News brief

Crop diversification benefits Bangladesh

Bangladeshi farmers are rapidly substituting vegetables and fruit for rice and jute, their major crops in the past. Low prices for the two traditional crops have forced farmers to seek better paying alternatives. Many farmers are now benefiting from short cycle, high value vegetable production, which gives them multiple harvests of readily marketed produce, thereby optimising land use and increasing potential income throughout the year.

Mung bean, turmeric, chilli, gourds and other tropical vegetables are grown in the hottest months, while tomato, potato, carrot, cauliflower and cabbage are planted for the cooler season.

The most common fruits grown for home consumption and sale are pawpaw, guava, citrus, pineapple and a local plum. Some more economically secure farmers are also developing fruit processing for juices, jams and jellies.

This diversification has had two further benefits: quick growing vegetables have helped the country to recover from the devastating floods mid '98, which destroyed much of the rice crop; and the greater availability of fruit and vegetables is helping to improve nutrition nationally.

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Resisting cassava mosaic disease

Collaborative research by IITA, Uganda's National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO), international research partners, non-governmental organisations and farmers has yielded cassava varieties resistant to cassava mosaic disease (CMD). Although more commonly associated with West Africa, cassava is also an important in East and Central Africa: in western Kenya the loss of revenue from CMD was estimated at 150,000 tons per annum, equivalent to US$ 15 million; while in Uganda, according to Professor Joseph Mukiibi, Director General of NARO, CMD had reduced cassava production to 25% of 1940s levels and there was famine in areas where cassava was a staple.

The CMD resistant cassava strains were developed by IITA and NARO at Namulonge and Serere in Uganda. Four varieties have been released and ten more are to be released soon. The research was funded by USAID, (US Agency for International Development).

E-mail: Jack.Reeves@IITA.cgiar.org OR narohq@imul.com

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Animal Welfare, the EU and WTO

Animal welfare issues are likely to be on the agenda of the next round of World Trade Organisation meetings scheduled for November. This was intimated by the EU Farm Commissioner, Franz Fischler, in January. Pointing out that EU consumers were increasingly concerned with the issue, together with labelling of food products. He said, "The EU ought to be pressing, at international level, for better food safety and quality standards". His remarks came a few days before Members of the European Parliament voted to phase out battery cages for poultry within 10 years.

EU farm ministers have been considering improving conditions for the approximately 250 million laying cage birds in EU countries by increasing the amount of cage space available per bird from the current 450 cm² to 550 cm² by 2003. This would be achieved by reducing the birds per cage from five to four. A further consideration has been to increase space even further to 800 cm² per bird and to fit cages with perches.

Egg producers would undoubtedly face greatly increased costs if these measures were implemented and consumers would have to accept higher prices. The measures would also need to be applied throughout the EU to avoid the situation currently facing British pig producers, who accepted legislation to ban the tethering of sows but now face intense competition from low cost pig products exported by countries where the sow tether ban is not implemented.

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"Forcing" hens to lay rotten eggs

The common practice of drastically cutting feed for laying hens for two weeks in order to accelerate moulting and renewed laying could make poultry and the eggs they lay more prone to Salmonella infections, which could be passed on to consumers. The practice, which is banned in Britain but is still widespread elsewhere including in the United States, forces birds to first cease laying, as they are starved, and then to come back into lay when full feeding is resumed. "Forced moulting", as the practice is known, significantly increases the potential egg production of birds over a two year period, also reducing replacement costs on an annual basis.

The risk to human health was raised at the International Poultry Exposition in Atlanta, US by an animal welfare group, United Poultry Concerns, and their claims were backed by a representative of the US Department of Agriculture in Atlanta. The US Food and Drug Administration is reported to be considering banning the practice.

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Give and take

Cattle can digest and utilise the uric acid in poultry droppings while poultry can supplement their feed and reduce wastage by scavenging of grain fed to, but not digested by, cattle. These benefits of integrated livestock production were recalled recently by Dr Tony Smith of the Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine (CTVM) in the BBC World Service programme The Farming World. When working in Zimbabwe some years ago, Dr Smith saw how a farmer stored hay bales below the perches of his laying hens, subsequently feeding the nitrogen enriched hay to his cattle. The birds, in turn, had access to the cattle resting area where they scavenged the undigested cereal grain passed in the dung. A further unexpected benefit was that the farmer observed a striking difference in behaviour between the laying flock housed in association with cattle and another flock of the same strain housed on their own: the birds housed separately were nervous and very easily frightened, whereas those habituated to the constant movement and sounds of the cattle were much calmer: an important attribute for laying hens.

