appropriate technology - research information ltd · 70 aquaculture more fish from brushparks ......

Appropriate TechnologyVolume 30, No. 3 September 2003

Incorporating Agriculture and Equipment InternationalInternational Agricultural Development

gate-technology & development

Food security with windpumps

Incorporating

Agriculture &Equipment International

International AgriculturalDevelopment

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3Appropriate Technology, Vol 30, No 3

AppropriateTechnology

September 2003

Volume 30, No 3

ISSN: 0305-0920

Front Cover: In Zambia, farmers are tapping underground sourcesof water by installing windpumps.Credit: Glenn Allison

ContentsREGULAR FEATURES

4 Comment: Africa's farmers need more than trade reform 5 News briefing 13 TDR / AT Photofeature 17 Health matters 28 Broad Brush by John Madeley 36 Renewable Energy 42 Forthcoming 43 Inprint 46 gate ... 50 Northern News 58 Education 64 ITDG briefs

IN THIS ISSUE8 Agriculture

Green gold: commercial organic cottonSeed distribution with a difference Global law on GM trade comes into forceBreeding decaffeinated coffeeA drought gene identified

19 Water Let the poor manage their groundwater Smallholders benefit from better water managementOxen power desalinates water Zimbabwean farmers bag the cloudsWater harvesting network set-up

26 Information Technology A boost to rural communications

30 Integrated pest management Integrated pest management for African vegetable cropsProtecting rice farmers from insecticide misuseLearning groups achieve higher incomes

54 GM crops The future for GM cropsThe myths of GM cropsGM crops will not feed the world

60 Agroforestry Chainsaws in the drugstore

68 In practice Composting for income, plant nutrients and purification

70 Aquaculture More fish from brushparks

The publishers gratefully acknowledge the support of regular bulk subscribers toAppropriate Technology including, Misereor, CAFOD, ITDG, Peace Corp and VSO.

The WTO Ministerial Conference inCancun, Mexico, in September onceagain brought trade issues to the fore.Several NGOs ran big campaigns in theUK on this issue and rightly wanted tosee change to the current unjust traderules and an end to subsidies of north-ern agriculture. While it is a pity thatthey collapsed as they did, I wouldchallenge the implicit assumption thattrade reform will benefit the poor andargue that most smallholder farmers arenot in a position to respond to improvedterms of trade and benefit from it.

I believe that trade reform is notenough, and for most smallholder farm-ers in Africa it is almost an irrelevance.Trade reform will inevitably tend tobenefit an elite and will not, by itself,reduce rural poverty. The collapse ofthe talks in Cancun now opens a win-dow of opportunity to look at theopportunities that exist to supportsmallholder farmers that are under thecontrol of African governments anddonor agencies. Now is the time toreassess the support and investment thatactually goes into the sector and lookfor a new agenda to rejuvenate Africanagriculture.

The chronic crisis in smallholderagriculture in Africa with deepeningrural poverty cannot be solved by asimple change in the rules of the inter-national game. The problem is muchmore complex and harder to solve.Smallholder farmers need significantinvestment and support through the co-ordinated provision of support services.To those of us working in Africa it isbewildering to see rural poverty risingdaily but less and less investmentreaching smallholder farmers. Theinternational community appears tohave abandoned supporting agriculture,resorting to spending increasingamounts on food aid and hoping thatimproved terms of trade will somehowbenefit the poor.

During the 90s development assis-tance to African agriculture halved,from $4 billion to $2.6 billion, whilethose in need of regular food aid dou-bled. The decline in support services tosmallholder farmers has been devastat-

ing. At the G8 Contact Group on FoodSecurity in Africa, Kofi Annan dis-cussed the urgent need to bring about aGreen Revolution in Africa, calling forinvestment on a new scale and sayingthat "Governments, both North andSouth, must recognise that agricultureis an essential pillar of development".

There are, at last, some signs of achange, at least in donor rhetoric. TheWorld Bank's A Renewed Strategy forRural Development at least acknowl-edges the link between agriculturalgrowth and poverty reduction, althoughthey admit that their lending to agricul-ture is the lowest ever. USAID, in manyways, has the narrowest gap betweenrhetoric and action, having committedsignificant resources to agriculturethrough its Agricultural Initiative to CutHunger in Africa. One can only hopethat this changed donor attitude com-bined with the obvious needs of theirpeople will ensure that African govern-ments put agriculture squarely at theheart of their Poverty ReductionStrategies.

But money is not enough. Howshould it be spent? Those of us privi-leged to work directly with smallholderfarmers know that they are capable ofmaking significant improvements inproduction and, with the right condi-tions, can find their own pathway out ofpoverty.

To revitalise the smallholder sector Ibelieve the focus of significant, sus-tained and co-ordinated investmentmust surely be on:

improving frontline services -delivering inputs, micro-finance,knowledge and facilitating mar-keting through a mixture of gov-ernment, private sector, farmerorganisations and NGO provi-sion. This will require the build-ing of human capacity, legislativechange and support to new part-nerships.development of rural infra-structure - roads, communica-tions etc., to improve input sup-ply and market opportunities. increasing the voice and power

of the rural poor - throughgreater participation in the politi-cal process and engagement inlocal-level planning.reforming national and inter-national trade policy provision of incentives for agri-cultural innovation - in the earlystages price support and stabili-sation should be considered andthere is urgent need for muchgreater investment in researchand development of technology.

The crucial role agriculture plays insupporting rural people now has beenignored for far too long. The multipliereffects of investment in agriculture areincreasingly appreciated. There is nodoubt that trade liberalisation will helpa few people in some countries.However, reforming international trade,by itself, will not have an impact onrural poverty, unless there is a simulta-neous boost in the vital support servic-es smallholder farmers need to enablethem to improve their own production.

The unprecedented set of challengesthat confront Africa today requiresurgent action by national governmentsin Africa and active support of the inter-national community. Resources need tobe mobilised on a scale never seenbefore. There is an urgent moral imper-ative to invest in those in most need -Africa's smallholder farmers - who aremost able to solve their own problems.It's time to see some action. How manymillions of Africans must die beforethere is the political will to make thishappen?

Dr Christie Peacock is chief execu-tive of FARM-Africa. She can be contact-ed at 9-10 Southampton Place, London,WC1A 2EA, UK. Tel: +44 (0)20 74300440; Fax: +44 (0)20 7430 0460; E-mail: [email protected];Website: www.farmafrica.org.uk

Comment by Dr Christie Peacock

4 Appropriate Technology, Vol 30, No 3

Africa's farmers need more than trade reform

News briefing


For a country where agriculture is away of life for 70 percent of its people,the yield has been a source of pride forAfghans living through two decades ofwar. Wheat, the country's main crop,plays a significant role in the lives of apeople accustomed to breaking breadwith their meals.

Estimates of the total domestic pro-duction of wheat will be about 3.5 mil-lion tons this year, an 80 percentincrease from the harvest of 2001.

"They are a very resilient people,"said Feisal Beig, an IFDC senior mar-keting specialist who has travelled sev-eral times to Afghanistan as part of alocal team of agricultural experts lend-ing a hand to farmers.

IFDC was one of a number of agen-cies working for a U.S. Agency forInternational Development emergencyproject to help stabilise agriculture as a

exchange for the fertiliser, each farmerhas donated, to his village, a bag ofwheat, which was sold to raise moneyfor projects like building roads or irri-gation projects.

Dealers were trained in the use offertilisers so they could advise theircustomers. IFDC officials said manyfertiliser dealers only knew products aseither the "black or the white fertiliser."

"The people are tired of 22 years ofconflict," Beig said. "They wanted to goback to farming, trading and other busi-nesses."

More information from IFDC, P OBox 2040, Muscle Shoals, Alabama35662, USA. Fax: +1 256 381 7408; e-mail: [email protected]; web site:www.ifdc.org

fledgling Afghanistan government tookroot and fighting diminished. The nextphase of the IFDC programme willinvolve agricultural marketing and get-ting the world, once again, to notice acountry with a rich agricultural history.

Scott Wallace, an IFDC agribusi-ness specialist who visited the country,said Afghanistan's fruits, pistachios andraisins were prized around the world.The country was once a leadingexporter of dried fruits.

He said improved agriculture hasgiven farmers hope they can not onlyget back on their feet, but also exportfood in the future. "There's a lot ofpotential for them to be a world playeragain in many commodities."

The fertiliser IFDC provided wasn'tfree. It was more of a loan as farmersreceived vouchers they could use forbags of fertilisers from dealers. In

Bread for peaceRains quenching a parched land besieged by four years of drought, persistence from farmers and a little help from theInternational Fertiliser Development Centre (IFDC) contributed to Afghanistan producing record yields of wheat, reportsEmilio Sahurie.

An Afghani woman makes naan, the traditional flat bread of the country. Wheat is the main staple of the country and eating naan withmeals is part of the country's culture.

Credit: Dr. Thomas P. Thompson, IFDC

News briefing


The role of science and technology inworld farming is going to be reviewedby an alliance of governments, institu-tions like the World Bank, environmen-tal pressure groups and developmentagencies.

The review, the largest-ever, comesafter seven months of regional and glob-al consultations hosted by the WorldBank. This cumulated in a meeting inBudapest, Hungary, attended by aSteering Committee of representativesfrom governments of developed anddeveloping countries, environmental andadvocacy Non-GovernmentalOrganizations, international multilateralorganizations, research institutions, con-sumer and producer organizations, andprivate sector groups.

"This is a first and unique chance fora global bottom-up check on what is

really needed and what is not, to ensurefood sovereignty for all, and the survivalof the planet," said Benedikt Haerlin,Greenpeace International.

The review, which will take twoyears, will assess the economic, environ-mental, health, and social - includinggender - implications of current andpotential future technologies.

Several representatives from devel-oping countries welcomed the initiative."Many of its outcomes will be useful forthe Ugandan struggle to reduce poverty,"explained Grace Akello, Minister ofState, Uganda.

The proposed exercise will anticipatethe challenges the world will face in 20-50 years time. It will bring together therange of stakeholders involved in agri-culture to share views, gain commonunderstanding and vision for the future,

develop new partnerships, and providerobust information to decision-makers.

"For the private sector," said MichaelStopford, Head of Global Affairs,Syngenta International, "this is a greatopportunity to interact with key stake-holders in ensuring that agricultural sci-ence and technology meet the needs ofthe developing world."

According to Mohamed H.A.Hassan, Executive Director, Third WorldAcademy of Sciences (TWAS), "TheAssessment will help the scientific com-munities in their efforts to find innova-tive science based solutions to the prob-lems of hunger, poverty, and food inse-curity."

For more information, please see thewebsite: www.agassessment.org

World assessment of agricultural science

China is now at war with expandingdeserts. Old deserts are advancing andnew ones are forming, like guerrillaforces striking unexpectedly, forcingBeijing to fight on several fronts. Evenworse, writes Lester Brown, of theEarth Policy Institute, the growingdeserts are gaining momentum, occu-pying an ever-larger piece of China'sterritory each year.

China's Environmental ProtectionAgency reports that the Gobi Desertexpanded by 52,400 square kilometres(20,240 square miles) from 1994 to1999, and is now within 150 miles ofBeijing.

Over-ploughing and overgrazingare converging to create a dust bowl ofhistoric dimensions. With little vegeta-tion remaining in parts of northern andwestern China, the strong winds of latewinter and early spring can remove lit-erally millions of tons of topsoil in asingle day.

For the outside world, it is thesedust storms that draw attention to thedeserts that are forming in China. OnApril 12, 2002, for instance, SouthKorea was engulfed by a huge dust

storm from China that left people inSeoul literally gasping for breath. Japanalso suffers from dust storms originat-ing in China.

Each year, residents of easternChinese cities such as Beijing andTianjin battle with dust storms.Farmers and herders, whose livelihoodsare blowing away, are paying an evenheavier price.

A report by a U.S. embassy officialin May 2001 after a visit to XilingolPrefecture in Inner Mongolia (NeiMongol) notes that although 97 percentof the region is officially classified asgrasslands, a third of the terrain nowappears to be desert. The report says theprefecture's livestock populationclimbed from 2 million in 1977 to 18million in 2000. A Chinese scientistdoing grassland research in the prefec-ture says that if recent desertificationtrends continue, Xilingol will be unin-habitable in 15 years.

Satellite images show two deserts innorth-central China expanding andmerging to form a single, larger desertoverlapping Inner Mongolia and Gansuprovinces. To the west in Xinjiang

Province, two even larger deserts - theTaklimakan and Kumtag - are alsoheading for a merger.

While over-ploughing is now beingpartly remedied by paying cereal farm-ers to plant trees, overgrazing continueslargely unabated. China's cattle, sheep,and goat population tripled from 1950to 2002. Concentrated in the westernand northern provinces, sheep and goatsare destroying the land's protective veg-etation. The wind then does the rest.

Planting trees on marginal croplandhelps correct over-ploughing, but itdoes not deal with the overgrazingissue. Arresting desertification maydepend more on grass than trees - onboth permitting existing grasses torecover and planting grass in denudedareas.

Beijing is encouraging pastoraliststo reduce their flocks of sheep and goatsby 40 percent. This is difficult as com-munities measure their wealth by live-stock numbers. Some local govern-ments are requiring stall-feeding oflivestock with forage gathered by hand,hoping it will permit grasslands torecover.

China losing war with advancing deserts

News briefing


Old deserts in Chinaare advancing andnew ones areforming. This villageof Langtougon isonly 200km north ofBeijing, yet housesare getting coveredin sand due todesertification.

Credit: DermotTatlow/Panos

Pictures

China is taking some of the rightsteps to halt the advancing desert, but ithas a long way to go to reduce livestocknumbers to a sustainable level. At thispoint, there is no plan in place or on the

drawing board that will halt the advanc-ing deserts.

For more information contact theEarth Policy Institute, 1350Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington DC

20036, USA. Fax: +1 202.496.9325Email: [email protected]: website:www.earth-policy.org

Anandrao Mukundrao Subedar fromTivsa village, Maharashtra, is one of thepioneers of organic farming inVidarbha. As one of the largest land-holders in the district, Subedar used tobe one of the largest user of chemicalsand pesticides.

"I achieved record-breaking yieldsof 14 quintals/acre (one quintal = 100kg) in 1984," said Subedar. "Wethought we had conquered all pests incotton. Synthetic pyrethroids rid us ofthe American bollworm but then we gotthe white fly. In 1985 we lost all ourcotton to white fly. It was an insect wehad never even heard of before. Ourlosses made us think and when weanalysed the reasons, obviously therampant use of pesticides was thecause. Yields had come down to 2-2.5quintals/acre from an average of 6q/acre."

"We knew the answer was not to usechemicals. At that time we had nooptions, not a single university couldhelp us and even the Central Institutefor Cotton Research (CICR), Nagpur,was unable to give us any advice." ThenSubedar met one of the pioneers of non-chemical farming, Bharat Dabholkar,and he was instrumental in changing his

farming practices.Subedar farms 260 acres, growing

sugarcane, banana and lentils as well ascotton. He grows several varieties ofcotton to select the best. "I found thathigh yields have no relationship withchemicals or fertilisers - we can provethat on our field. The other trick is toget a suitable variety of crop - we wantan indeterminate type. And the thirdfactor affecting yield is the distancebetween two rows and two plants.There must be room for cotton togrow."

In 2002, he planted 18 varieties ofcotton on 45 acres, of which 35 acres is

rain-fed. He stopped using chemicalsin 1990, and it has taken five years tostabilise the yield. He mixes 30 kgcowdung, 30 litres cow urine, 300 litresof water with black jaggery and fer-ments it for five days. This solution isdiluted 20 times and sprayed on thefield. Last year yields were 8 q/acre

The use of chemicals and pesticidesis very high in this district and fiveyears ago Rs 100 crore was spent in thisdistrict alone. Now spraying is consid-erably reduced and local farmers anddealers estimate the amount spent hascome down to Rs 40 crore.

Subedar's expenses for cotton areabout Rs 4,000 per acre; it was doublethat when he was using chemicals.Large landowners and rich farmers canspend up to Rs 12-14,000 on chemicalsand pesticides with about 20 sprays inone season. Subedar and other largefarmers like Om Prakash Mor andBaburao Wankhede have inspiredscores of farmers to stop using chemi-cals in this region.

MarketingIn 1986, a group of Gandhians formed atrust called Prakruti with the aim of dis-continuing the use of chemicals, fer-tilisers, hybrid seeds and heavy machin-ery. Kisan Mehta, a Sarvodaya workerand Gandhian philosopher, is involvedwith the group, and he visited Vidarbha,

Agriculture


Chandraprabha Boke, an organic cotton farmer from Amravati who is a member of Eco Farms, anorganic cotton venture.

Credit: Meena Menon

Green gold: commercial organic cottonIn Part II of her series on organic cotton in India, Meena Menon travels to Vidarbha in Maharashtra and to MadhyaPradesh, where the organic cotton chain leads all the way to the fashionable ecological-social retail stores of Europe.The message? Organic cotton commands a premium and makes good commercial sense. It can also reduce the cost ofinputs and save the lives of desperate farmers.

Raosaheb Dagadkarshows off his organiccotton fields inMaharashtra. Hefarms 110 acresorganically, growingcotton, til, jowar,bajri, vegetables andfruit. He also adviseson farmingorganically andmarketing organiccrops.

Credit: MeenaMenon


Maharashtra's largest cotton growingarea, on numerous occasions to meetfarmers and persuade them to stopusing chemicals.

In 1993, a German group, theEnvironmental ProtectionEncouragement Agency (EPEA), visit-ed Vidarbha and made contact withCICR, who were working on thelow/no-pesticide option for pest man-agement in cotton. This led to a projectthat EPEA took up with GTZ ofGermany.

Mehta's efforts and those of thefarmers and later of CICR laid the foun-dation for growing cotton organicallyand exporting it. Mehta records thatmeetings resulted in 135 farmers com-mitting 1,200 hectares of land to organ-ic cotton by June 1995. Then 132 farm-ers formed the Vidarbha OrganicFarmers Association (VOFA) to marketcotton on a non-profit basis. Agrecoagreed to certify the farmers and in1996 they grew a bumper crop oforganic cotton.

"We had prepared a complete 70-page booklet for farmers who wereinterested in organic cotton cultiva-tion," said Kisan Mehta. "The cottonwas grown under international organicstandards certification guidelines andthe German support ensured certifica-tion and other requirements. Over 1,200hectares were soon under organic farm-ing, making it (then) the largest area inthe world under such cultivation."

Subedar adds, "We want to promoteorganic crops and we feel farmersshould get a good price. Cotton is beingexported since 1995 and we sell 1,500-2,000 quintals every year." VOFA haspaid its members Rs 51 lakh since1995-96, and in 2002 they got a bonusof Rs 700 per quintal. It is also makingefforts to sell other organic producefrom this year.

For organic farmers like RaosahebDagadkar, exporting organic cotton isthe only reason to grow it. A member ofVOFA, he is a certified organic cottonfarmer. Visiting his farm it can appearvery untidy. Weeds grow everywhereand there is barely any space betweentwo plants. "Fully-grown cotton fieldsbecome like a forest - I can't enter," hejoked. He adds that weeds are a gold-

Agriculture

mine and he uses them to mulch hisland. "I find compost expensive so I usewhat is there in nature. All we need todo is create conditions for earthwormsto grow and then there is no need forbullocks or ploughing." RaosahebDagadkar says his cotton yields about4-6 quintals per acre.

Organic cotton in Madhya Pradesh Maikaal bioRe Ltd, in Madhya Pradesh,claims to be the largest organic cottonventure in the world. It has over 1,000farmers on 7,600 acres involved inorganic cotton production. It started in1991 as a private initiative ofMrigendra Jalan, Managing Director ofthe spinning mill, Maikaal Fibres Ltd,and Patrick Hohmann, ManagingDirector of the Swiss cotton yarn trad-ing company, Remei AG.

Remei developed partnerships withmanufacturers to produce a wholerange of quality, fashionable, ecologi-cal-social garments made of MaikaalbioRe's organic cotton. The entire sup-ply chain was integrated in 1995 whenCoop, Switzerland's second-largestsupermarket chain and Europe's marketleader in ecological-social products,joined.

According to Hohmann this is theworld's largest project on organic cot-ton, from cultivation to marketing andsales. Farmers, spinners, retailers andpurchasers participate and meet everyyear. Farmers are being encouraged topractice biodynamic agriculture,though certification will stay as per the

requirements of organic agriculture.In Kogawa village in Khargone dis-

trict, Sher Singh grows cotton on 8.5 ofhis 10.5 acres. He is a member ofMaikaal and a certified organic farmerfor the last four years. He also growstuvar, makai (maize) and mung. Hiscost of chemicals and pesticides havefallen from Rs 2,500-3,000 per acre toRs 1,300 per acre.

After switching to organic farming,Singh found that yields halved to 12 qfrom 8 acres, but in the second year heharvested 16 q from 8 acres. He feelsthings will be better this year. Farmerswith Maikaal now believe that pests arefewer and expenses less.

Organic farmers get a premium of10-20 percent above market rates.However, price need not be the onlyincentive for organic farming. Theimportance of organic farming inregions like Vidarbha which is markedby poverty and drought, cannot be over-stressed. Every year many farmerscommit suicide in this region andNGOs like Dhara Mitra and YUVA aretrying to promote organic farmingamong small farmers in a bid to reducetheir cost of cultivation. It is not onlyfor that extra premium that farmersmust adopt organic farming - in somecases it may save their lives.

This is abridged from a longer arti-cle published by Infochange on its website: www.infochangeindia.org. Formore information contact MeenaMenon. E-mail: [email protected]

Farmers from Maikaal bioRe attending an open house day meeting.Credit: Meena Menon

Agriculture


Traders cannot compete with an NGOthat gives away seeds for free, so vil-lage retailers are reluctant to stock seedor fertiliser for sale. Then, when therelief programmes end and the NGOsmove on, farmers find it hard to obtainseed or fertiliser because the local mar-ket for these no longer exists. Free seeddistribution also encourages the"dependency syndrome" when farmersrely on handouts and stop stocking theirown seed. Predictably, farmers alsotend to undervalue the handouts.

In short, relief programmes addressemergency needs but all too often donothing for long-term needs such ascreating a sustainable seed supply sys-tem. ICRISAT is looking for solutionsthat can simultaneously address short-and long-term needs.

Plan International has been distrib-uting free maize seed to small-scalefarmers in Zimbabwe since 1996. Theseed is given to families with foster

children, many of them AIDS orphans.During the 2001/02 planting season,Plan and ICRISAT, rather than handingout free seed, distributed vouchers thatcould be redeemed for seed at localretail outlets. This encouraged farmersto look for seed - and other inputs - atneighbourhood retail shops, andencouraged retailers to stock thesegoods.

In the first year of the programme,Plan provided a few farmers withvouchers; the others got free seed asbefore. This allowed the NGO to workout the logistics of voucher distributionand seed stocking in retail outlets, andto compare the advantages and disad-vantages of voucher versus direct seeddistribution.

More than 95 percent of the vouch-ers were successfully redeemed. Whilemany of the participating farmers sug-gested improvements in the pro-gramme, 49 percent said they preferred

vouchers rather than free seed. Another18 percent said they had no preferences.The retailers were universally satisfied,and expressed strong interest in contin-uing to participate in the voucherscheme.

The programme continued duringthe 2002/03 planting season. ICRISATand Plan are monitoring programmeperformance and obtaining feedbackfrom farmers and input retailers for fur-ther fine-tuning. A seemingly minorchange in orientation has led to majorimprovements, and relief efforts arenow strengthening - rather than com-peting with - an emerging retail sectorin poor, drought-prone rural communi-ties.

For more information contact DrDavid Rohrbach, ICRISAT-Bulawayo,Matopos Research Station, PO Box 776,Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Fax: +263-83-8311; e-mail: [email protected]

Seed distribution with a difference Following natural disasters in Africa, NGOs and government agencies have distributed free seed to farmers, helpingthem rebuild their agriculture. Unfortunately, free distribution undermines the development of local markets for agricul-tural inputs. So Plan International, a large NGO in Zimbabwe, has teamed up with the International Crops ResearchInstitute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) to test an alternative strategy.

Vouchers beingredeemed for seed ata local retail outlet.Issuing vouchersinstead of seed hasbeen well received byfarmers and retailersin Zimbabwe.

Credit: ICRISAT


Agriculture

Global law onGM trade comesinto forceFifty countries have ratified theCartagena Protocol on Biosafety, whichmeans it will now become internationallaw. It is part of the UN Convention onBiological Diversity.

The protocol is intended to regulatethe trade in genetically modified (GM)organisms. Any country or organisationexporting GM organisms, which areintended to be released into the environ-ment, must get permission from theimporting country. However, it does notcover GM organisms which will be useddirectly as human or livestock food.

Importing countries will have theright to refuse entry even if there isinsufficient scientific evidence to provethe GM organisms are unsafe. They canalso ban the import if the organismscould threaten local businesses andemployment.

The protocol is at odds with WorldTrade Organisation (WTO) rules. Thelarge grain producing countries - USA,Argentina, Australia, Brazil and Canada- had insisted that the protocol wouldnot over-ride existing internationalagreements. Developing countries,though, had written into the protocolthat it would not be subordinate to otherinternational agreements.

Japanese scientists have been able toproduce transgenic coffee plants whosecaffeine content is reduced by 70 per-cent.

At the Nara Institute of Science andTechnology researchers have usedgenetic engineering techniques toreduce the activity of the genes that areresponsible for making caffeine.

Caffeine can increase palpitations,blood pressure and insomnia, so the

demand for decaffeinated coffee isincreasing. At the moment decaffeinat-ed coffee is produced using an expen-sive industrial process, which can effectthe flavour.

More information from Dr HiroshiSano, the Nara Institute of Science andTechnology, Nara 630-0192, Japan. E-mail: [email protected]; web-site: www.aist-nara.ac.jp

The coffee beans these Brazilian pickers are harvesting are high in caffeine. The bushes could soonbe replaced by low caffeine coffee plants developed by Japanese researchers.

