| SMART
Grant for a Smart Instrument
December 2003
NRI’s Professor of Food Safety, Ray Coker, has
been awarded a £45,000 SMART
grant by the UK’s Department of Trade and Industry
to develop an instrument that will allow food wholesalers
and retailers to test their own products for the presence
of toxic chemicals, rather than having to send samples
for expensive laboratory testing. The University of
Greenwich is contributing an additional £15,000
to the project, which involves a joint team from NRI’s
Food Management & Marketing Group and the School
of Engineering.
 |
| Goundnuts
(peanuts) visibly infected by the mould
Aspergillus flavus: even
when infection levels are scarcely visible,
the mould may have contaminated the
nuts with health-threatening levels of mycotoxins. |
| ©
University of Greenwich |
|
Ray explains: “All players in the food sector
work hard to ensure that excessive levels of poisonous
chemicals, from pesticides, antibiotics and hormones,
to naturally-occurring poisons such as mycotoxins, do
not find their way into foods. Mycotoxins are produced
by certain moulds, and even minute quantities in foods
and feeds can affect the health of humans, livestock
and poultry, whilst high levels of contamination can
cause death. The aim of the project is to develop a
simpler method for the rapid detection of toxic chemicals
in the food marketing chain, without the expense and
time-consuming process of laboratory analysis.”
The project team led by Ray Coker of NRI’s Food
Management & Marketing Group includes: Martin Nagler,
an NRI Associate and former staff member (analytical
chemistry); Dr Richard Seals and Dr Robert Jenner, School
of Engineering (electronics and optics); and John Dominey,
MSc student in the School of Engineering. The new procedure
for detecting the toxins will be based on the development
of a special instrument and will initially focus on
the measurement of levels of mycotoxins in cereals,
dried fruit and edible nuts.
Once the feasibility of the process has been established,
the team then hopes to extend it to detect other undesirable
chemicals in human food. A key aim of the work is that
the procedure will be inexpensive and could thus be
used to save lives in the developing world where staple
foods, such as maize and groundnuts, can be heavily
contaminated by mycotoxins. It is expected that the
approach will also benefit fragile economies by supporting
quality management in valuable food export markets that
could otherwise be lost if suppliers cannot ensure that
their products meet the importers’ quality standards.
Andrew
Westby Becomes President of ISTRC
17 November 2003
Andrew Westby, NRI’s Director of Research and
Professor of Food Technology, has been elected President
of the International Society for Tropical Root Crops
(ISTRC) at its triennial Symposium in Arusha, Tanzania,
from 9 to 14 November 2003. The Symposium was attended
by about 150 of the world’s leading researchers
on tropical root crops. Andrew, who has previously served
as the ISTRC’s Councillor for Publications, will
be its President from 2003 to 2006.
 Prof.
Westby has over 15 years experience of working with
the major tropical root crops of cassava, sweet potato
and yam. Much of his early work on root crops was concerned
with understanding the mechanisms by which cyanogenic
compounds are reduced during fermentation. In the early
1990s he was a key player in the major Collaborative
Study of Cassava in Africa (CoSCA). Since then he has
worked on root crops in South America and sub-Saharan
Africa. He played a significant role in the development
of the Global Cassava Development Strategy (see
website). He is still a member of the Strategy’s
Coordination Group and is taking a lead in its Post-Production
and Marketing Component.
In his inaugural speech as President, Prof. Westby
said “Tropical root crops have important roles
to play in alleviating poverty and ensuring the food
security of many millions of people in the developing
world. In the next three years the Society will endeavour
to encourage young scientists, to provide the means
of sharing good practice, and to influence policy, in
support of the role that root crops can play in development.”
New
boost for development in post-harvest sector
4 November 2003
The post-harvest sector has the potential to contribute
much more than it does to the livelihoods of poor people,
but development efforts in the past have always been
more focused on agricultural production. A new initiative
promises to change this. The Global Post-harvest Forum
(PhAction),
currently chaired by NRI’s director Guy Poulter,
together with FAO and GFAR
have merged their own initiatives to develop a Strategic
Plan for a ‘Global Post-harvest Systems Initiative
for the 21st Century: Linking Farmers to Markets.’
The Strategic Plan offers:
- An innovative platform
for a supply-chain approach to post-harvest development.
