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)

 

 

Advantages of local food aid procurement

July 2006

 

Imported food aid – but local procurement is better for development. © University of Greenwich

David Walker and Dr Rick Hodges of NRI’s Food Management & Marketing Group have recently presented the developmental advantages of local or regional procurement of food aid to meetings at the Centre for European Policy Studies (Brussels) and at Chatham House (London). Their report was based on case studies in Uganda and Ethiopia, conducted under the European Community’s Poverty Reduction Effectiveness Programme EC-PREP, funded by DFID.

 

The case study findings confirmed the hypothesis that local and regional procurement of food aid can make a much larger contribution to the economies of developing countries, and can benefit poor people in particular, and that policies can be put in place to increase these benefits. The report (co-authored by economists Jonathan Coulter of NRI’s Enterprise, Trade & Finance Group, and Tiago Wandschneider) emphasizes that, if procured locally or regionally, food aid should be regarded as an investment tool for rural development rather than merely as a relief tool to meet the short-term needs of hungry people. The PowerPoint file of the presentation is available to download here (287Kb).

 

The authors argue that studies of the advantages of local food aid procurement should not end with this report, but that more evidence must still be gathered, both to demonstrate the extent of positive impacts on development and to guide approaches to local procurement so that such impacts can be maximized.

 

For more information on food aid procurement policies and their impact, contact David Walker (D.J.Walker@gre.ac.uk) or Dr Rick Hodges (R.J.Hodges@gre.ac.uk).

 

Diversification in coffee exporting countries

June 2006

 

NRI has prepared a report on the workshop it organized on 24 May 2006 during the 95th Session of the International Coffee Council. The Workshop, hosted by the International Coffee Organization (ICO) in London and funded by the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), addressed “The Potential for Diversification in Coffee Exporting Countries.” The Workshop was part of the second phase of the ICO/CFC international project “Worldwide Comparative Analysis of Coffee-Growing Areas” for which NRI is the project executing agency. This phase of the project aims to identify the conditions for successful diversification, and to produce a tool (DECCA - Diversification of Enterprises in Coffee Countries and Areas) that can be used by policy makers to enable the design and implementation of operationally feasible programmes that: accelerate the process of diversification; remove constraints; and significantly improve the livelihoods of poor people.

 

The Workshop was attended by representatives of ICO, CFC, UNCTAD and the Coffee Board of India, together with many representatives of coffee producing and consuming countries, including NGOs and private sector organizations. Presentations were made by NRI economists (Dr Peter Greenhalgh, Dr Anne Talontire, Mr Ulrich Kleih, Dr Junior Davis), the CFC project manager (Mr Caleb Dengu) and project partners from India (Dr Y Raghuramulu), Malawi (Mr France Gondwe), Uganda (Mr Apollo Kamugisha) and Zimbabwe (Mr Julius Mathende). After hearing an overview of the ICO/CFC project and a summary of its main findings and recommendations, projects partners gace summaries of the seven country case-studies from Honduras, India, Malawi, Nicaragua, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The general discussion touched on many aspects of diversification, including: intercropping, especially in relation to shade coffee production; alternative cropping (such as reforestation) in areas where coffee production is only economically viable when world coffee prices are high; the drivers of diversification in subsistence systems where coffee farmers have little interaction with markets; and global issues such as the growth in world demand for coffee, the diversity of coffee producers, and international negotiations on carbon credit issues relating to coffee production.

 

Sack of coffee in front of a coffee bush in Uganda. © University of Greenwich	Coffee planted with banana and orange. Photo courtesy of Dr Y Raghuramulu, Coffee Board of India. © University of Greenwich

An overview of the Workshop was presented to the International Coffee Council by Dr Peter Greenhalgh on the following day, and NRI’s written report of the Workshop will be included in the Council’s main report of its 95th Session meeting. The final report of the ICO/CFC diversification project will be available shortly on the NRI website. Key proposals from the Workshop and subsequent feedback have been incorporated into its recommendations and its final chapter on “The Way Forward”.

 

 

 

 

For more information about the project and the Workshop, contact the Adrienne Martin.

 

Rats and Human Health in Africa

May 2006

 

An international workshop on rats and human health is being held in the Republic of South Africa on 4-5 May. Experts from around the world will be gathering at the Pestana Kruger Lodge in Malelane, Mpumalanga Province, to talk about the growing numbers of rodents and the diseases they carry. The workshop is being organized as part of a European-funded research project based in South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. For the past three years, the project’s African and European scientists have been working together to study the impact of rodent-vectored diseases on people’s health and livelihoods. The multidisciplinary team consists of ecologists, epidemiologists, anthropologists, economists and environmental scientists, who have been carrying out surveillance for the presence of diseases in rats as well as people, in an attempt to understand what puts people at risk of contracting diseases from rodents. The results of their work, and of other internationally renowned experts, will be presented at the workshop.

 

“Mastomys natalensis, a rat that carries diseases including plague, leptospirosis and toxoplasmosis” © University of Greenwich

Rodents are important vectors for zoonoses, and can act as reservoirs for more than 60 different diseases that can affect people. For example, bubonic plague is endemic in many countries around the world and more than 90% of all human cases reported to the World Health Organization occur in southern African countries. There are growing global concerns about communicable diseases, particularly as climate change, urbanization and agricultural intensification may cause some zoonoses to spread – emerging or re-emerging in areas thought to be free of such disease. As was seen with SARS, improved transport linkages from rural to urban settlements and increased international travel can lead to widespread zoonotic outbreaks when a disease is transmitted from person to person. Sanitary and housing conditions in many African cities can encourage large rat populations that can potentially spread diseases to people.