Credit: Maria Luiza M. Caravalho/Panos Pictures

Breeding decaffeinated coffee

A drought geneidentifiedScientists from the University of Bonn'sBotanical Institute have identified agene which makes plants better able towithstand drought, and recover quicklyonce water is available.

In a paper, published in The PlantJournal, Dr Dorothea Bartels describesher work on the resurrection plant,which is found in South Africa, and themouse-ear cress (Arabidopsis thaliana).

In South Africa, the resurrectionplant shrivels up when water is shortand can remain in that condition formonths, but when rain comes the dead-

like leaves become green again within afew hours. The plant can lose up to 95per cent of its water reserves withoutbeing harmed. The researchers foundthat during the dry period the plantshuts down most of its genes, just a fewremain active.

The researchers turned their atten-tion to the mouse-ear cress plant, whichis indigenous to Germany, and much totheir surprise found a gene which isvery similar to that found in the resur-rection plant. This 'drought' gene helpsthe plant to cope with toxins whichincrease when the plant is short ofwater. Further work showed that whenthey manipulated this gene they couldget it to become active earlier, so that

the genetically modified plants sur-vived without water for a longer periodthan their wild relations. They alsofound the modified plants could with-stand saline conditions much better.

Dr Bartels, however, feels that toobtain really robust drought toleranceplants more than one gene will berequired. Her future plans are to test thegene in agriculturally useful plants andthen combine this gene with thedrought tolerant genes that otherresearchers have identified.

More information from DrDorothea Bartels, Institute of Botany,Bonn University, Kirschallee 1, DE53115 Bonn, Germany. Fax: +49 2287326 89; e-mail: [email protected]

Agriculture


Vitamin-rich tomatoes

Millions of mothers and children in developing countrieswill benefit from vitamin-rich tomatoes developed by The AsianVegetable Research & Development Centre (AVRDC).

AVRDC has developed golden tomatoes that contain threeto six times more beta-carotene than red tomatoes. Beta-carotene is the natural precursor to vitamin A. According to theWorld Health Organisation (WHO), vitamin A deficiency(VAD) is the leading cause of preventable blindness in childrenand needlessly raises a child's risk of severe illness and deathfrom infection. In pregnant women, VAD causes night blind-ness, increases the risk of maternal mortality, and is associatedwith elevated mother-to-child HIV transmission. VAD affectsthe most innocent of people in the world; AVRDC and the WHOboth share the goal of eliminating the disease.

Breast feeding and vitamin A supplements are valuableshort-term solutions. But WHO reports that a longer-lastingsolution, especially in the rural areas of Southeast Asia andAfrica, involves gardening.

Tomato, the most popular garden vegetable in the world, isalready a leading source of vitamin A in diets. Golden tomatoeswill enhance this benefit. Besides being nutritious, the flavour-ful golden tomatoes are lower in acid and similar in sweetnessto standard red tomatoes. These tomatoes have already beenintroduced into Bangladesh, a country where VAD is wide-spread, and are gaining popularity among farmers and con-sumers.

New lines resist majortomato and pepper diseases

Tomato leaf curl virus is the most feared threat to summertomato production in southern India. Yield losses can reach 100percent if infection occurs early in the season.

In the past, farmers were defenceless against the virus. Novarieties could resist the disease. Once symptoms were found in

the field, there was no cure for infected plants. Farmers help-lessly watched their plants become stunted and unproductive.

In response, AVRDC collaborated with a team of scientistsfrom universities in India and the United States. This team usedmolecular-based tools to identify strains of the virus complex,select genes of resistance from wild tomato species, and intro-duced the resistance genes into cultivated tomato lines.

Peppers that resist anthracnose

Anthracnose is one of the most damaging diseases of pep-pers- no commercial variety can resist it. That is, until now.AVRDC has discovered sources of resistance in wild speciesand introduced that resistance into cultivated sweet and chilipepper lines. Laboratory studies in 2002 reveal that stable resist-ance has been achieved. AVRDC has several breeding lines thatresist all three major species of anthracnose in the tropics(Colletotrichum acutatum, C. gloeosporiodes, and C. capsici).This broad-based, genetically stable resistance is expected towithstand anthracnose under field conditions.

Tomatoes that resist late blight

Late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans is a major dis-ease of tomatoes grown in the African highlands during thecool-wet season. There are no resistant varieties available tofarmers in Africa, nor in most areas of the world. Researchers atAVRDC and in Tanzania have developed resistant lines thatyield comparably or better than the common varieties, Marglobeand Moneymaker. Besides resisting late blight, these lines pro-duce tomatoes of good quality, and some lines show resistanceto tomato mosaic virus and tomato leaf curl virus. These open-pollinated lines are currently being purified for distribution.

More details from the Asian Vegetable Research &Development Centre, P O Box 42, Shanhua, Taiwan 741,Republic of China. E-mail: [email protected]; web-site: www.avrdc.org

These golden tomatoes, containing three to six times more beta-carotene than red tomatoes, have been developed by AVRDC.

Credit: AVRDC

Peppersresistance toanthracnosehave beendeveloped atAVRDC.

Credit:AVRDC.


Health matters

Onchocerciasis Control Programme inWest Africa (OCP) was a major controlinitiative launched in 1974 in an areaencompassing 11 countries. Jointlysponsored by the WHO, World Bank,UNDP and FAO, plus a coalition of 20donor countries and agencies, the OCPsuccessfully achieved its objectives andwas wound up at the end of 2002.

OCP's principal method for control-ling onchocerciasis involved interrupt-ing transmission by eliminating thevector. Simulium larvae were killed byaerial spraying of insecticides overbreeding sites in fast-flowing rivers.Following interruption of transmission,the reservoir of adult worms dies out inhumans after 14 years.

To complement vector controlactivities, the OCP also distributed adrug, ivermectin.

The development of ivermectin inthe 1980s revolutionised the preventionand control of onchocerciasis. The drugprovides a safe, effective means forkilling microfilariae in infected people.A single dose of the drug (which isbeing supplied free on a global scale,for as long as it is needed, by the man-ufacturer, Merck & Co. Inc.) needs tobe taken annually.

The number of tablets that a personshould take can be calculated simply bymeasuring their height using a simplemeasuring stick. The drug rids thehuman body of the immature forms ofthe parasitic worms that cause the dev-astating symptoms of the disease. Yet

In a dilapidated old church in a poorrural village, a young boy lies prone,semicomatose on a mat woven frombanana leaves. A small gap in one,almost closed, eyelid provides a vacantview of his impoverished and troubledrelatives. In Masindi, in north-westernUganda, this sight is dreaded but fright-eningly commonplace. Mothers andfathers are faced with regular trauma astheir children become the victims ofepilepsy.

Several other children are sufferingfrom what is referred to locally asNakalanga syndrome, principally ahyposexual dwarfism usually associat-ed with mental disturbances. Here espe-cially, and elsewhere in parts of Africawhere onchocerciasis and epilepsy arefound together, and where belief in spir-its is deep-seated, there is a worryinganecdotal link between the two.

Unfortunately, little research hasbeen carried out to establish if there isindeed a link, but results so far suggestthat there is indeed an association.However, in Masindi, the uncertainty isa major concern to communities as wellas to programme managers striving tocombat onchocerciasis.

In Africa, onchocerciasis consti-tutes a serious obstacle to socio-eco-nomic development. It is often calledRiver Blindness because of its mostextreme manifestation and because theblackflies that transmit the diseaseabound in riverside areas, where theybreed in fast-flowing waters.

Fertile riverine areas have frequent-ly been abandoned for fear of the dis-ease which is caused by a parasiticworm, Onchocerca volvulus, whichlives in the human body for up to 14years. Each adult female worm pro-duces millions of microscopic larvae(microfilariae), that migrate throughoutthe body to cause a variety of symp-toms.

The parasites are transmitted via thebite of infected blackflies (Simuliumspp.) that carry immature larval formsof the worms from human to human. Inthe body, adult worms lodge in nodulesunder the skin, releasing large numbersof microfilariae into surrounding tis-sues. Immature worms move throughthe body and after dying, cause a vari-ety of conditions including seriousvisual impairment, severe itching anddepigmentation of the skin, lym-phadenitis and general debilitation.

The disease destroys the skin ofthose infected, disrupts the education ofchildren who are driven to distractionby maddening and unrelenting itching,steals their childhood as they becomeforced to look after elderly relativesblinded by the disease, and ruins themarriage prospects of thousands ofyoung women where beauty andhealthy skin are their most prizedassets.

In a significant region of westAfrica, control has been brought aboutthrough vector control, spraying ofinsecticide to control blackflies. The

Outstanding, innovative disease control solutionmeets a minor hitchOnchocerciasis is the world's second leading infectious cause of blindness. Rarely life-threatening, the disease causeschronic suffering and severe disability. Adding to the problem is the fact that the disease often occurs with epilepsy. AndyCrump, TDR/WHO, reports how the occurrence of epilepsy is affecting the successful control of onchocerciasis.

TDR / AT Photofeature No.4


A young girl is measured todetermine the number ofivermectin tablets she shouldtake to rid her body of theimmature forms of theparasitic worms that causethe devastating symptoms ofonchocerciasis.

Credit: Andy Crump

the adult worms remain unharmed, meaning that the annualdose must be taken repeatedly, for 14 years or until the adultworms die naturally.

For the system to work, all members of a community whoare eligible must take the drugs. Those who don't complyjeopardise their fellow community members by remaining asa potential source of infection.

The development in the 1990s of innovative communitydirected treatment (ComDT) programmes, through whichaffected communities themselves collect and distribute iver-mectin and meet all the costs, has heralded a revolution in thetreatment of onchocerciasis, as well as promising the same forother diseases.

ComDT empowers affected communities to take controlof their own health care. Volunteers are selected by the com-munity and, after 2-3 days of comprehensive training fromhealth workers, assume responsibility for collecting iver-mectin tablets from a local distribution point and deliveringcorrect dosages to all eligible members of their community.They monitor, treat or refer side-effects, make detailed recordsand report back to the health centres. Days and method of dis-tribution are determined by the community.

ComDT achieves far better coverage than similar pro-grammes run via the formal health sector. National and localauthorities, with donor and non-governmental organisationsupport, now simply have to organise the delivery of thedonated drugs to local health centres for collection.

Following the success of the OCP, the same co-sponsorsand donors created the African Programme for OnchocerciasisControl (APOC) in 1995. APOC's objective is to create, by

Health matters Photofeature No.4

In Masindi, Uganda, a youngboy lies prone,semicomatose on a matwoven from banana leaves.This sight is dreaded byparents who are faced withregular trauma as theirchildren become the victimsof epilepsy.

Credit: Andy Crump

Health matters


Photofeature No.4

An old male farmer scratches his legs until they bleed.Onchodermatitis causes unrelenting, maddening itching, whichmakes people scratch away their skin and cause depigmentation.

Credit: Andy Crump

2007, sustainable community-directed ivermectin distribution sys-tems which will ultimately cover 59 million people in 17 non-OCPcountries in Africa where the disease remains a serious publichealth problem and where some 15 million people are infected.

In a few isolated foci, APOC also aims to eliminate the black-fly through insecticide spraying. Throughout Africa, the outstand-ing success of community-directed treatment, a process initiatedthrough TDR's pioneering research work and now driven forceful-ly forward by APOC, should lead to the elimination of onchocer-ciasis on the continent.

It is clear that ComDT works extremely well. Even in war-rav-aged countries where poverty is rife and resources scarce, such asSudan, ComDT is succeeding, delivering ivermectin to villagers ineven the remotest of areas. In Sudan, it is reported that ComDT isnow actually delivering anti-epilepsy drugs to these villagers at thesame time.

What is also clear is that APOC and the NationalOnchocerciasis Task Forces (NOTF) in countries such as Uganda,Sudan and the Central African Republic are facing a significantproblem. How to convince those who believe that ivermectin isinducing or worsening epilepsy attacks that this is, in fact, not thecase. In Masindi, several village dwellers remain convinced thatonchocerciasis causes epilepsy claiming the drug either brings onthe condition or at least makes it worse. Others, both in Masindiand in villages in other endemic countries, believe that ivermectin,in fact, helps cure or alleviate epilepsy.

Those who believe ivermectin is detrimental, are, naturally,refusing to partake in the distribution programme. In doing so,they are placing at risk their fellow villagers who do take part, aswell as introducing a major stumbling block in the campaign to

A young boy prepares to takeivermectin tablets.

Credit: Andy Crump

Health matters


Health workers instructingcommunity-based drugdistributors how tomeasure, dose, record, etc. aspart of the community directedtreatment (ComDT)programmes, through whichaffected communitiesthemselves collect anddistribute ivermectin and meetall the costs.

Credit: Andy Crump

Photofeature No.4

Young children leading blindadults using sticks. This is is acommon sight in villages whereonchocerciasis is endemic.

Credit: Andy Crump

eliminate onchocerciasis from theAfrican continent - a goal that is entire-ly reachable if affected communities,health systems, governments, industryand international agencies work togeth-er in a collaborative effort.

Fortunately the other benefits ofivermectin, which also kills a variety ofintestinal worms, motivate those with-out visible lesions or signs of onchocer-cal infection problems to take the drug.Nevertheless, loving parents faced witha child struck down by epilepsy willtake some convincing. And as is prov-ing the case in Masindi, the task willnot be an easy one.

For more information contact TDRCommunications, Special Programmefor Research & Training in TropicalDiseases (TDR), World HealthOrganisation, Avenue Appia, 1211Geneva 27, Switzerland. E-mail:[email protected]: web: www.who.int/tdr

The Special Programme for Research& Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR)of WHO has a library of photographs at:www.who.int/tdr/media.html

Appropriate Technology Volume 30, Issue 3.To view a recent sample please visit www.appropriatechnology.com


Health matters

The disease causes the death of 1.7-2.5million people a year, mainly in tropicalAfrica. This vast region is home to thetwo most widespread malaria vectors -Anopheles gambiae and An. arabiensis.

An. gambiae feeds largely onhumans at night, as they sleep in theirhouses, and rests in human dwellingsduring the day. In contrast, An. arabi-ensis obtains a significant proportion ofits bloodmeals from non-human hosts,such as cattle, and frequently rests out-doors.

Control methods used in rural areassuch as spraying breeding sites, spray-ing indoors and using insecticide treat-ed bed nets have met with very limitedsuccess due to both cost and inconven-

ience. So researchers considered thepossibility of treating cattle with insec-ticides as a way of reducing numbers ofcattle-feeding mosquitoes. In the semi-arid zones of Africa, and the GreaterHorn Region in particular, the cattlefeeding mosquitoes occur on their ownso treating cattle might help to controlmalaria. Moreover, much of this area isaffected by tsetse- and tick-borne dis-eases of cattle. Thus there would be theprospect that two important vector-borne diseases could be controlled by asingle technology implemented by localcommunities.

To see if it worked, FARM-Africaset up a project in collaboration with theNatural Resources Institute and funded

Cattle treatment benefits malaria control in humansPractical research work carried out at village level in Ethiopia by the NGO FARM-Africa has come up with a promisingmethod of reducing the incidence of one of the world's killer diseases - malaria.

Spraying insecticides on cattle kept overnight in or near the home of their owners may be a way to reduce the number of mosquitoes alighting onhumans.

Credit: FARM-Africa

by the UK's Department forInternational Development. Resultsshow that the treatment of cattle withthe insecticide deltamethrin to controlthe sleeping sickness vector, tsetse fly,can also have the beneficial side effectof dramatically reducing mosquitonumbers alighting on humans.

This discovery is significant inthose areas of rural Africa where a com-mon practice is for cattle to be keptovernight in or near the home buildingsof their owners. This age-old practicehas evolved to provide security for theanimals and also in the belief that thecattle will draw the mosquitoes awayfrom the farmer and his family.

Health matters


In the Konso district of Ethiopia, forinstance, many livestock owners keeptheir cattle permanently in low-lyingpastures many miles from their homevillages. However, the cattle and theiraccompanying herders are in areasheavily infested with malarial mosqui-toes and it seems likely that these sitesprovide the main source of disease.

"The potential importance of thisproject for controlling malaria cannotbe over-emphasised," said Dr ChristiePeacock, FARM-Africa's chief execu-tive.

"This side effect of controlling mos-quitoes provides an extra incentive forgovernments and aid agencies to pro-mote the wider use of targeted insecti-

Iñaki Tirados Estébanez ,FARM-Africa's projectco-ordinator, and hiscolleague Alemayuworking in the laboratoryon the project to controlmalaria by treating cattle.

Credit: FARM-Africa

cides to control tsetse fly in cattle."Moreover, if the insecticidal treat-

ment of cattle does indeed reduce An.arabiensis populations significantly,then the technology would be applica-ble over the whole of its distribution,including areas where both An. gambi-ae and An. arabiensis are present.Consequently, areas of Ethiopia, TheSudan, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania,Zimbabwe, and South Africa wheretick, tsetse and malarial mosquito pop-ulations are supported by livestockthere is, in theory at least, the possibili-ty of controlling all these vectors bytreating cattle.

For further information contact, DrChristie Peacock, FARM-Africa, 9-10Southampton Place, London WC1A2EA, UK. Fax: +44 (0) 20 7430 0460;Email: [email protected];Website: www.farmafrica.org.uk

Iñaki Tirados Estébanez, the project co-ordinator, visiting a community to discuss spraying their cattle as a means to control malaria.Credit: FARM-Africa


Water

"Eastern India's poverty can be reducedby putting pumps in the hands of thesmall farmer," says Dr. Tushaar Shah,leader of the IWMI-Tata Water PolicyProgramme. "But the sheer numbers ofpeople is such that a market push isneeded to speed the process of trans-forming groundwater irrigation poten-tial into wealth and welfare for thepoor."

In much of eastern India, the devel-opment of groundwater for irrigationhas been the key to improving the livesof poor people on a vast scale.Examples abound of how the introduc-tion of small pumps have stimulatedagrarian economies by allowing peopleto grow food and cash crops, creatingnew income for millions of households.

Public tube well programmes -though well intentioned - have under-mined this potential. Strangled bybureaucracy and local politics, theseprogrammes have failed to address theneeds of the current market and thesociety they serve. Government subsi-dies have also kept pump prices inflat-ed by more than 35-45 per cent com-pared to neighbouring Pakistan and

Bangladesh. In Uttar Pradesh and north Bihar,

however, where the pump subsidy andloan programmes have been releasedfrom the stranglehold of the localbureaucracy, the results have beenencouraging - estimates show 800,000small diesel-pump-operated tube wellshave been installed in eastern UttarPradesh since 1985, irrigating around2.4 to 3.2 million hectares.

Here, market mechanisms havebeen used to manage the pump subsidyand loan programmes for the poor. Intowns, there has been a proliferation ofprivate dealers, who as a result ofintense competition, have begun tooffer farmers a range of useful servicesthat were never offered previously -including the organisation of bankloans, the issuing of pipes and pumps,and the drilling of boreholes. Elsewheredealers extract heavy 'service charges'of up to 15-18 percent, but, in the UttarPradesh region, intense competition hasreduced dealer margins to 7-10 percent.

"The government's role is to supportthis market-oriented approach byencouraging the creation of these typesof public-private partnerships," arguesDr. Shah. He adds: "The government'skey role is to set market rules that allowsuppliers to deliver fast service andpump equipment adapted to local farm-ers needs."

IWMI-Tata researchers haveanalysed factors that have influencedthe success and failure of groundwaterdevelopment schemes throughoutIndia. Based on these studies, fivepoints are recommended for policyaction:

Discontinue government minorirrigation programmes and focuson private tube wells. Improve electricity supply foragriculture by reintroducingmetered charging, decentralisedretailing of electricity, and pre-paid electricity cards.

Promote the modification ofpump sets to improve the ener-gy efficiency of groundwaterpumping, reduce pollution andlower the sale price of water. Introduce small diesel pumpsand manual irrigation technolo-gies for vegetable growers andmarginal farmers. Remove pump subsidies andopen the market to the import ofsmaller micro-diesel pumps.

For more information contact Dr.Tushaar Shah at IWMI, Elecon, Anand-Sojitra Road, Vallabh Vidyanagar 388001, Gujarat, India. Fax: +91-269260684. E-mail: [email protected]. Visitthe website: www.iwmi.org/waterpoli-cybriefing for more information. See'Bringing Pumps to People,' issue 2 ofthe Water Policy Briefing series.

The introduction of small pumps has enabledsmall farmers to grow food and cash crops,creating new income for millions ofhouseholds.

Credit: IWMI

Let the poor manage their groundwater New research by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) -Tata Water Policy Programme has demonstratedthat centrally planned public tube-well programmes in India have failed to improve the livelihoods of India's poor. Onlythe use of market mechanisms to manage pump subsidy and loan programmes can help reduce rural poverty and vul-nerability to drought.

Releasing pump subsidies and loanprogrammes from bureaucracy in UttarPradesh and north Bihar has resulted inthousands of small diesel-pump-operated tubewells being installed.

Credit: IWMI

Water


The techniques have given some farm-ers water all the year round; families aregetting cleaner water for domestic use;extra land is being cultivated becausemore water is available; there is moreemployment; and communities are nowenjoying a better quality of life.

In three villages of West Bengal,India, most of the community haddepended on upland rice to providethem with enough food, but poor rain-fall made it very difficult to achievefood security. Working with PRADAN(Professional Assistance forDevelopment Action) researchers intro-duced the idea of setting aside five per-cent of a farmer's land to store rainfallrun-off.

A pit, about 1.5 metres deep, is dugat the most upstream spot of the plotand run-off water is diverted into itinstead of flowing away off the land.When the crop needs water it can belifted out manually and applied to the

fields. Five percent is the minimumarea for supplying the required irriga-tion to upland rice during its criticalgrowth periods, immediately after themonsoon.

Farmers are now able to get twocrops of rice a year and this has createdmore employment in the villages. Otherfarmers are cultivating vegetables orusing the ponds to raise fish. Theseimprove the family diet or offer oppor-tunities for earning extra cash.Controlling runoff has helped to reducesoil erosion.

Restored paalsPRADAN is also helping farmers in theAlwar district of Rajasthan by restoringpaals, a traditional system for capturingand storing water that would otherwisedisappear down watercourses afterheavy rain.

Paals are water retaining structuresthat are built across seasonal water-

courses in areas where the averageannual rainfall is 400-600mm. Waterfrom an area of 4-5 hectares is collect-ed in these structures and stored for twoto three months. During this time watersaturates the upper soil layers and seepsdown to recharge underground aquifers.Fine sediments carried by the run-offget deposited in the submerged areaadding a rich layer of silt and clay.

Once the water has soaked into theground, farmers can use the residualmoisture to grow crops during the post-monsoon or rabi season. Rechargedgroundwater can be pumped up andused to irrigate low-water consumingcrops like onion, millet, mustard andwheat, or summer crops like vegetablesand onion seeds, and even short dura-tion paddy is possible in wet seasons.Pumping costs are reduced because thewater table is higher. The extra crop-ping has increased employment oppor-tunities within the community, and sothere is less need for some people towork away from home.

Some farmers have constructedfield bunds in the area between paals.This makes the overall system moreeffective and increases its lifetime byretaining sediment.

The restored paals have a widerimpact. Women spend less time collect-ing water and they have become moreinvolved in watershed management andwomen's groups are leasing out treatedlands to farmers to generate income, forsavings and family welfare.

Integrated land and water managementFarming communities in the uppercatchments of semi-arid regions such assouthern Rajasthan are severely affect-ed by land degradation, frequentdroughts and scarcity of water fordrinking and agriculture. In many partsof the Udaipur district less than 20 per-cent of the land is cultivated. The rest isstate owned, though this area does pro-vide fodder, grazing and fuel for thefarming community.

To make life more secure inUdaipur, Seva Mandir, a local NGO,has initiated a programme which hasinvolved the local community in theintegration of rainwater harvesting,

Communities in Alwar, Rajasthan, are reviving paals or water retaining structures. These are builtacross watercourses to store rainwater, which seeps into the soil and recharges undergroundaquifers.

Credit: IWMI

Smallholders benefit from betterwater managementIn places like South Asia, smallholder farmers are not able to achieve foodsecurity because there is not enough water for their crops - rainfall or irriga-tion. With better water management, however, they could increase their yieldsand range of crops. Recently researchers from the International WaterManagement Institute (IWMI), funded by the UK's Department for InternationalDevelopment (DFID), have been evaluating six techniques which can helpcommunities in India and Nepal to improve water availability.

Water


afforestation, rejuvenation of grazinglands and watershed treatment.

Construction of nullah bunds trapsrainwater and lets it soak into theground, thereby recharging the ground-water, which is subsequently extractedthrough dug and tube wells. Anothereffect is that more fodder is grown andthe silt deposited above the bunds givesfarmers and landless people an area forsome extra cropping.

Rejuvenating ooranisThroughout southern India ooranis ortanks were traditionally used to collectrainwater. Many, though, have becomedefunct due to lack of maintenance.Now they are being rejuvenated withthe help of the Dhan Foundation.

Ooranis are generally dug to depthsfrom two to five metres, and the exca-vated earth is deposited as a bankaround the lower perimeter. Filled up

with runoff rainwater they providedrinking water for families and live-stock. They are particularly effective ifthe groundwater is saline and thereforeunusable for domestic purposes.

Restoring ooranis has a wideimpact. In villages where they havebeen rehabilitated families have beenable to save about 45 working days perhousehold. This is the time that theywould have spent walking some dis-tance to collect water. Water from oora-nis is much cleaner than from othersources, and this leads to better familyhealth. It also means that many childrencan now go to school instead of goingto collect water.

Having seen the success of the pro-gramme, rural banks are collaboratingwith NGOs and other organisations toprovide finance for smallholders tomaintain ooranis and maximise theirbenefits.

Farmers in Purulia, WestBengal, are setting asidefive percent of their land asa pond. They can can storeenough rainwater toirrigate their paddy incritical periods.

