnographic data, and remote sensing imagery to evaluate the drivers of agriculture adoption by Maasai herders in Tanzania. Preliminary findings suggest that agriculture adoption is influenced by a variety of factors including natural resource access, household and regional demographics, political-economic context, and cultural norms. This information is relevant to guiding livelihood and land use policy in the face of climate change, food production shortages, and resource management challenges. Their work was also presented at a public symposium at UNC, and is also highlighted in a campus research and arts publication.