Most people have a complex rela-tionship with mountains. Even ifyou have never seen one in the
flesh, as it were, they probably conjure up
feelings of both awe and reassurance in you.
Rightly so. They tower above us, strong and
solid in our minds and eyes, yet are as frag-
ile as an eggshell. They seem to entice us,
drawing out the explorer in us, prompting
one climber to explain why he wanted to
reach the world’s highest peak, Everest, with
the all-embracing “Because it’s there.”
They may fall in pieces on top of us if we
go too close, they may release their waters
in floods that bring both fear and fertility
to the people on the plain, they may har-
bour and host essential species. When it is
hot and humid on the plain, those of us
with the time and the means often retreat
to the hills. When we can, we settle there,
to be above the noise, or safe from the
threats of unknown animals and unfriendly
tribes and we often place our capital cities
on mountains. From the palace on the peak
of Antananarivo in Madagascar, now lost
perhaps to history, to the Redhills of
Jamaica’s Kingston, or the micro-cities of
the Hopi nation on the flattops of Arizoni-
an summits, we seek refuge in mountains.
There are many definitions of a moun-
tain. According to South African sources, a
mountain is an area of above 425 metres of
elevation, but the degree of the slope –
some say more than 10% – counts too.
Mountains and highlands occupy an
important part in the agricultural scenario
and the ecology of a significant number of
ACP States. 
In the greater Caribbean area, Jamaica’s
famed Blue Mountains are host to a rich
biodiversity, the nation’s water supply and a
controlled small number of farmers. To the
SPORE 96 • PAGE 1
Mountain development
The mountain is coming to you 1
Shifting cultivation
Ready for the next shift? 3
Market information services
Mr Two Percent, 
what hope do you have? 4
IN BRIEF 6
LINKS 10
PUBLICATIONS 11
BETWEEN US 14
VIEWPOINT
Poverty eradication
From dream to reality: 
hope in the Sahel 16
Website: www.cta.nl
Information 
for agricultural 
development 
in ACP countries
Number 96
DECEMBER 2001
In this issue
We all leave footprints
on our journey through
life. You can never erase your
footprints yourself without twisting
your ankles or bending over
backwards, or walking round in circles.
Footprints in agriculture are poorly
viewed. At micro-level, they seem to
cause an unwelcome degree of soil
compaction. And for the macro-
ecologists, they impose the weight of
one economy on another. 
So, should we stop walking altogether,
or should we be much more careful
about where and how we tread?
Maybe there’s some guidance in our
opening article about mountains, and
the ambiguity of our impact and
dependence on them. Or some
pointers in the article about the slash-
and-burn of roaming farmers. 
This issue also clears the path through
a maze of information, publications,
news and views to help make the
difference in your work. Using market
information services, trading sorrel,
selling flowers, growing moringa,
enhancing masau fruit, reviving sisal
and sweetening sorghum bread. And
much more. All footprints of
someone’s experience. Spore follows
these tracks for you.
Ph
ot
o 
B.
 M
oi
zo
 ©
 IR
D
Mountain development
The mountain 
is coming to you
We all need mountains, and should stand back and treat them with
the utmost respect. Welcome to 2002, the Year of the Mountain.
east, the island of Hispanola is home to
both the Dominican Republic and Haiti,
with the latter’s massive problems of pover-
ty-driven, uncontrolled erosion. In the
Pacific, Papua New Guinea is seriously
mountainous, with peaks reaching with
more than 5000 m; more than 2 million
people live in PNG’s highlands. 
In Africa, as well as the isolated peaks of
West and Central Africa such as in
Cameroon, there are the complex moun-
tain areas of eastern Africa, highlighted in
Kenya and Ethiopia’s highlands, and the
mountain ranges of southern Africa, from
Angola and Namibia across to Lesotho.