Credit: IWMI

Supplying simple dripirrigation kits to farmerssuch as these Nepalesevegetable producers inTanahun gives them theopportunity to makesignificant watersavings and increasethe yields of theircrops.

Credit: IWMI


Water

WastewaterAlong the Musi river, downstream fromHyderabad and Secunderabad, inAndhra Pradesh, an estimated 100,000acres is irrigated with domestic andindustrial wastewater flowing from thetwo cities. Using wastewater can pose ahuman health risk, so IWMI has beenexamining the different precautionerymeasures that need to be taken toreduce the harmful effects. It has alsobeen looking for suitable crops whichgrow well with wastewater, are non-edible (so that, even if there are anytoxic elements in the crop, they do notenter the food chain), have gooddemand (for example, jasmine), andprovide employment opportunities tomany.

Most of the land irrigated withwastewater in the urban and peri-urbanareas is now being used to grow paragrass, which is being used to feed buf-faloes for milk production. Once plant-ed this grass can be harvested for 20years without being replanted. Someareas are growing jasmine, a non-ediblecash crop in demand for social and cul-tural reasons. Banana and coconut

In Ramanahapuram district of Tamil Nadu, communities are rejuvenating village tanks or ooranis tostore rainwater for domestic purposes. No longer do women and children spend hours walking tocollect water.

Credit: IWMI

In the semi-arid Udaipurdistrict of Rajasthan, farmingcommunities are integratingrainwater harvesting,afforestation, and rejuvenationof grazing lands to rechargegroundwater, increase fodderproduction and secure watersupplies.

Credit: IWMI

Water


palms are also cultivated in the urbanareas with wastewater, mainly for theirleaves which are used in decorationsduring prayers and marriages by tradi-tional Hindus.

The effect of growing non-ediblecash crops is the extra employmentthose crops create. Women get extraemployment and cash by taking someof the crops to market and labourers getextra work to cut and carry the grass tomarket.

Low cost irrigationGrowing extra vegetables and fruit tosell is one way farmers can increasetheir family income, but in many areasthey find it difficult to do as eitherwater is scarce or watering requires alot of labour.

One way round the problem is irri-gation, but the cost, especially for dripirrigation, is too high for most farmers.International Development Enterprise-Nepal (IDE-Nepal), however, hasdeveloped a variety of low-cost dripirrigation kits that are appropriatelysized and affordable for smallholders.

The drip systems are divisible andavailable in convenient packages, in theform of kits, which the farmers caninstall and maintain themselves with alittle training. The system can beexpanded at any time, and will use halfthe amount of water of other irrigationsystems.

The drip system gives farmers theflexibility of growing a larger variety ofcrops, from which they can expect 30 to50 percent extra yield. The system alsoallows other, unproductive land to bebrought into cultivation. The end resultis more income for the family.

Further details of these technolo-gies can be obtained from: IWMI, c/oICRISAT, Patancheru 502324, AndhraPradesh, India. IDE, P O Box 2674,Sanepa, Nepal. Seva Mandir, Udaipur,Rajasthan, India Dhan Foundation, 18Pillaiyar, Koil Street, S S Colony,Madurai 625 010, Tamil Nadu, India.PRADAN, 3 CSC, Niti Bagh, New Delhi110 049, India. Visit the website:www.iwmi.cgiar.org/smallholdersolu-tions/index.asp

Desalination is not difficult using thereverse osmosis process but it needspower to force water through the mem-brane against osmotic pressure. Manyvillages don't have electricity so anotherform of power is needed. During non-agricultural periods such as summermonths, when the need for water is espe-cially acute, many villages have sparework oxen, so the idea was borne to useoxen as the source of power.

The idea was conceived by Dr.Pushpito K. Ghosh, Director of CSM-CRI, and subsequently designed by Mr.Nagendra Pathak and his team havedeveloped such a unit.

A pair of bulls are connected to oneend of a four metre long metal shaftwhile the other end is coupled to a gearbox, comprising three sets of bevel heli-cal gears. The gear box is designed toconvert bullock power into mechanicalpower as the oxen walk slowly round ina circle. The output shaft from the gear-box is coupled to the crankshaft of areciprocating high pressure pump, whichdischarges 20 litres of water per minuteat 22-25 bar hydraulic pressure. Thishydraulic pressure is adequate to carryout desalination and deliver 350 - 500litres of water per hour. The plantreduces water containing 3000 - 5000mg/l total dissolved solids down to lessthan 500 mg/l TDS. Bacteria and otherharmful elements such as fluoride,arsenic, nitrate and heavy metals are alsoremoved through the reverse osmosis

desalination process. The cost of the prototype unit is Rs.

250,000 (£3500), excluding animal costand cost of site development. The cost islikely to go down on large scale com-mercialisation. The operating cost isabout Rs 7-10 (£0.10) per 100 litres ofdrinking water, inclusive of cost of man-power in India to operate the unit.

The system can produce enoughwater to cater for the cooking and drink-ing water needs of 1000 villagers whenthe unit is operated for 8 hours per day.The Institute is undertaking furtherresearch and development to improvethe performance, robustness and capaci-ty of the unit. It is also attempting tomodify the system for seawater desalina-tion.

The Institute has found that one pairof oxen can work for two hours beforethey need a 30 minute break. Dr Ghoshsays in this manner they can continue forsix hours comfortably. "If we want tooperate continuously and for longerhours, we will require two pairs of oxen.I should add that the oxen need to be rea-sonably well built and sturdy. One morepoint to note is that they get better attheir job with practice, especially sincethe motion involved is circular. Initially,they tend to pose some resistance."

More information from Dr.P.K.Ghosh, the Central Salt & MarineChemicals Research Institute,Bhavnagar, 364002 Gujarat, India. E-mail: [email protected]

The prototype oxenpowered desalination unit inoperation at the Central Salt& Marine ChemicalsResearch Institute'spremises.

Credit: CSMCRI

Oxen power desalinates water It is well known that the ground water in many coastal and inland areas isbrackish and not potable. Many areas are remote and without electricity tooperate a desalination plant. So there is a need for appropriate desalinationtechnology, and this has been developed by the Central Salt & MarineChemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), in India.

The method is simple. It involves dig-ging pits at the top of fields to trap rain-water. As the pits fill up, water soaksslowly into the ground and feeds thelow-lying parts of the field when theyrun out of moisture.

Mr. Osmond Mugweni, a sustain-able agriculture consultant with theUNDP Africa 2000 Plus Network isproud of this technique. He believes itcan solve the country's drought-threat-ened food security if promoted nation-ally. He says the pits "help to raisewater tables" because water is retainedin the pits.

"This has a double effect," says Mr.Mugweni. "The wet conditions aregood for the crops and also promote thegrowth of a variety of grass species andherbs, enhancing conservation."

Slow acceptanceZephaniah Phiri, a subsistence farmer,started using this method in the late1960s, but it was not acceptable to theauthorities who arrested him. That did-n't stop Phiri from continuing to use iton his farm in Zvishavane. Today, Phiri,now in his late 70s, is being provedright, as the technique promotes foodsecurity and generates more income forfarmers because they can grow and sella greater variety of crops from the samepiece of land.

Mrs. Khetiwe Mhlanga, UNDPAfrica 2000 Plus Network co-ordinatorsaid, "We have known about Mr. Phiri'swork for years. Mr. Phiri also read

about the UNDP Africa 2000 PlusNetwork's work and wrote to us. That'show we came to know him."

Commenting on why Zimbabwe'sAgricultural Extension Services wasnot using Mr. Phiri's method, Mrs.Mhlanga said, "The AgriculturalExtension Services, like most govern-ments, don't learn from common peo-ple. Even in Japan at the World WaterForum, government people didn't go tosee work done by NGOs and communi-ty representatives."

However, Mrs. Mhlanga said thewater harvesting method is spreadingsteadily though it has to be adapted tosuit different land types. The UNDPAfrica 2000 Plus Network GlobalEnvironment Facility Small GrantsProgramme (GEFSP) assisted farmersto establish the method in the year2000.

Meanwhile, most SHAFAC mem-bers, who have implemented themethod, expect that, in five years, theywill be using sophisticated farmingequipment, including tractors, boughtwith money generated from the waterharvesting method. They expect anoth-er bumper harvest this year.

EstablishmentThe filtration pits need to be dug aboutone metre deep and a metre wide andcan be as long as 30 meters at the top ofa field. SHAFAC farmers say the instal-lation is very cheap.

When it rains, water accumulates inthe pits, so run-off is prevented and thisminimises soil erosion, thereby promot-ing sustainable agriculture. The pitsraise the water table and while the watertable is rising, it also initiates some cap-illary action, drawing moisture fromdeep underground to come to the sur-face.

"This is a double cumulative effectthat is very good for the environment,"said Mr. Mugweni. "The wet conditionsresult in grass and many plant speciesgrowing lavishly on the farm, serving

as a good conservation measure. In wet-land areas you get a lot of the water-loving plants coming in the area, inaddition to animals and insects."

Food securityMr. Mugweni says this method servesas a food security measure in drier partsand even in the wetter parts ofZimbabwe in times of drought. Beforethe introduction of the method in theShagashi farming area, farmers used tostruggle to produce just one crop in aseason, but they can now produce morethan one crop. In summer they growmaize and in winter wheat, using themoisture retained by the water harvest-ing filtration pits. The pits can also beused for fish farming, which increasesdiversification in farming.

The problem in Zimbabwe is notlow rainfall, says Mr Mugweni. "Ourproblem is the distribution of rainfall.In most dry parts of Zimbabwe, all therainfall for the season can come in justone or two months and it is not spreadacross the whole rainfall season."

With water harvesting pits, all themoisture is trapped and then spreadover the next four to five months. "Mostof the crops grown in Zimbabwe need90 to 160 days to fully mature. So ifyou have the rains coming in less thanone month, the crops cannot mature atall," explained Mugweni. "But if youspread that moisture and use it for thenext three to four months, you will beable to harvest crops."

Water


A water harvesting technique currently beingpromoted in Zimbabwe is enabling thesemembers of the Shagashe Farmers Club togrow a variety of crops such as cabbages.

Credit: Emmanuel Koro

Zimbabwean farmers bag the clouds Emmanuel Koro reports how a water harvesting method, currently being applied in rural Zimbabwe's naturally dryMasvingo Province, south of the country, has given small-scale commercial farmers, such as the Shagashe Farmers Club(SHAFAC), better harvests despite the persistent drought.

Using a water harvesting techniquesmallholder farmers in Zimbabwe are able togrow good crops of maize, even in low rainfallyears.

Credit: Emmanuel Koro

As the area is generally dry, agrono-mists discouraged farmers from drillingboreholes, but now, as water is beingretained on the farms, farmers are beingallowed to drill boreholes.

This is an abridged version of anarticle that can be seen on the web site:www.islamonline.net/English/Science/index.shtml. Emmanuel Koro is a free-lance journalist based in Harare. He iscurrently Research Writer/

Earlier in the year, two members ofRegional Land Management Unit(RELMA), an international organisa-tion based in Nairobi, Kenya, travelledto Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujaratand Rajasthan, in India, to see commu-nity-led water works. This visit byMaimbo Malesu, regional coordinatorand Paito Obote, programme officer,marked the setting up of a water har-vesting network between Africa andsouth Asia.

The Centre for Science and theEnvironment (CSE), in India, andRELMA have entered into a partnership- 'Green water harvester's network' tospread awareness about the potential ofrainwater harvesting practices (RWH).

The 18 nations forming this net-work are: Kenya,Tanzania, Uganda,Ethiopia, Eritrea, Rwanda, Somaliland,Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique,Botswana, South Africa, India,Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh andBhutan. While working together, CSEwill focus on the south Asian regionwhile RELMA will cover eastern andsouthern Africa.

Global Water Partnership, an inter-national organisation, is funding thisproject, which gives both CSE andRELMA an added advantage to shareand learn from the experiences of otherinternational actors.

Obote and Malesu's journey beganwith the Rain Centre, at Chennai, wherethey were thoroughly briefed on RWH.Malesu found the centre to be 'meticu-lously planned for the visitors'. Laterthey went to see the 600 year old tem-ple tank located at Pammal, 20 km

Water


A Zimbabwean farmers shows the waterharvesting pit which has been dug on his farmto trap and store rainfall.

Credit: Emmanuel Koro.

Communications Officer for the AfricaResources Trust, and president of theSub-Saharan Africa Forum forEnvironment Communicators . E-mail:[email protected]

Water harvesting network set-upsouth west of Chennai. They discussed,with the locals, how the system hadbeen revived. Obote said, "It is rare tofind initiatives like these in urbanareas". At the village of Thalambeduthe visitors looked at the tank manage-ment efforts of a Madurai-based NGO,Dhan Foundation. Neerkattis (watermanagers) shared their age-old watermanagement practices with them.

Malesu and Obote went on to visitMaharashtra where they saw the rolewatersheds play in improving rural lifein India. They met Hardevsinh Jadeja,the ex-sarpanch and initiator of thewater works in village RajSamadhiyala, which now has enough

water to irrigate, despite years of waterscarcity. (See AT January/March 2000)Impressed by Jadeja's work, Malesuinvited him to visit Africa.

Laporiya in Rajasthan was the laststop, where Laxman Singh, the dynam-ic local leader has developed a uniquesystem - chauka (dykes) for managingpastures and water. This visit has pavedthe way to share and replicate experi-ences in both the continents.

More information from EklavyaPrasad, CSE, 41 TughlakabadInstitutional Area, New Delhi - 110 062,India. Fax: +91-11-2608-5879; E-mail: [email protected]. E-mailMaimbo Malesu: [email protected]

Maimbo Malesu and Paito Obote of the Regional Land Management Unit, in Kenya, visiting thePammal Tank at Chennai, which has been renovated for collecting rainfall. Left to right: Malesu,Indrakumar, an activist facilitating rainwater harvesting in Pammal, and Obote.

Credit: Centre for Science and the Environment

India's teledensity at little over 5 per1000 is still one of the lowest in theAsia Pacific region. And the thrust ofIndia's latest telecommunications poli-cy on bringing the rural areas under thecommunications network of the countrydepends on the technological innova-tions suited to Indian needs and condi-tions.

Against this backdrop, corDECT, asystem based on the Wireless in LocalLoop (WLL) technology has proved tobe a cost effective and appropriate solu-tion for expanding the communicationsnetwork in India and other third worldcountries. It has been developed by theTelecommunications and ComputerNetwork (TeNet) group of theDepartment of Electrical Engineeringand Computer Sciences at the IndianInstitute of Technology, Madras, underthe guidance of Prof.AshokJhunjhunwala, who is head of theElectrical Engineering Department.Prof. Jhunjhunwala feels that more than

150 million telephone lines are vital tospeed up India's socio-economicgrowth.

"corDECT can provide simultane-ous voice telephony and 35/70 Kilo bitsper second (kbps) Internet access - thismeans one can talk while using theInternet," said Prof.AshokJhunjhunwala.

"The system replaces the traditionalcopper twisted pair local loop," saysShishir Purohit, head of MidasCommunication Technologies. "It pro-vides better voice and data transfer. ThecorDECT offered by Midas provides 35kbps and 70 kbps internet and a simul-taneous voice connection to a sub-scriber at a cost of little over US$300".

corDect is based on the DigitalEnhanced Cordless Telecommuni-cations (DECT) standards specified bythe European TelecommunicationsStandards Institute.

Basically, the corDECT system con-sists of a subscriber unit called Wallset

Information Technology


The corDect system is proving to be a cost effective and appropriate solution forexpanding the communications network in India.

Credit: Tenet

with Internet Port (WS-IP) located atthe subscriber's premises. It has a stan-dard interface for a telephone and aserial port to connect a PC without amodem for internet access. The WS-IPis connected to a wireless base stationand the base station is connected to anaccess unit comprising a DECTInterface Unit.

This system has been installed notonly in various parts of India but also inother third world countries includingArgentina, Brazil, Madagascar, Kenya,Nigeria, Angola, Tunisia, Iran andYemen. Telecom experts in India thinkthat the extensive use of the low costcorDECT system in sparsely populatedrural areas, small towns and suburbs ofbig cities could help India to catch upthe countries of the Asia Pacific regionin terms of telephone penetration andinternet access.

Jhunjhunwala's dream is to networkall the six million plus villages in Indiausing corDECT. The State ofTamilnadu is sponsoring Rural Accessto Services through Internet, and n-Logue has been given a licence to man-ufacture corDECT. 700 villages spreadover ten districts of the state have beenconnected through corDECT.

"We like to have 30 projects inTamilnadu running by March 2004 witheach project connecting 250-300 vil-lages," says D.G.Ponnappa, ChiefExecutive Officer of n-Logue. "It isexpected to serve nearly 20-millionpeople."

The current thrust of n-Logue is toprovide village level kiosks named"Chirag" (meaning light). These kiosksprovide telephone connection and inter-net access and are supported bycorDECT. Meanwhile Hindustan LeverLtd, a leading Indian producer of con-sumer goods, is in talks with n-Logue toexplore the possibility of using "chirag"by its village level self help groups foraccessing information on agriculture,weather, fertilisers and pesticides, edu-cation, jobs, government schemes andhealth.

Recently, Midas CommunicationsTechnologies secured a US$12-millionorder from Egypt to install 2,00,000telephone lines based on corDECT sys-tem. This is claimed to be the biggest

A boost to rural communicationsDespite India's strides in many areas of technology, poor communications,especially in the rural areas, continues to hold back development. The telecom-munications network has for long remained concentrated in the urban andindustrial centres, but that may soon change. Radhakrishna Rao reports how anew system, corDECT, could boost rural communications.

Information Technology


telecom export order won by an Indianfirm. On another front, Midas has suc-cessfully executed a US$2.2-millionproject aimed at providing communica-tions service in the nine cities of Brazilas part of the mini-minor licensingscheme introduced by the Braziliangovernment to provide telephones andrelated services to semi urban and ruralareas in the country.

According to Midas, "corDECTwas chosen by the Brazilian govern-ment because it is capable of providingboth voice and internet services and isthe most cost effective solution both interms of capital expenditure and recur-ring operating expenses to run the sys-tem. corDECT is also approved by theBrazilian Regulatory Authority".

While elaborating on the factorsthat motivate him to design and devel-op corDECT along with the membersof Tenet team Prof. Jhunjhunwala says,"Internet is power. It enables people. Itis changing the way we live. Those

Heart of the corDECT technology, the DIUinterfaces with the existing telecom networkthrough E1 lines and acts as the base stationcontroller of the system.

Credit: Tenet

without internet will have tremendousdisadvantage as we go on. We wouldlike to see that all villages get reason-ably good internet connections at theearliest".

For further information contactProf. Jhunjhunwala, The Telecom-munications and Computer NetworksGroup(TeNeT), Department ofElectrical Engineering, ComputerScience & Engineering, IIT Madras,Chennai-600036, India. E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.tenet.res.in

"Stop buying World Bank bonds". Thatwas the stark and urgent plea thatDemba Dembele of Senegal made inEurope in May this year. In a month-long, 6-country tour, Dembele said "Iwant to explain to European publicswhat the World Bank and theInternational Monetary Fund are doingto the people of Africa".

The US-based World Bank and IMFare sister organisations, working close-ly together. The world's largest multilat-eral aid agency, the World Bank raisesaround 80 per cent of its funds by issu-ing bonds. The money is used to fundthe Bank's work.

In 2000, a campaign to boycottWorld Bank bonds was launched in theUnited States; it now consists of groupsin the US, Europe and developing coun-tries. The campaign seeks to discourageinvestors such as local authorities, pen-sion funds, trade unions, churches anduniversities, etc. from buying theBank's bonds, to put it under pressure tochange course.

Around 90 organisations world-wide have joined the campaign which ispressing for an end to the World Bank'sstructural adjustment policies, 100 percent debt cancellation, "and for an endto environmentally destructive projects,especially for oil, gas, mining, anddams".

"World Bank/IMF policies haveimpoverished our countries", saidDemba Dembele, "Africa's poor arebecoming poorer". Dembele, theDirector of the Forum for African

Alternatives in Senegal, was stronglycritical of the World Bank's structuraladjustment programmes under whichgovernments of African and otherdeveloping countries have had to liber-alise their trade and reduce spending onservices such as healthcare and educa-tion, as the price for aid and debt relief.

"It's market fundamentalism", heclaimed. The Bank and the Fund havesleek publicity machines which claimthat their polices are working, saidDembele, "but they are not".

The World Bank's record wasdefended by its spokesman JohnDonaldson who said that the Bank'slending "has contributed in a major wayto improving the lives of people indeveloping countries over the past 50years, and our activities are a matter ofpublic record".

World Bank bonds "have made itpossible to support the developmentplans of borrowing countries at the low-est possible cost. Even in the unlikelyevent that this boycott had an effect onour lending, it would raise the cost offunds for the very people over whichthese bond boycotters purport to beconcerned - those living in poverty indeveloping countries", he said.

But criticism of the Bank and theIMF also surfaced in a report "States ofUnrest: resistance to IMF and WorldBank policies in poor countries".*

Civil unrest occurred last year in 25developing countries, alleges the report,because of Bank and Fund policies,with millions of people taking part last

Broad Brush by John Madeley


year in over a hundred protests.Published by the London-based

World Development Movement(WDM), the report claims to map "alargely unreported movement in devel-oping countries". People have taken tothe streets, it says, to let their govern-ments and the international communityknow that World Bank/IMF policies arenot working and threaten their liveli-hoods.

Eight countries in Africa have wit-nessed protests, while, in Argentina,massive riots have occurred in protestagainst the way the economy was beingrun, with the IMF coming under fire fordemanding budget cuts. The WorldBank claims that the protests are "inreaction to governments' own policiesand decisions".

"The willingness of ordinary peopleto take to the streets in large numbers",says David Seddon, Professor ofDevelopment Studies at the UK'sUniversity of East Anglia, "reflectstheir anger and outrage".

*Available from WDM, 25 BeehivePlace, London SW9 7QR, or at:www.wdm.org.uk

Corruption -its effectsIn Nigeria they call it dash, in Malaysiait's known as money politics, in Britainas just plain sleaze. Whatever the label,corruption can undermine democracy,distort priorities and worsen poverty.For corruption diverts public expendi-ture away from key sectors such ashealth and education to more immedi-ately lucrative ones such as construc-tion and defence.

Businesses can pay large bribes towin contracts. If a government officialis offered a bribe, he or she uses influ-ence to win an order for goods whichmay be not needed or which are over-priced. Corruption can therefore drainmoney away from more useful projects.

Local corruption can affect the pooreven more immediately. TransparencyInternational - a non-governmentalorganisation working to combat corrup-

The campaign toboycott World Bankbonds has spreadthrough the US,Europe anddevelopingcountries. Thecampaign seeks todiscourageinvestors frombuying the Bank'sbonds, and put itunder pressure tochange course.

Bank bonds

tion - tells the striking story of Jumaand Fatma Ali, a family in a developingcountry.

In a normal day, Fatma has to paydearly for water because of corruptionby the builder of a community wellwhich no longer works; water from thewell was supposed to be free.

The bus fare to school for Amina,the daughter of Fatma and Juma, isexorbitant because of bribes paid to thebus franchise owner. But Amina wouldonly be able to enrol in school if a bribeis paid equal to two months of herfather's salary. To keep his job Juma hasto pay 20 per cent of his monthly salaryto his foreman.

The report ends by relating howJuma came home from work one day tofind that the family had been evictedfrom their home. It had been demol-ished by the local government to makeway for a middle class housing devel-opment. The decision to demolish thehouse and start the new developmenthad been the result of a bribe paid to themayor.

"This story of the Ali familyinvolves clear violations of a number ofbasic human rights such as the right toan adequate standard of living, includ-ing food and housing, the right to work,the right to property....", says MaryRobinson, former United Nations HighCommissioner for Human Rights.

Transparency International publish-

Action neededfor meet thegoalsThe 2003 Human Development Reportof the United Nations focuses on themillennium development goals, agreedat the UN in 2000, and what needs to bedone to achieve them. The goals rangefrom halving chronic poverty, to haltingthe spread of HIV/AIDS, to enrollingevery child in primary school by 2015.

The report provides a full set of dataon the status of each goal in every coun-try. Some of the goals are on-track, oth-ers are a long way behind. Over 50countries grew poorer in the lastdecade. The report presents a plan ofaction for reaching the goals. It urgesdeveloping countries to take the politi-cal and economic lead to reach them,and a big increase in resources fromdonor countries to help.

As the report says: "poverty is theworld's problem".

The report can be accessed on:www.hdr.undp.org

Broad Brush by John Madeley


The report that criticises Britain's ExportCredits Guarantee Department for routinelyturning a blind eye to corruption and bribery inprojects that it backs.

The 2003 Human Development Report of theUnited Nations focuses on the millenniumdevelopment goals, and what needs to bedone to achieve them.

es a Corruption Perceptions Indexwhich suggests that the highest levelsof "perceived corruption in governmentand public administration" are inAzerbaijan, Bolivia, Cameroon, Kenya,Indonesia, Uganda, Nigeria andBangladesh. While corruption is notconfined to developing countries, thisindex suggests a strong link betweencorruption and poverty.

Richer countries could help reducecorruption by doing more to eliminatepoverty in developing countries, and byensuring that their own procedures donot aid the bribers.

Yet Britain's Export CreditsGuarantee Department (ECGD), a gov-ernment body that provides guaranteesand insurance for British companiesseeking contracts abroad, is criticised ina recent report for "routinely turning ablind eye to corruption and bribery inprojects that it backs".

The report "Turning a Blind Eye:Corruption and the UK's Export CreditsGuarantee Department"* examinesnine ECGD-backed projects where cor-ruption has been alleged. Published bythe Corner House, a UK based NGOwhich researches matters of environ-mental and social concern, the reportalleges a failure to take corruption alle-gations into account when providingbacking for companies, and a failure toinvestigate such allegations.

"The British government criticisesThird World governments for corrup-tion", says Nicholas Hildyard of theCorner House, "but it has still toaddress major institutional failures athome that are promoting corruptionabroad. The British government needsto put its own house in order".

