Property, security, equity - CGSpace

Events in recent years have shown all tooclearly that land access is an economicand political issue lying at the heart of

many conflicts in ACP countries. All toooften, questions of land tenure spark rivalriesand social unrest. The land redistributionexercises in Southern Africa over the past fewyears have caused tension. In Côte d’Ivoire,the return of young rural dwellers who hadmistakenly hoped for a better life in thetowns is causing ethnic discord, as they findtheir parents’ land has been ceded to immi-grants from Burkina Faso and Mali. Butalongside such well-publicised cases are ahost of local conflicts and hidden dramas.The worst affected are small-scale farmers,for whom land is, in the words of the WorldBank, “a strategic asset”.

Population growth, immigration, unem-ployment, urbanisation and the degradationof the environment have all contributed tomaking land rights a critical issue in the de-velopment of agricultural production andthe conservation of natural resources. It is areal headache in some countries, for the sys-tems governing access to land and natural re-sources are many, and they differ from oneregion and ethnic group to another – a hugepuzzle whose pieces do not always fit to-gether.

Individual land rights, collective or state-controlled rights, rights based on culture,grazing rights, etc. All of these systems co-exist, making the legal picture hazy. Thestrongest and the wealthiest take advantageof the confusion to grab land, while the

SPORE 111 • PAGE 1

In this issueIt is a strangecontradiction. In countries of theSouth, it sometimes

seems easier to carve roadsthrough dense tropical forests than it is to make simple dirt trackslinking farmers’ fields to markets.Clearing the forests to makefurniture for the North is faster andmore profitable than funding localtransport services. Especially if youdon’t pay too much heed to rulesand certification. But investing inshort-range transport infrastructureis a way of fuelling the economyand stimulating rural development.In the South as in the North, mostfarmers ask nothing more than to work and to have access to their markets, be they local or international, so that they cansell their produce. And even betterif they can be sure that the landthey have worked to improve will not be taken away from them.

Land tenure

Property, security,equity

Modern or traditional – for a long time, these two systems ofland tenure have clashed in ACP countries. Today, attempts arebeing made to bring the two closer together in a bid to ensure afairer deal all round. Giving farmers safe tenure over their fieldsis the watchword these days. But it’s no easy task!

Informationfor agricultural developmentin ACP countries

Number 111JUNE 2004

Land tenureProperty, security, equity 1

Sustainable forestryIn pursuit of good wood 3

TransportFirst, get the produce out of the field 4

IN BRIEF 6

LINKS 10

PUBLICATIONS 11

BETWEEN US 14

VIEWPOINTAgricultural projectsBeware of easy money! 16

Website: spore.cta.int

variety of arbitration authorities makes ithard to have any effective recourse. InFrench-speaking Africa during the 1980s,land privatisation was proffered by inter-national organisations as the solution. Theysaid it would simplify systems and reducethe State’s grip on land tenure. But by dis-missing customary rights, this approachoften helped to marginalise poor farmers,herders and immigrants even further, as wellas encouraging speculation and paving theway for unfair expropriation. And countlessnumbers of farmers were thrown off theirown land after it had been bought by otherswithout their knowledge.

Property is no panacea

In the Pacific islands, the move towards pri-vatisation has proved an unhappy experiencefor many indigenous groups, who were thetraditional landowners. In Fiji, Papua NewGuinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu,the system has led to conflicts with and hos-tility towards the new owners, who oftenshow little interest in preserving natural re-sources for future generations.

In Africa, official land tenure provisionscover just 2% to 10% of land, according toa World Bank report on ‘Land policies forgrowth and poverty reduction’. This meansthat the vast majority of farmers have nolegal right over the land they cultivate. In thepast 10 years, in an effort to confer a degreeof legitimacy and legal status on farmersworking the land, many countries in Westand Eastern Africa have embarked on landreform or introduced new laws. To varyingdegrees, all these initiatives have tried to takegreater account of existing land tenure systems and to bring modern rights intogreater harmony with traditional ones,rather than setting one system against theother. But since communities are often notconsulted, many of them have proved reluc-tant to accept such solutions. That has beenthe case in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania.Elsewhere, ambitious programmes to codifyland rights, as in the rural land rights plansin Benin, Burkina Faso and Guinea, haveclarified a variety of situations. But translat-ing those plans into physical boundarychanges is proving an uphill struggle.

More security for land users

Whilst efforts to bring about land reformcontinue, researchers are focusing on a newand more realistic goal – achieving securityfor land use, based on rights which arerecognised by third parties and which can bedefended in the event of a dispute. Holdingproperty deeds is just one approach. Butrenting land through long-term leases, ten-ant farming or sharecropping agreements iscurrently an attractive option for small-scalefarmers who cannot afford to becomelandowners. The aim is to ensure greater se-curity for transactions and contracts con-cerning land, rather than any detailed recordof changing rights themselves. The CookIslands, where farmers can neither buy nor

sell land, but instead have to lease it from thegovernment, saw the biggest growth in agri-cultural output in the entire Pacific duringthe 1980s, proof that land ownership is notthe only answer. In Lesotho, where the kingand traditional chiefs distribute land, andhave the power to take it back each year,agricultural production has been dire. Long-term security is crucial to agriculturalgrowth. Donors also stress the need to takeaccount of the interests of marginalisedgroups, such as women, since these groupsare often discriminated against under tradi-tional systems. At a village assembly in west-ern Burkina Faso, men pledged to give theirwives a plot of land, and never to take itaway again, instead of the usual practice ofgiving them a small and overworked fieldeach year. The women immediately beganinvesting in their land, increasing its value,and their yields increased twofold or, insome cases, fivefold. This pleased the men

greatly, though they have not gone so far asto lend their wives their ploughs!Guaranteed land rights encourage greater in-vestment, which in turn leads to higheryields. They also make it easier to obtaincredit.

Other groups stand to benefit from sucharrangements. These include herders whoserights have often gone unrecognised. InMali, herders’ access and grazing rights arenow controlled by agreements drawn up bycommunities with technical and administra-tive help from local officials. In Niger, mark-ing out mutually agreed livestock trails hasled to a significant reduction in conflicts between farmers and herders.

Written documents, undertakings towardsthe community, planting trees as boundaries– there are many ways of defining the landrights of groups or individuals. A paperagreement is the most widely acceptedmethod, but often this alone will not beenough. It is also important to have clearrules for dealing with conflict, rules whichare accepted by all interested parties.“Institutions which apply these rights mustbe legally recognised and be socially repre-sentative, and must be accessible to and responsible towards the local population,”observes the World Bank. As decentralisa-tion becomes more common, local bodiesincreasingly have the task of ensuring thatland rights are respected. Even so, expertspoint out that governments must continueto act as arbitrator and ensure that land isdistributed fairly. Recognising that ruraldwellers have the same rights as urbandwellers is a sign of good governance.Farmers’ organisations have a role to play inthe process. A national farmers’ body inSenegal, the Conseil national de concerta-tion des ruraux (CNCR), is closely involvedin land reform.

Good governance guaranteesequity

Though attractive in theory, these systemsare not always easy to enforce. Setting up secure management systems is a long processand can be done only on a region-by-regionbasis. And there is always the risk that decentralised groups will not take all theirmembers into consideration. In any case,such solutions will work only if pressure onland is not too acute. Where land is scarce,and has a high market value, privatisationwill continue. This is already happening inperi-urban agricultural areas. In Ghana,where the advent of large, foreign agro-industrial concerns contravenes local landrights, the government has launched a mas-sive land privatisation scheme, which willrun for more than 20 years.

One final observation. While land tenureproblems are a major constraint to agriculture in some overpopulated countriessuch as Rwanda, or on some Pacific or Caribbean islands, in Africa it is often a shortage of labour rather than land rights and access which hampers agriculturaldevelopment.


Land tenure •

Land privatisation has caused tensionin the Pacific islands

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As summer gets into swing in thenorthern hemisphere, the garden fur-niture business is booming, and ta-

bles and chairs made from trees grownthousands of miles away are sporting labelswhich reassure buyers that they can sit andsip their cool drinks with a clear conscience.Germany’s Danisches Bettenlager, Castoramain France and Home Depot in the UnitedStates of America have all gone green, sellingtropical wood products that bear the all im-portant certification guarantee. In the UK’sB & Q hardware stores, wood items carry acertification logo or a ‘truth statement’ abouttheir provenance. In the Netherlands, theAvdB chain, which stocks certified timberfrom the Solomon Islands and Papua NewGuinea, cannot keep up with demand.

But while northern retailers and con-sumers appear to have taken certification totheir hearts, the same cannot always be said of those who provide the raw material.Conceived as a way of halting the plunder of the world’s forests and promoting a more sustainable system of forest manage-ment, certification has been slow to take off in many tropical timber producing countries.

The carrot, not the stick

Certification is based on the notion thatopen market forces rather than trade sanc-tions offer the best prospects for influencingforest management practices. In essence, it isa system of forest inspection combined witha means of tracking timber and paper, whichfollows the raw material through to the finished article. On the face of it, the scheme seems flawless.

Yet certification is proving to be one of themost contentious issues in the internationalforestry debate. Few would argue with theneed for some instrument to combat thecritical issue of deforestation. The CongoBasin, home to one-quarter of the world’srainforests, loses close to 1.5 million hectaresof forest each year. In many Caribbean andPacific countries, timber is an importantrevenue earner, but unsustainable logginglevels now pose a dual threat to the economyand environment.

Vaunted by some as the panacea to theseills, certification aims to reward responsibleforest management with higher prices andmore customers. But although certificationhas made giant strides since it was firstlaunched in the early 1990s, most of theforests currently certified are in Europe andNorth America. Only a fraction are in thetropics – 3% in Africa and 2% in the Asia-Pacific region.

A useful tool, or more meddling?