This includes assistance with business development
for private/public partnerships and particularly for
poor entrepreneurs. However, supply chains can only
function if all linkages are effective: the Strategic
Plan allows for wide ranging interventions that can
meet the needs of diverse situations in contrasting
regions around the globe;
- A market-oriented approach
to addressing post-harvest and production problems;
and
- Full participation of stakeholders
at every stage in the development and implementation
of the Initiative.
In October 2003, the Strategic Plan was further developed
and endorsed at a three-day workshop hosted by FAO in
Rome, where over 80 stakeholders, many from developing
countries, debated the relevance of the Plan on a regional
basis. Once the Plan has been revised on the basis of
comments and suggestions made by the workshop participants,
it will be taken forward by an Interim Co-ordination
Committee and may become one of GFAR’s Global
Partnership Programmes. The Committee will comprise
major stakeholders, including five regional representatives,
PhAction, FAO, GFAR, and interested donor organizations.
On his return to NRI from the subsequent CGIAR
annual meeting in Nairobi, Guy Poulter reported “I
presented the Strategic Plan proposal at the CGIAR meeting,
where it was well received. The possibility of funding
was discussed with several potential donors, and we
are hopeful that seed-funding will be forthcoming to
implement the Initiative.”
Guy
Poulter Confirmed as NRI Director
22 September 2003
 The
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich, Prof.
Rick Trainor, has announced that Dr Guy Poulter is now
confirmed as NRI Director. Formerly Director of Operations
at NRI, Guy was appointed as its Acting Director at
the start of 2003. He intends to consolidate and build
on the past two years of re-organization of the Institute’s
structure and business management, in order to ensure
that NRI continues to be a significant national and
global player in helping to improve the lives of some
of the poorest people in the world through the application
of its diverse expertise in areas such as social anthropology,
land and water management, farming systems, economics,
food science, and pest and vector management.
Originally an expert in fisheries, Guy has over 25
years experience of working for – and in –
developing countries. With a first degree in Food Science
from the University of Strathclyde and a PhD in Food
Biochemistry from the University of Nottingham, Guy
Poulter joined one of NRI’s forerunners, the Tropical
Products Institute, in 1976. In the early part of his
career he travelled extensively around the world advising
poor fisherfolk on the best way to handle, process and
preserve their catches, and undertook a two-year assignment
in Sri Lanka. He was rapidly promoted, firstly to Head
of the Storage Department, concerned with the management
of stored grain and other durable food commodities,
and then via a range of central administrative posts
to the role of Deputy Director for Food Science and
Crop Utilization. Taking a career break from NRI in
the mid 1990s, Guy was seconded to the UK Government’s
Department for International Development (DFID) where
he spent three years as a Senior Adviser for Agricultural
Research and then a further year working with the European
Commission in Brussels. After his return to NRI in 2001,
Guy undertook a broad range of senior management tasks
in support of substantial changes in the Institute’s
marketing and operations, culminating in his appointment
as Acting Director in January 2003 and now his confirmation
as Director in September 2003. In recent years, Guy’s
special professional interest has been in the developmental
agricultural research policies of the UK, the European
Commission, and the European Union more widely.
Implementation
Phase of Semipalatinsk Land Use Project
22 September 2003
NRI land use planner Dr Robert Ridgway
is visiting Kazakhstan from 18 September to 2 October
to commence the implementation phase of the DFID-funded
project “Land Use Plan for the Semipalatinsk Test
Site.” Robert is project manager and land use
planner, and NRI Associate Nick Hodgson is the project’s
GIS
expert. The NRI specialists, provided through NR International
Ltd, are working with a consortium team led by Mouchel
Consulting Ltd with Dr Peter Coughtrey as project director.
The former Soviet nuclear weapons test
site near Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan was used for atmospheric
and underground tests from 1949, including the former
Soviet Union’s first nuclear device in August
1949 and first hydrogen bomb in August 1953. It was
formally closed by the President of Kazakhstan in August
1991. During active testing, the site encompassed about
18,000 km² of steppe and supported an infrastructure
employing almost 400,000 people. Nuclear testing at
the Semipalatinsk site profoundly damaged the communities
in the region. Even today, people in these communities
face a web of hardship that destabilizes their lives.
In 1998, the UN General Assembly requested
resources for a major programme of rehabilitation –
the Semipalatinsk Rehabilitation and Relief Programme.
