News brief

Fruits for the future	Reduced tillage for increased yields
Freedom for farrowing sows	GM news from around the globe
Jumping genes	Spicy solutions for Sri Lankan shrimps
Choc-a-block Oz	Armyworm epidemic in East Africa
Weeds in a warmer world	Global Mapping 1999
"Fever" symptoms in plants	PhAction
Making the most of waste

Fruits for the future

Comprehensive information is to be provided for a group of fruit and multi-purpose trees selected for their regional or global importance. Tropical fruit species are important for their nutritional value and the variety of other products (fodder, fuel, timber and medicine) that they provide to rural people. The trees, which include Ziziphus mauritiana (Ber); Tamarindus indica (Tamarind); Dacryodes edulis (African Pear); Adansonia digitata (Baobab); and Anona spp. (Cherimoya, custard apple etc.), have been selected because of their suitability for adaptation, income generation, diversification and use in agroforestry systems. The Fruits for the Future project will be funded by the UK Department for International Development and is to run for three years under the collaboration of the International Centre for Underutilized Crops (ICUC) at the University of Southampton and two CGIAR centres, the International Centre of Research for Agroforestry (ICRAF) and the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI). The extension manuals to be disseminated will be collated from existing information on these species and will be published in five individual monographs.
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~icuc/frunut.htm

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Freedom for farrowing sows

credit: PDIC

Concerns about the use of farrowing crates for sows has led to the decision by the UK's oldest animal charity to ban their use on its farms. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is convinced that appropriate skilled management can prevent high loss of piglets in a crateless farrowing system. Danish trials for a crateless farrowing pen have shown no difference in the number of piglets reared per sow but have demonstrated that improved piglet growth was achieved in the new system. The Danish pen, which is comparable in size to a conventional farrowing-crate pen, allows the sow freedom to move. Strategically placed 'mushrooms' replace crush rails of a conventional crate to guide the sow into the correct lying position for suckling. The enhanced growth of piglets has been attributed to improved lactation as greater movement permitted to the sow results in increased stimulation of the blood supply to the udder. The RSPCA, which runs the "Freedom Foods" pork quality assurance scheme in Britain, is to support a three-year project to evaluate the commercial feasibility of three alternative crateless farrowing pens, including the Danish 'mushroom' system, which is also to be trialled in France, Germany and Italy.
http://www.pighealth.com or email: pdic@btinternet.com

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Jumping genes

Maize plants that look as if they are suffering from disease, but which in reality are perfectly healthy, could provide a clue to a new type of crop protection. Scientists at the Crop Genetics Research Group at the Long Ashton site of the Institute of Arable Crop Research in the UK, have been working on the maize genome, and using nature's own genetic engineers, transposons, or jumping genes, to work out which gene does what. Excited to find plants that appear to be fighting off a disease which is not present, the scientists hope that such plants might be more disease resistant because they are permanently primed to resist attack. Although this research may take some years before it reaches farmers' fields, the Group expects to have materials useful for breeders within 18 months.
www.maize.bbsrc.ac.uk

Choc-a-block Oz

Cadbury Schweppes has announced plans to begin cocoa plantation trials in Australia. In a response to forecasts that predict a world cocoa deficit in five years, Cadbury has entered into a joint venture with the Northern Australia Cocoa Development Alliance to launch a project which will begin with yield and variety trials over a three year period, and US$.81m has already been committed to the project for trials in Western Australia and Queensland. In comparison to most cocoa producers, who are small-holders in West Africa and Asia, Australian output is expected to originate from large commercial farms in order to reduce the labour cost and to be competitive on the world market. Exports of processed cocoa products are most likely to be to Asia, where it is hoped that economic recovery will result in an increase in demand.

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Weeds in a warmer world

High concentrations of carbon dioxide are known to help enhance crop growth but scientists at the USDA's Climate Stress Laboratory in Maryland have noticed a less desirable possible consequence: high concentrations of the gas can significantly increase weed tolerance to the widely used herbicide, glyphosate. Three weed species were grown in greenhouses, some with CO₂ at the current atmospheric concentration and some with double the current level, which is the concentration anticipated by 2050 as a result of global warming. All the weeds were treated with the dose rate of herbicide recommended by the manufacturer, Monsanto. Growth of all three weed species was stopped by the herbicide treatment at current CO₂ levels but two of the weeds, Chenopodium album (known as lamb's quarters in the US and fat hen in the UK) and Agropyron repens (quackgrass in US and couch grass in UK), both of which have wide distribution, continued to grow, although at reduced rates. Growth of the third species, Amaranthus retroflexus, (redroot pigweed) was completely stopped. The two weeds that resisted the herbicide under enriched CO₂ conditions are both 'C3' species with metabolisms that enhance photosynthesis in the presence of increased CO₂.

