Involving the Private Sector in Research

November 2006

Prof. David Hall of NRI recently led a seminar at the Overseas Development Institute as part of their “Learning from Experience – Linking Research and Development” series. In his presentation (pdf 237Kb) he drew on examples of NRI collaboration with the private sector in agricultural research, and highlighted three key areas: improvements in commodity production, quality and reliability; development of new products; and evaluation and promotion of products. A detailed report of the seminar (including downloadable audio recordings) is available on the ODI website.

 

Transforming African Grain Markets

November 2006

Recent reviews of the performance of grain markets in developing countries, especially in Africa, have highlighted the contribution that local food aid procurement can make to the strengthening of these markets and thus to economic well-being and food security. NRI has extensive experience of the economic and technical operations of diverse African grain markets and considerable expertise in the logistics and impact of food aid delivery systems. Drawing on this knowledge, an NRI team has produced a document (pdf 58Kb) that explores the potential for transforming African grain markets by local and regional procurement of food aid.

 

Biomass Energy Toolbox

October 2006

 

The development of a Biomass Energy Toolbox has been a key output from an 18-month study carried out for the EU’s Asia Pro Eco Programme. The Toolbox contains a set of technical papers and information on the use of biomass for heat and electricity production. A CD version of the Toolbox has been produced and distributed. It is also available on the NRI website and can be viewed here. The focus of the study was on Sri Lanka and India, and the Toolbox is primarily intended for use in South Asia, but the technologies and approaches have considerable potential for wider application, especially in Africa and Latin America.

 

In response to the rising financial and environmental costs of fossil fuels, especially due to the global effects of carbon dioxide levels, increased attention is being given to the use of planted trees and agricultural waste as key fuels for both household and industrial use. The advantages of such fuels are that they are carbon-neutral and can be harvested close to their point of use. In particular, short-rotation coppicing of planted leguminous tree species – with frequent harvesting of new growth – allows farmers in the tropics to realize incomes in a short period, and also provides benefits through improved soil fertility. These tree-legumes have already been widely promoted as agroforestry species throughout the tropics, so this approach could easily be adopted in other tropical regions.

 

The 1 MW dendro thermal power plant at Walapane, Sri Lanka has demonstrated that it is feasible to produce electricity from locally-grown wood chips. © University of Greenwich

 

The Toolbox describes technologies that enable the sustainable production of electricity, including decentralized energy that can be generated close to where it is needed. These technologies provide a means for remote rural communities to produce off-grid power to meet the needs of households and small enterprises. The Toolbox also explores the policy aspects of using such carbon-neutral fuels in relation to the value and importance to developing countries of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism.

 

The project has been led by NRI working with the Italian partner Comitato Termotecnico Italiano (CTI), the Bio-Energy Association of Sri Lanka (BEASL) and The Energy and Resources Institute of India (TERI).

 

For more information, contact Claire Coote (H.C.Coote@gre.ac.uk)

 

Sounds of Courtship in Mosquitoes

August 2006

 

For humans living in warm climates, the high-pitched whine of a flying mosquito is associated with potential discomfort and disease. For the mosquitoes themselves – as new research by NRI entomologist Dr Gabriella Gibson and fellow scientist Professor Ian Russell of Sussex University has shown – the whine of their wing-beats plays a significant role in sex recognition and courtship. Gabriella and Ian have been studying the wing-beat frequencies and behaviour of tethered individuals of the large predatory mosquito Toxorhynchites brevipalpis, when flying alone or near another flying mosquito of the same species. Their results have recently been published in the journal Current Biology (volume 16, pp.1311-1316, 11 July 2006, abstract).

 

It has long been known that mosquitoes hear with a specialized organ at the base of their antenna, and the attraction of male mosquitoes responding to the flight tones of females has been well studied, but the auditory behaviour of the females themselves was unknown. Gabriella and Ian have now shown, for the first time, the existence of interactive auditory behaviour between individuals that leads to sexual recognition and presumably plays a key role in courtship and mating.

 

A male Toxorhynchites brevipalpis mosquito flying on a tether next to a microphone. Photo courtesy of Professor Ian Russell

 

The researchers found that individual males and females responded to artificially-generated pure tones by altering their own wing-beat frequency. The pattern of alteration depended on the difference between their original wing-beat frequency and the stimulus frequency. When opposite-sex pairs of Toxorhynchites brevipalpis were flown within acoustic range of each other, each mosquito responded to the other by changing their wing-beat frequency so that their flight tones converged and matched.

 

When the female was already in flight, which is the normal situation in the wild, the male adjusted his wing-beat frequency rapidly after take-off and the frequencies converged within about one second. When the male was in flight first, convergence was not so rapid and took more than six seconds after the female’s take-off. In either case, the pair’s matched wing-beat frequency (and thus similar flight speed of the individuals) lasted for at least 15 seconds. This is probably normally long enough for mid-air mating, though not in this experiment where the individuals were separately tethered to their microphones!

 

In contrast, individuals flown as same-sex pairs – although sometimes initially starting to converge their flight tones – reacted by diverging from each other’s wing-beat frequency. In free flight, the resulting difference in flight speed would soon separate them.

 

It is possible that the convergence of wing-beat frequency of the courting male and female has the effect of synchronizing their flight speed and thus facilitating mating, but the researchers point out that this suggestion remains unproven. Also, although the different wing-beat modulation behaviour of opposite-sex and same-sex pairs shows that sex-recognition occurs early in this period of auditory interaction, the exact mechanism of recognition is not yet known and needs further study.

 

For more information, contact Dr Gabriella Gibson (G.Gibson@gre.ac.uk).