Can corruption be defeated? MaryRobinson believes that "analysing cor-ruption in light of its impact on humanrights could well strengthen publicunderstanding of the evils of corruptionand lead to a stronger sense of publicrejection". A many sided attack on cor-ruption could end the scandal of thebribes which benefit the few at theexpense of the many.

*Available from The Corner House,Station Road, Sturminster NewtonDorset DT10 1YJ, or atwww.thecornerhouse.org.uk

The African bollworm, Helicoverpaarmigera Hübner, is a caterpillarattacking several important vegetablecrops like tomato, sweet and hot pep-pers, okra, French beans and peas. Inpartnership with four national biocon-trol research teams based in Ethiopia,Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, ICIPE islooking into the possibility of control-ling the pest with indigenous egg para-sitoids. These are minute wasps which,when released in the crops, destroy theegg stage of the pest.

During surveys in the four coun-tries, well over 200 collections of nativeegg parasitoids were assembled and arenow being studied with the aim of iden-tifying promising species with potential

for mass production and commerciali-sation. The project has supported a pri-vate company in the establishment ofcommercial mass production in Kenya.

The red spider mite (RSM),Tetranychus evansi, is a serious pest oftomatoes, at times causing yield reduc-tions of up to 90 percent. It originatesfrom South America and was probablyintroduced into southern Africa in the1970s, from where it has spread intomany countries of sub-Saharan Africa.The project is developing integratedpest management (IPM) strategies tocontrol the mite, concentrating on threemajor areas: classical biological con-trol, resistance of tomatoes to RSM andcultural control measures.

A number of natural enemies, main-ly predatory mites, have been identifiedin northeastern Brazil, an area withcomparable climatic conditions to east-ern and southern Africa. These preda-tors are currently being studied to iden-tify species suitable for introductioninto Africa. The project is also screen-ing for resistance in commercial tomatovarieties and wild relatives of the culti-vated tomato, and the mechanisms ofresistance are being investigated. It isplanned to incorporate the resistancegenes into commercial varietiesthrough a breeding programme.

Cultural measures such as pruningand staking can reduce mite infestationand increase yield and quality of toma-toes. This is partly a result of better mitecontrol (it is easier to reach the miteswith acaricides on pruned and stakedtomatoes) and partly to plant physiolog-ical factors. Farmers in Zimbabwe havealready adopted these practices afterseeing the benefits in on-farm trials.

Diamond-back mothAmong the worst pests of vegetables ona world-wide scale is the diamond-backmoth (DBM), Plutella xylostylla. It is aprominent pest of brassica cropsthroughout the tropics and also in moretemperate climates. DBM has becomenotorious for developing resistanceagainst all classes of pesticides. ICIPEis leading a regional effort to improvethe biological control of this pest ineastern Africa. After studies on locallyoccurring natural enemies and theirimpact on DBM populations, an exoticparasitoid, Diadegma semiclausum,was introduced from the AsianVegetable Research and DevelopmentCentre in Taiwan.

The parasitoid has been released inthree pilot areas in Kenya and one inTanzania. Impact monitoring is on-going and parasitisation rates at the ear-liest release site have surpassed 45 per-cent. Diamondback moth populationshave declined when compared to thepre-release situation, but it is too earlyfor a final assessment. Large-scalereleases of this parasitoid are plannedfor Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda andlater for Ethiopia and other countries inthe region. Introduction and releases of

Integrated pest management


French beans are an important export crop from Kenya but they are often damaged by the Africanbollworm. The International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology is looking into the possibilityof controlling the pest with tiny wasps which attack the pest's eggs.

Credit: ICIPE

Integrated pest management forAfrican vegetable cropsVegetable growing for local and export markets is a profitable occupation formany smallholder farmers throughout Africa. Currently, most farmers rely onthe use (and often misuse) of synthetic pesticides to control pests. At theInternational Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), based in NairobiKenya, researchers are developing and demonstrating safer alternatives.



complementary parasitoids attackingdifferent stages of DBM and with adap-tation for hotter climates are plannedfor a second phase of the project.

A larval (Cotesia plutellae) and apupal parasitoid (Diadromus collaris)are under consideration. A series oftests with C. plutellae from differentsources have already been initiated andthe first field release will be made laterthis year in collaboration with col-leagues of the National AgriculturalResearch Organisation in Uganda.

Smallholders are producing the bulkof export vegetables from Kenya. Theyhave been hard-pressed to comply withrequirements of the markets, especiallythose on maximum pesticide residuelimits (MRLs) and issues of hygieneduring all stages of production andtransportation. ICIPE is a leader in aproject to prepare smallholder growersin Kenya to produce export vegetablesin compliance with EU requirements.The project focuses on French beans

and okra, both major export vegetablesin Kenya.

Training of trainers in French beansIPM has been conducted and currentlyfarmer group training by the graduatetrainers is proceeding in the majorFrench beans-producing districts ofKenya. A knowledge-attitude-practicesurvey of okra smallholder producershas been conducted and field studiesfor development of MRL-compliantIPM production have been initiated. Atraining programme for farmer grouptraining has been developed, and back-stopping of the group training activitiesand impact assessment is built into theproject.

Dissemination of resultsEven though ICIPE is basically aresearch institution, capacity buildingand farmer training are built into allprojects. As ICIPE does not have thenecessary capacity to do large-scaleextension work, the Centre is working

through national agricultural researchand extension services (NARES) withfarmers in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzaniaand Kenya.

In general, ICIPE's role is limited todeveloping activities for training oftrainers, training materials and givingsupport to the trainers during farmergroup training. In this respect, aTechnology Transfer and Training Unithas been established. In the medium-and long term, it is intended to channelmost of the technology transfer activi-ties through this Unit.

In the area of horticultural produc-tion, three IPM manuals have beendeveloped, for French beans, crucifersand tomatoes; a manual for okra pro-duction should be available before theend of this year.

For more information contact Dr B.Lohr, ICIPE, P.O.Box 30772 , Nairobi,Kenya. E-mail: [email protected]: website: www.icipe.org

Farmers, on an IPM training course in the Keiyo Valley of Kenya, look through a crop of French beans. Credit: ICIPE

communications professor at thePhilippine's Leyte State University; andNguyen Huu Huan, the vice directorgeneral of Vietnam's Plant ProtectionDepartment.

First launched in 1994 in theMekong Delta, the research and subse-quent campaign marked a milestone inrice production for two reasons. Firstly,it clearly identified the damage causedby the overuse of insecticides, whichkills off friendly insects and so encour-ages the pests they would otherwisehelp control. Secondly, it developed acompletely new way of communicatingimportant information to farmers.

After testing their campaign in theMekong Delta, where almost two mil-lion rice growers were persuaded to cutback on using harmful and unnecessaryfarm chemicals, the research partnerslaunched a similar campaign in centralThailand's Sing Buri Province.

Research has found that manyinsecticide sprays applied by Asian ricefarmers are unnecessary because theyare applied at the wrong time and to thewrong targets. In addition, many of thechemicals used, such as methylparathion, monocrotophos and metami-

Launched as part of WorldEnvironment Day 2004 activities inAsia, the campaign - which will bejointly advanced by a team ofVietnamese, Philippine and Malaysianscientists - will build on a groundbreak-ing effort that has already sharplyreduced pesticide misuse in Vietnam'sMekong Delta.

"Without doubt these researchactivities have been some of the mostsuccessful undertaken by IRRI in recentyears," Ronald P. Cantrell, director gen-eral of the International Rice ResearchInstitute (IRRI), said in a special mes-sage to the launch ceremony.

"However, such success - and mostimportantly, the positive impact onfarmers - would not have been possiblewithout the vision, hard work and com-mitment of our many Vietnamese part-ners and collaborators. In short, theproject has been Vietnam's success, notIRRI's, and is clear evidence of theimpressive progress made byVietnamese agriculture in recent years."

The team's long-running collabora-tive effort in Vietnam has been led byK.L. Heong from Malaysia, a seniorentomologist at IRRI; M.M. Escalada, a



dophos, are highly hazardous to humanhealth and so are banned in the devel-oped world.

These sprays disrupt natural biolog-ical control mechanisms and therebycreate an environment that can favourthe worst pest species. This promptsfarmers to spray even more late in theseason. Not only can farmers becomevictims of pesticide poisoning, butsprays can damage aquatic fauna,reducing fish and prawn cultures, andcause broad damage to the local envi-ronment.

The research team found that mostfarmers in Vietnam and elsewherespray in the early crop stages whendamage by caterpillars, beetles andgrasshoppers is visible, though yield isunaffected. Also, many of the modernrice varieties which farmers grow todayare bred for insect resistance and gener-ally do not require spraying.

The project team realised that thisoveruse and incorrect spraying of insec-ticides was due to years of aggressivepesticide advertising and marketing thatplayed to farmers' often misplacedfears.

"What appeared to motivate farmersto spray insecticides during the earlystages were misconceptions, lack ofknowledge and biased estimations oflosses due to pests," Dr. Heongexplained. "But we found that theamount rice farmers expected to lose ifno insecticides were applied was about13 times higher than the actual losses.So we set out to find ways to change theattitudes of farmers and motivate themto spray less."

Radio broadcastsThe research group quickly realisedthat a primary source of information forfarmers was local radio broadcasts.From then on, the ever-present farmerradios were at the heart of a media cam-paign that, in its first 6 years, had a pro-found impact on the use of insecticidesin the Mekong Delta.

"We got a group of actors to play

Protecting rice farmers from insecticide misuseAn innovative, award-winning campaign that promises to help protect a million rice farmers in the Red River Delta fromthe harmful effects of dangerous insecticides has been formally inaugurated in Vietnam.

Farmers in Vietnam's Mekong Delta have reduced spraying from an average of 3.4 applications perfarmer per season, to just one - a decrease of 72 percent. At the same time, the gross paddy outputhas increased from11 million to 14 million tons per year.

Credit: IRRI



out a series of brief comedies, usingrustic situations and solid scientificfacts to make the audience laugh," Dr.Heong explained. "We were then verypleasantly surprised to find these sim-ple, humorous messages fixed them-selves in the minds of thousands offarmers."

Such was the success of the cam-paign that 15 provincial administrationsthroughout the Mekong Delta andbeyond adopted the radio and posterstrategy. "It was all based on the prem-ise that farmers' perceptions, rather thaneconomic rationale, were used in mostpest-management decisions," said Dr.Heong.

The radio dramas, supported byleaflets and posters, were first aired inLong An Province in 1994. Researchhad shown that spraying in the first 40days after sowing was not necessary, sofarmers were told it was a waste ofmoney. They were encouraged to seefor themselves with a simple experi-ment, spraying only part of their cropand comparing the yield from thesprayed and unsprayed portions.

The effects were soon obvious, andby 1997 the campaign had been pickedup by 11 other provincial governmentsand was reaching about 92 percent ofthe Mekong Delta's 2.3 million farmhouseholds. The results became clearwith the analysis in 1999 of intensivesurveys.

Insecticide use had fallen from anaverage of 3.4 applications per farmerper season, to just one - a decrease of 72percent. The number of farmers whobelieved that insecticides would bringhigher yields had fallen from 83 percentto 13 percent. The number who realisedthat insecticides killed the natural ene-mies of rice pests, as well as the peststhemselves, had risen from 29 percentto 79 percent.

At the same time, the gross paddyoutput of the Mekong Delta increasedfrom 11 million to 14 million tons peryear. Dr. Heong believes that insecti-cide use can be further reduced by halfwithout affecting rice production. Buthe and his research partners also fearthat insecticide use will creep up againif the campaign is allowed to lapse.

"The only information most farmersget is advice from chemical companiesto use more sprays," says Dr. Heong."They think that every dollar theyspend on insecticide is going to meanabout $13 in their pockets at harvesttime. In fact, that far exceeds reality.Even in a worst-case scenario - a seri-ously damaging pest infestation - theymight benefit by only $4 from $1 spent,and the worst-case scenario is a rareevent."

"We should be training people tocommunicate, to deliver information tothe farmers and motivate them to eval-uate the new information objectively,"Dr. Heong asserted. "In this way, theycan improve their knowledge and, at thesame time, learn new values."

Money from the St. Andrews awardwill be used to extend their pesticide-reduction effort to the Red River Delta.

For more information, contact IRRI,DAPO Box 7777, Metro Manila,Philippines. Fax:: +63-2-580-5699;email: Website: www.irri.org

These Egyptianfarmers examinethe better qualityoranges theyhave producedsince they joineda farmer learninggroup.

Credit:W.Gassert

Learning groups achieve higher incomes In Egypt, a survey conducted in 2002-03 by the joint Egyptian-German programme to extend integrated pest management(IPM) to fruit and vegetable farmers found that exposure to Farmer Learning Groups (FLGs) resulted in improved skillsand knowledge for farmers, according to an impact study carried out by Joerg Amend and Werner Gassert.

The impact study found that the use ofrecommended IPM practices by FLGswas around 45 percent higher comparedto farmers who had not been in contact

with the extension system. There wassome take-up of the practices, too, byother farmers living in the same vil-lages, so-called contact farmers (CF's).

Farmers attending FLGs - a partici-patory extension approach modelled onthe Food and Agriculture Organisation'sFarmer Field Schools - become awareof the correct use of IPM practices andprinciples. The use of pesticides andnitrogen fertiliser by FLGs were, how-ever, generally not yet below the levelof the control group.

Agricultural expansionA permanent source of water from theriver Nile and a benevolent climate hasgiven Egypt a competitive advantageover its Mediterranean neighbours.Agricultural and horticultural produc-tion has expanded accordingly with twoto three harvests annually, but intensifi-cation, especially in greenhouses andunder plastic tunnels, has brought pestproblems causing considerable yield

losses. Inappropriate cultivation prac-tices such as: inadequate plant spacing,over irrigation, insufficient ventilationof under-tunnel crops, little or no prun-ing of fruit trees, excessive nitrogenfertilisation, the use of inappropriatepesticides and poor application prac-tices have made matters worse. Viruscontaminated planting material of fruittrees (citrus) is another problem.

ObjectivesThe Egyptian-German IPM-Project,supported by GTZ, started in 1992 andaimed to develop and disseminatemethods for IPM in major fruit andvegetable crops for male and femalesmall-scale farmers. The main aim is toget farmers to apply IPM methods in asustainable manner to protect con-sumers from excessive pesticideresidues and minimise environmentaldamage. Special attention is given toencourage beneficial organisms, whichordinarily keep pests in check.Pesticides are only being applied whentheir use is economically and ecologi-cally justified.

Methods of disseminationThe project started with technologytransfer from researcher to farmer - top-down - a common practice in Egypt.Training mainly took place in class-

rooms with the assumption that exten-sion staff would disseminate theiracquired knowledge to the farmers. Theresults were not encouraging as fewfarmers took up the ideas. The weaklink between the village extensionworkers and the farmers was identifiedas the major reason.

In response, the project adapted the'Farmer Field Schools' system to localconditions and developed "FarmerLearning Groups" (FLGs). These wereintroduced in 1997 in two governorates.FLG members meet regularly in thefield during the entire season where allcrop-related aspects are addressed.Trained village extension workers facil-itate this process while offering recom-mendations to farmers with the optionto experiment in their fields.

Printed material such as seasonalcalendars, leaflets and handouts supportthe learning process and stimulate dis-cussions amongst the group members.Finally, the whole process is comple-mented by field demonstration trialswhere all members of the FLGs as wellas other farmers from the same villagecan see the advantages of IPM and inte-grated crop management (ICM) prac-tices. Extension activities have nowextended to eight governorates andabout 30,000 farmers have alreadyattended FLGs.

Achieved impactAn intensive impact study was carriedout covering nearly 700 horticulturalproducers (including 99 female farm-ers), growing four different horticultur-al crops (orange, mango strawberry,tomato). The study found that the use ofthe recommended IPM/ICM practicesby FLGs was around 45 percent higherwhen compared to farmers who had notparticipated. Spill over effects tookplace to other seasonal horticulturalcrops grown by FLGs as well as toother farmers living in the same vil-lages, so-called contact farmers.

The use of IPM/ICM had consider-able positive effects on the production,quality, and yields of crops as well asincomes of farmers participating inFLGs. In comparison to farmers whodid not participate they achieved 21percent higher yields and about 20 per-cent higher gross margins. Contactfarmers had benefits, too, eight percenthigher yields and six percent highergross margins.

Currently the project is developingand testing ways to strengthen FLGs sothat they can help farmers solve com-mon problems as they arise in thefuture.

For more information contact W.Gassert, Egyptian-German IPM proj-ect, 6 Michael Bakhoum St., GreenHouses Bldg., Dokki, Cairo, EGYPT.Email: [email protected]



An Egyptian farmer, who has benefitted frombeing a member of a farmer learning group,tends his crop of tomatoes.

Credit: W.Gassert

Farmer learner groups in Egypt, such as this one holding a meeting with extension staff in a localorange orchard, are enjoying higher farm incomes.

Credit: W.Gassert

Subsidised solar energyThe Solar Home System (SHS), as it iscalled, is durable, as simple timelymaintenance keeps the panel's peakproductive capacity at 90 percent evenafter 25 years. The only question is bat-tery life, which largely depends on thecharge controller, but that too wouldlast easily for five years. The only sparethat the villagers need is a florescentbulb as it may suddenly die out at anymoment.

Another reason for the popularity ofsolar energy are the subsidies providedby the government. Subsidies are pro-vided to families depending on theirlocation of between one-third and halfthe installation cost which can be morethan Rs. 25,000 ($325) for 30 to 40 wattsystems.

For a community solar system in aremote area if installed by schools,health posts, temples, animal husbandryor adult literacy classes, the govern-ment gives a subsidy of up to 75 percentof the total installation cost.

According to Saroj Rai, SolarEnergy Programme Co-ordinator at theEnergy Sector Assistance Programme(ESAP), the subsidy is given to the peo-ple through an Interim Rural ElectricityFund (IREF) created with 10 percentfunds from the government and 90 per-cent funds from the Danish aid agency,DANIDA.

Subsidies are only given to thosevillages and households where there isno chance of connection to electricityeither from a regular power grid orfrom a micro-hydro within the next fiveyears.

Special programmes and agenciesSolar energy was first introduced in1989, but it wasn't until 1993 that solarenergy became popular after the gov-ernment's initiative. To further boost theprocess, the government, in 1996,established an Alternate EnergyPromotion Centre (AEPC).

In 1999, ESAP was established to

Renewable Energy


Currently around 30 solar electric andalternative energy companies and gov-ernment agencies are working togetherto bring light to many villages that areremarkably remote and hidden underthe massive shadow of the mightyHimalayas that give Nepal its name, theHimalayan Kingdom.

It is strange but true that in Nepal, acountry known for its hydropowerpotential, the cheapest source of renew-able energy in the world, people arehooking more and more onto solarenergy, known to be the most expensivesource of energy to date.

Producing electricity from solarphotovoltaic panels may be expensive,but for the people buying it, the issue isnot one of price as much as it is one ofhaving an alternative. The rapid expan-sion of the solar energy industry inNepal within the last ten years thatstarted in 1993 is because of the hope-less situation that the majority ofNepalis are forced to live in.

One can see many villages whereelectric poles have been erected, wiresconnected and villagers have done elec-tric wiring in their homes but the gov-ernment has not supplied electricity to

these villages for over a decade.Nearly 60 percent of Nepalese still

live without electricity, roads and manyother basic amenities; and 20 percent ofNepalese among the lucky 40 percentwho have electricity are either suppliedby a community owned micro-hydropower plant or are supplied by a tinysolar panel hoisted on their roofs, andbatteries ranging from 10 to 120 kilo-watts.

Micro-hydro power plants and solarlighting systems are equally popular inNepal, but the relative ease of installa-tion and individual ownership is mak-ing solar energy more popular.

Compared to a regular grid price of6 Rupees (Rs)/ per kilowatt unit of elec-tricity (0.08 US cents), solar energycurrently costs around Rs. 15/ to Rs. 20/kilowatt (0.19-0.26 US cents), but peo-ple are still buying it because their onlyalternative is kerosene or gas thatrequires hauling from towns. Solarenergy source on the other hand simplyrequires a one-time investment and thefamily gets light for nearly 10 yearswithout any interruption.

Solar energy lights up Nepalese villagesAround 27,000 Nepalese households, in remote rural areas, are now enjoying life with electricity. Their power is not com-ing from the national grid, but from solar energy. Prakash Khanal reports how an initiative taken by the Nepalese gov-ernment and donor agencies has given villagers this alternative energy source.

A common sight, now, in many Nepalese villages: panels of photovoltaic cells visible above theroof-line.

Credit ESAP

promote the use of alternate sources ofenergy such as biogas, hydropower,wind and solar energy. In 2001, IREFwas established to promote the use ofalternate energy.

Since ESAP began work installa-tions have risen from 6000 units to20,360 units in 68 districts and 1100village development committees(VDCs) that represent several sparselypopulated and thinly scattered villages.

Those figures represent only sub-sidised units. Solar energy is also usedby more than 30 community irrigationpumping stations; trekking agencies;rest houses; teahouses on the trekkingroutes which use battery chargers andportable lights; and lights and refrigera-tion systems for health professionals.

The government has planned toreduce the subsidy each year by 10 per-cent, but this new approach has so farbeen applied only to villages that arerelatively accessible. The villages in faraway remote areas continue to receivefull subsidies.

According to ESAP, funds allocatedto last till 2004 have already been spent,and funding agencies like DANIDA areplanning to approach other donor agen-cies to set up a funding consortiumwhich will generate more funds.

ESAP is also helping villagers withincome generation opportunities. ESAP

monitors the quality of components andservices, and is also helping to strength-en the private sector. The componentsproduced by their collaborating 16manufacturing companies are furthertested in the Solar Energy TestingStation.

ESAP has given a freehand to man-ufacturers and customers to talk andnegotiate about prices. The quality,however, must be approved by seniorengineers and technicians from ESAP.

Subsidy applications are made bythe private sector company doing theinstallation, so all the villagers need todo is to pay the difference to the com-pany. One of the main criteria for theprivate sector companies is that thereshould be a minimum of 10 solar ener-

gy systems within a distance of threewalking hours in remote areas so that itbecomes feasible for them to travel formaintenance.

Community systemsApart from the individual systemsinstalled in private homes, communitysolar power systems are going to berevived, within the next five years, asthe European Commission has agreed agrant of 15 million. The grant will beused to invest in community photo-voltaic systems which will provideelectricity for an entire village. Themoney will also be invested in solarthermal systems in the villages for dry-ing and cooking.

Despite the success of solar powerin houses for lighting the communitysystem is still a new concept. Accordingto Saroj Rai, not many community proj-ects are being installed. One reasonmay be that people are careful abouttheir own possessions and want toinvest in something that belongs tothem. Many people want the service butare not keen to pay for maintenance.Good community participation, howev-er, has occurred in forestry, conserva-tion and local development through theAnnapurna Conservation Progammeand could be easily replicated for some-thing as urgent as community electrifi-cation.

Prakash Khanal is a Nepali scienceand environmental journalist and for-mer editor of RONAST ScienceFeatures as well as General Secretaryof the Science Writers Association ofNepal. He can be contacted by e-mail:[email protected]

Renewable Energy


Many a Nepali family, in the more remote villages, have a panel of photovoltaic cells attached to thefront of their house.

Credit ESAP

Using panels ofphotovoltaic cells,thousands ofNepalesehouseholds are nowenjoying electriclighting inside theirhomes.

Credit ESAP

Renewable Energy

pumps chosen for this project are, bycontrast, easy to maintain and repair,using locally available skills and mate-rials.

The principal subsistence crops aremaize and cotton, with smaller areas ofsunflower, paprika and legumes. Maizeyields average less than one ton perhectare, mainly because husbandrypractices are deficient, labour is becom-ing scarce due to the incidence of HIV,and artificial fertilisers are unafford-able.

Over the past 30 years, the numberof cattle owned by subsistence farmershas declined because tick control sys-tems have collapsed, leading to morecases of tickborne East Coast Fever.The loss of work oxen means that manyfamilies are now farming smaller areasof arable land.

Demonstration farmThe Conservation Farming Unit (CFU)of the Zambia National Farmers Union


The conditions for wind pumping areideal - an extensive aquifer underliesseveral thousand hectares of deep, freedraining, red sandy clay soils. There arefew watercourses so there is little sur-face water available outside the wetseason. Open, hand dug wells of 5-12mdepth supply domestic water for mostfamilies.

Good quality water for irrigation isfound at 15 metres, and this yields morethan several litres/sec per borehole.During the long dry season, from Aprilto November, wind speed is adequate at2-5 metres/sec for several hours eachday. In the wet season, from Decemberto March, when rainfall averages850mm, wind is more erratic, but isenough to pump water for domesticpurposes.

Windpumps have been widely usedin the Chisamba area to pump water forranch cattle, but they rely on the techni-cal skills of the owners, and the supplyof imported spare parts. The wind

has designed, developed and currentlymanages a 40ha agroforestry demon-stration farm on Golden ValleyAgricultural Research Trust (GART)land at Chisamba in Chibombo District.In 1998 this was virgin land, and one ofthe first development tasks was toestablish a water supply for the treenursery.

Seeing that the conditions werehighly favourable for wind pumping weinvited a local drilling contractor to siteand drill a borehole. The contractorstruck water at 16 metres, drilled to afinal depth of 36 metres with two inter-mediate breaks and guesstimated thewater yield at above three litres/sec.The rest level of the water settled ateight metres.

The top 21 metres of the bore werecased with 150mm diameter steel cas-ing. The bottom six metres of casingwere slotted. No gravel pack wasrequired. The total cost for the casedborehole was US$1800.

At the time of drilling a member ofTraidcraft UK was visiting, and he wassufficiently impressed to arrange fund-ing for a wind pump and constructionof a storage shed. We were aware of thePOLDAW wind pump, which hadevolved from an earlier ITDG designthat resulted in the manufacture of theKIJITO wind pumps in Kenya. Theauthor had experience of Kijito windpumps which he had imported to theKano Agricultural DevelopmentProject in Northern Nigeria in 1982.