If widespread, this capacity to tolerate herbicides when CO₂ levels increase could make weed control more difficult and, if higher rates of herbicide are required, more expensive.

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"Fever" symptoms in plants

Scientists at the University of Ghent, Belgium, have noted that tobacco plants infected with tobacco mosaic virus develop raised temperature before they show any physical sign of the infection. Writing in Nature Biotechnology, Dominique van der Straeten and his team report that the temperature of infected leaves rose by 0.3-0.4C up to eight hours before any usually recognized sign of infection could be seen. This offers the possibility that the health of crops could be monitored through infra red imaging, and that plant breeders could use the technique as a way of detecting virus resistant plants.

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Making the most of waste

Credit: Silsoe Research Institute

Agricultural wastes can be treated as a nuisance or a resource. Unless handled and stored appropriately many wastes can smell and leach organic fluids that are noxious pollutants. The UK based Silsoe Research Institute (SRI) offers a range of technical services to minimise nuisance value and optimise utilization of various waste products. The SRI odour measurement service has been in operation for over seven years and has now been expanded to offer a complete and independent technical service, working where necessary with other specialists, to provide solutions to odour problems or risks, including measurement, dispersion, abatement and control measures. The SRI is one of only three laboratories in the UK capable of making objective measurements following international standards.

Another service at SRI provides cost-effective and sustainable solutions for the management, treatment and safe recycling of liquid effluents and solid wastes throughout the agri-food supply chain. Independent advice is available for air, soil and water pollution, and how to deal with pathogens that threaten human or animal health.

Both services are detailed in a series of new brochures which have been designed and launched to make the expertise of SRI experience more readily available to a wider range of businesses.
Email: sri.pr@bbsrc.ac.uk

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Reduced tillage for increased yields

Farmers and scientists in Asia are convinced that new tillage and crop establishment techniques in rice-wheat systems can provide cost-effective ways of growing crops without sacrificing yield. Techniques, such as zero-tillage drill, strip-till drill, bed planting, rice transplanters and surface seeding, have allowed, in many cases, earlier planting of seeds resulting in higher yields. The benefits of reduced tillage activities in rice-wheat systems in the Indo-Gangetic Plains have been demonstrated in a project funded by the UK's Department for International Development, DIFD, and led by the CGIAR centre, CIMMYT (Centre for International Wheat and Maize Research). The long term implications of these new tillage options on the physical, chemical and biological properties of soil health and on pests and diseases will be assessed in a new project which is to begin this year.
Email: j-moncrieff@dfid.gov.uk

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GM news from around the globe

France has announced its willingness to fund research into the impact and risks of genetically modified crops. Up to $1.6m will be used for GM crop studies with the objective of producing specifications on the acceptability of particular GM crops in terms of security, and also a code of conduct for their future use. The research is to focus not only on the direct effects of GM crops but also the indirect effects, such as the likely changes that might take place in farming practice or industry organization as a result of the introduction of one or more GM crops.

In Switzerland, scientists have announced the development of a genetically modified strain of rice, which could supplement diets in developing countries. Genes from daffodils and other plants have been used to increase levels of iron and vitamin A and to counteract an acid found in the human body which inhibits the body's ability to absorb iron. It is claimed that this new GM rice is different from other GM foods as it has been designed to protect against plant disease and to boost nutrition levels. Research is being funded by the European Commission through DGXII.

India's concern over the 'Terminator' gene has led to an effective ban on the import of GM seeds. Importers applying for import permits will now have to provide written assurance that items entering the country do not contain GM material. In 1998/9 Indian companies imported seeds worth $69m - mostly for vegetables, flowers and fruit - but the new legislation could be a major setback for the biotechnology seed companies hoping to enter the market for seeds in India with GM varieties.

In Britain, where in recent weeks anti-GM activists have destroyed several trial sites of genetically modified oilseed rape, maize and sugar beet, plans are being discussed to designate one or two tightly controlled areas as testing zones for GM crops. This would offer high-security locations where commercial companies and the Ministry of Agriculture could plant and monitor new varieties without risk of contaminating non-GM crops growing in the vicinity. However, such sites could also provide a focus for long-term protest.