A report by the International TropicalTimber Organization (ITTO) concludesthat “certification has been clearly more im-portant for the developed than for the devel-oping countries”. The organisation blamesinadequate support, the high cost of certifi-cation, and the complex procedure.Requirements vary, but generally includemeasures for protecting biodiversity and pro-visions for workers.Some say the

standards are too exacting. Others fear certi-fication will become the cause for yet an-other trade barrier. There is still nointernational consensus as to what consti-tutes a credible system. The ForestStewardship Council (FSC) offers themost widely respected certification pro-gramme, but recent years have seen a pro-liferation of other schemes, and theabsence of one industry standard creates

confusion. The FSC is planning to introducea cheaper, simpler mechanism for small pro-ducers and has vowed to step up action inAfrica. Although certification has taken atoehold in small pockets of the continent, itsimpact has been virtually negligible in Westand Central Africa, where, arguably, thegreatest need exists. One notable exceptionis the Congolaise Industrielle des Bois in theDemocratic Republic of Congo, which con-verted to the cause in March with the an-nouncement that it plans to certify its 1.3 million hectare concession in the heartof the Congo Basin. Conditions will includesetting aside protection areas for gorillas,chimpanzees and elephants and formalisingthe rights of indigenous groups.

Better market links

It is widely agreed that smaller producersneed more help in achieving certificationand in linking up with new markets. Themost successful initiatives have combinedboth approaches. In Papua New Guinea,small-scale foresters have gained certificationunder the EU-funded Island RegionalEnvironmental and Community Dev-elopment Programme. In the SolomonIslands, Kolombangara Forest Plantationsproduces eco-timber that is turned into arange of certified products for the Europeanand North American markets.

In Guyana, 70% of which is tropical rain-forest, the Iwokrama Forest is working to-wards certification as part of a plan toproduce high-value timber products.“Certification is key to accessing long-termEuropean and US markets,” said ActingDirector of Iwokrama Forest, GrahamWatkins, in an interview with Spore. Butmost other producers in Guyana have yet tobe convinced. “A lot of the companies areselling to Asian markets which don’t requirecertification,” said Sharon Ousman,Coordinator of the Guyana NationalInitiative for Forest Certification.

See Links, page 10

Sustainable forestry

In pursuit of good woodForest certification aims to lay bare the link between loggersfelling huge tracts of tropical forests, and the timber productssold in the stores of Europe and North America. But althoughthe system promises benefits to exporters who sign up to it,critics claim it will prove to be yet another difficult marketrequirement.

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Some 100,000 people live along the railway line that links Fianarantsoa,400 km from the Malagasy capital, to

the port of Manakara. There is no tarredroad between these two towns. Yet this vastregion produces coffee, pepper, cinnamonand lychees, all for export. Each year, therailway carries nearly 3,000 tonnes of coffeeand 6,000 tonnes of fruit to the port, wherethe train picks up fuel. Amid fears that this

vital lifeline might be axed, the inhabitants recently launched a campaign to save it.

Here, as in many ACP countries, trans-port is crucial to the economy. The agricul-ture of these countries depends on thequality and density of communication links.As Jacques Diouf, Director-General of theFood and Agriculture Organization of theUnited Nations (FAO) put it in a report onworld agriculture 2015–2030: “Producers indeveloping countries will never be able totake full advantage of trade liberalisationuntil they are working in an economic cli-mate which allows them to respond to in-centives.” For ‘trade’ read ‘transport ofagricultural produce’. According to Diouf,the survival of small-scale farmers depends asmuch on the outcome of international nego-tiations as on “investment in transport andcommunications, infrastructure, marketinginstallations”.

Technical and political choices

For transport to operate properly, there mustfirst be an infrastructure (roads, railways,ports), as well as vehicles, motorised or not,and an entity to organise the network, be ita State body, a company or a group of indi-viduals, which offer solutions for the trans-port of people and goods.

Providing an infrastructure is the respon-sibility of the government, which must alsodecide on priorities. Some decisions will bedictated by technical and financial consider-ations, but politics will also play a part.Building a new airport to attract tourists andencourage exports rather than maintainingrural roads is a political decision. By con-trast, modes of transport and the systemswhich operate them tend to be privatised,not least because public services are lackingin this sector.

Privatisation may encourage a certain de-gree of dynamism, but it also has its disadvantages. First and foremost is the dependence it creates for producers on trans-port suppliers, as these are often the inter-mediaries who buy the producers’ harvestsand supply their credit. In Madagascar, collectors of farm produce, with their four-wheel drive vehicles, are the only oneswho can handle the poor state of the roads in the rich vanilla triangle of the north-westor in the shrimp-producing zone near the

Mozambique Canal. They have the produc-ers at their mercy. It is no coincidence thatthe first investment many rural cooperativesmake, as soon as they have a little capital, isin a truck, so they can take control of theirtransport costs.

The second drawback is that the privatesector is, by its very nature, interested onlyin profitable means of transport. And goingto fetch a few kilos of maize or coffee in a

field, via tracks that are virtually impassable,is certainly no money-spinner. In fact, trans-port over short distances from the point ofproduction are the most costly of all. A tablepublished by the World Bank in 2003 showsthat the cost per tonne per kilometre falls


Transport

First, get the produce out of the fieldWhat is the point of producing food if you cannot sell it? In ACP countries, transport problemspresent a serious obstacle to agricultural production. The trouble often starts in the field itself.That is the first hurdle to overcome, but it is by no means the only one.

Transport – women’s dailyburden

In sub-Saharan Africa, 65% of the timetaken up in transporting goods is provid-ed by women. Every day, they carry anaverage load of 20 kg over a distance ofbetween 1.4 and 5.3 km, mostly on theirheads. Such is the picture that emergedfrom a World Bank study carried out inBurkina Faso, Uganda and Zambia. Thesurvey revealed that 87% of journeys aremade on foot, 75% of time dedicated totransport is linked to domestic needs(water and fuel supplies), 18% to agricul-ture, 6% to markets and less than 1% tohealth reasons. Broken down to show thecarrying effort involved, the study revealsthat each woman transports an annualaverage of 10–40 tonnes of water andfirewood over a distance of 1 km. In rural areas, women spend three times asmuch time as men on transport-relatedactivities and carry four times more loadsthan their male counterparts.

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progressively as transport moves from locallevel, to regional, national and finally international levels. In Africa, the figure is US$ 780/tonne/km for local transport,US$ 640 for regional transport, US$ 450 atthe national level and US$ 400 for inter-national transport – figures that are two tofour times higher than those in Asia. Which explains why in Zambia, for example, it ischeaper to import maize from Zimbabwethan it is to get it from the country’s ownrural regions. In West and Central Africa,the rural roads to markets were traditionallymaintained by rural development agencies,but today they are badly neglected. Privatetransport operators refuse to service certainregions. So in the cocoa-producing part ofCameroon, harvests can be seen rotting onthe side of the road.

From farmer to market

Primary modes of transport are often rudi-mentary and cost little in the way of fuel ormaintenance – mainly because they involvecarrying produce on one’s head or loading itonto a bicycle. These are often the onlymeans of transport when the terrain is roughor in areas of Central Africa where tsetse flymakes it impossible to breed animals forhaulage. The flip side of the coin is that anygain in productivity is offset by more inten-

sive use of human resources: it in-volves harder physical work,

heavier loads, andeven child labour, a common occurrence inagriculture, as the International LabourOrganisation (ILO) has highlighted on morethan one occasion.

In many rural areas, women have the jobof transporting produce to market.Lightening their burden by using middle-range modes of transport such as handcarts,wheelbarrows and bicycles would free up aconsiderable amount of time and energy,which could be better used to boost agricul-tural output.

Transport from the point of production tothe local market poses a first obstacle to farmproduce competitivity. It goes some way to-wards explaining why it is often cheaper toimport rice or maize to feed urban dwellersthan it is to bring food in from rural areas.That is true in Haiti, Madagascar andZambia. Africa and the Pacific islands are theworst off in this respect. The Pacific suffers because of the scattered nature of theislands, the distances involved and, as theAsian Development Bank (ADB) observes,

because of “the poor state and high cost oftransport, the weak infrastructure of roads,ports, quays and shipping aids… Even wheninfrastructures do exist, they are not alwayswell maintained.” With the exception ofSouth Africa, the African continent has just171,000 km of tarred roads -– less thanPoland.

An organisation which focuses on trans-port issues in Africa, Solidarité interna-tionale sur les transports et la recherche en Afrique subsaharienne (SITRASS), comments that: “Compared with other continents, Africa has excessively high trans-port costs, with an explosion of prices andcosts at rural level.” The World Bank makesthe same observation, blaming the lack of“institutional incentives to improve infra-structures and transport services”. Poorlymaintained infrastructures, badly traineddrivers who fail to maintain costly vehicles,lack of competition – the World Bank isdamning in its verdict.

There are other problems which help forceup the cost of transport and, in some cases,paralyse it altogether. Insecurity on roadscaused by crime and armed conflict has risensharply in recent years. In Central Africa,some transport operators refuse to enter vil-lages for fear of bandits. The war in Côted’Ivoire has halted rail transport to BurkinaFaso for some time now, forcing producersto use longer and more costly routes, whichexplains why cotton from Burkina Faso and

Mali are now sent to the ports of Tema inGhana and Dakar in Senegal. Another con-tributing factor is corruption. Security offi-cials regularly demand payment fromtransporters, pushing up the costs even fur-ther and slowing down the movement ofgoods.

Time for action

According to SITRASS, “while certain costfactors (low population density, weak trans-port flow, etc.) are inevitable”, there is scopefor action. The terrain may not favour theuse of advanced technology, but affordabletransport solutions do exist, especially closeto the point of production – the cart (mo-torised or animal-drawn), the bicycle, thetricycle. Sometimes, the answer lies in mak-ing different modes of transport compatiblewith one another. Kenneth Button of theSchool of Public Policy in Fairfax in theUnited States cites the example of theMaputo Corridor, a multimodal route built

with the help of the Southern AfricanDevelopment Community (SADC). Thiscorridor combines a toll road with a railwaytrack and port facilities; the design includes

a network of electric and gas-powered trans-port.