Using the Traidcraft money weimported a 3.5m rotor Poldaw fromZimbabwe. The Poldaw agent sent anexperienced fitter to supervise theinstallation of the machine, which waseasily accomplished within a week.

After the wind pump had beenworking for a few months we began toappreciate how reliable it was, and howthe security of our water supply enabledus to tackle other development taskswith confidence.

With the first machine highly visi-ble to the public passing on the main-road, we soon began to receive visitorswho were keen to learn more aboutwind pumping. This led us to realisethat wind pumping could become morepopular if donors and small farm own-

The Poldaw wind pump and plastic tank, funded by Traidcraft, on the agroforestry demonstrationfarm on Golden Valley Agricultural Research Trust (GART) land at Chisamba in Chibombo.

Credit: Glenn Allison

Wind pumps stabilise subsistencefarming in Zambia. The flat to rolling countryside of Chisamba District, north of Lusaka in Zambia,is home to the Lenges people. Traditionally hunters, they have had to becomesubsistence farmers, but are constrained through lack of water. There are plen-tiful supplies underground but the farming families can't afford to extract it.Glenn Allison and Godfrey Chungu, who farm in the area, have been promotingthe use of wind pumps.


ers became aware of the advantages. We envisaged a phased approach

beginning with an on-station highlycontrolled operation, leading to a pilotvillage operation with several machinessited close together. This could leadlater to a district scale operation involv-ing hundreds of wind pumps, with thecapital cost funded by soft loans ordonor grants.

Part of the strategy for makingdonors and the public more aware wasto demonstrate wind pumps in remotevillages. The aim was to secure primarywater supplies for a good number offamilies and to use surplus water forsmall scale irrigation of vegetables,crop, fruit and agroforestry treeseedlings.

A wind pump working on a highlymanaged development farm is onething, but we needed to know how wellthe Poldaw wind pumps would workwith minimal backup in villages. Wealso needed to see how groups of ten totwenty individuals would cope with theconstruction and subsequent manage-ment of owning and using a windpump.

We approached the ChibomboDistrict Council to see what supportthey could give, and after visiting theCFU site, the Community DevelopmentOfficer identified four potential windpump recipient groups in the district. Atthe same time CFU began discussing apotential village project with theZambian Social Investment Fund(ZAMSIF) who could meet up to 75percent of the capital cost. ZAMSIF isfunded by a World Bank loan.

Administration and constructionWith the help of ZAMSIF the fourselected groups formed the ChibomboFarmers Wind Pump Irrigation PilotProject. Each group was required toopen a bank account to receive theZAMSIF funds. CFU helped to write aproject proposal which was dulyaccepted by ZAMSIF.

In outline each group would get aborehole, a 5m Poldaw wind pump, aferrocement ground storage tank of 50cubic metres capacity, and a 2500 litreplastic tank on a six metre stand. Theplastic tank would supply domestic

Renewable Energy

One of theferrocementground tanks builtby the Chibombofarmers.

Credit: GlennAllison

water and/or a drip irrigation system..The ground tank and lined furrowswould supply a surface irrigation sys-tem covering up to one hectare aroundthe wind pump.

Four wind pumps were importedfrom Zimbabwe and the drilling andinstallation operations were completedby the end of April 2000. The Poldawagent had once again provided thesame experienced plumber who hadinstalled the first machine, and whonow worked with the farmers and twoCFU staff to assemble and erect thewind pump towers. Involving the farm-ers helped greatly to establish owner-ship.

The construction of the large ferro-cement tank nearly destroyed the proj-ect. Hauling aggregate and laterite forthe tank bases was a daunting task forthe groups which were short of workoxen and sound scotch carts. It tookover 15 months to complete four ferro-cement tanks with the result that twoirrigation seasons were lost.

The most effective and fastestgroup was led by a farmer who hadbeen a building foreman in a civil engi-neering firm. He supervised the tankbuilding, and ensured that a high stan-dard of construction was maintained.At the Agroforestry farm we decided totest a 50cm thick, compacted black

clayfloor, for our ferrocement tank, as acheaper and much easier alternative toconcrete. It worked perfectly.

Initially we planned a conventionalfurrow irrigation system, but the diffi-culty of building the ferrocement tanksconvinced us to use 50mm plastic pipesinstead. These deliver water to fourhydromatic valves set out on a 40m x40m square. With two bayoneted/detachable 20mm diameter flexiblehoses discharging water through a drib-ble bar one hectare can be irrigatedvery efficiently by one, or at most two,individuals.

Lessons learned so far.Although ZAMSIF did well on manyaspects of the project, its administra-tion worked slowly and late payment offunds delayed construction work.

So far over 80 percent of thepumped water has been used for humanand livestock consumption. The pumpsare actually turned off for long periodsbecause the irrigation distribution sys-tems are not yet complete. Theimproved water supply seems to bemost highly valued by the women, whonow spend more time on their rainfedcrops. This season these crops are out-standing and are far above the averagein the surrounding area.

The Poldaw design is ideal for


easy for the groups and external part-ners to communicate with each other.

Where there is no long history ofirrigation the need for discipline andtimeliness of operation needs to belearned on small plots such as thosecovered by one machine. Placing hun-dreds of windmills in a small area willnot deplete water supplies but will cre-ate a critical mass of activity which isneeded to foster the development ofagricultural support services.

The attraction of wind pumps is thatalthough their capital costs may seemrelatively high, the associated recurrentcosts and potential for environmentaldamage are minimal. Through farmingin his own right in the same district asthe farmer groups, and by regular inter-action with the members of the groups,the author has begun to gain their con-fidence. The aim is to foster coopera-tion, for too long absent, between com-mercial and smallscale farmers inAfrica.

The first phase of popularising windpumps in Chibombo district of Zambiais ongoing at the CFU Agroforestryfarm. The Royal NetherlandsGovernment, enthused by the first

machine, has funded two of the larger5m rotor Poldaws. These are workingeffectively.

The second, or Pilot Village, phaseof the project is well underway withinfrastructure complete at a cost ofabout $10,000 per site [one siteinvolves 100 persons either directly orindirectly] and the four farmer groupsbecoming more confident that they canimprove their own lot.

A third phase has started, in thatZAMSIF is planning to fund manymore windmills in different parts ofZambia. The CFU is an effective, smallorganisation which would be capable ofimplementing a project to install anoth-er hundred wind pumps in Chibombodistrict. It invites potential developmentpartners to make contact.

CFU can be contacted at Box30395, Lusaka, Zambia. GodfreyChungu's address at the demonstrationfarm is P O Box 96 Fringilla Zambia.Email address: [email protected]

Glenn Allison owns/manages acommercial farm near Chibombo inCentral Province of Zambia. GodfreyChungu manages the CFU demonstra-tion farm.

Solar chimneytechnologyA promising method to produce energyfrom the desert is the "Solar Chimney".Prof. Jörg Schlaich's idea was to pro-duce electricity using the greenhouseeffect itself. His suggestion was to use alarge greenhouse to create an upwardhot air stream in order to drive large tur-bines and hence create electricity.Schlaich Bergamann and partners builta 50 kW, first prototype power stationin 1982 at Manzanares in Spain. The200 MW project planned in New SouthWales, Australia by EnviroMission Ltdis a scale-up of above prototype powerplant.

The picture shows an artist'simpression of the proposed solar chim-ney. This consists of a tall tower built atthe center of a large transparent roofwith a slope to create a strong hot air

farmers to install and annual mainte-nance consists merely of annual greas-ing of a few critical ball bearings. Mostof the Poldaw wind pump are con-structed with welded mild steel, whichcan be easily repaired locally. At pres-ent, replacement parts are suppliedfrom the manufacturer in Zimbabwe,but could be made locally should theneed arise.

Water yields of 10 to 40 cubicmetres per 24 hours are frequentlyachieved. Yields of over 50 cubicmetres do occur, but not frequently.

Frequent visits by CFU and ZAM-SIF helped to boost farmer morale andinterest in their machines. ZAMSIF hasgained confidence in promoting anddesigning projects which include windpumps and can be expected to fundmany more.

Climax wind pumps made in SouthAfrica are currently offered at similarprices to Poldaws from Zimbabwe, butare not so user friendly and may,through the need for external mainte-nance and parts supply, set back theincreasing popularity of the technology.Siting three wind pumps close to eachother has been a success because it is

Renewable Energy

A Poldawwindpumpstanding in anorganic crop ofsoya grown onthedemonstrationfarm.

Credit: GlennAllison


Renewable Energy

An artist's impression of the proposed 200MW "Solar Chimney" power plant set to be built in NewSouth Wales, Australia. (Courtesy of REFOCUS-Nov/Dec 2002)

flow into the chimney. The height ofthe tower will be about 1000m and thediameter of the greenhouse roof isabout 7 km. The lowest height of theroof will be sufficient enough for main-tenance vehicles to gain access. Airinside the glass greenhouse gets hot,moves inwards and upwards into thechimney creating a strong wind. Thirtytwo turbines fixed in the tower produceelectricity without interruptions.

The total cost of such a plant is esti-mated to be between A$600-700Million. The main risks for this type ofpower stations are the damage causedby lightning or earth quakes due to itsheight. However, these can be easilyovercome by today's engineering andthe social benefits are enormous. Evenif there is a rare accident, no one will behurt due to its location in the desert,away from residential areas. If this firstpower plant in the desert is successful,both Prof. Jörg Schlaich's long heldvision in "Solar Chimney" and the"Energy from the Desert" concept willbe realized, and another method for

production of clean energy will be well-established.

This item appeared in the SAREPNewsletter, published by IMDharmadasa, NB Chaure and GMatthewman, Renewable Energy

Research Group, Sheffield HallamUniversity, Sheffield S1 1WB, UnitedKingdom. E-mail: [email protected]


Forthcoming

Agriculture:6th. Conference of the African Crop Science Society: Harnessing crop technologies to alleviate hunger and poverty in Africa, 12-17October 2003, in Nairobi, Kenya. Contact ACSS Organising Committee, Fax: +254 2 226673 / 632121 / 631957. E-mail:[email protected]. International Crop Science Congress, 26 Sept - 1 October 2003, Queensland, Australia. Theme 'New directions for a hungry planet'.Organisers: ACIAR, CSIRO & University of Queensland. Contact: Congress manager, P O Box 1280, Milton, Queensland 4064, Australia. Fax:+61 7 3858 5583; e-mail: [email protected]. Web site: www.cropscience2004.com4th. Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS2004), 4-7 February 2004, in New Delhi, India. Theme: "Partnerships for SustainableDevelopment: addressing the WEHAB (water, energy, health, agriculture, biodiversity) agenda". Full details from The Summit Secretariat, TheEnergy and Resources Institute, Darbari Seth Block, Habitat Place, Lodhi Road, New Delhi 110 003, India. Fax: +91 11 24682144; e-mail:[email protected]; web site: www.teriin.org/dsdsAssuring food and nutrition security in Africa by 2020, an all-Africa conference to be held April 1-3, 2004, Kampala, Uganda. Contact Ms.Rajul Pandya-Lorch, Head, 2020 Vision Initiative, IFPRI, 2033 K Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20006, USA. E-mail: [email protected] site: www.ifpri.org/2020AfricaConference/index.htm

Pest control:BCPC 2003: Crop Science & Technology, 10 -12 November 2003, Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glascow, UK. Contact: EventOrganisation Company, tel: +44 (0)2079405367; fax: +44(0)2079405577; e-mail: [email protected]; web site: www.bcpc.org

Water:Towards the Millennium Development Goals - Actions for Water and Environmental Sanitation - 29th WEDC International Conference, 22-26 September 2003, Abuja, Nigeria. Contact: WEDC, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU. E-mail: [email protected]; web-site: www.lboro.ac.uk/wedc/conferences

Forestry:XII World Forestry Congress, Quebec City, Canada, 21-28 September 2003. Jointly organized by the Department of Natural ResourcesCanada, and the Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources, in collaboration with the FAO (the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization).Guidelines on the WFC web site: www.wfc2003.org

Medicinal plants:Global Summit on Medicinal Plants, 25 - 30 September 2003, Terre Rouge, Mauritius. Organised by Century Foundation & BangaloreUniversity. Contact Dr. Anita Menon, Organising Secretary, Global Summit on Medicinal Plants, c/o Century Foundation, No. 35, 3rd CrossRoad, Vignannagar, Malleshpalya, Bangalore - 560 075, INDIA. Phone + 91-(80)-5249900; Fax + 91-(80)-5244592; e-mail [email protected]; website: www.cenfound.org/global/global.htm

Renewable energy:3rd. International Conference for renewable energy, energy saving and energy education, 28-31 October 2003, Havana, Cuba. Contact:Dr. Conrad Moreno, Technical University for Renewable Energy, Cujae, Marianao 19 390, Ciudad, Cuba. Fax: +537 267 1644; e-mail:[email protected]. Website: www.ispjae.cuThe European Pellets Conference, 3-4 March 2004, Wels, Austria, organised by O.Oe. Energiesparverband. Contact: Christine Oehlinger,Head of Sector International Tasks, O.Oe. Energiesparverband, A-4020 Linz, Landstr. 45, Austria.Tel: +43-732-7720-14861; Fax: +43-732-7720-14383; E-mail: [email protected]; website: www.esv.or.at/pellets04Global Windpower 2004 - Conference & Exhibition, 28-31 March 2004, Chicago, USA. Contact: American Wind Energy Association, 122 CStreet NW, Suite 380, Washington DC 20001, USA. Fax: +1 202 383 2500; e-mail: [email protected]; website: ww.awea.org

Courses:Course on network development for agricultural innovation, 1 - 19 March 2004 at the International Agricultural Centre (IAC)Wageningen,the Netherlands.Markets, privatisation, sustainability, global trade, and adding value are making it necessary for networks within agriculture to function moreeffectively. This course offers an opportunity to understand these changes, explore new approaches and to develop the expertise necessaryto improve the networking ability of all the organisations involved.Fellowships are available from the Netherlands Fellowship Programme for nationals of certain developing countries.Contact Femke Griffionen, IAC, Box 88, 6700 AB Wageningen, The Netherlands. Fax: +31 317 495395; e-mail: [email protected]

Forthcoming conferences and courses:


Rain Water Harvestingby Shree Padre

Published by Altermedia,Brahmaswom Madam Building, M GRoad, Thrissur 680 001, IndiaISBN 81-87612-03-7. Cost $6.00.Paperback. 120 pages.

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New titles from FAO

Communities around the world aresuffering more and more from watershortages - water tables are droppingas more underground water is pumpedout; and droughts are becoming morefrequent. There is a solution, though,and it is within the grasp of every com-munity - rainwater harvesting. Its not anew technology - it was practised cen-turies ago, but went out of fashion.

This book shows how it can bedone. Although the author writes fromhis experiences in India, the principlescan be applied anywhere. Instead ofallowing rainwater to flow off the land,it is being checked and stored for futureuse. As the book points out, it doesn'tmatter how much rainfalls, the ques-tion is how much of it is being harvest-ed. Every village can meets its basicwater needs if it harvests rainfall prop-erly.

The first part of the book covers thetheory of soil and water conservation.The main methods are vegetative andmechanical. Both play a part and theyare discussed in detail with simpledrawings to illustrate various points.

As the author points out, both need tobe applied not on a farm or villagebasis but across the whole watershed,so the whole community has to getinvolved.

The second half of the book revealsa number of success stories of rainwa-ter harvesting in India, Taiwan,Thailand and China. Case studies ofseveral Indian farmers are told - eachone has taken their farms from nearabandonment because of water short-ages to record yields through sensibleharvesting and storing of rainwater.

In Thailand, the government initiat-ed a programme that involved makingmillions of cement jars so that everyhousehold could store the rainwaterthat flow off the roofs of their houses.By 1987, over five million had beenmade and the programme continues.

This book is a valuable practicalguide and should help to promote rain-water harvesting everywhere.

Egg marketing. A guide for theproduction and sale of eggsFAO Agricultural Services Bulletins No. 150

Rome, 2003, 136 pp.

ISBN 92-5-104932-7, ISSN 1010-1365; TC/M/Y4628/E; $14.00This new guide provides information and advice to those

concerned with the production and sale of eggs in developingcountries with an emphasis on marketing, i.e. producing inorder to meet market demand. Augmenting the production oflaying chickens and improving farmers' returns by effectiveproduction planning and marketing will improve farmincomes, and will help to meet the nutritional needs of grow-ing populations in developing countries. These chickens areprolific, easy to raise and their output can be generallyexpanded more rapidly and easily than that of other livestock.

Furthermore, they are adaptable to various climates andaltitudes. Poultry raising is an excellent diversification activi-ty for small farmers. In addition, poultry raising can often becombined with other types of farming and offers the possibil-ity to raise extra revenue for farmers.

Construction and maintenanceof artisanal fishing harbours andvillage landingsFAO Training Series No. 25

Rome ,1995 (first edition), 2003 (this reprint), 148 pp.ISBN 92-5-103609-8; ISSN 0259-2533; TC/P/V5270/E; $37.00

This manual is the latest in the training series of theFishing Technology Services of FAO. It was conceived as aresult of the increasing demand in many developing countriesfor safer, better and cleaner facilities for fishing vessels, par-ticularly for the smaller craft used by small-scale artisanalfishermen and -women. It describes the equipment and meth-ods used in the construction of harbours and landing placesand gives advice on how to maintain them so that they canfunction efficiently.

Trade orders can be placed by E-mail at: [email protected] by fax at +39 06 5705 3360. Librarians and individualsare encouraged to order through FAO distributors listed onthe FAO web site at: www.fao.org/CATALOG/ giphome.htmSales and Marketing Group, Information Division, FAO,Viale delle Terme di Caracalla - 00100 Rome, Italy


trade system needs to be changed so thatit gives much higher priority to humandevelopment. They point out that poorcountries need time to follow develop-ment policies that rich countries no longerrequire. They argue that "trade rulesshould seek peaceful co-existence amongnational practices, not harmonisation." Inmaking their recommendations for thereforms that need to be made, they givethe example of Mercosur (SouthernCommon Market) as being a trade pactthat has provided economic benefits to itsmembers, though income disparitiesremain.

Part two of the book focuses on agree-ments and issues that affect human devel-opment the most. It discusses and analy-ses different ways in which specific WTOagreements including agriculture, com-modities, industrial tariffs, textiles, andproperty rights affect human develop-ment. The authors not only consider theaffect these agreements have on humandevelopment, but go on to see how theyaffect livelihoods, security, gender rela-tions, health, education and technologicalabilities of people.

World agriculture:towards 2015/2030

edited by Jelle Bruinisma

Published by Earthscan PublicationsLtd., 120 Pentoville Road, London N19JN, UK.ISBN 1-84407-007-7. Cost £35.Paperback. 304 pages.

This is a comprehensive and authori-tative assessment of the global predic-tions for agriculture and food supply fromthe UN Food and AgricultureOrganisation. It examines all forms ofagriculture and aquaculture and the eco-nomic, technological and environmentalfactors affecting them.

There is a detailed assessment of thelong-term outlook for global food sup-plies, nutrition and agriculture from theworld's foremost agricultural researchinstitute. It examines outcomes from2015 to 2030, covering supply anddemand for all the major agriculturalcommodities and sectors, including fish-eries and forestry.

It examines the implications for trade,nutrition and undernourishment, and theimpact of future production on the envi-ronment and resource base, and howtechnology can contribute to more sus-tainable development.

The book asserts that agriculture iscrucial to development, especially whereit employs a majority of the population,and the need for mobilising additionalresources. Also discussed is the likelihoodof meeting the target of halving the num-ber of undernourished people by 2015,through improving development andrelieving food security problems.

Plan B - Rescuing a planet understress and a civilisation introuble

by Lester R. Brown

Published by W.W.Norton & Co., 500Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110, USA.ISBN: 0-393-32523-7. Cost $15.95.Paperback. 285 pages.

"We are creating a bubble economy -an economy whose output is artificiallyinflated by drawing down the earth's cap-ital," says Lester Brown in this new book."Each year the bubble grows larger as ourdemands on the earth expand. The chal-lenge for our generation is to deflate theglobal economic bubble before if bursts."

Nowhere is the bubble economy moreevident than in the food sector, writesLester Brown. The world grain harvest,

Making global tradework for people

Co-ordinator and lead author KamalMalhotraPublished by Earthscan Publications

Ltd., 120 Pentoville Road, London N19JN, UK.ISBN 1-8383-982-5. Cost £18.95.Paperback. 341 pages.

This book assesses the current multi-lateral trade system and examines how itcan be improved so that it actually helpsto improve human development.

Co-sponsors for this book are theUnited Nations DevelopmentProgramme, Heinrich Boll Foundation,Rockefeller Brothers Fund, RockefellerFoundation and Wallace Global Fund.

The present world trade system hasbeen and is still being shaped by thedeveloped countries. The concerns andneeds of developing countries are largelyignored. What this book does is to argue,quite forcibly, that there must be a majorshift away from this dominance by therich countries.

The book begins by arguing that tradeshould no longer be seen as an end initself, but rather as a means to achievegreater development in the poorer coun-tries. It shows how trade is linked tohuman development, and discusses therelationship between trade liberalisation,economic growth and human develop-ment, and the role of trade in industriali-sation and development.

The authors discuss how the world

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he argues, has been inflated by over-pumping aquifers, a practice that virtuallyguarantees a future drop in productionwhen the aquifers are depleted. He citesChina as an example. Since 1998, China'sharvests have been dropping as watershortages increase, and are now belowwhat the country needs. Its vast stocks ofgrain are making up the difference. Oncethey are depleted, China will have toimport massive amounts of grain.

Plan B describes what needs to bedone: the world population has to be sta-bilised; water must be more effectivelyused and demand reduced: climatechange needs halting; and energy con-sumption cut. To achieve population sta-bility, the book calls for better health careand education for women. "In every soci-ety for which data are available, fertilityfalls as female educational levels rise."

The most effective way to reduce thedemand for water, says Lester Brown, isto price it more realistically. "As theworld moves into an era of scarcity, thechallenge of governments is to take thepolitically unpopular step of adoptingprices for water that reflects its value."

Discussing climate change, the booksuggests that the costs of crop-damagingtemperatures, destructive storms, and ris-ing sea levels should be added onto theprice of fossil fuels.

The first part of the book shows howand why the world is in trouble; the sec-ond half suggests a way out. This bookshouldn't just be read by politicians, and

policy-makers, all consumers - water,food, and energy - should also digest whatLester Brown has to say. A betterinformed population might feel the needto act.

Ending hunger inour lifetime

by C.Ford Runge, BenjaminSenauer, Philip Pardey, and MarkRosegrant

Published by The John HopkinsUniversity Press, 2715 North CharlesStreet, Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363,USA.ISBN 0-8018-7726-1. Cost Paperback288 pages.

Much has been written and said aboutending world hunger, but usually the rem-edy discussed is looking at one or twofacets. This book draws together all thefactors that are influencing world foodproduction and poverty, and shows howthe problem could be solved if only.....

If only, developing countries couldenact innovative national policies. Theauthors do acknowledge, though, that noindividual country can do it on its own,but shifting the focus onto food securitythrough smallholder agriculture,improved irrigation, rural roads and elec-tricity could transform the livelihoods ofthe rural poor.

The book argues that most developingcountries will find it increasingly difficult

to meet national demands for cereals, sothey will come to rely more and more oninternational markets. But the question iswill they be able to afford to buy moreand more food. Improving trade will helpif only rich countries open access to theirmarkets for products in which developingcountries have a comparative advantage.

If only more investment was made inscience, which, say the authors, is the keyto increasing food production in develop-ing countries. It helped to increase cropyields since the 1960s, stimulated by pub-lic agricultural research. This was fundedby rich countries, but public spending inagricultural research is now waning.Private science will not fill the gap, sothere is a need for a partnership betweenpublic and private research, but that willnot be easy.

If only there was greater care of theenvironment and water resources. Manypolicies cause land degradation, so thereis a need for polices that encourage betterland use. Here the authors seem to ignorethe enormous contribution which sustain-able and self-reliant agricultural systemsare making to food security in many partsof the world. Water resources need to bemore effectively used.

If only global institutions, like theWorld Bank, would change the way theyoperate and co-operate. The authors see aneed to reform them, so that they redefinetheir role and widen the way they coverglobal issues by becoming more pro-poor.

If only development aid could beincreased, and greater investment made ineducation and health services. Withgreater investment, the authors point out,the poor become more productive, mak-ing them more able to take up opportuni-ties once affordable credit is available.The infrastructure needs to be improved,too, to provide better transport and mar-kets. This requires more development aidfrom the rich countries, but they in turnwant to see such aid more effectivelyused.

This book presents a wide-rangingarray of ideas, arguments, facts, and fig-ures on ending hunger, drawing on newinsights and research by the authors andothers. A very useful and readable bookthat takes no sides, except that of the poorand hungry.

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roughly the same as the current vehicle.This redesign effort was successful. Todate, about 12,000 modern cycle rick-shaws manufactured by over 20 smallbusinesses have been sold in sevenIndian cities.

(See 'Appropriate Technology -June 2002).

From India to IndonesiaAfter hearing about India's success inmodernising their cycle rickshaw, anIndonesian team from Gadjah MadaUniversity (GMU) and theMunicipality of Yogyakarta requestedsupport for its own rickshaw moderni-sation programme. They wanted toreduce dependence on motor transportwhile preserving a place for the becakin traditional Javanese culture.

Like many developing cities,Yogyakarta suffers from increased airpollution and noise problems associatedwith rapid motorisation. The growinguse of private cars and motorcyclesthreatens the tourist economy and hasbegun to degrade the quality of life. Thecycle rickshaw, or becak, is a cost-effective and non-polluting form oftransport, and is a cultural icon for thecity. Increasing numbers of national and

Using the technology that helped toimprove the Indian rickshaw,Indonesian drivers can look forward toa becak that is much easier to use. It ishoped the strain on them will bereduced by 40 percent, which means thedrivers will be able to earn more money- as much as 20-50 percent more.