The priorities included the preparation and implementation
of a participatory sustainable land use plan for the
site, and it was this aspect to which DFID agreed a
commitment in 1999 and subsequently commissioned the
current project for this purpose. The UK consortium
members are teamed with partners from Kazakhstan to
work with local populations to understand and reduce
the risks associated with the test site.
Robert Ridgway is providing managerial
services to all the technical and administrative project
activities in Kazakhstan. These involve: radioecology
and environmental risk assessment; radiation monitoring
techniques and interpretation; land use planning; GIS
development and implementation; research and analysis
of livelihood systems at village level; training, capacity
building and group formation; environmental education
and advocacy on rights; water resource management; mineral
exploitation impacts and management; review of environmental
legislation; and overall project management from offices
in Semipalatinsk and Almaty.
As land use planner, Robert will be
involved in: overseeing natural resources data collection
in the test site area for input into a GIS; technical
aspects of land suitability evaluation and participatory
land use planning; and linking these to key national
and local stakeholders. The GIS expert, Nick Hodgson,
will: oversee the installation and functioning of a
GIS facility at the Ministry of Environment offices
in Semipalatinsk; liaise with national consultants in
GIS training and data production to ensure that these
are acceptable and pertinent to the needs of the project;
and provide backstopping support for input of data and
output of information from the GIS for land use planning.
During his current mission, Dr Ridgway will firstly
visit Kurchatov, where the nuclear weapons were manufactured
and where many data on the Test Site are still held,
and will then go to Semipalatinsk for a Project Working
Group meeting, where project partners will finalize
work plans and milestones for all implementation activities.
For further information on the project contact Dr Robert
Ridgway (R.B.Ridgway@gre.ac.uk).
Explorer
Sir Wilfred Thesiger Dies
31 August 2003
The famed explorer Sir Wilfred Thesiger
died on 24 August 2003 in hospital at the age of 93.
In a lifetime of travelling and exploration in the Middle
East and Africa, often willingly enduring hardship and
eschewing modern methods of transport, Sir Wilfred took
a spartan approach to sharing the austere lives of others.
His lasting legacy is his eloquent writing about his
travels and his renowned collection of photographs from
places and cultures now changed beyond recognition by
technological advance. He is most famously known for
his crossings by camel of the ‘Empty Quarter’
of Saudi Arabia in the late 1940s in the company of
a group of Bedu tribesmen. What is less well known is
that these expeditions were sponsored by the Anti-Locust
Research Centre (ALRC), one of NRI’s forerunners.
The explorer had approached ALRC’s Dr Boris Uvarov
(later Sir Boris Uvarov FRS), who provided funding from
ALRC for him to map the desert area and particularly
to locate the outbreak centres of locust swarms in the
region. Sir Wilfred Thesiger’s book on his exploration
of the ‘Empty Quarter’ (“Arabian Sands”
1959) is widely regarded as a classic of serious travel
writing and as giving an exceptional insight into the
lives of the Bedu at that time. Several of Sir Wilfred’s
original reports, annotated maps and photographs from
these travels are retained in NRI’s Locust Archives
at Chatham.
World
Technology Award Honour for NRI Consultant
26 June 2003
At the closing ceremony of the World
Technology Summit 24-25 June 2003, it was announced
that one of the five finalists in the Environment (Individual)
section of the World Technology Awards 2003 was one
of NRI's consultant researchers, Dr Glyn Vale, for his
lifetime achievements in research and development on
tsetse control in Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries.
Dr Vale has long had collaborative links with NRI's
vector management scientists, and for the past three
years has been working for NRI in Zimbabwe.
Glyn Vale's research achievements have
focused especially on the development of improved tsetse-baiting
methods. His initial work, starting in the late 1960s,
concentrated on improved trapping methods for assessing
the attractiveness of baiting techniques for tsetse.
In particular, he developed unobtrusive electrocuting
grids that could catch the flies efficiently in the
absence of humans. The results from these devices showed
that traditional hand-net catches were misleading and
that mechanical trapping systems used with artificial
baits were highly inefficient. The key outcome of research
using the electrocuting devices was the realization
that odour attraction was far more important in tsetse
baiting than had previously been believed.