Concerns over transport, and thereforefunds to improve it, feature strongly in theprogrammes of international developmentorganisations. In its Pacific programme for2004–2006, the ADB pledged to tackle constraints which hamper efficient trans-port. Meanwhile, Africa is set to benefitfrom a decision by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) to single out transport infrastructures – roads,railways, ports and airports – as one of 10 development priorities. The strategiesoutlined include improving capacities tomaintain and renovate infrastructures, train-ing engineers and high-level technicians, andencouraging the involvement of communi-ties and users in the construction, mainte-nance and management of infrastructures,whilst at the same time working with theprivate sector. The will is there. All that isneeded now is for those good intentions tobe converted into deeds.

Easy riders

It is 7 o’clock in the morning at the marketof Kituku, some 4 km out of Goma in theeastern part of the Democratic Republic ofCongo. Customers and vendors welcomethe approach of about 40 chikudu withcries of delight, as they zoom along the dirttrack, full of holes. These are hand-madescooters, fashioned entirely out of wood,with handlebars shaped like bulls’ horns.Each one can carry up to 8 sacks of pota-toes, or other goods, and between themthey guarantee the essential supplies of themarket. The drivers are young boys whohurtle down the steep slopes of the sur-rounding mountains at full tilt, with onlytheir feet, clad in shoes with soles madefrom old tyres, to stop them. Accidents arecommon. Often, the front wheel comes offand the load is discharged over passers-by.

In spite of such drawbacks, this mode oftransport is highly popular in a place where,after 5 years of war, few people have themoney to pay the much higher costs oftransporting goods by car or truck. Anadded bonus is that the chikudus will pickup passengers and their merchandise fromtheir homes, while the trucks are unable toleave the only state road that runs throughthe region.

• Transport

If the transportof agriculturalproduce flowedmore freely,more tradewould follow

■ Attempts in Kenya to developa genetically modified (GM)sweet potato with resistance tothe feathery mottle virus (FMV)which affects the crop haveproved a failure. A transgenicsweet potato variety, importedfrom the USA, contained a pro-tein which provided protectionagainst an American viral strain.But trials at the KenyanAgricultural Research Institute(KARI) revealed that the GMsweet potato yielded smallertubers than Kenya’s non-GMvarieties of the crop, and was sus-ceptible to the virus attacks it hadbeen designed to avoid. Sweetpotato is an important food secu-rity crop in Eastern Africa.

Some US$ 6 million of funding from Monsanto, theWorld Bank and the UnitedStates Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID) has goneinto developing the GM sweetpotato. But the KARI researchreport concluded “that the trans-genic material did not quitewithstand virus challenge in thefield, and that there was nodemonstrated advantage.”

Dr Aaron deGrassi, of theInstitute of Development Studiesat the University of Sussex, UK, warned that the GM sweet potato introduced in Kenya

did not address the crop's major problem – weevils. “Manyfarmers in Kenya already havevirus-resistant sweet potatoes,and for many others, differentproblems such as weevils are more important,” said Dr deGrassi, who has carried out

a study on GM crops in sub-Saharan Africa. The sweet potatois the region’s first GM crop andthe outcome of the 3-year trialshas been widely awaited as anindication of the relevance ofimported GM technologies forAfrican conditions.

In brief •

Baiting system beats rats

■ An ecological baiting scheme to stop rats from attackingcoconut plantations in Kiribatihas produced encouragingresults. The system uses the dried petioles of coconut leaves to deter the rats. The bait is nailed to the side of the coconut tree about 2 m from the base of the trunk. The technique has been introduced intoplantations on the islands ofNorth Tarawa, Abaiang, Marakei,Makin and Butaritari, where ratsare a major problem for coconutproducers. Field assessment intreated plantations showed a significant decline in rat-damaged coconuts in all plantations, with a fall from over 40% productive trees prior to baiting to less than 5% within 6–7 months aftertreatment. Research revealed that the highest levels of rodent damage occurred in red-coloured coconuts.

Cash help for young scientists

■ Young scientists in developingcountries will benefit from grantsoffered by the InternationalFoundation for Science (IFS) and from the Food andAgriculture Organization's (FAO) technical informationsection, thanks to an agreement signed by the two organisations.A series of joint activities aims to foster greater technologyawareness and enhance researchefforts in developing countries.IFS is an independent NGO which identifies promising young scientists from developingcountries and supports them intheir early careers. In 2003, itoffered 238 grants to youngresearchers in 35 developingcountries, with a maximum value of US$ 12,000. Researchtopics include agriculture,forestry, water resources, fisheries and medicinal plants.

✍ International Foundation forScience (IFS) Karlavägen 108 115 26 StockholmSweden Fax: +46 (0)8 545 818 01 Email: [email protected]: www.ifs.se

Pan-African exhibition

■ The first African ContinentInternational Agricultural,Fishing, Forestry, Agri-food and Livestock Raising Exhibitionwill take place from 14 to 19 December 2004 in Yaoundé,Cameroon. It aims to become a key meeting place for Africans who derive their income from the land and sea.

Website: www.siaeca2004.com


■ Africa has lost a third of itsskilled professionals in recentdecades and it is costing the con-tinent US$ 4 billion a year toreplace them with expatriatesfrom the West, according to fig-ures compiled by NatalUniversity in South Africa. Anestimated 23,000 qualified aca-demic professionals emigrateeach year in search of betterworking conditions. One initia-tive aimed at reducing the brain drain plans to jump-startscience and technology in Africa.A US$ 21 million investmentwill enhance facilities foradvanced biosciences research inand for Africa, enabling Africanscientists to generate cutting-edge science and develop home-grown solutions to some of thecontinent’s most pressing agricul-tural problems. Access to world-class facilities and training should

allow the continent’s scientists topursue their careers within Africaand encourage those workingabroad to return home. Behindthe initiative is an agreementbetween the New EconomicPartnership for AfricanDevelopment (NEPAD) and theInternational Livestock ResearchInstitute (ILRI), which haveannounced the launch of aBiosciences Facility for Easternand Central Africa, with a hub atILRI’s Nairobi campus linked toa network of laboratories acrossthe region. The ultimate goal is anetwork of African ‘centres ofexcellence’ in science and tech-nology. In the shorter term,research areas covered by the newBiosciences Facility are expectedto include stress-tolerant, disease-resistant and nutritionallyenhanced cultivars of locallyimportant crops, as well as safenew vaccines against the livestockdiseases that devastate householdeconomies in the region.

Stemming Africa’s brain drain

GM technology fails African potatoes

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Genetically modified sweet potato has failed to live up to expectations

More research openings for Africanscientists

• In brief


■ Farmers in South Africa havedeveloped a natural solution forcontrolling numbers of caracal, awild cat that preys on small live-stock. The caracal, Felis caracal, iscommon throughout the drierareas of Southern Africa, where itis feared for the ease with whichit takes small stock such as sheepand goats as substitutes for natu-ral prey. Now, father and sonteam Paul and David Collett,both scientists and farmers in theKaroo region of South Africa,where caracal are considered ver-min, appear to have found anenvironmentally friendly solu-tion to controlling the cats.Starting from the premise thatcaracals are territorial, PaulCollett investigated whethercaracal urine could be used tolure others. His hunch provedright, and, using the scent ofurine as a natural bait, coupled

with young goat skins, the trap was set. Caracal coming toinvestigate the scent enter a cagetrap, inadvertently stepping on apedal which causes the door of the cage to close. The idea has proved a winner. During a 1-year test period, a total of 32 caracal were trapped in an areaof 8,500 hectares. From theColletts’ sheep farm in theKaroo, the technique is nowspreading to neighbouring farms.After trapping the caracal, thefarmers move the cats to areaswith lower numbers, or wherecaracal are not problem animals;game farms springing up in thearea provide the most likely newhomes. By lambing and kiddingin protected areas, and using thecage trap method, losses of livestock can be almost entirelyeliminated.

■ The private sector has showninterest in developing a littleknown African tree and turningit into a commercial source offood oil. The Dutch food giantUnilever has given a grant tobegin the domestication ofAllanblackia floribunda. It wantsto use the tree seeds to producehigh quality food oil. The pro-ject, codenamed ‘Novella’, hasalready got under way inTanzania, where World Agro-forestry Centre (ICRAF) staffhave begun collecting fruit fromtrees in three populations. Thenuts of the Allanblackia tree,which is found in the forests ofCentral and West Africa, producea particularly fine oil, though inthe past 50 years this source hasbeen neglected in favour of other,more easily produced food oils.For this reason, very little isknown about Allanblackia, atleast in terms of commercialpotential. But local communitieshave long valued this strikinglytall tree, especially for its medici-nal properties. Rural dwellers

collect the big brown shells – alittle bigger than a coconut – byshinnying up the 50-m-hightrees. They drink the oil, which isextracted by pounding and cook-ing the seeds, to relieve rheuma-tism, and they chew the leaves totreat coughs. Smallholder farmersin Tanzania will get income byselling their Allanblackia seeds toUnilever, and the trees willimprove soil fertility becausetheir large leaves provide a usefulnatural fertiliser.

Clearly, the tree’s toweringheight will be a drawback forharvesting purposes, so domestica-tion efforts will focus on reducingits height as well as speeding upits growth rate and increasing thesize of the fruit. This is doneusing vegetative propagation andtissue culturing techniques.

✍ World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)United Nations Avenue, GigiriPO Box 30677–00100 GPONairobi, KenyaFax: +254 20 524001Email: [email protected]:www.worldagroforestrycentre.org

■ A new online helpdesk set upby the European Commissionwill provide a tool for developingcountries’ exporters to access theEU market more easily. The freehelpdesk contains key informa-tion on customs duties, customsdocumentation, rules of originand trade statistics. The websitealso offers an exchange forum fordeveloping country exporters andEU importers. The system aimsto help developing countriesmake better use of the EU’s tradepreferences arrangement, as wellas drawing maximum benefitfrom the improved market accessterms which are currently beingnegotiated both in the World

Trade Organization (WTO) andat the bilateral level. At present,only 52% of the products origi-nating from developing countriesand eligible for tariff preferencesare imported into the EU underpreferential conditions. A secondphase, due to be launched laterthis year, will widen the range ofinformation to cover product-specific import requirementssuch as sanitary and phytosani-tary (SPS) standards, markingand labelling requirements, andinformation on internal taxes,such as VAT and excise duties,applicable in the individualMember States.Website: http://export-help.cec.eu.int

Catching caracal

African tree piques European interest

Better access to EU markets Courses on resources

■ Three courses on naturalresources management are planned as part of theInternational Agricultural Centre’s International TrainingProgramme. The sessions willcover ‘Interactive forest andnature policy’, ‘Leadership and adaptive management ‘and ‘Decision-making in naturalresources management’. All three will be held inWageningen, The Netherlands,lasting from 3 to 6 weeks andrunning between 13 Septemberand 19 November 2004. Grants to help pay fees for the latter two courses areavailable from the NetherlandsFellowship Programme run by the Dutch government. For moreinformation and applicationforms, contact your nearest Dutch embassy or consulate or see this website:www.nuffic.nl/nfp/.