The traditional Indonesian becakand the Indian cycle rickshaw aresomewhat different. In the Indian vehi-cle, the passengers sit behind the driver,facing forward. In the becak, the pas-sengers face forward, sitting in front ofthe driver. Both vehicle designs haveremained substantially the same forover 50 years. Both are very heavy,have no gears, and are not designedwith consideration for the ergonomicsof the driver.

In the late 1990's, ITDP, which pro-motes environmentally sustainabletransportation systems, began workwith local NGOs in Agra, India. Theaim was to design and disseminate amodern human powered rickshaw. Thisproject put together a team of engineersfrom India and US to redesign theIndian cycle rickshaw to make it muchlighter, have multiple gears, and superi-or passenger comfort but at a cost

international tourists equate the becakwith the cultural richness ofYogyakarta. The city is a cultural centreof Central Java and a magnet fortourists.

While some cities have begun toban cycle rickshaws, the becak hasreceived support from the Sultan andthat has reduced the threat from trafficplanners and police in Yogyakarta.Becaks continue to flourish, particular-ly in the city's narrow streets. Recently,a mayoral decree changed the status ofbecaks from informal to formal trans-portation. Becak drivers have goodrelations with the tourist industry andare included in major plans, supportedby the Swiss DevelopmentCorporation, to create a non-motorisedzone in the city centre. This situationcreated the perfect condition for abecak modernisation project, with thepotential to spread to other Indonesiancities.

South-South technology transferThe Indian cycle rickshaw uses a massproduced heavy duty bicycle for thefront end, which is bolted onto anangle-iron chassis. A hand-craftedwooden seat is bolted onto this chassisat small assembly shops. The wholething weighs about 80kg. The seat isnot comfortable, the canopy rarelyoffers protection from sun and rain, andthe seat structure wears out in two tofive years.

The Indonesian becak, by contrast,is entirely made in small shops, usingonly mass-produced wheels and somecomponents from a normal bicycle.The frame is made out of sturdy pipe,and the seat is made out of wood, steeldrum, and steel filigree. The iron andwood chair and chassis are so strongthat the vehicle lasts more than tenyears, with replacement only of thewheels, tires and brakes. The tradition-

Drivers of thisnewly designedIndonesian becakfind it less tiringto pedal, so theyare able to worklonger and earnmore money.

Credit: ITDP

Practical technology with GATE's Small-Scale Project Fund Good practice: A cycle rickshaw for the futureAn improved, and more efficient rickshaw has been making life easier for Indian operators for several years. Now thesame concept is being tried with the Indonesian becak. Veronika Utz , GATE/Small-Scale Project Fund (SSPF), and LisaPeterson, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), report how the technology is being transferred toIndonesia with the help of GATE's Small-Scale Project Fund.


al becak is much more comfortable thana traditional cycle rickshaw, but it ismuch heavier, around 100kg, and veryhard to steer.

In India, the ITDP and Indian tech-nical team developed over ten proto-types, constantly refining the vehicle inresponse to comments from the drivers,the passengers, experts, and the manu-facturers. The final prototype reducedthe weight of the traditional vehicle bymore than 30 percent, to 55 kg. Thiswas done by replacing the angle-ironchassis and traditional bicycle framewith a single, integral tubular framedesigned specifically for rickshaws,and by replacing the heavy wooden seatwith a light, tubular seat and permanentcanopy. While a gear system was devel-oped, it was not popular. Ultimately, themodern vehicle succeeded commercial-ly not because it was lighter but becauseit was more comfortable for the passen-gers and cost less to make than the tra-ditional vehicle.

G. Shyam, the lead Indian engineerinvolved in the Indian rickshaw project,was sent to Yogyakarta to collaboratewith engineers from GMU and designthe modern becak. Six different proto-types were developed. The experiencefrom India shortened the prototypedevelopment phase, making it muchless expensive, and cutting develop-ment costs by 75 percent - from$200,000 to $50,000 - to reach the samestage of the project. After one prototypewas selected as the most likely to becommercially successful, phase two ofthe project began.

Financial contribution ofGTZ/GATE/SSPFFunds for the second phase had beenrequested from GATE's Small-ScaleProject Fund of the GermanDevelopment Corporation GTZ. ITDPwas a contractor to GTZ's SustainableUrban Transport Project in Surabayawhen they prepared a pilot non-motorised transport improvement proj-ect under Manfred Breithaupt and KarlFjellstrom. As a result of their worktraffic planners were convinced that animproved cycle rickshaw could be partof a modern traffic system. Local busi-ness leaders also agreed with this idea.

For this reason, ITDP decided to imple-ment this project, with the proviso thatGATE's SSPF provided the risk capitalfor the modifications of the traditionalbecak.

For its part SSPF wanted the tech-nology to be innovative. It had toimprove the living conditions of thepoor; be easily disseminated; includecontributions from the target group andexecuting agency; and protect the envi-ronment. All these pre-conditions forsupport were given and justified theapproval of the proposal. With this rel-ative low financial contribution theproject was able to continue.

A fleet of 20 prototype vehicleswere produced, and leased to becakdrivers all over Yogyakarta for testing.This led to some modifications beingmade, and before it is commercialised itis likely that more modifications will beincluded in the future design.

The improved becak will have alight-weight tubular seat, like theredesigned rickshaw. The frame will bemade of lighter materials than wood.Already, these measures have reducedthe weight of the prototype by nearly 45percent, from 100kg to 55kg. Fittinggears to the becak will be easy becausethey attach to a standard rear-bicyclewheel better rather than to a rickshawaxle. A standard, off-the-shelf derailleurfrom Shimano is likely be used.

Cultural acceptanceIn the design process cultural prefer-ences were always considered. Forinstance, all Indian cycle rickshaw wal-

lahs believe that tilting the seat forwardmakes the vehicle easier to pedal andthe passenger is less likely to fall back-wards, despite the fact that it is uncom-fortable. While our field tests and engi-neers told us that this could not possiblymake any difference, nonetheless, tofind commercial acceptability, the pri-vate manufacturers have added a wood-en wedge under the tubular seat tomake the seat tilt forward.

One of the prototypes tested inYogyakarta was the improved Indiancycle rickshaw, with the driver in thefront of the vehicle and the passengerfacing forward. While members of thehotel and tourism industry liked theIndian design, with passengers behindthe driver, the becak drivers did not.They thought passengers would beuncomfortable seeing the driver ped-alling hard in front of them, and thatthey would prefer an unobstructedview. They also felt it was rude for thepassengers if they had to look at theirbacksides. Several felt it would be diffi-cult to talk to the passengers, a criticalpart of the tourist experience. For thesereasons, the design team decided tostick with the traditional Indonesianconfiguration with the driver at theback.

When the fleet of the first 20 vehi-cles were road tested, more culturalproblems arose. For example, the mod-ern design had changed the steering sothat it was much easier to use, but thedrivers didn't like it as they felt theyhad no control. The drivers were alsoused to vehicles having a rigid spring

Unlike Indianrickshaw drivers,who sit in front oftheir passengers,Indonesian becakdrivers sit behindtheir passengers.

Credit: ITDP


under the carriage. They believed itprovided suspension and made thevehicle easier to steer, more stable, andthat gave the customers a smootherride. Our engineering team insists thatthis spring doesn't provide any suspen-sion, and field tests have indicated noreal advantage in the steering.Customers, though, have been adamantabout its importance, and so the springwill be put back into the design eventhough it will add considerably moreweight.

Economic efficiencyThe key benefits of the new design arethat it increases profitability; and is lesstiring for the drivers allowing them towork longer each day without affectingtheir health. Surveys done in India haveshown that drivers can ply the modernrickshaws a third longer than tradition-al vehicles.

Because passenger comfort andsafety are better, rickshaws havebecome a more popular form of trans-port. Passengers are also willing to paymore for a better ride. In India, higherfares, more riders and the ability toserve more customers in a day haveincreased profits by 60 percent for theaverage rickshaw driver.

In addition to increased profits, thecost of a new vehicle is comparable tothat of the traditional rickshaw, with

price increases from 0-5 percent. Themodern vehicles last up to three timeslonger than the traditional design andrequire much less maintenance andrepair. Similar increases in driver effi-ciency and profits are expected for thebecak once the final design is ready formarket.

DisseminationInvolving the drivers throughout in thedesign process not only assured cultur-al acceptance, but meant there were agroup of operators ready to start usingthe modern becaks in Yogyakarta. Oncethe design is finalised, a Muslim chari-ty organisation plans to purchase morethan 500 modern becaks. Hotels havealso expressed interest in purchasingfleets of the modern vehicles to trans-port tourists.

Public events, press coverage andindustry support will also combine toreach a larger market with the modernbecak With public policies that supportthe use of becaks, a community of will-ing operators and buyers, and a cultur-ally appropriate design, Yogyakarta'smodernisation programme is likely toenjoy success.

For more information contactVeronika Utz, GTZ/GATE, Postfach5180, 65760 Eschborn, Germany,email: [email protected] , web site:http://www.gtz.de/gate and LisaPeterson, ITDP, West 30th Street, Suite1205, New York, NY 10001, USA, e-mail: [email protected], web site:www.itdp.org

A close-up of the modern becak.Credit: ITDP

GATE's Small-Scale Project Fund provides funds for measures designed tointroduce, test, adapt and disseminate promising and innovative models ofappropriate technologies with the aim:

To improve the living conditions of poor population groups;To strengthen the self-help potential of groups e.g. by providing a sus-tainable source/increase of income, increase food security, save labour,improve health care, protect the environment.

Title: Yogyakarta Becak Improvement Project Executing Agency: GadjahMadah University(GMU), Centre for Tourism Studies,Yogyakarta

Objectives short term:The operation of the human-powered becak is reduced by 40 percent; Academic and legal drafts of non-motorised transport regulations forYogyakarta are provided.

Objectives long term:The income of the becak drivers is improved by 20-50 percentThe vehicular air pollution and noise in the central tourism area inYogyakarta has decreased

Implementation period: 12 monthFinancial contribution SSPF: 21.055


and can be easily extracted from theseeds of the tree. Side effects on non-target organisms are slight.

Other important uses of neem treeproducts are:

Cure of diseases of man and ani-malsPopulation controlManure and nitrificationinhibitorsFeeds for domestic animalsSoap production

With this exhaustive treatment ofthe neem tree and closely related plants,this book provides us with an impres-sive example of the varied uses ofrenewable resources in sustainable agri-culture and elsewhere.

Neem (Azadirachta indica) deriva-tives are providing new insect pest con-trol compounds that reduce our relianceon the use of synthetic chemicals, manyof which are known to be detrimental tothe environment and human health.

The neem tree has been acclaimedas a tree which can solve global prob-lems. In addition to pest control, com-pounds from this long revered tree havebeen used in human and veterinarymedicine, in birth control, and as ashade tree and source of fuelwood. Nowonder that with the world-wide andconstantly growing interest in neem,Prof. Schmutterer's classic volume 'TheNeem Tree - Source of Unique NaturalProducts for Integrated PestManagement, Medicine, Industry andOther Purposes', which was publishedin 1995, has sold out and has been outof print for several years.

Prof. Schmutterer, the leadingauthority on neem, has put togetherchapters written by him and by some ofthe most eminent experts in the world,on a wide range of topics which havegreat relevance to current neemresearch and applications. This bookdeals with the remarkable effects ofazadirachtin and other neem com-pounds and provides in depth explana-tions of the basic concepts and interpre-tations.

The chapters provide a comprehen-sive outline of the characteristics of themiraculous tree and the effects the

plethora of biologically active com-pounds have on insects. Coverageincludes the action of neem derivativeson molluscs, crustacea, mites, viruses,bacteria, protozoans, fungi and nema-todes. Several chapters are devoted tothe important aspects of neem in inte-grated pest management. Five com-pletely new chapters have been addedand most other chapters have beenrevised and updated.

A chapter on neem tissue culturemethods and in vitro production oflimonoids discusses the prospects formanufacturing neem compounds out-side the tropics, by using in vitro tech-niques. A new chapter elucidates theaction of azadirachtin on plant cells. Adetailed discussion of neem applica-tions to control pests of rice plants hasalso been added. Other new chaptersare devoted to the toxicity of neem onbirds and fishes, and to the use of neemin veterinary medicine. Of special inter-est is the revised chapter on human fer-tility and birth control, and on neem'seffects on pathogens of the genital tract.

Contributors of the book are allinternationally known for their work onvarious aspects of neem. Research andextension workers, who need to keep upto date on this large area, will find a sat-isfyingly complete summary of thestate of art in this one volume. Readerswill be grateful to the editor for thislabour of love. I am convinced that thisbook will be widely read and used,because the revised and updated editionis providing the only comprehensivebook exclusively concentrating on theimportance and potential of neem andclosely related plants like Meliaazedarach. This important volume isessential reading for anyone interestedin biological control, integrated pestmanagement, crop protection and ecol-ogy.

Karl Maramorosch, Professor ofEntomology and 'Robert L. Starkey'Professor of Microbiology, The StateUniversity of New Jersey, NewBrunswick, New Jersey, USA

Book review:

The Neem Tree Azadirachta indica A. Juss.and Other MeliaceousPlantsSources of Unique NaturalProducts for Integrated PestManagement, Medicine,Industry and Other Purposes.

Editor of the 2nd Edition,H.Schmutterer. Cost $85.Published by the Neem Foundation

Publishing, 67-A, Vithalnagar, RoadNo. 12 NS, Juhu Scheme, Mumbai - 400049. India. E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.neemfounda-tion.org

This is the most comprehensive andbest illustrated book of the fascinatingIndian neem tree (Azadirachta indica)and its unique substances.

The extracts from the tree have anenormously broad range of applica-tions. The main substance azadirachtininfluences the hormonal system ofinsects, and has the effect of a pesticide.Feeding activity, reproduction and fly-ing ability of insects are also affected.Azadirachtin has a very low toxicity tomammals, is biologically degradable


Northern News

City of Trees'I remember when all this was concreteand steel' may be what the currentinhabitants of Shanghai will be tellingtheir grandchildren in a few decadestime if the Chinese government's ambi-tious plans to trade concrete jungle forurban woodland are successful.Transforming the city with trees andgrass, the Agriculture and ForestryBureau and Urban Planning andAdministrative Bureau recently pro-posed plans to cover 20 per cent of thecity's total area with forests by 2005and 25 per cent by 2010. The campaignwhich is estimated will cost US$2.4million per square kilometre is planningto transform around 2000 square kilo-metres of the city into forest by the year2020. "This is a reasonable amount offorestation for Shanghai if it wants tobe considered as an environmental citywhich aims to maintain a sustainabledevelopment and seek harmonybetween humans and nature," said YinOu, deputy office director of theforestry administration.

By 2020, the city's population is setto grow by up to 20 million, andforestation is seen as a vital way torelieve the "heat island effect" and gen-erate oxygen. Work has already begunand by the end of 2003, the percentageof forested land will grow to 16 percent, an increase of 6.8 percent from2000 levels. Although the city hasincreased the quantity of forested areasby over two percent annually over thepast three years, Shanghai still lingersfar behind domestic peers like Dalian inNortheast China's Liaoning Province."By forests, we mean huge patches orlong belts of trees instead of grasslandsor small groves in parks," said Yin.There will be belts of trees over 500metres wide planted along the city's200km-long suburban ring road andother major expressways and riverssuch as the Huangpu River and theSuzhou Creek.

Additional to the planting of 16forests in the city's outskirts and sub-urbs, a 1-1.5km wide shelter belt oftrees will be planted along the coasts ofChongming Island, Hengsha Island,

Changxing Island and Hangzhou Bay,significantly improving the environ-ment whilst preserving water resourcesand guarding the city against typhoons.

Although dependent largely onState financial support, a campaign isalso under way to encourage privateinvestment. Much of the land neededwill come from farmers through adiversification plan to create a forestryindustry which, it is hoped, will enablean improved standard of living, whilstalso yielding clear environmental bene-fits both practically and aesthetically.Whether farmers and their communitieswill actually be better off under the planremains to be seen, it does however rep-resent a healthy prospect in terms of theenvironmental and economic benefits itpromises to deliver to the nations capi-tal.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the Britishgovernment's wildlife advisory body isproposing a slightly different approachto improving the environment throughdiversification of a different kind.Recently, a spokesperson for EnglishNature told The British AssociationScience Festival that building newhousing estates on farmland wouldactually improve the environment inmany instances where intensive agri-culture had driven plants and animalsout of the rural setting. Sensible proper-ty development might be the best wayto get them back claimed Dr KeithPorter, with low-density developmentsincluding gardens and public openspaces providing more favourable habi-tats.

Whilst his comments contradict thetraditionally conservative position ondevelopment in the British countryside,Dr Porter argued that policies had totake account of economic realities."Three-quarters of our land is used byagriculture but the contribution to theGDP is only one percent," he explained."Clearly, in the hard world of econom-ics, there are better ways to use some ofthat land to create a more sustainablefuture, part of which is greater biodi-versity…By placing housing in theseareas with innovative designs you canbuild in the corridors and the linkagethe wildlife need to come back in," hesaid.

With government plans recentlyannounced to build hundreds of thou-sands of new houses in south-eastEngland, Dr Porters comments mayrepresent a wider PR campaign to soft-en opposition to development in thecountryside. It would not be the firsttime the 'sustainability' card has beenplayed to ease the way for a less palat-able policy. However, the reality is thatthe UK is a small island and as its pop-ulation continues to grow, there will beincreasing pressure placed on develop-ment in the countryside. Dr Porterstressed his comments were not anargument for unrestrained developmentand he said English Nature would beworking with planners to see that inno-vative design enhanced the prospectsfor wildlife. "We need to put some of thestructure back into the countrysidewhich the efficiency of modern farminghas taken out…This could enable ani-mals and plants to move around andenable our hydrology, or water, systemsto work again to alleviate some of theflooding we've seen in the cities."

Motorwaymarkets UK motorway service stations are notknown for their contribution to the localeconomy or for their catering excel-lence and food quality. These'McDonaldised' staging posts, almostexclusively corporately owned, oftenbring little to surrounding communitiesother than low paid service work andperhaps some passing trade should trav-ellers stray from their motorway jour-ney. A new idea being trailed inCumbria may be about to change all

Northern News is written by NickHarrison in association with

The Centre for Alternative Technology,Llwyngwern Quarry,Powys SY20 9AZ

Fax: +44 1654 702409E-mail: [email protected]

Web site: www.cat.org.uk


Northern News

and applied on other motorways, thescheme could boost local economies inthe same way as farmers markets havedone.

Also on that note, recent research bythe UK National Farmers Union (NFU)reveal that farmers markets are everybit as successful as hoped when theyfirst began back in 1997. Producersnow earn around £166 million annually(more than 200 percent growth on 2000figures) from the sale of producegrown, reared, cooked, brewed orbaked within their locality. This figurereflects a growth in the actual numberof established markets around the coun-try (which has grown from 200 in 2000to around 450 today) with 60 percent ofmarkets expanding both in terms ofsales and the number of visitors.Additionally, the research notes that 80percent of neighbouring businesseshave seen increases in trade attributedto the presence of their local farmersmarket. NFU Deputy President TimBennett said: "Farmers' markets arebecoming more and more a part of peo-ple's shopping habits in many townsand cities. They are a runaway successstory which is pumping much-neededcash into the rural economy and showthat farmers have taken an innovativeand determined approach to the farm-ing crisis. We now need to focus on howfarmers can capitalise even further on aphenomenon that is providing them

that if it catches on. The idea is thebrainchild of a group of CumbrianFarmers (those among the worst hit byfoot-and-mouth disease two years ago)who have got together to establish theUK's first motorway farm shops on theM6 in Cumbria. Managed by ex-Harrods foodhall worker AlexanderEvans, the two shops have begun dish-ing out locally-grown delicacies atservice stations in Tebay andWestmorland.

The stores promise to stock the toprange of locally produced, reasonablypriced Cumbrian specialities includinglakeland beef and lamb, more than 50different British cheeses and local rel-ishes, dressings, fruit and vegetables.Motorists can even phone ahead toorder their food before they arrive. MrEvans said: "We are aiming to beat thestandard motorway fast food fare -undersized, over-priced and over-pack-aged. We don't add a premium to theprice just because we are on the motor-way. We want to represent excellentfood and excellent value and Cumbriahas a reputation for fine local food anddrink and celebrating the region."

John Dunning, Cumbrian farmerand director of Westmorland ServiceStation, said: "It's a wonderful opportu-nity to give motorists from all overBritain a taste of our region and a dis-tinctive alternative to the industrialisedmass market of today." If successful

with such a valuable source of incomeduring difficult times."

GMO free tochooseBack in September, a U.N. treaty calledthe Cartagena Protocol on Biosafetyfinally came into force giving importersgreater powers to reject geneticallymodified products such as maize andsoybeans.

Agreed in 2000, the treaty is inplace to help regulate trade in genetical-ly modified organisms (GMOs) throughobliging exporters to provide greaterinformation about GMO products suchas maize, tomatoes, or soyabeans. Italso allows a nation to reject GMOimports or donations (with or withoutscientific proof) if it fears they pose adanger to traditional crops, underminelocal cultures, or cut the value of biodi-versity to indigenous communities.

An internet based biosafety clearinghouse has also been established to helpcountries exchange information aboutGMOs. U.N. Secretary General KofiAnnan said the treaty would enable theplanet to benefit from biotechnology tocurb hunger and poverty while alsosafe-guarding biodiversity and humanhealth from potential risks posed by liv-ing modified organisms. He said in astatement, "The entry into force of theCartagena Protocol ... is a landmarkfor sustainable development and anoth-er milestone in the global effort to rec-oncile environmental conservation anddevelopment,". Fifty-seven states havenow ratified, but outsiders who havenot signed include the US, (the leadingGMO exporter) which is locked in traderows with the EU, prompted by thewidespread consumer rejection ofGMOs based on the threat they posethrough disruption of the environment.

The US, along with major GMOexporters including Canada, Australia,and Argentina, argues GMOs crops aresafe, can raise yields, and resist pestsand has long argued against too manyprecautions for GMOs. This cavalier

Farmers markets in the UK have been a runaway success. More than 450 markets across thecountry now sell produce grown, reared, cooked, brewed or baked within their locality.

attitude is born out by the findings of arecent survey by the AgricultureDepartment which found that around 20percent of the farms in the MidwesternUnited States growing a pest-resistantbiotech crop have failed to comply withfederal planting requirements. MarkHarris, chief of the department's cropstatistics branch, said "…there are someindividuals who may not have under-stood the rules and didn't follow theircontracts precisely" this equates toaround 840,000 acres across the mid-west who are flaunting guidelines toprevent potential biohazards such aspests developing resistance.

The United States is also not a sig-natory of the 1992 U.N. Convention onBiological Diversity, of which theCartenega Protocol is a part. "This isanother example where the UnitedStates is lagging behind the rest of theworld in dealing with global environ-mental concerns," said Tony La Vina ofthe U.S.-based World ResourcesInstitute, an independent think-tank."The United States, and especially itsprivate sector, is the leading proponentof this technology and should take the

lead on making sure that it is handledand released safely."

Garlic SlugsNot a new French delicacy, but possiblya solution to the UK gardeners' mostpersistent problem - Slugs! Its a bloodcleanser and natural antibiotic, wor-shiped by the Egyptians and traditional-ly attributed with keeping vampiresfrom young ladies' necks and now, itseems, garlic may also be an environ-mentally friendly way to protect cropsby keeping the slugs off.

Laboratory tests conducted on ninepotential molluscicides (substances thatkill slugs and snails) by biologists fromthe University of Newcastle revealedthat a highly refined garlic product(ECOguard produced by ECOsprayLtd.) was one of the most effectivekillers. Lead researcher Dr Gordon Portexplained: "Nobody has really found adefinitive solution to the problem ofslugs and snails. There are lots of prod-

ucts on the market but the real difficul-ty is actually getting to them in the field.They are very well adapted to theirhabitat, live hidden away in the soil,and are coated with layer of mucus thatcan help protect them from substances.Farmers and growers have difficultycontrolling them with conventional baitpellets, which are particularly ineffec-tive in very wet or very dry weather.Poison baits can also be toxic to othercreatures living in the soil, as well asbirds and mammals such as shrews andfield mice."

The research was carried out at therequest of the crop growing industryand sponsored by the HorticulturalDevelopment Council and theDepartment for Environment, Food andRural Affairs.

The scientists, Ingo Schüder andGordon Port from NewcastleUniversity's School of Biology, suspectgarlic may have an adverse affect on thecreatures' nervous systems but say it isdifficult to say exactly why they diewithout further investigation. "Theyshow an overproduction of mucus. Theyseem to dry up." said Dr Port, "We wantto find out how garlic affects othercreatures living in the soil, the rightconcentration to use, how it affects thetaste of food and many other things".

According to the scientists, an esti-mated £30m a year is spent in the UKalone to protect lettuce, brusselssprouts, potatoes and winter wheatfrom slugs and snails and pesticideshave been an effective means of pre-venting pests and increasing food avail-ability. But with growing awareness ofthe potential dangers posed to humanhealth and the environment by certainpesticides, the number of pesticidesavailable to gardeners and farmers hasdeclined in recent years. Products notentered into the EU review of pesticides(which began in 1995) were withdrawnfrom sale earlier this year, leaving a gapin provision for an effective bio-friend-ly alternative. "We need to find newenvironmentally friendly and cost-effective ways of controlling molluscs,and garlic could be our answer," saidDr Port. Garlic has long been used aspart of 'companion planting' strategiesand historical records document how

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The Cartagena Protocolon Biosafety has comeinto force allowingcountries the legal rightto control imports ofGM crops like thesesoyabeans.