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Fresh air beats salmonella

Removing dust from the air in poultry houses can reduce levels of salmonella infection very significantly, according to research reported in New Scientist. Salmonella is a significant problem, affecting the health of poultry and consumers of eggs and poultry meat. Salmonella in meat and eggs is estimated to have caused 15, 000 cases of food poisoning in Britain alone in 1997. Slaughter of infected flocks has been the most common method of attempted control but has had little impact on the disease. Now, researchers at The US Department of Agriculture's Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia have found that if the air in the hen house is passed over electrostatically charged metal plates, the bacteria-laden dust can be attracted to the plates and rinsed off, at regular intervals, with water. The technique is reported to reduce Salmonella infections by 95%.

Email: enquiries@newscientist.com

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Adding value to cocoa and nutmeg

A new cocoa processing plant in Cote d'Ivoire will add value to traditionally exported raw beans by producing cocoa butter, cocoa liquor and cocoa powder. The project will be funded by $50 million from Cargill, the international agrifood and industrial company. A report in The Public Ledger describes the building of this 60,000 tonnes per year capacity plant as a response to the Ivorian Government's initiative to promote industrialisation in the country and to encourage liberalisation in the cocoa market. Governments in West Africa are keen to encourage a greater element of local processing of commodities like cocoa, providing investment and employment locally and adding value to exports. The new plant is also part of a trend by manufacturers to process more beans at source in order to reduce shipping costs and protect their margins.

Meanwhile in the Caribbean, Grenada has seen its cocoa production plummet from 4,000 tonnes per year in the 1970s, when the crop was the island's main export, to a current average of 1,300 tonnes. Although production is of good quality, prices paid for cocoa cannot compete with nutmeg, which has taken over as Grenada's main crop and export. With world prices for nutmeg high, producers are enjoying a boom. But many are concerned that a fall in price, perhaps due to further expansion of output in Indonesia, could leave little margin in a crop that requires a major labour input in harvesting, sorting and processing of nutmeg, most of which is done by hand.

Email: enquiries@llplimited.com

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Leaf stripe disease of Maize

Leaf stripe disease of maize, which occurs throughout Africa south of the Sahara where maize is grown, has been causing up to 30% loss in production in Burundi according to estimates by ISABU, the country's main agricultural research institute. The disease is caused by a virus and induces acute bending of the shoot apex and severe stunting, as well as the familiar broad yellow stripes or the yellowing of entire leaves. However, the introduction of new disease resistant varieties and new agronomic practices, in particular regular and thorough weeding, should increase yields by some 40%, according to the Director of Research, Renovat Baragengana. Weeding removes the alternative host plants (including Digitaria spp., Eleusine indica, Eragrostis spp., and Panicum spp.) of the insect vector of leafstripe, Peregrinus maidis.

Research into reducing the impact of the disease of one of Burundi's staple crops was focused at ISABU, which is sited near Bujumbura.

E-mail: isabu@cbinf.com

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Ethnoveterinary medicine

A seminar to raise awareness of the potentials for adopting a more integrated approach to animal healthcare was held 4-6 February in Calicut, Kerala, India. It was organised by the Malabar Regional Co-operative Milk Producers Union, which has 150,000 farmer members.

The seminar was attended by some 80 government vets as well as traditional healers, paravets, farmers and academics. Guest speakers were from India, Germany, Malawi and UK with papers covering aspects of healthcare such as allopathy, homeopathy, Ayurveda, ethnoveterinary knowledge, management, nutrition, and hygiene. The use of community animal health workers (paravets) as deliverers of animal healthcare was discussed. Proceedings will be available from Mr Padmakumar, MRCMPU, P. O. Kunnamangalam, Calicut, Kerala, India.