✍ International Agricultural Centre(IAC)PO Box 886700 AB WageningenThe NetherlandsFax: +31 317 495395Email: [email protected]: www.iac.wur.nl

Sweeter sugar cane

■ The Mauritius Sugar IndustryResearch Institute (MSIRI) has developed a new variety of sugar cane adapted to wetregions. Obtained by crossing two other varieties – SouthAfrican and Argentinian – thenew ‘M 703/89’ hybrid can yieldup to twice as much cane as other varieties in the samegrowing area. It is also richer in fibres, which are used inelectricity generation inMauritius. Plantlets of the new sugar cane variety have been distributed to the island’s planters, but otherAfrican countries with a similar climate could also benefit from it.

✍ Mauritius Sugar Industry ResearchInstitute (MSIRI)Website: www.web-merchand.com/msiri/index.html

African rice scientistscoops prize

■ African scientist Monty Jones has been named joint winner of this year's World Food Prize.Jones, of Sierra Leone, will share the US$ 250,000 award with Chinese scientist Yuan Longpin. Both men are being honoured for their contributions to increasing rice yields in the developing world. Jones developed New Rice for Africa (NERICA) in the 1990s, which combines African and Asian rice strains and is already benefitting farmers in West Africa.

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In brief •


■ Vitamin A deficiency causesblindness in 250 million chil-dren, many of them in Africa. Italso makes them more vulnerableto disease. There are three possi-ble ways to remedy this: providethe children with vitamin A inthe form of medication; enrichtheir foods, particularly at the

processing stage; or vary theirdiet with products rich in beta-carotene, the precursor of locallyavailable vitamin A. This thirdpath has been successfullyexplored by an internationalteam of researchers from theFrench development researchinstitute IRD, the University ofMontreal and the health scienceresearch institute, IRSS, inBurkina Faso. Between 1999 and2001, they measured the effectsof adding red palm oil to the dietof women and children in thecentral-eastern part of BurkinaFaso, a region where this oil isnot normally consumed. The oilcomes from the south-west of thecountry.

After 2 years, the percentage ofwomen and children sufferingfrom serious vitamin A deficiencyfell from 62% to 30% in womenand from 84.5% to 67% in child-ren. Convinced of its benefits,nearly half the mothers involvedin the study have continued tak-ing the oil. Studies are under wayto introduce the oil into school

meals. This initiative, if extendedto other countries in the Sahel,would also stimulate demand forpalm oil, thus creating more jobs,especially for women.

✍ Francis DelpeuchIRD, UR 106 ‘Nutrition, alimentation,sociétés’BP 6450134394, Montpellier Cedex 5FranceFax: +33 4 67 41 62 83Email: [email protected]

Palm oil cuts vitamin A deficiency

■ Mad cow disease played amean trick on farmers in Benin.In 1998, European cattle farmerswho did not want to feed theiranimals bone meal began toimport cassava strips. In Benin,the news spread like wildfire andproduction of the strips doubledin 4 years. From 2002 onwards,however, European imports fellsuddenly as cattle producersstarted using easier-to-obtaincereals such as wheat, maize andbarley. So the Benin farmersfound they had more cassavathan they knew what to do with.They could have tried exportingit to other countries in theregion, but that would haverequired a degree of organisationthat was nigh impossible for anindustry currently in the throesof being restructured. Anotherpossibility was to process thetuber, which can produce morethan 20 by-products: strips, frit-ters, biscuits, drinks, etc. “Wecould produce even more, if allthe processing possibilities of cas-sava were exploited,” maintainsone processor in Benin.

To boost the morale of thefarmers, the Benin monthly magazine Agri-culture reproducedan excellent report that the

Cameroonian newsletter La voixdu paysan had published on cassava in June 2002. The reportcontains seven recipes, includingone for cassava strips: Peel thetubers; wash, rinse and cut theminto thin slices and let them dryfor 7–8 hours. When ground,they produce a flour that can bekept for up to 12 months. Sievethe flour, and then add eggs,sugar and margarine to prepareall sorts of cake and fritters.✍ Agri-culture

Quartier SèmèBP 1229 Abomey-CalaviBeninFax: +229 36 05 46Email: [email protected]

Multi-purpose cassava strips

Technology helps mapSamoa’s forests■ The latest technology is beingharnessed to help map Samoa’sforests. New geographicinformation system equipmenthas been installed as part of a Samoa Forestry Division/FAOproject to help the country plan and manage its forestryresources. Digital aerialphotographs covering the entire country have beenproduced, together with digitaltopographic data. A classificationscheme is being used to mapdifferent forest types and othervegetation and land uses.Meanwhile, forest mapping has started on the island ofUpolu. The next phase of theproject, now under way, involvestraining field crews for forestsurveys, with the aim of collecting vital data on Samoa’sforests, including information on the environment.

✍ FAO Sub-Regional Office for thePacific IslandsFAO Private Mail BagApia, SamoaFax: +685 22126Email: [email protected]

There’s gold beneath thathump ■ The raising of dromedaries, as opposed to cattle breeding,has developed rapidly in Nigerover the past 20 years because of drought conditions. Varioussources put the number of camels in the country at anythingbetween 400,000 and 780,000.According to official figures,some 30,000 dromedaries areexported annually, but thisnumber does not take intoaccount the unofficial market,where sales are soaring. The best animals, priced higher than on the local market, are sold to Algeria, Libya and Nigeria.

Source: Les échos du Sahel (Niger)

Maize and cocoa■ Cameroon continues toproduce increasing quantities ofmaize and cocoa, more for exportthan for local consumption. Andmost cocoa producers are payinglittle attention to the potential ofthe cocoa bean or its nutritionalqualities. Against thisbackground, researchers at the regional centre ofCameroon’s institute ofagricultural research fordevelopment, IRAD, in Yaoundé-Nkolbisson, have killed two birds with one stone.They have created two deliciousrecipes for biscuits using acombination of maize flour and cocoa powder in order to increase the value of these two agricultural products.

✍ Régine Aroga & Justin FallInstitut de recherche agricole pourle développement(IRAD-Nkolbisson)BP 2067Yaoundé, CameroonFax: +237 223 35 38

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■ How many thou-sands of tonnes ofmangoes go badeach year in thecountries of theSahel? In the growingseason, farmers justdon’t know what to dowith them. But now,after juice and jam, theyhave a new option –mango vinegar. It’s organ-ic and fair trade too!

The new product comes fromBurkina Faso, where this fruityseasoning is known as missim(‘sour’ in Mòoré, one of thecountry’s four official languages).Like all vinegars, it is producedby acetic fermentation but manu-factured according to an originalprocess that retains the flavour ofthe fruit. It is currently beingproduced at a vinegar factory inOuagadougou.

Behind the initiative is theAlbert Schweitzer ecological cen-tre (CEAS), a Swiss NGO with abranch in Burkina Faso, whoseactivities include food processing.With the vinegar, CEAS hopes toreduce post-harvest losses andgive a boost to producers whooften have to sell their mangoharvest at discount. The mangovinegar will be distributed locally,and also in Switzerland by a fairtrade solidarity network, COSE.Sold in Switzerland at about € 6for half a litre, the vinegar is aluxury product. The manufactur-ers also hope to produce vinegarsfrom pineapple, banana andpapaya.✍ Centre écologique Albert Schweitzer

01 BP 3306 Ouagadougou 01Burkina FasoFax: +226 34 10 65Email: [email protected]: www.ceas-ong.net

Organicmangoes turnto vinegar

• In brief


Fonio is served up in hospitals

■ Two large hospitals in Dakarhave just added fonio (Digitaraexilis) to the menu for patients,particularly diabetics, who makeup 25% of Senegal’s population.This underrated cereal has a veryhigh nutritional value. It is richin methionine and cysteine, twoamino acids that are especiallyimportant for growing children.“Such a strong methionine con-tent has rarely been detected inthe vegetable world,” explainsMamadou Sadji, a nutritionist at Senegal’s institute of food

technology, ITA. Thanks to itsvery low glycemic content, foniohas proved to be a useful ally inthe fight against diabetes.

Only a minor African cereal,fonio is grown in southernSenegal, as well as in BurkinaFaso, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire,Guinea and Mali. Total annualproduction is about 200,000 t,according to CILSS, a regionalbody focusing on drought in the Sahel. The Senegalese website on unknown African foods(www.jade.sn) devotes several

pages to fonio. The associationWula Nafaa (the Bambara termfor ‘usefulness of the forest’), sup-ported by the United StatesAgency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID), is tryingto rescue fonio from oblivion andpromote the entrepreneurialactivities of rural women atTambacounda (400 km south ofDakar), who are growing andprocessing the cereal.✍ Wula Nafaa

BP 45TambacoundaSenegalFax: +221 939 8025Email: [email protected]: www.wulanafaa.org

■ The Imraguen, a Mauritanianethnic group who live and fish onthe country’s Atlantic coast, haveagreed to burn the nets whichthey used to catch sharks andrays. Since the beginning of the1980s, these two fish species havebeen over-exploited to satisfydemand from Asia. The price of akilo of highly sought-after sharkfins can reach € 400. Over-fish-ing has led to the disappearanceof sharks and rays and the prolif-eration of species on which theypreyed.

