IRB Approval For Survey, EPA & First Anemometer Readings: February

The team submitted an application for IRB approval to the Bridgewater State University board in February along with the survey developed in January and a informed consent form. There were major concerns of the BSU IRB having to do with collecting information from minors - child-headed households in the Mzimba region. Although the team felt these households were of very high importance to include in our work, the probability of successfully acquiring IRB approval within a reasonable time frame appeared to be low and that any successful horticulture program as an outcome of our work would benefit these households equally, if not more so. We were also requested to not collect GPS locations of individuals’ homes as a means of ensuring anonymity of an individual. We will attach a respondents’ geographical location to a village location. We received notification of IRB (#2011090) approval on February 11.

The First Anemometer Readings:

The first full month of anemometer readings were sent from Mzimba in February. Values show the 6.5 height anemometer to be slightly over 1 meter per second and around 2.5 meters per second at the 10 meter height.

Downloading Data

The team was faced with the unfortunate news that the HOBO® logging device was removed by a vandal sometime between February 22 and 28^th. Future analysis of wind data for the Mzukuzuku region will be generated from the WR Office anemometer site readings.

WR Meetings with the EPA:

Damaseko met with EPA officials to gather information on crops species and varieties to target in a horticulture project in Mzimba.  He reported that they have chosen one variety for oranges, mangoes, bananas, tomatoes, cabbage, and onions.  They also discussed the inclusion of pineapples though they are not grown in the area but there is potential.