Since the mid-1970s, Glyn has worked
with other researchers in Africa and Europe to improve
100-fold the cost-effectiveness of artificial baiting
of tsetse. The fuller recognition of the feasibility
of baiting and the importance of the odour attraction
of cattle has led to the development of integrated management
based on a combination of artificial baits and selective
insecticide-dipping of cattle. From the mid-1980s, the
economy, low technology and ecological acceptability
of bait-based techniques has meant that they have almost
entirely replaced other methods of control throughout
Africa. The impact of this is illustrated in North-East
Zimbabwe where, for the last 15 years, an invasion barrier
of baits has avoided the need for annual spraying of
DDT over 10,000 square kilometres. This remarkable beneficial
environmental impact of the work of Dr Vale and his
co-workers has therefore been recognized by the World
Technology Network in announcing him as a Finalist in
the Environment section of the World Technology Awards.
Opportunities
to Work with NRI:
EU Framework Contract - Kosovo:
Ruminant Feed Expert
16 June 2003
A Ruminant Feed Expert is required to review the livestock
farming systems in minority areas, propose methods of
improving production through nutrition and provide training
for dairy and beef farmers in the development of their
feeding systems as appropriate.
(More
information).
FoodAfrica
Initiative
2nd Announcement on 5 March
 NRI,
in collaboration with the Institut de Recherches Médicinal
et d'Etudes des Plantes Médicinales (IMPM/MINREST) in
Cameroon and the International Foundation for Science
(IFS), is organizing the FoodAfrica initiative, which
is sponsored by the European Union and the IFS.
The focus of the initiative is on improving
food systems in sub-Saharan Africa in response to a
changing environment. FoodAfrica will:
- review the current research and development activities
that affect food systems in sub-Saharan Africa;
- identify gaps in current food and health research
strategies;
- recommend future research strategies;
- improve the links between researchers, in particular
young scientists, in Africa and Europe.
The FoodAfrica initiative consists of
two main activities:
- an Internet-based Forum from 31 March to
11 April 2003, with free participation;
- an International Working Meeting in Cameroon,
5-9 May 2003.
For more information on these activities,
and to register for either the Forum or the Working
Meeting, visit the FoodAfrica
website or e-mail the FoodAfrica Secretariat at
foodafrica@nri.org.
Accolade
for NRI Author
9 April 2003
 It
has been announced by the Royal Entomological Society
that one of NRI's entomologists Dr Stephen Torr and
his co-authors from Canada and Zimbabwe have won an
award for the best paper published in the Society's
journal Medical and Veterinary Entomology in the last
two years. Their paper, entitled 'Application of DNA
markers to identify the individual specific hosts of
tsetse feeding on cattle,' reported the use of DNA fingerprinting
to identify which animals within a herd are preferred
by tsetse flies.
The research showed that tsetse prefer
to feed on older and larger cattle. When given the choice
of a young calf or an old ox, for example, every one
of the tsetse chose to feed on the ox. It seems that
this preference reflects the fact that older cattle
are easier and safer for the tsetse to feed on because
they are much less likely than younger ones to swipe
at the irritation and thus dislodge or even kill the
feeding tsetse.
 |
| Photograph
by Dr. Steve Mihok |
The results from this study, combined
with findings from related DFID-funded
research, have important implications for the control
of tsetse-borne trypanosomiasis, a major disease of
livestock and humans in Africa. One way to control this
disease is to treat cattle with insecticide, which kills
tsetse that land on the treated animals. The finding
that older cattle are bitten more often than others
suggests that insecticide may only need to be applied
to these animals. As a result, fewer cattle would need
to be treated, which reduces both the cost and the environmental
impact. Additionally, if the young cattle are not treated,
they will be bitten by ticks that would otherwise be
killed by the insecticide: this allows them to develop
natural immunity to tick-borne diseases.
The award-winning paper was published
in 2001. More recently, Steve Torr and colleagues have
used the same DNA fingerprinting technique to study
the feeding behaviour of stable flies and malarial mosquitoes
in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.
More information
on tsetse and trypanosomiasis.
Facing
the Challenge of HIV/AIDS in Africa
March 2003
An NRI report "Facing the Challenge:
NGO Experiences of Mitigating the Impacts of HIV/AIDS
in Sub-Saharan Africa" has been published on-line. The
report, edited by NRI Associate Joanna White, presents
nine case studies of NGO initiatives in the region (five
in Uganda, two in Tanzania, one in Zimbabwe and one
in Lesotho) and gives an overview of their significance.