The Imraguen have beenencouraged to fish for otherspecies, such as mullet, breamand shadefish, which providedthem with a living before theybecame hell-bent on catching the‘sharks with golden fins’. Theywill receive € 1 for every metreof net they destroy, and are com-mitted to the terms of an agree-ment that binds them to theMauritanian authorities, with thesupport of the internationalfoundation for the Banc d’Arguinand the WWF.

■ The lucrative trade in herbalremedies is threatening the verysource on which it depends.Irresponsible harvesting to feedthe growing demand for plant-based medicines could wipe outup to a fifth of the plant speciescurrently used for natural reme-dies, new research reveals. Thedangerous trend would put thehealth of millions of people indeveloping countries at risk, aswell as posing a threat to thelivelihoods of people who dependon the trade. Most people aroundthe globe use herbal medicine foreveryday healthcare, with asmany as 80% relying on it insome countries. Many of theplants are harvested by poorcommunities. In spite of calls forthe herbal industry to investmore heavily in cultivation, sometwo-thirds of the 50,000 medici-nal plants in use are still harvest-ed from the wild, and a newstudy suggests that between4,000 and 10,000 of them maynow be endangered. The report,by WWF plant specialist Alan

Hamilton, reveals that the mar-ket for herbal remedies in NorthAmerica and Europe has beenexpanding by about 10% a yearfor the past decade and the worldmarket is now thought to beworth at least €16.5 billion.Another study, published by theconservation group PlantlifeInternational, accuses the herbalmedicine industry of failing toensure the sustainability of itssupplies. It claims that 11 out of16 herbal companies in the UKharvest all the plants they sellfrom the wild, and the remainingfive grow only a small propor-tion. The problem is compound-ed by the faddish nature of thegrowing herbal remedy market inthe North, say experts, withremedies rapidly moving in andout of fashion.

As a result, there is little incen-tive for the sustainable produc-tion of herbal species. ThePlantlife report proposes theintroduction of a kite mark toidentify products that have beensustainably harvested.

Killing the golden goose

Sharks escapefishing nets

A hot tip for elephants

■ Farmers tired of having theircrops flattened by elephants have turned to a spicy deterrentto ward off marauders. Trials in Kenya, Mozambique andZimbabwe have proved thatplanting chilli close to other crops such as maize will dull theappetite of even the hungriestelephant. Elephants can smellripe maize from a distance of 10 km. At harvest time they caneasily trample and eat an entireyear's crop in one night. Innorthern Mozambique, elephantsdestroy up to two-thirds of cropseach year. Chillies can be grownaround crops favoured byelephants, or added to engine oil and painted on rope barriersaround fields, or burnt withelephant dung to produce a pungent smoke.

Source: WWFWebsite: www.panda.org

More African journals

■ African Journals OnLine (AJOL),run by the International Networkfor the Availability of ScientificPublications (INASP), has grownso big that it has beenrelaunched with its own website. The service began life in 1998 with the aim of giving greater visibility topublished African research. It started out with just 14 journals, but by early 2004 the service had attracted over 175 African titles, many of themcovering agriculture and resourcemanagement. The new-look AJOLwill continue to provide access to tables of contents andabstracts for all titles, as well as a document delivery service,better search facilities and a new email alert function. The service remains free to bothusers and participating journals,with charges for documentdelivery requests from outsidedeveloping countries.

Website: www.ajol.info

A cold-resistant palm tree

■ A new hybrid variety of oilpalm that is resistant to cold hasjust proved itself in Kenya, acountry seriously deficient inoil.The hybrid is the result of a cross between a variety thatgrows on the high plateaus ofTanzania and Cameroon and a high-yielding, early-maturingvariety from Costa Rica. It haspotential as a supplementarysource of income for both small farmers and commercialproducers in local communities in western Kenya, a region wherehalf the rural population lives inpoverty. According to PeterGriffee, an FAO official involvedin the project, 10 palm trees foreach family would be enough to make them self-sufficient incooking oil. Local sales of the oil, or soap made from it, wouldprovide another source of income.

Website:www.fao.org/english/newsroom/field/2003/1103_oilpalm.htm

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Links •

Although a relatively recenttopic, reams have beenwritten on certification,

enough to account for a fair-sizedforest on its own. A good startingpoint would be the EuropeanForest Institute, an independent research organisation which provides information on forestcertification in ACP countries.The excellent website, with its Certification InformationService, offers country profileswith details of certification andforestry issues.

Another good stop is theWWF, which has produced anonline guide outlining practicalsteps that consumers, forest owners, timber traders, retailersand even builders can take.

The Programme for Con-servation and Rational Utilisationof Forest Ecosystems in CentralAfrica (ECOFAC) is an EU-backed initiative which seeks toachieve the sustainable manage-ment of forestland spanning sixcountries in Central Africa. It hasa good website and also publishesan e-bulletin.

The African Timber Organ-isation (ATO), a pan-Africantrade organisation which pro-motes the trade of tropical timber, has been active in

developing standards of sustain-able forest management thatcould form the basis of a certifi-cation system. The ATO has no

website, but can be contacted by email, mail or fax. TheInternational Tropical TimberOrganization (ITTO) has pro-duced a wealth of documentationon the issue, including severaluseful reports.

Certification schemes are numerous, but the main player isthe Forest Stewardship Council(FSC), which has a range of help-ful fact sheets, maps and figureson its site.

The range of NGOs involvedin certification is vast. Amongthem is the Center for Inter-national Forestry Research(CIFOR), which offers balancedand well-presented information.Forest certification: A policy perspective, jointly published byCIFOR and the Swiss NationalScience Foundation, analyses thepros and cons of certification.

Sorting the wood from the trees

For futher information:

ATOBP 1077LibrevilleGabonFax: +241 734 030Email: [email protected]

CIFORPO Box 6596, JKPWBJakarta 10065Indonesia

The information is scarce

Although widely recog-nised as a major issue forcountries of the South,

the subject of transport has notgenerated a great deal in the wayof literature. The internationalinstitutions are the best place tofind basic, up-to-date informa-tion about transport and its linkwith development, particularlyagriculture. The World Bank hasa Sub-Saharan Africa TransportPolicy Program (SSATP). Itswebsite provides access to a num-ber of documents which are regu-larly updated. On the WorldBank’s general website, a searchunder ‘transport’ will turn up arange of projects sponsored bythe Bank.

Another good source is thewebsite of a body focusing on African transport issues,SITRASS (see page 5). Over the

years, SITRASS has published aseries of reports, usually in severallanguages, on transport economics.

Every 2 years it organises a sem-inar. The seventh one, held inDakar, Senegal in late March

2004, had for its theme ‘Mobilityand transport systems in sub-Saharan Africa: the challenges ofpoverty’.

For the Pacific region, theAsian Development Bank(ADB) is the key reference point,specifically its strategic policy report for 2004–2006. Othermore analytical sources are alsoon this website.

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For futher information:

Asian Development Bankwww.adb.orgRegional Cooperation Strategy andProgram2004–2006, The Pacific2003, 112 pp.

World Bankwww.worldbank.org

SITRASSwww.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/let/sitrass/sitrass.htm

Fax: +62 251 622 100Email: [email protected]: www.cifor.cgiar.org/news/certification.htm

Forest certification: A policy perspectiveBy C ElliottCIFOR, 2000. 352 pp.ISBN 979 8764 56 0US$ 25 • € 20

ECOFACBatterie 4, Face groupe scolaire GrosBouquet 2BP 15115, Libreville, GabonFax: + 241 73 23 45Email : [email protected]: www.ecofac.org/EN/index.htm

European Forest InstituteTorikatu 34,FIN-80100 JoensuuFinlandFax: +358 13 124 [email protected]: www.efi.fi/

FSCGoerrestrasse 15/II a53113 Bonn, GermanyFax: +49 228 367 6630Email: [email protected]: www.fscoax.org

ITTOInternational Organisations Center5th Floor Pacifico-Yokohama, 1-1-1, Minato-Mirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama 220-0012, JapanFax: +81 45 223 1111Email: [email protected]: www.itto.or.jp

WWFForests for Life ProgrammeWWF InternationalAvenue du Mont Blanc, 1196 GlandSwitzerlandFax: +41 22 364 0640Website: www.panda.org/forests4life

For the online guide, go towww.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/forests/solutions/what_you_can_do/ and click on the relevant category

■ Contrary to the opinions ofsome environmentalists, agricul-ture and biodiversity can existside by side. This is one of themain tenets of Agricultural bio-diversity in smallholder farms ofEast Africa, whose authors claimthat land used for farming mayharbour more biodiversity thanany protected areas or non-agricultural reserves. The book

makes the distinction betweenlarge commercial farms, wheremonocrops and single varietiesprevail, and operations managedby smallholders, who jugglecrops and land uses in an intri-cate pattern and, in so doing,conserve a rich array of animaland plant species, which may ormay not be directly linked totheir livelihoods. Often, there isno scientific rationale behind theland-use combinations. Take thecase of one farmer in theArumeru district of Tanzania,who believes in the value ofmatatu, or growing three types ofplant together. He uses manysuch threesomes, choosing thecombinations with great care,and the system works well. Thisbook focuses on the central partof Eastern Africa, specifically onKenya, Tanzania and Uganda, inan attempt to document andunderstand some of the complex

land-use mechanisms adopted inthis region, the location of someof the world’s biodiversityhotspots. A scholarly but highlyreadable work, full of detailedexamples, there is an impressivequantity of tables and figures,providing detailed informationon issues ranging from soil mois-ture content in a Ugandanbanana plantation to hedgerowspecies in the Nduuri region ofKenya.Agricultural biodiversity in smallholder

farms of East AfricaEdited by F Kaihura & M StockingUnited Nations University Press2003. 304 pp. ISBN 928081088-X US$ 32 • € 26.50United Nations University Press53-70 Jingumae 5-chomeShibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-8925, JapanFax: +81 3 3406 7345Email: [email protected]


• Publications

Publications

Guardians of biodiversity

A tragic toll

■ Almost three-quarters ofHIV/AIDs sufferers live in sub-Saharan Africa. One of the worstaffected countries is Namibia,with an incidence rate of 22.5%. Aside from the human tragedy,the effects on the country’s ruraldevelopment are oftendevastating, resulting in lossof agricultural production, sale of assets and increased use of child labour to take the place of sick or deceasedadults. The result of a workshopheld to focus the response of government leaders to the crisis, this book looks at the farming sector in particularand asks: Why are Namibians so deeply affected? And what can be done to halt it?