Monks used to locate it next to theirvegetable crops to keep unwanted pestsaway. Dr Port added the findings maybe welcomed by organic gardenerslooking for alternatives to pesticides.He said: "The research suggests that ahome-made recipe of crushed garlicbulbs mixed with water could work onsmall-scale gardens…We need to carryout more tests to find out its commercialpotential. We want to find out how gar-lic affects other creatures living in thesoil, the right concentration to use, howit affects the taste of food once it hasbeen used on crops, and many otherthings."

Northern News


Work by researchers at Newcastle University has found that making a liquid extract fromgarlic and applying it to the soil affected the movement of slugs and snails, killed many ofthem, prevented foliage damage, and killed slug eggs laid in the soil.

Slugs do an immense amount of damage to crops, and controlling them is not easy, but its now been found that they don't like garlic.

Per Pinstrup-Andersen said in placeslike sub-Saharan Africa much of theproduction increase is actually takingplace on new land as people struggle tosurvive. Therefore helping producers tofarm the existing land would retain bio-diversity.

Drought tolerant plantsThe prospect of drought-tolerant plantsbeing commercially available is nearerto reality than people think, suggestedJennifer Thomson from the Universityof Cape Town.

Research is building up a bank ofplants that live under extreme condi-tions, and is locating genes for stressedand non-stressed conditions. "In SouthAfrica there are 90 different species of'resurrection' plants - those that lookdead in their dehydrated state and yetrevive within a matter of days whenwater is added. Many of these plantslive in rock crevices. Importantly somegenes can also have an influence onother environmental stresses such asheat, cold and salinity. We are thereforelooking to stack genes to produce toler-ance to other stresses."

Agricultural technology in AfricaThe EU moratorium against biotechnol-ogy is having an impact on acceptanceof the technology in Africa, arguedFlorence Wambugu, chief executiveofficer of A Harvest BiotechFoundation International.

"Around 25 percent of the people insub-Saharan Africa are hungry," sheargued. "We need projects driventowards food security and economicgrowth."

Referring to projects such as thedevelopment of the GM sweet potatoand the TC banana, Dr. Wambuguexplained that Africans are taking lead-ership of their own destiny with thehelp of international partners. "There isa new thinking in Africa - it is not busi-ness as usual. A lot of funding didn'tallow the Africans to think of their ownsolution, but this situation needs to beturned around."

"Before putting forward the loss ofbiodiversity argument, people mustunderstand that more biodiversity islost, not from genetic modification, butfrom people destroying the forests toprovide more land on which to sur-vive."

Nature conservationMr McNeely, chief scientist of theWorld Conservation Union, argued thecase for ecoagriculture which regardsbiodiversity conservation as an outputof crop production and embraces a widerange of technologies and managementpractices.

Referring to GM crops, he said theycan be beneficial as they use less fossilfuels, fertilisers and pesticides, and pro-vide more nutritious foods."Subsistence farmers are the ones whomost need the benefits of GMOs andyet are the least able to pay for them."

Therefore, he concluded, we mustcontinue and accelerate biotechnologyresearch with our eyes wide open.

GM crops


Per Pinstrup-Andersen pointed to a par-ticular need to invest in science indeveloping countries, and suggestedthis demanded a combination of publicand private investment. "While invest-ment in agriculture in developing coun-tries is generally increasing rapidly,particularly in China, in Africa it's actu-ally going down."

Referring to the argument that bio-diversity will be depleted by GM crops,

The prospect of drought-tolerant plants being commercially available is nearer to reality thanpeople think, suggested Jennifer Thomson from the University of Cape Town.

Credit: Croplife

The future for GM cropsWorld agriculture cannot be sustainable without science-based technology, insisted Dr. Per Pinstrup-Andersen, ofCornell University, when he spoke at the CropLife International Annual Conference in association with EuropaBio held inBrussels. "Not using inputs may be sustainable if population growth levelled off, but this is not going to be the case," hesaid.

Conservation is their religion -June 2003

We omitted full details about Dr. M.A. Khalid. He is a wildlife biologistand environmental scientist work-ing with the Forestry &Biodiversity Group at the TheEnergy and Resources Institute(TERI), Darbari Seth Block, IndiaHabitat Centre, Lodi Road, NEWDELHI-110003, INDIA

We apologise for any inconviencecaused.

Technology transfer"Most technology transfer projects startfrom the wrong end - representing asolution that is looking for a problem,"said Willy De Greef of the InternationalBiotech Regulatory Services.

"Technology transfer works better ifit is demand driven, as in the case of thefarmers who wanted Bt cotton. Veryfew governments reject GMOs butmany can not bring together enoughevidence to make a decision. There is alack of management expertise and lackof a link to the needs of agriculture."

Public-private partnershipsPublic and private partnership is impor-tant in the world market where farmersin each country need to be efficient toremain competitive, insisted HenkKnipscheer, a consultant for theWinrock International Institute forAgricultural Development.

The importance of such partner-ships is becoming even more crucial inthe face of less support for agriculturefrom governments, and more fromNGO's.

"The purpose of public-private part-nerships in agriculture is to increase thenumber of commercial farmers andreduce the number of subsistence farm-ers," said Henk Knipscheer. "Currentlymany public services and NGOs oper-ate in the subsistence farming area, asector that will never really be commer-

cial. However the private sector andNGOs can link to make subsistencefarming commercial."

Social moralitySocial morality requires that instead ofcorporate PR campaigns suggestingthat the poor will benefit from new poli-cies, we should acknowledge that welive with the paradox of hunger amidstplenty, said Anuradha Mittal, Institutefor Food and Development Policy. "It isnot the shortage of food production, butpoverty that keeps people hungry".

Anuradha Mittal said that hunger isnot likely to be reversed by GM crops.Almost 78 percent of countries thatreport child malnutrition are food-exporting countries. Over a third of thegrain grown in the developing world isdestined for livestock, which in turn iseaten by consumers in wealthy coun-tries. Hunger has nothing do to do withsome deficit of food production, but ashortage of people's purchasing power!Given this state of affairs, social moral-ity demands the industry give a betterrationale for their promotion of GMcrops in the Third World than hunger.

"It is time to accept that food andagriculture are sacred for farmers andcommunities in the Third World. This isabout our culture, our life and ourlivelihoods, and we are not about to sur-render it to corporations to boost theirprofits. And as far as social morality isconcerned, as long as corporate effortsgag the voices of the poor, indigenouspeople, and the campesinos, the biotechindustry cannot offer us an agriculturalsystem, which is just, sustainable, orhonourable."

For fuller details of the conferencecontact CropLife International, 143Avenue Louise, B-1050 Brussels,Belgium. Fax: +32 2 542 04 19; e-mail: [email protected]; website:www.croplife.org

GM crops


The EU moratorium against biotechnology is having an impact on acceptance of the technology inAfrica, argued Florence Wambugu, chief executive officer of A Harvest Biotech FoundationInternational.

Credit: Croplife

Anuradha Mittal, co-director, Institute for Food and Development Policy said, "It is not the shortageof food production, but poverty that keeps people hungry".

Credit: Croplife


In the report, leading activists, scien-tists and farmers from countries likeEthiopia, India and Ecuador, argue thatthe development of GM crops has notfocused on feeding people but rather onsecuring market share for the world'slargest agrochemical/biotech compa-nies.

"Genetically engineered crops areinstruments of industrialised agricul-ture," said Silvia Ribeiro of the ETC

Group in Uruguay, one of the authors."They benefit the richest people in theworld, not the hungriest. GE crops aredesigned to take the control of food pro-duction away from local communities,by creating greater dependence onagribusiness corporations for seed andpesticides."

The report addresses six commonmyths spread by the biotech industryabout GE crops, with responses by

leading Third World analysts. "You canbreak down these myths into three basiccomponents: Green washing, poorwashing, and hope dashing," saidAnuradha Mittal, co-director of FoodFirst, who is from India.

"Green washing suggests thatbiotech will create a world free of pes-ticides; poor washing would have usbelieve that we must accept geneticallyengineered crops if we are to feed thepoor in the Third World; and hope dash-ing claims there are no alternatives. Butin this report, this rhetoric is systemati-cally dismantled by the very people GEcrops are supposed to benefit."

The report argues that the industryclaim that there is not enough food tofeed the hungry is not based on fact.The world today produces more foodper inhabitant than ever before. The realcauses of hunger are poverty, inequalityand lack of access. Too many peopleare too poor to buy the food that isavailable (but often poorly distributed)or lack the land and resources to grow itthemselves.

"What farmers in the developingworld need are policies that give farm-ing communities control over their ownresources and build on local ecologicalknowledge," writes Timothy Byakola,also an author, who co-ordinates PANEast Africa, "not another technologicalquick fix."

The report highlights traditionalfarming methods that involve sustain-able use of land, water and seeds in asystem that guarantees food sovereign-ty. Current global trade and economicpolicies which force privatisation, cen-tralisation and commercialisation are athreat to food sovereignty in southerncountries.

The report is available from PANNA,49 Powell St. #500 San Francisco, CA94102, USA. Fax: + 1-415-981-1991;Email: [email protected] Web:www.panna.org

Two reports challenge GM cropsTwo reports, GM Crops - Going Against the Grain and Voices From the South, argue that GM crops

will not solve world hunger.

GM crops

The myths of GM cropsA new report, Voices From the South, published by Pesticide Action NetworkNorth America and Food First, counters the claims of the biotech industry andthe U.S. Department of Agriculture that GM crops are a solution to hunger in theThird World.


GM Crops - Going Against the Grainexamines biotech companies' claimsthat genetically modified (GM) cropscan tackle world hunger. It argues thatat best GM crops are irrelevant to poorfarmers, at worst they threaten to pushthem deeper into debt, making themmore reliant on expensive seeds andchemicals and unable to save seed fromone harvest to the next.

"GM does not provide a magic bul-let solution to world hunger. What poorpeople really need is access to land,water, better roads to get their crops tomarket, education and credit schemes,"

said Matthew Lockwood, ActionAid'sHead of Policy.

Using evidence from ActionAidcampaigns in Asia, Africa and LatinAmerica, the report looks at the impactof GM crops in developing countries. Itconcludes that rather than alleviatingworld hunger, the new technology islikely to exacerbate food insecurity,leading to more hungry people not less.

The report finds that GM seeds arefar more suited to the needs of large-scale commercial farmers rather thanpoor farmers. It argues that GM expan-sion is driven by the corporate profit of

multinationals rather than the needs ofpoor people.

Four multinationals - Monsanto,Syngenta, Bayer CropScience andDuPont - control most of the GM seedmarket. By linking their chemicals toseeds via GM technologies, these cor-porations have extended markets fortheir herbicides and pesticides.

The report points out that farmersare not allowed to trade or save GMseed from one harvest to the next.'Terminator technology' is also beingdeveloped that produces sterile seeds.

There is no consistent evidence GMcrops yield more and require fewerchemicals. In one study, Monsanto'sGM soya had 6 percent lower yieldsthan non-GM soya and 11 percent lessthan high-yielding non-GM soya.Insecticide use on GM cotton has fallenin some locations, but these gains maybe short-lived. Chemical use on herbi-cide-resistant GM crops has sometimesgone up rather than down.

In Pakistan, ActionAid has investi-gated how poor farmers have beenenticed by the hype surrounding GM tobuy expensive 'miracle' cotton seeds.The results have been disappointing,with many farmers losing most of their-crops and facing ruin.

The report recommends that thereshould be no further commercialisationof GM crops until more research hasbeen carried out on their impacts, espe-cially in poor countries. Also, poorcountries and their farmers must havethe right to open public debates beforethey decide whether to go ahead withGM crops.

"We know there is more thanenough food in the world to feed every-one. What is causing world hunger ispoverty and inequality. Money wouldbe far better spent tackling these prob-lems than poured into GM technology,"said Adriano Campolina Soares fromActionAid Brazil.

More details and a copy of thereport from Alex Wijeratna, FoodRights campaign, ActionAid, HamlynHouse, Macdonald Rd, London N195PG.. Fax: + 44 (0) 207 281 5146;Email: [email protected] Web:www.actionaid.org

GM crops

GM crops will not feed the worldGM crops will not feed the world and could pose a considerable threat to poorfarmers, warns a new report from ActionAid.

Harvesting GM cotton at Dunhuang, China. Action Aid's report 'GM Crops - Going Against the Grain'predicts the benefits of GM cotton may be short lived.

Credit: Alison Wright/Panos Pictures


A glance at the contents list for the June2003 edition of AppropriateTechnology would provide a fair indica-tion of the types of issues that are cov-ered in the courses offered by theDistance Learning Programme (DLP)of Imperial College London: sustain-able agriculture, gender, water resourcemanagement, agroforestry, practicalconservation, integrated pest manage-ment and information technology

Since 1988, the campus at WyeCollege has been offering courses forcontinuing professional development inagricultural development-relatedthemes. Initially it was under the aus-pices of the University of London (thedegree awarding authority), and sinceAugust 2000 it has been integrated withImperial College London.

In the coming year the DLP at Wyewill be offering nine programmes ofstudy up to Masters' level, providingsome fifty specialist courses. The pro-gramme is probably unique in its sub-ject range and is offering a highly flex-ible pathway to quality-assured post-graduate education world-wide. Thecourses reflect the cross-disciplinarymission of Wye, covering rural devel-opment, sustainable agriculture, envi-ronment, applied economics, biodiver-sity and agribusiness for development.They combine academic rigour with

practical relevance, drawing in particu-lar upon Wye's long-standing researchand teaching links with countries of thedeveloping world, especially in Africa.

The majority of the learners takingcourses are professional people, withalmost fifty percent in mid-career (thatis aged between 30 and 40). There arecurrently some nine hundred in over onehundred countries taking on averagetwo courses per year. To complete aMasters' degree requires passing ninecourses and writing a research report. Acourse requires about five hours ofstudy per week over thirty weeks andexaminations are organised in countryin October of each year. At present, theDLP provides purpose-written in-depthstudy guides and reading materials inhard copy for all courses, and these aredespatched prior to the beginning of thestudy year in February. These are sup-ported by on-line tutorials organised bya team of learning technologists based atWye, who are also involved in preparingelectronic courseware materials.

Communication technologies areadvancing; attitudes to learn and theways of learning are changing; studentscome from different cultures, locations,and educational backgrounds; andlearners work under different commu-nication infrastructures. These factorsmean the DLP team has to be flexible

and ready to accept new ideas whilesafeguarding the interests of thosewhose circumstances are lessfavourable.This is highly significantgiven the focus made explicit in thetitle: targeting themes of sustainabilityand poverty reduction.

While gaining a higher degree is themain aim, it is not the whole story.Distance learning requires commitmentin time and finance, with the learnersetting the pace and place of study. Noteveryone, however, wants to take aMSc degree, so the DLP's approach isto let the learner decide whether to takeone course or become familiar with lat-est practices in a specialist field. TheUniversity of London awards a credittowards a postgraduate qualificationand a certificate of successful comple-tion. Alternatively, the DLP is able tooffer customised courses for a specificaudience, through its outreach pro-gramme.

In Malawi, Oxfam has for the pastfive years sponsored NGO managersand personnel to take the course inNGO management. In South Africa,the Land Bank, a rural developmentbank committed to reconstruction andsupport for small farmers, commis-sioned in 2000 a course in FinancialManagement for Rural Development tobe taken by fifty of its staff. These arebut two examples of capacity strength-ening ventures.

For more information contact PaulSmith, Deputy Director, DistanceLearning Programme, Imperial CollegeLondon, Wye Campus, Ashford, Kent,TN25 5AH, UK. Phone: (44) (0)20 75942840; Fax: (44) (0)1233 812138. E-mail: [email protected]; website: www.wye.ic.ac.uk/EP

Education

Anne Weekes,(second from left),head of StudentServices of theDistance LearningProgramme atImperial College withgraduates at the 2002Degree Ceremony inLondon.

Credit: Paul Smith

Distance learning courses target themes of sustainability and poverty reduction


Education

"Governance and institutional structures"This eight day short course is aimed at people ororganisations affected by (or trying to promote)changes in the way public sector makes and imple-ments decisions - especially in the context of decen-tralisation and the other structural changes which arecurrently evolving in both developing and developedcountries. These changes encourage a wider range ofstakeholders, including governmental, private, non-governmental and community based organisations, toplay a more active role in policy making.

The course presents a framework (called the"Hub model") to help understand the roles of differ-ent types of organisations and their contribution topolicy making and the delivery of public services.

Unique to this course is an attempt to present,from an institutional perspective, key theories andconcepts from economics, management and politicalscience and to use them to develop both understand-ing and diagnostic tools. Many of these institutionalideas are captured in concepts such as the NewInstitutional Economics (NIE), New PublicManagement (NPM) as well as in ideas from politi-cal science. These concepts are presented in a simpleand practical manner, and do not require any priorbackground in any of these disciplines.

The idea behind the framework and concepts is toallow participants to understand the institutionalchanges taking place throughout the world and toexplore the implications and opportunities for pro-poor development of approaches such as sustainablelivelihood and rights based approaches.

This a conceptual course - a break from day today issues to reflect on changes in society. Thecourse applies to a range of sectors and looks at dif-ferent regulatory and funding arrangements.

The Course has run and developed over threeyears and several agencies, such as DFID's RuralLivelihoods Department have commissioned tailoredcourses for their own staff.

Management skills courseThe second course is a four week practical course inmanagement skills which is based around the projectcycle; starting from design, though implementationto evaluation. Core to the course is the objectives-ori-entated planning process, with the emphasis on"process". Participants will learn and practice differ-

ent techniques and tools - which they can adapt foruse in their own projects.

The course is focused on participatory manage-ment. As a result, the unique feature of the course isto integrate the process approach with an equalemphasis on people-skills such as leadership andmotivation and the use of project teams. Participantslearn management techniques such as how to dostakeholder analysis, "problem trees", "scheduling","budgeting" etc, at the same time as developing skillsin team-building, leadership and motivation. Eachparticipant has the chance to practice their presenta-tion skills. (We have resisted splitting up process andpeople skills - as other training courses have done).

This course is targeted at managers and potentialmanagers who want to be more participative in theirmanagement style - looking for systems to involvetarget populations and staff in project design, imple-mentation and evaluation.

The teaching approach is also participatory andresponsive. There are no lectures - but practical exer-cises, group work, games, and case studies.

Facilities Both courses are held at Reading University - inmodern university accommodation, with en-suitefacilities. Participants have access to Universityfacilities. The course is supported by handouts andreadings which are available on-line and are includ-ed in the course fees. The University of Reading, sit-uated close to London and easily reached from themain London airports, is a major centre for develop-ment studies in the UK.

More details from Helen Stutley or Paul Miller,c/o International and Rural DevelopmentDepartment, The University of Reading, P.O.Box237, Reading RG6 6AR, UK. Fax: +44(0)118 9261244. Visit the web sites of Reading University:www.reading.ac.uk/irdd/shortcourses.htm orAcro@tics: www.acroactics.com

New short courses at Reading University. The two new courses focus on people-centred participatory development - but come from different anglesand with different training approaches.


tion do occur. For instance, bark or rootmaterial from common plants may besold as coming from less abundant,costlier species.

Popular medicinals An inventory of medicinal plants in 23establishments in Belém revealed 211different common names of medicinalherbs, shrubs, and trees. Different partsof each plant are sold including leaves,fruits, flowers, roots, seeds, inner andouter barks, exudates and oils.

Of the 211 medicinal species sold,we found that 45 percent are native tothe Amazon. Of the 12 leading speciessold, nine are native to Amazonia. Eightof these occur in primary forests, andfive are also extracted for timber. Bycontrast, fresh herbs sold are often non-native, cultivated species supplied bysmall producers from nearby islandsand suburbs.

Despite the difficulties associatedwith identifying medicinal plants, tax-onomists verified 11 of the 12 top-sell-ing plants obtained by one commercialcollectors. The one that was hard toidentify was barbatimão. The namebarbatimão is used for a variety ofplants, whose barks are widely used tocure internal inflammation, becausethey are rich in tannins and thereforehave anti-inflammatory properties.

From 1994 to 2002, 11 of the 12species remained leading sellers. In2000, sales of one species, Croton caju-cara, declined sharply as the result ofpublicised claims that excessive usecould lead to toxicity. During the nineyear period, sales of the other leadingmedicinal plants increased, in partbecause of changes in the form inwhich products were sold, such as cost-ly capsules, powders, liquid medica-tions, and drinks.

Sale outlets expanded, over thesame period, to include the Internet, gasstations, supermarkets, and increasingnumbers of pharmacies, sidewalk ven-dors, and homeopathic shops.

Illnesses treatedA closer examination of the use of someof the top-selling plant species mayhelp explain why certain species areprized and habitually used.

Agroforestry

In Amazonia, medicinal plants are themain form of health care for most peo-ple, because people prefer them, andbecause alternative pharmaceuticalproducts cost too much. In easternAmazonia in particular, logging, ranch-ing, mining, and agriculture are threat-ening to destroy many medicinal plants.Indeed, medicinal plant traders are hav-ing to go further and further afield toget the raw products.

Belém is the capital of the state ofPará and the principal port city of east-ern Amazonia. The city, which has apopulation of 1.7 million, is the site ofthe long-established open-air river mar-ket, Ver-o-Peso, where close to 100tightly crammed booths display freshplant material, tonics, roots, oils, treebarks, and animal parts.

In addition, medicinal plants from awide geographic area are also soldoffering a vast array of plant-basedmedicines for treating both minor andserious ailments, particularly for poorpeople.

It is very difficult, however, to iden-tify many of the species being sold. Inmany medicinal plant shops, piles ofbarks, roots, and herbs are unlabeledand lack identifying characteristics offruit, flower, or leaf. When labels arepresent, they denote the plants' com-mon names, some of which are used fora variety of species.

Although customers from ruralareas are often familiar with thecolours, textures, and smells of plantmaterial, accidental errors in plant iden-tification as well as deliberate decep-

Pavement sale ofwidely usedmedicinal barksand herbs in Belém,Brazil.

Credit: PatriciaShanley.

Chainsaws in the drugstoreOver the last three decades, logging in the Brazilian Amazon has diminishedthe availability of some widely used medicinal plants. A nine year study byPatricia Shanley and Leda Luz suggests that further degradation of theseforests may mean losing potential pharmaceutical drugs for the developedworld as well as destroying the only source of medical remedies for Brazil'srural and urban poor.


Worms are routinely treated withChenopodium ambrosioides (mastruz),kidney and urinary problems withPhyllanthus niruri (quebra pedra),burns with Portulaca pilosa (amorcrescido), and fatigue and lack of ener-gy with Paullinia cupana (guaraná).Locally called "nature's antibiotic,"copaíba oil from Copaifera spp. is usedfor cuts and abrasions, acting as a cica-trizant (i.e., promoting scar formation)and anti-inflammatory. Andiroba oilfrom Carapa guianensis is used to treatsprains, rheumatism (arthritis) and torepel insects. In both rural and urbanareas, gynaecologically related prob-lems such as vaginal infections arecommonly treated with Dalbergia sub-cymosa (verônica).

Some of the leading plants are usednot only to heal common ailments butalso to treat diseases for which effec-tive pharmaceutical medications do notyet exist. Tabebuia impetiginosa (pãud'arco) is taken to treat gastric ulcersand internal inflammation and to arrestthe growth of tumours. Himatanthussucuuba (sucuúba) is used against her-pes. Ptychopetalum olacoides (mara-puãma) is locally (Amazonia)employed against impotence and dis-eases of the nervous system.

In studies in rodents, extracts from

Pt. olacoides have shown encouragingresults against experimentally inducedtremors. C. cajucara (sacaca) is takenfor diabetes, to lower cholesterol, andpromote weight loss. Loss of hair istreated with Po. pilosa (amor crescido).

Sufficient phytochemical and phar-macological research has not been con-ducted to verify the efficacy of most ofthe native species, because of theirextremely complex biochemistry.

Price and volumeIn the Belém market, the price ofmedicinal plants varies according tosupply and demand. As a general rule,collectors receive half or less of thefinal selling price of crude medicinals,with wholesalers and middlemen large-ly dictating the final price. Currently,most packets of herbs or bark, whichweigh about 200 and 700 grams,respectively, cost the consumer theequivalent of between US $0.40 andUS $1.00.

In most cases, however, medicinalplants are significantly cheaper thanpharmaceuticals, some can cost fourtimes less per unit than their pharma-ceutical counterparts. To meet theneeds of the very poor, bark can be pur-chased in small quantities and oils andhoneys are sold by the spoonful.

Although such small volumes mightseem trivial, a great number of salesoccur on a daily basis. Modest storesand laboratories may attend to morethan 50 clients an hour.

According to store records andinterviews in seven leading outlets inBelém in 1994, the collective annualsales of the bark pãu d'arco exceedednine metric tons, while combined salesof five medicinal barks totalledapproximately 30 tons. By 2002, com-bined sales of these medicinal barks inseven principal outlets doubled toreach close to 60 tons.

Buyers, sellers, and collectorsWe surveyed 200 households in differ-ent neighbourhoods of Belém andfound that 45 percent of them obtainedmedicinal plants by direct collection,cultivation, or swapping with friendsand neighbours. This is only a smallfraction of the non-market sourcing ofplants by millions of rural Brazilianswho prefer plant-based medicines orhave little or no access to alternativetreatments. All strata of Brazilian soci-ety commonly use medicinal plants.

Hundreds of men and women makepart of their living collecting, planting,transporting, processing, or sellingmedicinal plants.

Availability Although 11 of the 12 speciesremained leading sellers throughoutthe nine year study, changes in bothsupply and demand occurred. Whereasevery shop owner interviewed said thatdemand for medicinal plants hadincreased steadily, some reported thatthe availability of particular roots,barks, and oils harvested from nativetree species such as Tabebuia spp. haddecreased, possibly as a result of defor-estation. Collectors and vendors saidthat local sources of copaíba oil havemarkedly declined and the root of Pt.olacoides (marapuãma), a speciesoccurring in low densities in matureforest, has become more difficult toobtain.

