LASER PULSE team visits Vietnam Projects Partners

On July 2, 2024, Suzi Cyr, Program Director, and Betty Bugusu, Technical Director visited with representatives from three of the five LASER PULSE projects in Vietnam. The meeting took place at the Plant Resource Center (PRC), hosted by Dr. Vu Dang Toan, a plant breeder at PRC and the Principal Investigator (PI) of the...

Kigali Group Photo

Skills Enhancement for Dairy Value Chain Actors to Increase the Quality and Safety of Milk in Rwanda

One of the objectives of the project “Impact of Traditional Practice on the Quality and Safety of Post-Production Handling in the Milk Value-Chain in Rwanda" is to develop an intervention mechanism to reduce postproduction losses in the Rwandan milk value chain. The project is currently being implemented in Rwanda by Alabama A&M University (AAMU)...

Washington Office Event on Shaping Social Cohesion Initiatives in Iraq

Researchers from Notre Dame’s Pulte Institute for Global Development discussed their efforts to identify and restore traditional agricultural methods used by minority groups in Iraq during an event on Tuesday, June 13, at the Keough School Washington Office. The rise of the Islamic State and other sectarian tensions led to violence that killed tens of thousands...

Kizito Nishimwe

LASER PULSE Project Launches on Milk Value Chain in Rwanda

Dr. Lamin Kassama, Professor at Alabama A&M University, USA, and Principal Investigator of the new project on “The Impact of Traditional Practice on the Quality and Safety of Post-Production Handling in the Milk Value-Chain,” funded by USAID through LASER PULSE, traveled to Rwanda from March 11th – 18th, 2023 to launch project activities. The...

Market Analysis for Olive Farmers in the Nineveh Plain of Northern Iraq

By Carlos Rosales, Visiting Scholar, Purdue University; Ariana Torres, Associate Professor, Purdue University; Asaad Karam, University of Duhok; and Rezgar Mohammed, University of Duhok Supporting partners: University of Duhok, Purdue University, LASER PULSE

About the Project

This LASER PULSE-funded project's overarching goal is to comprehend the connections between agricultural landscapes and cultural significance, in order to...

Photo by Raul De Los Santos on Unsplash

LASER PULSE Partners with Minority Serving Institutions in Development Research

Researchers in Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) represent a significant resource of scientific talent to partner with USAID in development research. Development research, in turn, provides new opportunities to MSI researchers to increase the impact of their research and secure new valuable research funding. In view of USAID’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Strategy, the...

Technology Tools for Building Resilience of Dairy Farms and Improving Dairy Production in Rwanda project

Professors Facilitate Rwanda Workshops on Dairy Management and Feed Technology

Between April and June, Professors Geoffrey Dahl and Diwakar Viyas (University of Florida), as well as Dirk Maier (Iowa State University), facilitated three workshops at the University of Rwanda - Nyagatare, to equip students in the students in the School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Production with knowledge and skills in the feed value chain...

Panel on Agricultural Extension, at UoD Conference Center

Conference on the Linkages Between Agriculture and Social-Religious Expressions Held in Duhok, Iraq

Between June 11 and 13, 2022, the University of Duhok hosted a two-day workshop and a full-day conference on the recovery of social and cultural practices of religious and ethnic minorities affected by the Islamic State occupation, and the role agricultural extension and ecological rejuvenation could play in the recognition and restitution of people’s beliefs,...

Lessons Learned From Participatory Workshops in Nuquí, Colombia

Nuquí, Colombia is one of the world’s greatest biodiversity’s places, located on the Pacific Ocean as a municipality in the Chocó department. The area is known not just because of its biological diversity, but also its cultural diversity; it is inhabited by several cultures with key ancestral knowledge. “Doña Cruz”, sazonera de Coquí, presenta sus delicias...

Northern Iraq

LASER PULSE Project Engaging in Research to Support Cultural Restoration in Northern Iraq

Between 2014 and 2017 hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed, and millions of individuals were displaced, due to the Islamic State’s (IS) occupation and the subsequent military campaign to defeat its forces. IS particularly targeted minority communities living in Ninewa province in northern Iraq. Regional livelihoods based on farming and animal husbandry were devastated....