 

The technical coordinator of the project, Dr Steven Belmain of NRI, says “Rodent pest problems tend to be underestimated by the authorities, mainly because they lack adequate information on the true impact of rodents on our lives. We simply don’t know enough about diseases such as leptospirosis, and it is quite likely that some rodent-borne diseases are misdiagnosed as more common diseases such as malaria. We hope that our workshop will go some way towards raising awareness among key stakeholders and begin a process of improving the surveillance, diagnostics and rodent management actions required.”

 

For more information about the project, contact Dr Steven Belmain (S.R.Belmain@gre.ac.uk).

 

Agricultural Curricula for Tajikistan Universities

April 2006

 

At a Seminar in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on 4-6 April 2006, subject packs for 17 new courses were handed over to staff of Tajikistan Agrarian University in the latest phase of an EC-funded Tempus Tacis project led by David Walker of NRI, with partners from the Netherlands (University of Larenstein) and Uzbekistan (Bukhara Technological Institute of Food and Light Industry, and the Bukhara Bank and Economics College), to develop and disseminate up-to-date and relevant curricula in the economics of agricultural commodities.
The subject packs for the new courses have been written in Russian and will be used in the undergraduate teaching programmes of Tajikistan Agrarian University and by other universities in Tajikistan. The courses cover many aspects of the economics of production and marketing of a range of commodities relevant to Tajikistan’s agro-economic development.

 

Project leader David Walker (back row, 3rd from right) and other delegates after the Seminar in Dushanbe © University of Greenwich

 

The seminar, entitled “Dissemination of New Curricula for the Economics of Agricultural Commodities and Experiences of an EU Tempus Tacis Project”, was attended by about 30 delegates including representatives from the project’s partner institutions (in the UK, the Netherlands and Uzbekistan) and staff of Tajikistan Agrarian University.

 

The first phase of this programme was focused on developing new curricula in agro-commodity economics for use by the two Uzbekistan partner institutions in Bukhara. David Walker explains “The curricular material that we had developed was prepared as practical subject packs in the Uzbek language, and these teaching packs were then disseminated and extended to 10 vocational colleges and 22 universities throughout Uzbekistan. Following the success of this work in Uzbekistan, we have now been adapting and supplementing the material for the needs of Tajikistan, including translation into Russian.”

 

For more information about this project, contact David Walker (D.J.Walker@gre.ac.uk).

Information for Indian Farmers via the Internet

March 2006

 

 

© University of Greenwich

A series of training workshops will be held in India on 18-31 March as part of an NRI-led collaborative project, Telesupport, that aims to help Indian farmers to share best practice and receive advice through internet access at village information centres. The workshop topics include ‘Documenting Good Practices’, ‘Web-based Information Management’ and ‘Video Production’.

The Telesupport project, running from November 2005 to December 2006 and funded by the EU-India Economic Cross Cultural Programme, is developing and testing a model for two-way communication between rural communities in selected regions of India, and European and Indian knowledge centres and networks, in order to find solutions to local problems in agriculture and natural resources management.

 

“Village information centres in West Bengal and Kerala will be upgraded for internet access, and local farmers will be encouraged to share their expertise and document their work,” says NRI’s Telesupport project leader Dr Tim Chancellor. “Local people will also be taught how to produce videos highlighting good practice in agriculture, which could be viewed over the internet by farmers at the information centres.” A panel of agricultural experts will also provide real-time answers to farmers’ questions, and there will be forums for discussing farming issues.

 

The project’s partners hope that this initiative will enable Indian farmers more easily to share their experiences and knowledge, and will help them to gain expert advice on topics ranging from soil fertility to pest management.

 

For more information, visit the Telesupport website or contact Dr Tim Chancellor (T.C.B.Chancellor@gre.ac.uk).

ISTRC’s 14th Tropical Root Crops Symposium

February 2006

 

The International Society for Tropical Root Crops (ISTRC) has announced that its 14th Triennial Symposium will be held at the Central Tuber Crops Research Institute in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India, on 20-26 November 2006. The Symposium will be jointly organized by ISTRC with the Central Tuber Crops Research Institute and the Indian Society for Root Crops.

 

Processing cassava roots © University of Greenwich

 

ISTRC’s President and NRI’s Director of Research, Prof. Andrew Westby, said “We are delighted that India has agreed to host the next Triennial Symposium of the Society. India’s record in root crops research is exceptional. These crops make a significant contribution to income generation, sustainable development and household food security in many developing countries. Research and development initiatives play a major role in determining the contribution that these commodities can make to poverty reduction, and hence to achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The Symposium provides an important opportunity to bring together international experts to review progress and develop strategies which will ensure that the potential of these crops can be built upon.”

 

Download the First Announcement, including the Pre-Registration Form, as a .pdf file [296Kb]. Pre-Registration forms should be submitted by 15 March 2006. For further information about ISTRC, contact Prof. Andrew Westby (A.Westby@gre.ac.uk).

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