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Spicy solutions for Sri Lankan shrimps

Ground garlic and turmeric are to be used to maintain water quality in a bid to revive Sri Lanka's shrimp industry. Hundreds of acres of shrimp ponds in the northwestern province lie abandoned after viral diseases devastated shrimp farms last year. However, experience of similar strains of the diseases (white spot, yellow head and Monodon bacillo) in India could provide a solution. Dr D M Javour and Dr C V Rao of the Indian SNEHA Bio Research and Development Service have determined that contamination of the ponds by excessive amounts of shrimp excrement has been partly responsible for the disastrous decline in shrimp farming in the region. Two farms are to be used to trial a new 'organic' scheme proposed by the Indian scientists which uses the two spices to maintain water quality and lime to provide calcium for the shrimps. SNEHA has also developed an organic biodegrading agent to eliminate the impurities caused by shrimp waste.
http://www.fishfarming.co.uk/

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Armyworm epidemic in East Africa

photo credit: NRI

The biggest outbreak of African Armyworm (Spodoptera exempta) for fourteen years is attacking crops and pastures in plague proportions in Tanzania. Several hundred square kilometres of wild grasses and crops, such as maize and millet, are being stripped by dense populations of voracious caterpillars. Most East African countries are currently reporting outbreaks of armyworm but because, unusually, outbreaks have also been reported in Ghana, it is thought that most countries south of the Sahara desert have been under attack at some point this year. Although a range of chemicals can be used to avoid resistance to insecticides, the scale of the current outbreaks would result in excessive amounts of chemical being applied. It is hoped that a strain of Spodoptera exempta nuclearpolyhedrovirus (NPV) collected in Tanzania, which is being tested by the Natural Resources Institute of the University of Greenwich as a biopesticide, will provide a safer and more environmentally acceptable alternative. As recent outbreaks are becoming an increasing threat to the region, an NRI entomologist, Charles Dewhurst, is being funded by the Department for International Development, to meet with Ministry Officials, Agricultural Officers, scientists and farmers from the affected countries to discuss future methods of monitoring and control of armyworm in the region.
Email: N.A.P.Davison@greenwich.ac.uk

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Global Mapping 1999

credit: Ordnance Survey International

In July, Ordnance Survey hosted the four-yearly meeting of heads of National Mapping Organisations (NMOs) from around the world at St John's College in Cambridge. This year the organisers expanded the list of invitees to encompass cadastral and military mapping organisations, development and aid agencies and other "stakeholders" and players in the international survey and mapping scene. Funding from the Department for International Development (DFID) and other agencies helped Ordnance Survey to bring to the conference several delegates from developing countries who otherwise would not have been able to attend. The opening address was given by George Foulkes MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for DFID which reinforced the need for aid and development funding for mapping and land information needs in developing countries. Presentations included those that illustrated global issues, such as coping with natural disasters, which need a pan-national view to provide the information necessary to forecast and respond to events. The Global Mapping Initiative, which is particularly relevant to those needing to make decisions on land resource issues that span national boundaries, made significant headway by signing up additional countries to provide mapping and information.

The Conference produced four resolutions, three of which related to the need to recognise that fundamental geospatial data is vital if the challenge of sustainable development is to be tackled at all levels. However, difficulty in financing a systematic approach to this from project-based funding was identified as a major constraint which needs to be addressed. The Caribbean delegates led the way by resolving to create a group with an objective to establish an appropriate spatial data infrastructure for the Caribbean. The Conference papers are available for a charge, and a book on the Conference is also to be published. By Clare Hadley, OSI
Email: osi@ordsvy.gov.uk

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PhAction

Ten major institutions have got together to form a global post harvest forum to be known as PhAction. The forum will play an advocacy role for post harvest research and development in order to raise the profile and increase funding for this sector which, they claim, has not received the support it requires. The PhAction founding organizations are: ACIAR, CIRAD, FAO, GTZ, NRI, CIAT, CIP, IFPRI, IITA and IRRI. In future membership will be expanded to include major regional research bodies, NGOs, agribusiness centres and entrepreneurs. The PhAction organizations will be linked through a newsletter as well as through InPhO, an information network on post-harvest operations that is accessible through the FAO Website. The second edition of the InPhO CD-ROM is due for distribution in October 1999.
www.fao.org/inpho

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