Welcome to our blog! 📖
Here, we share the moments that make our research journey unique — from fieldwork stories and community interactions to data dives and policy discussions. Whether we’re uncovering ancient practices, modelling patterns, or learning from traditional knowledge, every step brings us closer to understanding resilience in a changing world.
Whether we’re out collecting data, crunching numbers, or making sense of ancient clues, our team is always on the move — and sometimes just trying to make sense of it all.
Join us as we dig into data, trek through the field, and occasionally laugh at our own scientific chaos!
Yours in data and dirt,
Team AGRI-DRY🌱
Farming began in a carbon-starved world
Written by Mudit Joshi Almost every headline about carbon dioxide is about harm. More CO₂ warms the climate. As the ocean absorbs…
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Building a South African pollen reference collection
Written by Alexandra Vasilyeva During my stay in South Africa, I used a day off from fieldwork to prepare a few modern…
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Beyond the Squeeze: More than Terraces
Written by Tawanda Mushweshwe Walking Through Zimbabwe’s Ancient Farming Landscapes at Ziwa National Monument This blog follows my earlier AGRI-DRY reflection, “Is…
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Beyond the University Walls: My Fieldwork Journey in Ethiopia
Written by Wudu Abiye Abebaw When I started my PhD journey, I knew it would involve long hours of reading journal articles,…
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AGRI-DRY in Mpumalanga: Highlights from ASAPA 2026
Written by Kayla Mac Conachie In July 2026, members of the AGRI-DRY project travelled to the University of Mpumalanga in Mbombela, South…
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Seeds of Tradition: Ethnographic Fieldwork in the Bobirwa Region, Eastern Botswana
Written by Mncedisi Taala One of the best parts of my AGRI-DRY PhD journey is fieldwork. My research involves spending time in…
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Latest news from Agri-Dry
Fieldwork concluded: Sampling for pollen in South Africa
In September, AGRI-DRY doctoral researcher Alexandra Vasilyeva from the University of Glasgow carried out her final fieldwork campaign. With her team, she travelled across parts of South Africa’s North West Province, surveying a range of vegetation types around the Vredefort Dome and further north. The main goal was to collect surface soil samples for pollen…
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Connecting Research and Local Knowledge for Sustainable Land Management in Ethiopia
AGRI-DRY doctoral researcher Wudu Abiye from the University of the Witwatersrand recently held an outreach and dissemination workshop in Ethiopia, bringing together farmers and representatives from government and non-governmental organisations. Wudu shared preliminary findings from his PhD research and discussed them with participants working directly with land degradation and sustainable land management. Farmers were central…
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AGRI-DRY call for PanAf abstracts
Submit an abstract for the PanAf Congress Session organised by AGRI-DRY! Our session is titled “People, climate, and landscape dynamics in African drylands”, encouraging cross-disciplinary discussions on human–environment interactions in the past, present, and future. Click here to submit your abstract!Abstract submission deadline: 30 March 2026Maputo, Mozambique, 26–31 July 2026 The Pan-African Archaeological Association Congress…
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AGRI-DRY call for INQUA abstracts
AGRI-DRY advertises a call for abstracts for INQUA 2027 India! Our session, titled “Adaptive Agricultural Landscapes in Drylands: Archaeology and Environmental Insights from the AGRI-DRY Network”, is organised by AGRI-DRY co-leaders Prof. Nicki Whitehouse and Prof. Marco Madella. 🔗 Submission: https://www.inquaindia2027.in/🗓 Abstract submission deadline: 15 February 2026📍 The INQUA Congress will be held from 28 January…
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AGRI-DRY call for ASAPA abstracts
We announce a call for abstracts for the AGRI-DRY session, “Past Environments, Future Adaptation: Archaeology as a Tool for Policy Making”, at the ASAPA 2026 Conference organised by the Association of Southern African Professional Archaeologists. Poster credit: Kayla Mac Conachie 🔗 Submissions: https://asapa2026.co.za/submissions.php🗓 Abstract submission deadline: 31 January 2026📍 The conference will be held from…
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AGRI-DRY team undertake preliminary ethnographic fieldwork in Botswana
On the 18th and 19th of November 2025, AGRI-DRY Doctoral Candidates (DC 3 Sara Scaglia; DC 6 Sara Krubeck; DC 7 Thamary Mukuya; and DC 10 Mncedisi Taala) carried out preliminary ethnographic fieldwork in Eastern Botswana. They were supported by members of the AGRI-DRY Supervisory Team, namely Marco Madella, Sarah Mothulatshipi, and Lokwalo Thabeng. The…
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