HIV/AIDS: Government leaders in Namibia responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemicEdited by B OtaalaUniversity of Namibia Press, 2003. 246 pp. ISBN 99916 63 21 5US$ 30.95 • € 26African Books Collective LtdThe Jam Factory 27 Park End Street Oxford OX1 1HU UKFax: +44 1865 793298Email:[email protected]

Digital development

■ RedISTIC is a new coalition of groups that work oninformation society-related issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. As one of its first undertakings, it haspublished this collection ofcontributions which, as the title suggests, looks at the other side of the digitaldivide. Among subjects it sets out to tackle is the crucial one of the extent to which ICTs arecontributing towardsdevelopment and povertyreduction in the region. The answer, in a nutshell, is that a great deal more needs to be done.

The other side of the divide: Latin American and the Caribbean Perspectives on the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)By Rosa-María Torres et al.RedISTIC2004. 72 pp.RedISTICc/o FUNREDES Apartado Postal 2972Santo DomingoDominican RepublicFax: +1809 689 3388Email: [email protected] as PDF 2.2 Mb at:http://www.redistic.org/indexj.htm?body=proyectosjen

Two new volumes in theuseful ‘How To’ series co-

published with Acacia/Friends-of-the-Book Foundation offerhands-on advice to farmers, writ-ten in a simple style and packedwith tables and drawings to backup the text.

How to keep farm accounts givesa step-by-step guide to a subjectwhich fills many farmers withdread. This book makes the taskless daunting by following thebook-keeping process throughthe eyes of a hypothetical farmer– a woman – called Bibi AminaBukuru. New to farming, andwith no experience of account-ing, Mrs Bukuru is helpedthrough the basics of opening abank account and setting upfarm records. A useful section ex-plains clearly why she needs tospend valuable time loggingrecords of livestock, feed andfunds spent on farm equipmentso that she, and other farmers likeher, will be able to determinewhich activities are more prof-itable and therefore make in-formed decisions about futureplans for the farm.

The second book aims to fill agap in information on a growing

livestock sector. How to raise andmarket ostriches is targeted atfarmers and others who plan toraise ostriches on a commercialbasis in Kenya, though it is alsorelevant for readers in other re-gions. Starting with a short his-tory and description of theworld’s largest bird, the authorquickly launches into a practicalanalysis of the potential – and thepitfalls – of breeding ostriches.

Feeding and incubation tech-niques are covered in detail, as arediseases, since outbreaks can havea devastating effect on profits.But the commercial aspect alsoreceives considerable attention,with a good section on ostrichproducts, such as meat, eggs, skinand feathers, and clear advice onhow and where farmers can hopeto sell them.How to keep farm accounts

By P B NgezeAcacia Publishers – CTA – Friends-of-the-Book-Foundation, 2003. 46 pp.ISBN 9966 917 32 2CTA number 11565 credit points

How to raise and market ostrichesBy M Parkolwa,Acacia Publishers – CTA – Friends-of-the-Book-Foundation, 2003. 62 pp.ISBN 9966 917 31 4CTA number 11555 credit points

Calling all publishersin ACP countries!

Do you publish books or a jour-nal that might be of interest toSpore readers? Would you liketo extend coverage beyondyour own country? If so, Spore iswaiting to hear from you.

Send a copy to the Englishnewsroom (see address on page 14), with full details of dis-tribution, price and how to ob-tain the publication.

You could well find yourselvesfeatured in our Publicationssection.

Helpful hints

From the Agrodoks series,published by CTA and

Agromisa, comes a brace of newhandbooks, hot off the press.

Agroforestry is now in its thirdedition, but this version has beencompletely rewritten to take onboard new insights into how treescan improve land use in the trop-ics. The booklet outlines therudiments of agroforestry, start-ing from its basic principles andmoving on to practical applica-tions. It explores some of thebenefits of trees on agricultureand the environment, but it alsolooks at some of the limitations,an approach which will helpsmallholders make the right

decisions for their particular cir-cumstances. For example, treesmay compete with companioncrops, so a shade-loving cropsuch as cocoa will be more suitedto mixed cropping with treesthan a sun-loving crop such asmaize.

Preservation of fruit and vege-tables examines ways in whichfresh produce can be stored, in-expensively and safely, by indi-vidual households or by anyonewanting to start a small-scalepreservation business. There arechapters explaining techniquesfor making jams and juices, drying fruit and vegetables andsalting vegetables. In this fourth

edition of the title, there is moretheoretical information on foodspoilage, explaining clearly howit happens, its dangerous effects,and how it can be prevented.

Agroforestry By E VerheijAgromisa – Kerkinactie – CTA2003. 90 pp.ISBN 90 72746 92 9CTA number 11615 credit points

Preservation of fruit and vegetablesBy I James & B KuipersAgromisa – Kerkinactie – CTA2003. 88 pp.ISBN 90 770773 30 2CTA number 11625 credit points


Publications •

Trees, fruit and vegetables Organic networking■ This new directory from theInternational Federation ofOrganic Agricultural Movements(IFOAM) lists more than 750 contacts for organicagriculture, drawn from 100 countries worldwide. Details include addresses, phone and fax numbers, as wellas information about activities. A must for anyone interested in this field.

Organic agriculture worldwide: The directory of IFOAMIFOAM, 2003. 130 pp.ISBN 3934055281€ 16IFOAM BundeshausGorresstrasse 1553115 Bonn, GermanyFax: +49 228 926 5099Email: [email protected]

Bridging the gender gap■ While many developmentorganisations now sprinkle theirpaperwork liberally with the term‘gender’, the extent to which realchanges have been reflected inpolicy-making and practice isdebatable. This study draws out lessons for those seeking to mainstream gender into their structures and strategies,and examines ways in whichissues affecting women can bemore convincingly placed at thecentre of policy decisions andresource allocation.

Mind the gap: Mainstreaminggender and participation indevelopmentBy N KanjiInternational Institute forEnvironment and Development(IIED) and Institute forDevelopment Studies (IDS) 2003. 40 pp.ISBN 1 84369 466 2US$ 25 • € 20EarthprintBox 119, StevenageHerts SG1 4TP, UKFax: +44 1438 748844Email: [email protected]

Safer land rights■ Economic liberalisation,structural adjustment anddecentralisation have all had an influence on the agricultureand land tenure debate, creating a climate that is very different from the post-independence situation.These papers are from aninternational workshop onmaking land rights more secure,which brought together some 80 people from West Africa,including researchers, decision-makers and leaders of farmers’ organisations. A central theme is how newapproaches might improve the situation for rural producers.

Making land rights more secure:International workshop forresearchers and policy makers.Ouagadougou, 19–21 March 2002IIED, 2004. 172 pp.ISBN 1 84369 261 9US$ 25 • € 20For IIED address, see above

■ Ecologist Ian Swingland, theeditor of this book, is one of thepioneers of the idea of using mar-ket instruments to reduce carbonemissions, help mitigate climatechange and conserve biodiversity.The notion of using carbon sinksas a conservation strategy, and

emissions trading as an incentive,is increasingly gaining ground(see Spore 108). To recap, theprinciple is based on using foreststo absorb greenhouse gases, andon assigning a cash value to thisservice. Just as in any other com-modity exchange, carbon creditscan be traded, with those whoproduce low emissions sellingtheir allowances to the worst pol-luters. The book’s contributors,who include conservationists, cli-matologists, lawyers and corpo-rate fund managers, go into greatdetail to put the case for carbonsinks and emissions trading,examining some of its potentialbenefits to the rural poor. Oneanalysis shows that over the next10 years, 48 major tropical andsubtropical developing countrieshave the potential to reduce theglobal atmospheric carbon bur-

den by about 2.3 billion tonnes,which, at present rates, wouldearn them, in total, about US$ 16.8 billion. Additionalbenefits would include reforest-ing degraded lands, implement-ing sustainable agriculturalpractices and slowing tropicaldeforestation. The downside isthat much greater policy supportand investment in sustainableland use is needed before suchriches can become reality.

Capturing carbon and conserving biodiversity. The market approachEdited by I SwinglandEarthscan, 2003. 370 pp.ISBN 1 85383 951 5US$ 32.50 • € 27Earthscan120 Pentonville Road London N1 9JN, UKFax: +44 20 7278 1142Email: [email protected]

Cash for capturing carbon

■ Herbicide-resistant weeds are agrowing problem in much of thedeveloping world. The latestinformation suggests that thereare now 276 resistant biotypes, a high figure given that this waspreviously a phenomenon associ-ated mainly with the intensivefarming systems of developedcountries. The trend underscoresthe need to adopt a variety ofapproaches to weed control,rather than focusing exclusivelyon herbicides, which can some-times do more harm than good.This updated version of the Foodand Agriculture Organization’s(FAO) Weed management fordeveloping countries looks at someof the other options available andstresses the importance of evalu-ating weed ecology in under-standing weed problems,including the need to evaluateseed banks in the soil, the impor-tance of assessing weed competi-tion and the ability of crops tocompete with weeds. Particularattention is paid to specific troublesome weeds and various solutions are presented. Amongthe worst culprits are some of theexotic, invasive weed species nowtaking hold in a number of ACPcountries, a problem that is likelyto become more widespread astrade becomes increasingly globalised.