Cultivation of one of the speciesnaturally occurring in forests, the shrubPa. cupana, has allowed producers andvendors to meet surging demand for

Oil from Carapa guianensis (andiroba) seeds is used as an insect repellent and to alleviate sprainsand arthritis. Oil is extracted from seeds and processed longer than a month to produce the oil.

Credit: Patricia Shanley.

Agroforestry


this internationally recognised "energybooster." Cultivation of herbaceousmedicinal plants has also created signif-icant employment in the peri-urban areaof Belém.

Fire, selective logging, ranching,and shifting agriculture have effectedforest composition, structure, and theavailability of medicinal tree speciesplants, many of which were always fewand far between. Copaíba oil marketedin Belém now comes from places likethe neighbouring state of Amazonas,1200 km away.

However, in some cases, local man-agement of preferred species canincrease their abundance. For example,rural residents often guard the medici-nal oil tree Ca.guianensis, plant the treein their home gardens, and tend it whenit sprouts spontaneously.

LoggingOf the 300 species logged in easternAmazonia, one-third are also valued forfood, medicines, gums and resins. Thishas reduced the availability of somemedicinal species that are also harvest-ed for wood, but it has led, albeit in theshort-term, to more sources of medici-nal barks from the region's manysawmills.

Logging has forced collectors toturn to secondary forests for supplies ofmedicinal material. Studies, however,have found that 64 percent of nativespecies of eastern Amazonia do notregenerate readily after repeated cyclesof cutting and burning (e.g., Ca. guia-nensis, Copaifera duckei) and thatapproximately 40 percent are at riskbecause they occur at low densities andundergo little or no regeneration inforests.

HarvestingLittle is known about harvesting pri-mary forest tree products, includingbarks, roots, and exudates. The peoplewith most knowledge are often sea-soned collectors, but much of this localknowledge has not been documented.For example, to maximise the volumeof bark harvested from certain second-ary forest species, bark is sometimesstripped in thin vertical rows, permittedto grow back, and harvested again.

Depending on the trees' height and barkthickness, a secondary forest tree ofmedium diameter may provide 100 to200 kilograms of fresh bark.

In the area of this study, forinstance, one felled H. sucuuba treewith a diameter of 25 centimetres pro-vided 150 kilograms of fresh bark andrequired four days of labour to extract,transport, and sell. In 1994, the whole-sale market value of this bark wasroughly equivalent to US $107, com-pared to a few dollars for an entire treepaid by timber companies.

International markets In addition to local demand, there arestrong international and pharmaceuticalmarkets. Research on plants as a sourceof new drugs also continues, and,despite technological advances in theindustry, existing pharmaceutical prod-ucts often trace their origins to plants.For example, more than half of all pre-scriptions filed in the United States in1993 contained at least one majoractive compound "now or once derivedor patterned after compounds derivedfrom biological diversity."

However, drug discovery and devel-opment concentrates on diseases afflict-ing the affluent, limiting the potential

for plant-derived drugs which benefitthe rural poor. Indeed, the World HealthOrganisation estimates that only fourpercent of total global research anddevelopment resources are devoted todiseases that primarily afflict people indeveloping countries. This suggests thattraditional plant-based medical systemsof the kind served by markets in easternAmazonia will continue to function asthe primary source of health care formost of the world's population.

In Amazonia, there is a particularneed to determine how deforestation isaffecting some of the most highly val-ued, forest-based medicinal plants. Asthese plants decline in abundance, poor-er segments of the population may bedisproportionately affected. Deforest-ation could mean loss of potentialremedies for the developed world aswell as destroying one of today's pri-mary health care options forAmazonia's urban and rural citizens.

The future of Amazonian medicinal plantsAfter centuries of use, the efficacy ofmany commonly harvested plants thatare consumed daily by millions ofAmazonians remain "comprovado pelopovo," that is, proven by the people.

Copaíba and other medicinal oils and tree exudates for sale at a medicinal plant shop in Belém. Inrural areas, where cuts and abrasions are common, copaíba serves as "nature's antibiotic." From1999 to 2000, sales of phytotherapeutics in Brazil rose 15%, as compared with a 4% increase forsynthetic medicine.


Agroforestry


Relatively little research has been doneon the ecology or management ofmedicinal plants that have been highlyvalued for centuries.

Cultural familiarity, growing marketdemand, and willingness, even by thepoor, to pay higher prices for some for-est-based medicinals suggest that urbanAmazonians strongly value select forestmedicinals and retain interest in theiruse. Furthermore, for several popularlyused Amazonian medicinals, few allo-pathic or other phytotherapeutic substi-tutes exist, and none of the 45 plant-based drugs developed from rainforestspecies has been synthesised by thepharmaceutical industry.

In Africa, medicinal plant collectionfor export and increased urbanisationhave resulted in over-harvesting anddevastation of select species, leavinglocals without medicinal remedies. Toavoid a similar scenario in Amazonia,attention must be given to the popularprimary forest medicinal species thatoften occur in low densities, are slow toreproduce, and are particularly vulnera-ble to logging, fire, or landuse change.

Secondary forest medicinal speciesthat may help to restore degradedecosystems also deserve study. In addi-tion, a full cost-benefit analysis will beneeded to evaluate whether and howlogging of medicinally valuable species

makes short-term or long-term econom-ic and sociocultural sense.

Brazilian scientists are collaborat-ing across disciplines to better under-stand the phytochemistry, pharmacolo-gy, and sustainable management ofnationally valued species. Central tothis effort, the Brazilian Institute ofEnvironmental Protection (IBAMA, orInstituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e

dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis) andthe National Centre for GeneticResources and Biotechnology(Cenargen), in collaboration with otherresearch institutes such as EMBRAPA,have identified 221 species as prioritiesfor conservation, 60 of which are con-sidered threatened.

Serious efforts are underway to con-serve the genetic diversity of medicinalplants through seed banks, tissue cul-ture, and the creation of forest geneticreserves. Use of medicinal plants andpride in the rich medicinal plant her-itage is so pervasive that concern aboutspecies loss is inspiring not only gov-ernmental agencies but also some forestproduct industries, rural and urbanBrazilians to advocate conservation oflocally valued species.

The full report is available fromPatricia Shanley (e-mail:[email protected]) who is an ecolo-gist at the Centre for InternationalForestry Research (CIFOR), PO Box6596 JKPWB, Jakarta 10065,Indonesia. Leda Luz (e-mail:[email protected]) is a forester, whois affiliated with the Instituto Estadualde Florestas (State Forestry Institute) inMinas Gerais, Caixa Postal 141,36.0900-000, Brazil.

Agroforestry

One-third of the 300 species logged in eastern Amazonia are also valued for food, medicines, andgums and resins. When rural communities sell timber, they often lose valuable fruit, medicinal, andgame-attracting species.


Community members stripping medicinal bark from a log of Hymenaea courbaril (jatobá) prior toshipping the logs downriver to the sawmill. The bark and exudate of jatobá, a species considered tobe threatened, are used medicinally as a restorative tonic and to combat flu.


EvaporativecoolingBackgroundMuch of the post-harvest loss of fruitsand vegetables in developing countriesis due to the lack of proper storagefacilities. While refrigerated coolstores are the best method of preservingfruits and vegetables they are expen-sive to buy and run. Consequently, indeveloping countries there is an interestin simple low-cost alternatives, manyof which depend on evaporative cool-ing which is simple and does notrequire any external power supply.

The basic principle relies on cool-ing by evaporation. When water evap-orates it draws energy from its sur-roundings which produces a consider-able cooling effect. Evaporative cool-ing occurs when air, that is not toohumid, passes over a wet surface; thefaster the rate of evaporation thegreater the cooling. The efficiency ofan evaporative cooler depends on thehumidity of the surrounding air. Verydry air can absorb a lot of moisture sogreater cooling occurs. In the extremecase of air that is totally saturated withwater, no evaporation can take placeand no cooling occurs.

Generally, an evaporative cooler ismade of a porous material that is fedwith water. Hot dry air is drawn overthe material. The water evaporates intothe air raising its humidity and at thesame time reducing the temperature ofthe air. There are many different stylesof evaporative coolers. The design willdepend on the materials available andthe users requirements. Some exam-ples of evaporative cooling designs aredescribed below.

Pot designsThese are simple designs of evapora-tive coolers that can be used in thehome. The basic design consists of astorage pot placed inside a bigger potthat holds water. The inner pot storesfood that is kept cool.

One adaptation on the basic doublepot design is the Janata cooler, devel-

oped by the Food & Nutrition Board ofIndia. A storage pot is placed in anearthenware bowl containing water.The pot is then covered with a dampcloth that is dipped into the reservoir ofwater. Water drawn up the cloth evap-orates keeping the storage pot cool.The bowl is also placed on wet sand, toisolate the pot from the hot ground.

Figure 1: The Janata cooler

Mohammed Bah Abba a teacher inNigeria, developed a small-scale stor-age "pot-in-pot" system that uses twopots of slightly different size. Thesmaller pot is placed inside the largerpot and the gap between the two pots isfilled with sand. Mohammed won the


Rolex 200 Award for Enterprise for hisdesign. Further details are in Number 4Volume 27 Oct/ Dec 2000 ofAppropriate Technology

In Sudan, ITDG and the Woman'sAssociation for EarthenwareManufacturing have been experiment-ing with the storage design ofMohammed Bah Abba. The aim of theexperimentation was to discover howeffective and economical the Zeer stor-age is in conserving foods. Zeer is theArabic name for the large pots used.The results are shown in the tablebelow.

A bamboo coolerThe base of the cooler is made from alarge diameter tray that contains water.Bricks are placed within this tray and anopen weave cylinder of bamboo or sim-ilar material is placed on top of thebricks. Hessian cloth is wrappedaround the bamboo frame, ensuring thatthe cloth is dipping into the water toallow water to be drawn up the cylin-der's wall. Food is kept in the cylinderwith a lid placed on the top.

An Almirah coolerThe Almirah is a more sophisticatedcooler which has a wooden frame cov-ered in cloth. There is a water tray atthe base and on top of the frame intowhich the cloth dips, thus keeping itwet. A hinged door and internal shelvesallow easy access to the stored produce.

A charcoal coolerThe charcoal cooler is made from anopen timber frame of approximately50mm x 25mm (2" x 1") in section.The door is made by simply hingingone side of the frame. The woodenframe is covered in mesh, inside and

ITDG Briefs

Produce

TomatoesGuavasRocketOkraCarrots

Shelf-life of produce without using the Zeer

2 days2 days1 day4 days4 days

Shelf-life of produceusing the Zeer

20 days20 days5 days17 days20 days

Vegetable shelf life

out, leaving a 25mm (1") cavity whichis filled with pieces of charcoal. Thecharcoal is sprayed with water, andwhen wet provides evaporative cooling.The framework is mounted outside thehouse on a pole with a metal cone todeter rats and a good coating of greaseto prevent ants getting to the food.

The top is usually solid andthatched, with an overhang to deter fly-ing insects (Not shown in Figure 2).

All cooling chambers should beplaced in a shady position, and expo-sure to the wind will help the coolingeffect. Airflows can be artificially cre-ated through the use of a chimney. Forexample using a mini electric fan or an

oil lamp to create airflows through thechimney - the resulting draft drawscooler air into the cabinet situatedbelow the chimney. The Bhartya coolcabinet uses this principle to keep itscontents cool. Wire mesh shelves andholes in the bottom of the raised cabinetensure the free movement of air passingover the stored food.

Static cooling chambersThe Indian Agricultural ResearchInstitute has developed a cooling sys-tem that can be built in any part of thecountry using locally available materi-als.

The basic structure of the coolingchamber can be built from bricks andriver sand, with a cover made from cane


ITDG Briefs

Figure 2: The charcoalbox cooler

or other plant material and sacks orcloth. There must also be a nearbysource of water. Construction is fairlysimple. First the floor is built from asingle layer of bricks, then a cavity wallis constructed of brick around the outeredge of the floor with a gap of about75mm (3") between the inner wall andouter wall. This cavity is then filledwith sand. About 400 bricks are need-ed to build a chamber of the size shownin Figure 3 which has a capacity ofabout 100kg. A covering for the cham-ber is made with canes covered in sack-ing all mounted in a bamboo frame.The whole structure should be protectedfrom the sun by making a roof to pro-vide shade.

After construction the walls, floor,sand in the cavity and cover are thor-oughly saturated with water. Once thechamber is completely wet, a twice-daily sprinkling of water is enough tomaintain the moisture and temperatureof the chamber. A simple automateddrip watering system can also be addedas shown in Figure 3.

two pieces and 2.15 meters (7')two pieces

6. Straw - 2 bundles7. Sacks

Construction detailsChoose a small piece of land about 1.52meters square (5'x 5') facing away fromthe sun or where the sun does not shinedirectly. The ground should slope a lit-tle so that ground water drains awayand does not seep into the chamber.

The size of the cellar storage can bevaried to suit the user. The greater thevolume to be stored, the bigger the sizeof the chamber. Normally, a 1.22.x0.92 meters (3'x 4') rectangular mortar-less stone or brick structure is built to aheight of around 1.22 meters (3').

A layer of sand, about 25mm (1")thick is, spread on the ground over thearea where the chamber is to be builtand a layer of bricks or stones is laidonto the sand.

A doubled walled chamber is creat-ed from the bricks. The gap betweenthe outer and inner wall of the chamberis about 125mm (5"). The cavity

between these two walls is filled withclean sand. It should be free from soilto ensure against contamination fromorganic impurities. A high-densitypolythene hose with pinholes madealong its length is laid on the sand with-in the cavity. The hose is blocked at theend so that water released from a tankspreads through these holes and keepsthe sand moist. A thatched roof sup-ported by four bamboo poles is placedabove the cool chamber.

To keep the chamber cool, the cir-culation of air around the chamber mustbe unhindered. The air around thechamber is cooled by the effect of thewater evaporating from the porousbricks and sand thus prolonging theshelf-Iife of the food stored within it.Sacks and bamboo sticks are used tocover the chamber, which is kept moistby sprinkling water.

OperationTo prevent damage to the fruit and veg-etables they should be carefully storedin bamboo or plastic mesh trays/bas-kets, which have four legs so that their


Naya cellar storageITDG Nepal has been successful intransferring cooler technology, similarto the Indian Agricultural ResearchInstitute design, especially to ruralareas. It is called the Naya CellarStorage and was originally designed byDr. Gyan Shresthra from the GreenEnergy Mission and Mr. Joshi. It iscomparatively easy to adapt the designto the users requirements and the con-struction is made from locally availablematerials. The results have beenencouraging for rural food processorswho have little or no income and havebeen unable to acquire costly refrigera-tors.

The following basic materials arerequired to construct the Naya CellarStorage:

1. Bricks -1200-1500 2. Sand - 400-500 kilograms (880

Ib - 110 lb)3. Polythene hose - 6 meters (26')4. Water tank/bucket - 100 litre

capacity (22 gal)5. Bamboo/wood - 1.82 meters (6')

ITDG Briefs

Figure 3: Static cooling chamber


ITDG Briefs

contents are raised off the floor of thechamber. The flow of water throughthe hose needs to be regulated inresponse to changes in the outside tem-perature to allow conditions within thechamber to remain constant.

In one of the villages where ITDGNepal has been installing 'Satso' solardryers, one young mother also had aNaya cool chamber and was successful-ly storing cabbage and ginger for up to2 weeks longer than she had done with-out the chamber. She used locallyavailable stones from rivers to constructthe walls, and covered the chamberwith a piece of sack mounted on a criss-cross of bamboo.

References and further reading

Cooling your cucumbersAppropriate TechnologyJournal, Volume 24 Number 1,June 1997Kitchen Trails, Food Chain,Number 18 July 1996, ITDG

Keep it Cool: QualityMaintenance of Vegetables andFruit During Storage, ATSource Volume 19 Number 2Village-level Technology forBetter Life & Higher Income,UNICEF has two pages describ-ing an evaporative charcoalcooler Appropriate Village Technologyfor Basic Services, UNICEFTomato and Fruit Processing,Preserving and Packaging, Anexample of a village factory,Guus de Klein, TOOL. There isa description of a charcoal evap-orative cooling room in thisbook. The Centre for AlternativeTechnology has a leaflet entitledGreen Refrigeration. This pro-vides useful information on thebest designs of standard refrig-erators. Changing Villages: Rural Newsand Views Vol. 14, No 2 April-June 1995, Consortium on Rural

Technology (CORT)

Useful contacts

Mr. Mohammed Bah AbbaJigawa State PolytechnicCollage of Business andManagement Studies Sani Abacha WayP.M.B 7040DutseJigawa State Nigeria

Indian Agricultural ResearchInstitutePusa CampusNew Delhi - 110 012 IndiaTel: 91 11 25733375, 91 1125733367 Fax: 91 11 25766420, 91 1125851719 E-mail: [email protected]: www.iaripusa.org

place, with access to such biological'waste' (nothing should be called 'waste'-everything is 'a resource', given theright treatment.)

LegendaryComposting fits into the farming cyclealmost perfectly. There is a legendarystory from Benin in West Africa, wherea farm settlement integrated compost-ing into a whole series of cyclical oper-ations that optimised the energy fromthe sun in growing plants, feeding ani-mals and humans on those plants, recy-cling animal and human residues intoplant nutrients and even biogas.Breaking into the cycle at the cropstage: vegetables and field crops weregrown on the settlement. Fruit, vegeta-bles and root crops were eaten by thepeople - and livestock. Ducks werehoused over ponds and fed with farmproduce and household scraps. Theirdroppings fell in the water - where bac-teria digested them and fish consumedthe bacteria - and humans caught thefish to eat, while enjoying duck eggsand roast duck.

The livestock were slaughtered onthe settlement, and slaughterhousewaste was digested first by masses ofmaggots (not a pleasant, but valuableoperation), which in turn were fed tothe fish. The residues from the maggotwere mixed with liquid waste from'night soil', latrines and other material ina digester, from which biogas was col-lected and used for cooking and heatingwater on the settlement. Solid residuesfrom the digester were mixed in withplant and animal by-products to makecompost -' which in turn was returnedto the fields as a soil conditioner andfertiliser. Liquid effluent from thedigester was also used as fertiliser andirrigation water for trees and shrubs.

Crop solids from cereals - like strawand chaff, were used as bedding andfeed for cattle and other livestock. Themanure produced by animal faeces andurine was put back on the fields as fer-tiliser. So many systems were all work-ing at once that the settlement was selfreliant for most of its food and much ofits energy. Don't forget, either, the fruitsand wood yielded by orchards andgroves irrigated and fertilised - and

There's not much new about compost-ing. Farmers and horticulturists in manycountries - particularly China - havepractised it for centuries, convertingplant and animal residues from haz-ardous and expensive (when disposed)material into a useful and valuableresource for soil improvement and fer-tiliser.

The principles have not changed:stack the material to be composted intoa heap or a container, keep it moist,keep it covered if possible -stir it up orturn it over if necessary and wait untilvarious bacteria that are naturally pres-ent 'consume' the material and change itfrom (often) smelly, infectious, seed-carrying and unpleasant material into(nearly) odourless, (almost) infection

and seed-free compost that can be soldas a growing medium, soil conditioner,moisture conserving and source of plantnutrients. This is a process that gener-ates considerable heat, which kills bac-teria, insects and their eggs, parasitesand weed seeds.

Add further benefits like thoseclaimed by research workers inAmerica, such as reduced incidence ofplant disease when compost has beenused on a crop - and also the benefit ofproviding an alternative haven for bio-logical wastes that accrue so rapidly inmodern cities - which authorities willpay you to take away and dispose ofrather than simply dumping in a landfillsite - and you have a promising newfarm enterprise, if you live in the right


Composting works well on large concrete or tarmac areas. Many machines are available - mainly inthe USA.

In practice

Composting for income, plantnutrients and purificationScience and technology provide new opportunities for more efficient methodsto be developed with which to feed; clothe and keep ourselves healthy andcomfortable. They also offer new opportunities for business of all kinds withwhich we can make a living. Consultant Editor George Macpherson has beenkeeping eyes and ears open for interesting and useful discoveries and devel-opments.

even the fibre from crops that could beused to make clothes.

All that can happen at various scales- from small family settlements up totowns and even cities, given the willand the organisation. It exploits the keyto human survival - the harnessing ofthe sun's energy (rather than using fos-sil fuel) to enable plants to carry outphotosynthesis and for all living crea-tures to reproduce before they die andare 'recycled', using the sun's energy. Asnations develop and industry increases,cities grow larger and people becomemore prosperous, the residues theyaccumulate increase too -and have to bedisposed.

Traditionally such residues weremainly buried or burned but quantitiesfrom cities are now so huge that othermethods have to be employed - thefavourite being 'recycling' - separatingout plastics, metals, glass, paper - andbiological residues that need to betransformed from 'unpleasant waste'into 'useful resource'. This is where 'thecomposting business' comes into itsown - and in many countries hasalready become well mechanised andsophisticated.

Not swords into ploughsharesTraditionally when civilisations movefrom war and conflict to peace, they

'beat swords into ploughshares'. In thecase of compost they convert 'paradegrounds and airfields into compostingunits'. Large areas of concrete, stonepaving or tarmac, where troops havebeen trained to march and do drill tolearn complete obedience and co-ordi-nation, are ideal for composting. Longrows of material can be unloaded,stacked to the right height, and thenperiodically turned by special


machines.Regulations vary between countries

about what may be composted. In theState of Illinois, USA, it is legal to com-post fish, poultry and pigs -and soon, itmay be possible to compost cows, too!It makes one wonder what will happento the bones. In the UK there are 23sites that are now 'registered' for com-posting, and they process some 382,000tonnes of organic residues annually -tostandards set out by British StandardsInstitute PAS 100.

There's a Composting Associationin the UK, too, whose members shareideas and knowledge. Their website iswww.compost.org.uk.

One of the best sources of informa-tion on this subject is BiocycleMagazine, and you can find that on theinternet at www.jgpress.com. It con-tains may useful addresses and manu-facturers of suitable machinery, andrelates many different types of compost-ing for many different industries.

Another useful source of informa-tion is based in Belgium - try the web-site www.actahort.org/books/469/ tofind a book about the subject for horti-culturists.

The finished product - odour-free, almost sterile.

In practice

Hot work! Compost heats up during the process, killing bacteria, parasites and weed seeds.


those brushparks by $55. The Typha,Sesbania and control brushparks costjust over $230 each.

The main fish that inhabited thebrushparks were: Barbus paludinosus,Oreochromis shiranus chilwae,Haplochromis callipterus and Clariasgariepinus. O. shiranus chilwae was thedominant species in all the treatments,followed by H. callipterus. The popula-tion of each species remained roughlythe same over the period of the trials.The idea was to harvest the fish after sixmonths but the trials had to be prema-turely curtailed after five months as thenets were stolen from two enclosures.

There was little difference in growthrates between the different treatments,and after five months most of the fishwere of marketable size: weights rangedfrom 40g. for C. gariepinus and O. shi-ranus chilwae down to 10g. for B.paludinosus.

At harvest the lowest fish productioncame from the Sesbania enclosures,even lower than the control, and thehighest with the Typha reeds. The lowyield from the Sesbania treatment couldbe because the branches put in had noleaves, and very little decompositionoccurred to promote growth of periphy-

ton on which the fish feed. Although theTypha enclosures produced a greatertotal weight of fish than the other treat-ments, most of the fish were H. cal-lipterus which people are not very keento eat.

B. paludinosus and O. shiranuschilwae are the most economicallyimportant species and their populationswere greatest in the bamboo andSesbania treatments. It was noticed thatthe bamboo sticks were covered with athick green mat of algae, which mighthave supplied a continuous source offeed for O. shiranus chilwae. So thestudy does suggest that bamboo andSesbania brushparks could result in ahigher income than using Typha reeds.

If these results are extrapolated,brushparks yield more fish per year thanthe lake. At an open day, participantsseemed keen to take up the idea. Theredidn't appear to be any competition withexisting fishing and other users of thelake. Using bamboo stakes, put closetogether, could reduce the need to useexpensive seine nets.

Another advantage of the brushparksis that harvesting of the fish could betimed so that it occurs during the lake'sclosed season when incomes are low.

The research paper is published inthe January-March 2003 issue of NAGA,published by the World Fish Centre, P OBox 500, GPO, 10670 Penang,Malaysia. Website: www.worldfishcen-tre.org. Dr D. Jamu can be contacted atP O Box 229, Zomba, Malawi. E-mail:[email protected]

Aquaculture

The study showed that brushparks havethe potential to increase fish production,provide habitats for faster growth tomarketable size, and increase employ-ment.

Brushparks are created by fencingoff an area of a lake or reservoir withseine nets held up by sticks stuck into themud and then filling the enclosure withbranches. This creates a habitat with aplentiful supply of food, which encour-ages young fish to enter.

Brushparks are used in many parts ofthe world, and on Lake Chilwa theyhave been used as 'garages' or places totemporarily store caught fish, until thereare enough fish to make marketingworthwhile. The fish held in the 'garages'are fed with kitchen wastes to maintaintheir condition.

In the trials, four different systemswere tried. Enclosures of ten sq.metreswere fenced with 13mm seine nets andbamboo sticks. Two enclosures werefilled with indigenous Typha reeds(Phragmites mauritianus); another twowere filled with bamboo sticks at tensticks per sq.metre; a third treatment hadbranches of sesbania sesban - a legumi-nous shrub - put in at 12 branches persq.metre; and two more enclosures wereleft empty to act as control.

Well over half the cost of making thebrushparks was the netting, and labouraccounted for about 36 percent. Usingbamboo as a substrate raised the cost of

A brushpark showing the bamboo polesmaking the enclosure.

Credit: D. Jamu

More fish from brushparks On many African lakes, like Lake Chilwa in Malawi, fish catches are decliningand employment is suffering. Research by Daniel Jamu and H. Hunga, of theWorld Fish Centre, and K. Chaula, from the Malawi National AquacultureCentre, has shown that making enclosures or brushparks at the water's edgemay reverse the situation.

Three womenselling B.paludinosus at alanding site atKachulu, LakeChilwa.

Credit: D. Jamu

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