Current Projects:
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ACCA Lab is currently leading the PAMOCPP and Climate Change Indexes Projects and also involved in other projects. Interested PhD students and post doctoral fellows are encouraged to contact the director of ACCA lab to discuss their research interests. The ongoing projects are:
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1. Pan Moroccan Yield and Precipitation Gaps Platform and App (PAMOCPP)
Pan Moroccan Yield and Precipitation Gaps Platform and App (PAMOCPP). This project is led by Prof. Epule (PI) and it is funded by OCP Africa and UM6P at about 10.8 million dirhams for the next three years. This project is by far our largest project and we are currently hiring two PhDs and two PDFs to join the team of two existing PhDs and other partners at the ACCA LAB. Wiam Salih and Soumia Achli, doctoral students are working on this project. Among other things, this project aims at:
a. WP1: A synthesis of crop models used in Morocco
b. WP2: National scale and catchment area scale modelling of yield gaps in the Tensift and Chichaoua
c. WP3: Population perceptions of yield and precipitation gaps in the Tensift and Chichaoua
d. WP4: Closing yield and precipitation gaps through nutrient and water management
e. WP5: Using machine learning to predict yield gaps and the creation of a data platform and a climate smart agricultural App for crop calendars.
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2. Climate and Land Use Change Indexes:
a. . Vulnerability Assessments: Assessment of key crops to changes in growing precipitation and temperature across Morocco and other African countries. Ideas that straddle the various components of vulnerability and other novel ways of framing vulnerability as well as the creation of indexes. PhD Student Soumia Achli is currently working on this project.
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b. Readiness Index: This work responds to the question, how prepared are we in the face of climate change?For climate change adaptation in Africa. A need for regional and country level assessments and testing of Dr. Epule's newly developed readiness index ''ClimAdaptCap'' Index. The goal is to integrate climate scores (temperature and precipitation) and adaptive capacity proxies (literacy and poverty rates) into readiness indexes.
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c. Climate Performance Index: This part of our work seeks to answer the question, what is the climate change policy performance across Africa? It evaluates climate change policy performance through four key scores which are: GHG emission scores, climate policy scores, renewable energy scores and corruption scores.
d. African Agricultural Land GHG Index (AALGGI): This work aims at investigating the regional distribution of GHGs across African agricultural land. Though a generally low emitter of CO2, CH4 and N20, African agricultural lands are increasingly emitting more GHGs. We develop novel ways of assessing their regional distribution.
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OTHER PROJECTS:
3. Building Agricultural Resilience in Africa (ClimBeR):
This multi-country project aims at building adaptation capacities in the agricultural sector across Africa. Project is funded by CGIAR in collaboration with ICARDA. In Morocco, Prof. Chehbouni, Prof. Epule and Prof. Mohammed Hakim Karrou are leading WP 3 and working on using irrigation to enhance the yields of Olives through a participative approach in the Marrakech area.
4. (GEANTech):
Prof. Epule is the lead of WP4 of this multi-university project that that is coordinated by esteem Prof. Bouchaou. This WP will investigate stakeholder needs in water management, construct a web-GIS platform for better irrigation management and develop a smart phone App for irrigation and water management. Finally the work will develop best practices guide for irrigation and water management in Morocco.
5. PROJECT COORDINATOR AND PARTNERS – (MedAgriFood Resilience Resilience):
Prof. Epule (member of UM6P scientific committee):Traditional agroforestry and agri-food systems are increasingly receiving attention at international level, thanks to their multifunctional role, to the different Ecosystem Services they are able to provide to local rural communities, and as examples for alternatives to agricultural models based on maximizing productivity. Project is available on: https://www.medagrifood.eu/project-coordinator-and-partners/
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Other Thematics of Interest
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1. Disaster response in the context of climate change adaptation.
2. Facilitating the design, development, implementation and evaluation of climate policies as they relate to renewable energies, energy efficiency, adaptation and conservation in Canada and around the world.
-I am also interested in aboriginal food security in the context of determining the role of conventional and agroecology systems in reducing the dependence of the people of Nunavut to external food sources.
-Determining the drivers of deforestation in Cameroon and Africa and related policy options.
-Identifying the enabling conditions for success in rural and urban greening projects.
-Assessing the vulnerability of populations to the effects of deforestation such as food and water scarcities.
-Sahelian droughts, their causes, effects on food systems and prospects.
-Environmental refugees in Africa, causes and global implications.