E-mail: slo@giasbg01.vsnl.net.in

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Multi purpose orchards

Degraded land is being rehabilitated and local plant biodiversity protected simultaneously in a project initiated in southern Syria. Priests have taken the initiative to restore a 6th century monastery, near the town of Deir Mar Musa on the slopes of the Qalamun Mountains, and to restore fertility to the degraded land for agriculture and tourism. Using only local genetic resources, the priests are establishing orchards of fruit and nut trees-peaches, pears, capers and almonds-that can both help rehabilitate the land and provide a source of income for the community. Water is supplied by a drip irrigation system fed by ancient Roman cisterns, which have also been restored by the priests.

The initiative is supported technically by The University of Aleppo, The Syrian Ministries of Agriculture, Tourism and Environment, and the FAO. Initial funding for the project was provided by Switzerland.

E-mail: IPGRI@cgiar.org

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Need for biotech coordination

The CGIAR needs to develop a capacity for keeping up to date with the political, legal and ethical issues related to biotechnology. This was the conclusion of a study by ISNAR (International Service for National Agricultural Research). In recent years many of the CGIAR Centres have expanded their involvement in plant biotechnology research and this now plays a small but significant part in their research programmes. It is estimated that the Centres spend about $24 million per year on biotechnology research, about 7% of the budget. The great majority of this funding goes to non-controversial aspects, such as the use of molecular markers for assisting in the selection of superior plants. Only 1% of the CGIAR's total annual budget is devoted to genetic engineering.

The CGIAR believes that in certain circumstances, and for certain prescribed situations, the use of such techniques is justified and that, handled properly and in strict adherence to biosafety regulations, the new techniques can result in many benefits: reduction in poverty, improved nutrition, agricultural sustainability and protection of the environment. Further, the Centres have a policy not to seek intellectual property protection unless it is necessary to ensure access by developing countries to new technologies and products.

The ISNAR study recommends that the CGIAR Centres and national partners consider the joint acquisition of expensive proprietary technologies. It further recommends that the CGIAR develops a centralized capacity for ensuring consistent policies and legal guidelines concerning the use of such technologies, and the management of intellectual property protection where warranted. (see also Debate on GMOs)

E-mail: ISNAR@cgiar.org

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New cheese for old

Soya milk curd (tofu), which is a part of the diet in many Far East countries, is finding favour in West Africa, specifically Nigeria. This soya curd is replacing the cheese traditionally made from cow milk, known locally as wara, which has become increasingly expensive and not affordable for many families.

Tofu is made by coagulating soya milk, and resembles a soft cheese or very firm yoghurt. Pressed tofu has 10% protein and 3.5% fat. It is inexpensive and, because of its bland taste and porous texture, it is very versatile and can be used with almost any food.

IITA (International Institute for Tropical Agriculture) took the initiative to develop a simple and low cost method of making tofu as a substitute for wara and called on assistance from Japan through the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). In Asia tofu is made using either calcium sulphate or magnesium chloride as coagulating agents, but these are expensive and not readily available in Nigeria. The food technologist and tofu expert sent to IITA by JICA, Dr. O. Nakayama, developed a procedure using the same coagulants used for coagulating wara: juice extract from locally available bombom leaves. Or, lime and lemon juice can be used. Nigerian tofu makers also discovered alternatives of their own, the extract of tamarind and the liquor from the preparation of fermented cereal (maize, millet and sorghum) gruel. Dr. Nakayama went on to improve on the yield of tofu based on these coagulants and developed an alternative procedure - hot milk extraction.

IITA envisages that tofu production will develop into a cottage industry and significant income generator for many women, who not only make the product but sell it fried and hawked on the streets as a snack or meat substitute in soups and stews. There is clearly an emerging market for the product developing alongside the sale of wara.

E-mail: Jack.Reeves@IITA.cgiar.org

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The Irresistible Taste of the Tropics

Smallholder farmers in Uganda are managing to supply the booming demand in Europe for their farm-dried fruit. From shipments of two tonnes in the first year of trading sales have grown to fifty tonnes last year. Dried mango, banana, papaya, star fruit (carambola) and pineapple undergo rigid quality checks at the depot run by Fruits of the Nile before being sent by road for shipping from Mombasa to the United Kingdom.

The responsibility, and the credit, for the exceptionally high quality of the product rests with the farmer suppliers scattered through Uganda. On-farm only perfect fruits are peeled and sliced and dried in approved solar driers. Quality checks at this stage and at the sorting depot reject any fruit that has not dried at the right pace. Freezing fruit before shipping, for two days at minus 20 centrigrade, eliminates any fruit weevil larvae that escape human scrutiny.

