Soils Newsletter, Vol. 41, No. 1, July 2018

With the start of the new IAEA Technical Cooperation (TC) cycle, we are busy implementing 53 active TC projects, with several coordination meetings taking place to kick-off these projects. The SWMCN team has two inter-regional projects (INT5153 'Assessing the Impact of Climate Change and its Effects on Soil and Water Resources in Polar and Mountainous Regions' and INT0093 on 'Use of Nuclear Techniques in Nutrient and Water Management for Small Island Developing States (SIDS)'); we report here on the coordination meeting of both projects. We are pleased also to announce the 4-year agreement with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), as part of the 'Consortium for Improving Agriculturebased Livelihoods in Central Africa' (CIALCA) project, funded by the Belgian Government. This agreement is focusing on improving cassava agronomy, specifically on the management of cassava varieties, planting time and nutrient supply to better adapt to the adverse effects of drought spells. The role of the SWMCN Laboratory (SWMCNL) will be to use laser isotope technology to separate evaporation from transpiration above cassava stands, to improve water use efficiency and to use stable carbon isotope ratios to measure nutrient uptake and root yield storage for different cassava varieties under various soil management practices.