Weed management for developingcountriesAddendum 1FAO Plant Production and ProtectionPaper No. 120, Add. 1FAO, 2003. 290 pp.ISBN 92 5 105019 8US$ 60 • € 50FAO Sales and Marketing GroupViale delle Terme di Caracalla00100 Rome, ItalyFax: +39 6 5705 3360Email: [email protected]


• Publications

Weeding outintruders

■ The term inland fisheries cov-ers a vast gamut of water bodies,from rivers, streams and lakes toswamps, coastal lagoons, pondsand floodplains. Between them,these expanses of water nowaccount for more than 6% of theworld’s total fisheries capture andaquaculture production. In manycountries, especially in Africa,they are an important source ofincome and animal protein for

small-scale farmers and theirhouseholds. Presenting a broadpicture of the state of inland cap-ture fisheries, this review exam-ines some of the trends and looksat the main threat posed to thecontinued growth of inland fish-eries – degradation of the envi-ronment. Special sections coverthe impact of dams on fisheriesand fisheries in rice-based ecosys-tems. There is also a well-docu-mented database on Africanwater resources. A floppy diskcontaining the figures presentedin the review completes this use-ful package.

Review of the state of world fisheryresources: Inland fisheriesFAO Fisheries Circular No. 942, Rev. 1FAO, 2003. 66 pp. + floppy diskISSN 0429-9329US$ 26 • € 22See opposite for FAO address

Fishing for food

■ Though widely deplored, thebrain drain, which deprives theSouth of many of its best minds,continues to be a worrying phe-nomenon. But although the exis-tence of this trend is welldocumented, the extent and pre-cise nature of its impact hasreceived less attention. Under theguidance of the Institut derecherche pour le développement(IRD), a group of 14 internation-al experts has attempted toanswer the question: "How candeveloping countries make themost of their expatriateresearchers and engineers?” A fig-ure worth noting is that around600,000 Asian, African and LatinAmerican scientists and engineerscurrently work in the USA,Europe or Japan. In the case ofAfrica, an estimated one-third ofhighly qualified human resourcesworks overseas, mostly in France.

This undoubted loss for theSouth does, however, mask a pos-itive aspect, which is often ignored. The expatriates from developing countries form net-works, often grouped on nationalor regional bases. Through thesenetworks, they contribute from adistance to building the scientificcommunity in their country oforigin – by hosting students orcolleagues, for example, or by cir-culating well-targeted informa-tion, thanks to ICTs. Some of

these networks are more formaland active than others, but manybenefit from a favourable bias onthe part of international organi-sations, especially in Europe. Thequestion is, should they be sup-ported, and if so, how? Thisbook, which is available in bothEnglish and French, presents theconclusions and recommenda-tions of the experts. A CD-ROMoffers specific articles, focusingmainly on sub-Saharan Africa.

Scientific diasporasBy R Barré, V Hernandez, J B Meyer& D VinckIRD Editions, 2003.198 pp. + CD-ROMISBN 2709915219€ 15IRD32, avenue Henri-Varagnat93143 Bondy cedex, FranceFax: +33 1 48 02 79 09Email: [email protected]

Paths to knowledge Sustainable training■ This resource book wasproduced in response to thegrowing need for traininginstitutions to do a better job at getting over informationon the principles of sustainableagriculture and providingexperiences of putting theseprinciples into practice. It is the product of a 5-yearTraining-of-Trainers project on sustainable agriculture,implemented by the InternationalInstitute of Rural Reconstruction(IIRR). Together with aninteractive CD, the book offers a complete set of materials,training session guides andhandouts.

Sustainable agriculture:Training oftrainers. A resource bookIIRR, 2003. 350 pp.ISBN 1 930261 05 5US$ 15 • € 12 without CD; US$ 20 • € 16 with CDIIRRY C James Yen CenterSilang, Cavite 4118 PhilippinesFax: +63 46 414 2420Email: [email protected]

Not why, but how?■ In spite of market-orientedreforms in several key Africanagricultural sectors, sustainedgrowth in farm productivity andincomes have yet to materialiseon much of the continent,especially where smallholders are concerned. The centralargument of this book is thatif African agriculture lags behindthe rest of the world, it is partlybecause most agricultural policyresearch is inadequate andmisdirected. The author urges a more positive approach, builton fewer ‘what’ and ‘why’questions and more ‘how’questions.

Policy research on Africanagriculture: Trends, gaps, andchallengesBy S Omamo ISNAR, 2003. 50 pp. ISBN 9291180653US$ 20 • € 17 Distributed by Earthprint For address, see page 12

Unravelling the mystery■ Legal expert Zebron Gondwe is the first to admit that thetransfer of the rights ofoccupancy in Tanzania is a process covered in confusion.But in a clear and methodicalstyle, he manages to demystifythe laws and procedures andguide readers through theminefield. There is an invaluablechecklist of steps needed toeffect a transfer, as well assamples of some essentialdocuments, specimen forms andscales of fees and duties payable.

Manual for transfers of rights ofoccupancyBy Z GondweMkuki na Nyota Publishers2003, 126 pp.ISBN 9976 973 88 8US$ 24.95 • € 21 African Books Collective LtdFor address, see page 11


Between us •

As a rule, institutions are not easilygiven to self-criticism. But in itsAnnual Report 2003, CTA comes

clean and admits it may not always be per-fect. The first confession involves what theDirector, Carl B. Greenidge, describes as “atendency to concentrate on the same set ofACP countries for a little too long.”Countries that feel they may have beenpushed out of the limelight will be pleased tohear that this shortcoming is now being vig-orously addressed, with an exercise to iden-tify those that have been overlooked, and

bring them more closely intoCTA’s orbit.

The second admission concernsthe image that CTA projects.“There is a confusion, in some quar-ters, between what people think wedo and what we actually do, and itneeds to be clarified,” remarksGreenidge in his introduction to thereport. The problem, as he himselfpoints out, is not helped by CTA’srather unwieldy full name. After all,Technical Centre for Agricultural andRural Cooperation does not exactly tripoff the tongue. There is no quick fix forthis issue, but finding a more effectiveway of presenting itself is one of CTA’smost compelling missions for the comingyear. Watch this space for developments!

Thankfully, the Annual Report is not allmea culpa, and there is plenty which CTAcan be proud to document in this, the sec-ond in the new-look style of report and thefirst to be available on CD-ROM, as well asin print and on the CTA website. It has beena busy year. Workshops and study visits werearranged on a variety of topics, from AIDs toorganic farming, while five internal seminarswere held, and support given to a whole lotmore. There were e-forums on trade issuesand training courses to teach skills rangingfrom web design to proposal writing. Thelaunch of a CTA science and technologyportal – ‘Knowledge for Development’ –will help feed the debate on biotechnology,genetically modified organisms and otherhot topics.

On the trade front, one notable achieve-ment was the awareness campaign CTA supported at Cancún to highlight the prob-lems of ACP cotton producers, whose voiceis often unheard in the subsidies debate. Fishand sugar are two areas CTA is focusing onin the ACP-EU trade context, with the keyissue of the impact of sanitary and phy-tosanitary (SPS) measures on ACP countriesreceiving special attention for all commodi-ties.

This year’s report has a useful essay outlin-ing how CTA seeks to reach its audience.One key tool is, of course, Spore, and the ‘Mailbox’ section provides valuable feedback. Another is the PublicationsDistribution Service (PDS), through whichreaders give clear indications as to the topicsthat interest them most. Elsewhere in the report you can learn about the top 10 titlespublished by CTA’s Information Productsand Services Department, as well as effortsto extend the Question-and-Answer-Serviceto francophone West Africa.

In keeping with the recent commitmentto make all financial dealings crystal clear,details of the budget are available, revealingthat CTA is well on course in its target ofspending a healthy 60% of funds on opera-tional costs – that’s to say, in doing the job itsets out to do.

CTA Annual Report 2003CTA, Wageningen, 2004. 116 pp.ISBN 92 9081 281 8

CTA number 1181. 0 credit pointsDownloadable in sections or in full (15.6 Mb) fromwww.cta.int

Spore magazine Spore is the bi-monthlyflagship publication of theTechnical Centre forAgricultural and RuralCooperation (CTA) – ACP-EU.CTA operates under theCotonou Agreement between

the countries of the Africa, Caribbean andPacific (ACP) Group and the EuropeanUnion.© CTA 2004 – ISSN 1011 0054Publisher: Technical Centre for Agricultural and RuralCooperation (CTA) – ACP-EC CotonouAgreement.CTA, PO Box 380,6700 AJ Wageningen, The NetherlandsTel: +31 317 467 100Fax: +31 317 460 067; email: [email protected]: http://www.cta.intEditorial staff:Executive editor: Marie-Agnès LeplaideurSyfia International20, rue du Carré-du-Roi, 34000 Montpellier, FranceFax: +33 4 67 52 70 31Email: [email protected] of English version: Clare PedrickVia dello Spagna 1806049 Spoleto (PG), ItalyEmail: [email protected] Editor of French version: Denise WilliamsSyfia International (see above for address)Email: [email protected] to this edition of Sporeincluded: Nasseem Ackbarally, Catherine Barnard,Robert Huggan, André Linard, DéoNamujimbo, Fernand Nouwligbêto,Boukari Ouangraoua, Madieng Seck,and with the editorial support of CTA.Layout : Intactile DESIGN, FrancePrinter : Imprimerie Publicep, France

Annual report

Confessions andcommitments

Connecting people

A special paper in the CTA Annual Report2003 explores how better organisation ofhuman resources can translate into betteruse of natural resources and improvedagricultural productivity. A growing bodyof evidence points to the importance ofgroups and communities, be theywomen’s groups, water user associations,farmers’ organisations or grazing soci-eties, in achieving agricultural and ruraldevelopment.

Though hard to quantify, social capital isa high-value asset, which can deliver eco-nomic, social and environmental benefits.The past few years have seen hugegrowth in the forming of such groups,involving an estimated 8 to 15 millionpeople. In ‘Connectedness and social cap-ital: implications for agricultural and ruraldevelopment’, authors Jules Pretty andGesa Wesseler argue that developingthese networks, and supporting themwith the right kind of information tech-nologies, is the next important step. Thepaper discusses some of the ways in whichCTA can, and does, contribute.The Special Paper is also available,

free-of-charge, from CTA, separately from the Annual Report. 12 pp. CTA number 1183. PDS subscribersplease use your publications order forms.