To share their success the Fruits of the Nile team has been demonstrating fruit drying to farmers in Guyana and Zanzibar. They are confident that the European market for quality dried fruit is big enough and that their Ugandan products will maintain their lead over competition.

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Farmers Strike Oil in Lake Victoria

Farmers on Lake Victoria's Sese Islands may have a new crop now that the Ugandan government is introducing oil palm. Currently Uganda imports vegetable oil at a cost of over $60 million a year but hopes to substitute these imports, and have a surplus to sell, within ten years. Farmers are enthusiastic to diversify as declining catches of fish from the lake due to over-fishing, pollution and the spread of water hyacinth have severely reduced island family incomes.

To get the oil from farm to factory and across the lake to mainland Uganda, the backer of the Vegetable Oil Development Project - the International Fund for Agricultural Development - has had to invest in better roads and a new ferry. A private investor is to build a modern oil extraction plant. But the factory, and the first harvest from new oil palms, are some way in the future as only four of the one thousand farmers needed to take part have so far signed up for the plantation package comprising a loan, palm plants and herbicide.

Securing titles to land and establishing plantations are some of the only obstacles yet to be overcome: there is also considerable consumer resistance in Uganda to palm oil unless it is completely refined to remove its characteristic yellow colour.

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ICRISAT Director General Resigns

Dr Shawki M Barghouti, Director-General, ICRISAT has tendered his resignation. The ICRISAT Governing Board has established a search committee to select a new Director General as soon as possible. In the meantime, it is seeking to provide an environment where the process of restructuring, renewal, and the planned program of research at ICRISAT can continue.

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Concern over GMOs

Cotton
UK scientists have advised that feed containing the seeds of genetically modified cotton, developed by Monsanto, risks increasing the spread of bacteria resistant to antibiotics. The scientists have no objection to GM cotton being grown in Europe for fibre, but are worried about the use of seed pulp in animal feed. The concern is that an antibiotic-resistant "marker gene" inserted into the cotton could encourage the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the gut of livestock. Although the risk is considered very slight, Prof. Janet Bainbridge of the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes said "The technology is moving on and we see no reason why it is necessary any longer to leave antibiotic-resistant marker genes behind."

Sugar beet
An important set of environmental trials of GM sugar beet in the UK, developed by Novartis, is in jeopardy because farmers fear that the crops will be targeted by environmental activists if they participate. English Nature said it was very important that the trials went ahead, because under EU rules, the government needs supporting evidence if it is to ban a GMO. However, the research will not be completed and evaluated for at least four years. English Nature has therefore urged a delay in commercialisation because of its concern that GM crops, although potentially beneficial, could have adverse effects on wildlife. The first GM crop to be planted in the UK is likely to be a modified soil seed rape, developed by AgrEvo. The commercial launch of its seeds is planned for next year. (See also Debate on GMOs)

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Organic coffee - new from the Philippines

Production of organically grown coffee has been seen as the way to keep the coffee industry in the Philippines thriving in an ever more competitive market. Thousands of small growers have depended on coffee in the past but have been tempted to diversify into other more remunerative crops. A young catholic priest, Fr. Roger Bag-ao has been the driving force behind this initiative to bring down the cost of production for small growers and thus to offer a more attractive margin for them. As a founder member and Chairman of the Coffee Foundation of the Philippines, Fr. Bag-ao has hit upon the concept of organic coffee with a "green" label to supply an increasing niche market in industrialised countries. Thus, the coffee will be produced at a lower cost and will carry a premium, giving a double cash benefit to growers. "We have set up demonstration farms where growers are instructed how to use bio-fertilisers and botanical pesticides, and how to follow environmentally benign farming practices while maintaining productivity and coffee quality," Fr. Bag-ao told agricultural journalist Maria Tibayan for New Agriculturist. "We are now looking at ways to get the produce 'labelled' through internationally recognised certification agencies."

In the Philippines there is no governmental regulatory mechanism for getting "organic" certification, so the Coffee Foundation is searching for an internationally approved agency that can provide the "Green Label." The Philippines grows about 120,000 hectares of coffee and has good potential for exporting its surplus production.

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