Since the late 1980s, the presence of
HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa has increased, and its
effects on adults in their prime years and on their
dependants has become ever more evident. It has been
estimated that 3.5 million new infections occurred in
Sub-Saharan Africa in 2001, bringing the total number
of people infected in this region to 28.5 million.
Most donor funding in response to the
epidemic has been focused on preventive and curative
health programmes and on behaviour change. Less attention
has been paid to the social and economic impacts, in
spite of the known relationship between HIV/AIDS, poverty
and vulnerability. Many of these impacts have long-term,
even irreversible, effects on local livelihood systems.
AIDS-affected communities and NGOs
have been responding to such impacts with innovative
local projects to tackle the devastating effects on
families and communities. However, these projects have
not been widely reported. NRI therefore conducted a
series of structured case studies of nine such projects
in order to facilitate exchange of information between
development practitioners, and to draw out and share
lessons for the future. As well as describing these
case studies, the report identifies 'best practice'
future interventions, suggests potential procedures
for the replication of successful approaches, and recommends
greater sharing of information and experience between
practitioners and between countries.
A copy of the report in PDF format (219kb)
can be downloaded
here.
New Publication
on Performance and Impact
NRI has published a new book:
'Institutionalizing Impact Orientation' (publication
details). The book, by NRI staff experienced in
monitoring and evaluation, documents the process, results
and lessons from a project that introduced performance
management concepts, and built performance management
capacity, in a group of agricultural research organizations
(more about NRI's
work on Performance and Impact).
New
Head for NRI
1 January 2003
 Dr
Guy Poulter is the new head of NRI. Originally an expert
in fisheries, Guy has over 25 years experience of working
for - and in - developing countries. He was previously
Director of Operations at NRI and has now been appointed
Acting Director of the Institute following the retirement
of Tony Clayton at the end of 2002. Guy will lead the
work of over 115 staff - including about 90 specialist
natural and social scientists - at the Institute, which
has a prestigious worldwide reputation for research,
consultancy and training services in sustainable development.
NRI's diverse expertise includes such areas as social
anthropology, land management, farming systems, food
science and pest management.
With a first degree in Food Science
from the University of Strathclyde and a PhD in Food
Biochemistry from the University of Nottingham, Guy
Poulter joined one of NRI's forerunners, the Tropical
Products Institute, in 1976. In the early part of his
career he travelled extensively around the world advising
poor fisherfolk on the best way to handle, process and
preserve their catches, and undertook a two-year assignment
in Sri Lanka. He was rapidly promoted, firstly to Head
of the Storage Department, concerned with the management
of stored grain and other durable food commodities,
and then via a range of central administrative posts
to the role of Deputy Director for Food Science and
Crop Utilization. Taking a career break from NRI in
the mid 1990s, Guy was seconded to the UK Government's
Department for International Development (DFID) where
he spent three years as a Senior Adviser for Agricultural
Research and then a further year working with the European
Commission in Brussels. Since his return to NRI in 2001,
Guy has undertaken a broad range of senior management
tasks in support of substantial changes in the Institute's
marketing and operations. In recent years, Guy's special
professional interest has been in the developmental
agricultural research policies of the UK, the European
Commission, and the European Union more widely.
"After a career of over twenty five
years at NRI, I am honoured to be asked to lead the
Institute at this key stage in its development," says
Guy Poulter. "NRI has been a significant national and
global player in helping to combat poverty for more
than a century - it's up there with the very best in
the world. The contribution of the NRI staff brings
respect and kudos to the University and to the Medway
Region, and we will do all we can to continue to work
to make a difference to the lives of some of the poorest
people on earth."
The Vice-Chancellor of the University
of Greenwich, Professor Rick Trainor, says: "Guy Poulter
combines an excellent professional track record with
strong management skills. He has the ability and the
vision to lead NRI into a stable and successful future."
Project
Workshop on Street Foods in Ghana
On 4-5 March in Accra, NRI
and the Ghanaian Food Research Institute organized a
participatory workshop at the inception of a new research
project on the safety of street foods in Ghana. The
meeting brought together the coalition research partners
and other stakeholders to discuss project objectives
and agree strategies to achieve the research outputs.
(Research
on street foods in Africa)
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