The challenge of evaluating projects andassessing their impact is one which project managers are increasingly

having to take on board. To help them inthis sometimes vexing task, CTA, theInternational Institute for Communicationand Development (IICD) and the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) organised a work-shop on ‘Smart tools for evaluating the performance of information products andservices’ in November 2002, and thisWorking Document is the result. Other LEAP-IMPACT partners (LEAP stands forLearning and Evaluation Programme) werealso involved in the gathering, many of themdrawn from organisations in ACP States,Canada and Europe. The aim of the workshop was to help develop a toolkit for

managers of information projects. It alsosought to act as a complement to the publi-cation Evaluating information: A letter to a project manager by Byron Mook (see Spore 110). Unlike some earlier initiatives inthis field, which focused on the impact andbenefits of projects, this toolkit will concen-trate on performance evaluation, with theaccent on self-assessment and self-learning.

Smart tools for evaluating for theperformance of information products andservices

Workshop proceedings, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2002Compiled by K Batjes-SinclairCTA, 2003. 130 pp.CTA Working Document 80295 credit pointsDownloadable from:www.cta.int/pubs/wd8029/index.htm


• Between us

MailboxThe more contact we have with theband of Spore readers, the more werealise that you are a very practicalbreed, and that what you most appreci-ate are practical suggestions to yourproblems. But often, it is you who areable to supply the answers, as thisissue’s Mailbox amply reveals.

Fertile ways with rubbishAgricultural extension worker KondwaniHara writes from Malawi with a step-by-step guide to creating what he has dubbeda ‘rubbish seed bed’. He describes how tomake a productive kitchen garden out of asmall plot of land measuring just 1 m by 2m, using any rubbish which decomposes.The technique produces a bed with highwater-holding capacity – effective for thedry season – and improves soil fertility. Later,the soil can be used as manure. We’ll let MrHara take up the story:

“Dig the area to a depth of 45 cm. Place top-soil to one side and subsoil to the other. Linethe pit with maize stalks (chopped), ground-nut straw or soybean leftovers. Add drymanure. First place the topsoil, then the sub-soil, creating a bed 15 cm from ground level.Water for a whole week to ensure decom-position and to make sure heat produced isreduced. You can now use the bed for directsowing or a nursery.”

Winning over young mindsFrom Ghana, meanwhile, teacher and smallfarmer Thywill Afedo Selas imparts somedisturbing, if not entirely unexpected, news.“In Ghana, persons who are engaged inagriculture are less regarded,” he writes.“Why? Because what they earn from theirproduce is infinitely small. People who earnwealth through even unfair means are more

respected.” Bucking the trend, Mr Selas ishelping to educate a new generation andinstil the same principles in which he him-self believes – “the value of preservingNature through the growing of crops, espe-cially vegetables”.

Information, information, information!As most of our readers know, CTA’s mainmission is to encourage agricultural devel-opment through a better supply of informa-tion. So we were delighted to hear fromWilliams Manggoel, who writes to us fromNigeria to tell us that, since he became aSpore subscriber, he has had “a sharper viewon issues of community/rural development,as well as modern techniques of agricultur-al production”.

That, Mr Manggoel, is music to our ears, asit means Spore is really doing what it set outto achieve.

A smart move Reader services

Write to SporeSpore Mailbox, CTA PO Box 3806700 AJ WageningenThe NetherlandsFax: +31 317 460067Email: [email protected]

Subscribe to Spore■ Subscriptions for the printed versionare:• free to organisations and individuals inACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) and EU countries: CTA Spore subscriptionsPO Box 1736700 AJ Wageningen The Netherlands or [email protected]• for other individuals and organisations: € 36 annually (6 issues) from commercialdistributor (see below)

■ Subscribe to Spore EnnouncementSubscribe to the free Spore email summary(90 Kb) at: http://spore.cta.intor send a blank email to [email protected] text-only: [email protected]

■ See Spore on a screen• Web distribution: spore.cta.int• Satellite distribution: capture Spore ‘nMore broadcasts on the Afristar channelsof the WorldSpace Foundation’smultimedia programmes. Furtherinformation available from: [email protected]

Reproduce Spore • Articles in Spore can be freely reproducedfor non-commercial use, if credited ascoming from Spore. Please send a copy tothe editors. • Reproduction for commercial use requiresprior permission.

Publications

How to obtain them CTA publications mentioned in Sporeare marked by the green leaf symbol, and these are available free-of-charge to subscribers to CTA’s PublicationsDistribution Service (PDS). Other readerscan buy these titles from CTA’s commercialdistributor. Only agricultural and ruraldevelopment organisations and individualsresident in ACP countries can apply for PDS subscriptions. Each PDS subscriber is assigned a certain number of creditpoints annually for purchasing publications on CTA’s list. The list of CTA publications can be consulted on CTA’s electronic catalogue: www.cta.int

■ All other publications, indicated by anorange square, are available from thepublishers listed, or through commercialbooksellers.

Commercial distributor SMI (Distribution Services) LimitedPO Box 119StevenageHertfordshire SG1 4TPUKFax: +44 1438 748844Email: [email protected]: www.earthprint.com

@

Agricultural projects

Beware of easy money!Africa is bursting with opportunities. It is up to its agronomistsand rural dwellers to roll up their sleeves and uncover thecontinent’s potential and to open up to the outside world,drawing lessons from the experiences of other peoples.

In Africa, I often meet agronomists whosay they have no work. Surprised, I askthem, "Why?" and they reply, "There

aren’t any projects!" By projects, they meandevelopment initiatives liberally funded byinternational institutions – AIDS projects,‘good governance’ projects, etc.

In Africa, everyone pounces on this kindof activity. And when there aren’t any more,they fold their arms and wait. That makesyou think about this continent which has somuch fertile land, yet people continue to dieof hunger!

So, dear fellow agronomists, how aboutrolling up your sleeves? You leave universitywith diplomas that are no use to anyone.Instead of being ‘theoretical intellectuals’,how about becoming ‘real intellectuals’,that’s to say, people who translate theirknowledge into concrete actions?Government and NGO officials, representa-tives of international institutions and otherpeople keen on debating ‘the struggle againstpoverty’ should understand this: the onlyway to tackle poverty is to make the poorproductive.

The message is beginningto get across

In 1985, when I moved to Ouando on theoutskirts of Porto Novo [the capital ofBenin], there was nothing but bush andsnakes, and people laughed at me. Nearly 20 years on, they are full of admiration. Ismile and say to myself, "That’s good! Themessage is beginning to get across." Thismessage contains just three words: adapt ordie. We need to change our way of thinking,our taste for easy money.

I launched the Songhaï project in 1985,with six young school leavers. Aside from 10 hectares of land given to us by the gov-ernment of Benin, we had nothing to ourname but 32 quails’ eggs, 12 ducks, 100chickens, 10 sows and 20 sheep and goats.Now, in 2004, you can walk anywhere hereand you won’t see a square metre of land thatisn’t being used. Today, Songhaï has three bigtraining centres in three towns and I’m inthe process of setting up two more inNigeria.

I don’t mean to sound boastful. You’ve noidea how many times I’ve felt like packingup and leaving! After 15 years of experience,I can say that in order to survive in this kindof project, you have to be ready to face allsorts of setbacks and challenges. There areboth technical and financial difficulties.Songhaï does not rely on foreign aid. In anycase, I believe that an NGO shouldn’t just sitback and hold out the begging bowl. Itshould also produce its own resources, sothat it can say ‘no’ to certain compromises.

Managing human resources

But financial independence is not enough:you also need to know how to manage peo-ple. Some of my staff left because they had

joined thinking that I managed ‘projects’and that they would benefit from them.When they found out that at Songhaï ourmain resource is work, they fled. To getwhere we are today, we had to work hard.We began with production, then moved onto transforming services etc., and finally weset up a credit system.

When, in 1989, we launched a secondcentre of 125 hectares at Tchi-Ahomadégbé,a poor, backward and isolated village inBenin, we demonstrated the importance weattach to rural development. The credibilityof countries on this continent should de-pend on their ability to develop the ruralareas where 90% of Africans live. The ruralexodus is a time bomb.

At Tchi-Ahomadégbé, the roads floodedwhen it rained. It was hard for us to reachthe farm. With the help of the public au-thorities, I had a bridge built, so the areawouldn’t be cut off. But I soon had another

problem to deal with: the hostility of the vil-lagers. In towns, everyone wants to be akowé[a white-collar worker], and earn easymoney. A villager knows he has to work forhis living. But he is scared. Local customs,and talk of magic and spells create a climateof fear. Rural dwellers are afraid of outsiders,of anything new that might upset the sys-tem.

But villagers are also very intelligent peo-ple! After an initial period of mistrust, theygradually became interested in what we weredoing. They saw that their region was teem-ing with possibilities, and that all they had todo was work hard. Young people began ask-ing to be trained and cooperatives were setup. Villagers who were slaving away inCotonou came back home to work theirland.

Globalisation is an opportunity

Ours is an African project which refuses tostand still and is committed to change. It isno coincidence that the project is calledSonghaï, after the prosperous 15th centuryAfrican kingdom. We must adapt if we arenot going to die. We need to be French,English, Portuguese, Spanish-speakers andso on, and be inspired by the experiences ofall these peoples.

That, for me, is globalisation! I have onefoot in the reality of Africa, but the otherfoot dances all over the world! I see global-isation as an opportunity. It is a chance thatwe have been given to benefit from the experiences of other nations. We need to develop our industrial capacities, just as thedeveloped countries have done.

We need to stop being passive consumers.As members of the World TradeOrganization we can discuss and negotiate,so that we don’t become swamped by othercountries’ products. Let us have done with the begging bowl and the lack of self-confidence!


Viewpoint •

The opinions expressed in Viewpoint arethose of the authors, and do not necessarilyreflect the views of CTA.

Godfrey Nzamujo, who is Nigerian, is aDominican priest. He studied agronomics,economics and information technology in

California. In 1985, after moving to Benin, hefounded Songhaï, a centre for agricultural

production, training and promotion.

“Adapt or

die“

Property, security, equity - CGSpace

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