South Africa is 20% highlands and moun-
tains. In the Indian Ocean, there are moun-
tains of note in Mauritius and the
Comoros; Madagascar’s inland chain hosts
a unique and collaps-
ing biodiversity. One-
tenth of Africa’s surface
area is mountainous, and
home to about 110 million peo-
ple, with a range of agricultural problems
specific to that geography. A further 160
million people in Africa depend on moun-
tains for their water supply.
Go till it on the mountain
The agriculture of the mountain is a com-
plex one, even if it is largely subsistence.
Sometimes – in Africa in particular – the
mountain has provided a more reliable and
fertile (humid!) livelihood than some dry
lowlands, and agriculture has taken root.
Complicated systems of cultivation and
water catchment and distribution accom-
pany refined methods of pasture manage-
ment and livestock logistics. The similari-
ties of many agricultural practices across
different mountain regions in the world is
striking. The transhumance ceremonies of
moving livestock to summer mountain pas-
tures in the Causses of southern France take
place in an environment of terraced valleys
and tiny plots packed with fruit trees and
onion plants which is reminiscent of the
Ethiopian highlands, Peru’s Golden valley,
the Hunza valley in Asia’s Hindu Kush and
the highland rice fields of Madagascar.
Because of their relative isolation, moun-
tain communities are often particularly rich
and retentive of their culture, and agricul-
tural practices. Where a rural lowland
dweller has nothing but an emotional tug
to stop him leaving his village for the
promises and disappointments of city life,
a mountain farmer will think a hundred
times before going down the slope to the
lowlands. Instead s/he will try to go up, cut-
ting more trees for firewood, terracing more
slopes in defiance of gravity. The push
upwards is driven largely by the upward
surge of population growth.
Yet one day, as has been happening for
several decades at sometimes alarming rates,
the mountain will not tolerate such intense
handling. The soils will erode, causing hor-
rific problems of silting and flooding on the
over-populated and fertile lowland plains.
Entire livelihoods, communities, will be lit-
erally washed away. 
When man goes to the mountain
The need then is to modulate the impact
of man on mountains, a process currently
called ‘Mountain development’. This high-
ly selective strategy can have three
major objectives. Firstly, to pro-
vide a sound, sustainable liveli-
hood to a limited popula-
tion, whether in agriculture
or other activities such as
handicrafts or ecotourism.
Secondly, to prevent eco-
nomic and environmental
migration to seemingly
more hospitable climates
below and, thirdly, to protect,
preserve and help to strengthen
the mountain ecology. 
The maintenance of a sound ecosystem
upstream can mitigate disaster downstream.
It also provides a habitat for the species
which contribute to biodiversity and it
allows for inter-mountain “eco-friendly”
corridors along which species can migrate
as their home ecozones alter under the
influence of climate change. Finally, moun-
tain forests can absorb carbon dioxide from
the atmosphere and thus help to reduce the
global warming effects of so-called green-
house gases. In that special way of we
humans, where we assign tasks to other
parts of nature as if they were there merely
to serve the human race, we call these
forests ‘carbon sinks’. 
Not, though, that it is all give and no
take: mountains are as much affected by
the continuous process of climate change
as anywhere else. In many areas, mountains
are getting warmer – the famous snow-cap
on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is pre-
dicted to disappear within fifteen years. It
is on Kilimanjaro’s foothills that the bur-
geoning African Mountains Association is
establishing itself as a centre to promote
more mountain-friendly development
practice.
Because they are there
Mountains provide a decent home to a rel-
atively small numbers of rural people, and
other species. They have their role to play,
agriculturally speaking, in food security,
genetic diversity, and income generation.
That status should be maintained – there-
fore there should be neither policies which
lead to total depopulation, because that
places excessive pressure on other areas, nor
policies of deliberate settlement, because
the mountain is too fragile and quickly hos-
tile for more people.
In the eyes of a macro-policy maker, the
standard toolkit for rural development can
apply, but it will not suffice. Participation,
empowerment, community development,
low-scale credit and savings schemes, stake-
holder dialogues – all of these processes can
thrive even more than in the lowlands,
because social cohesion, and failing that,
social control, tend to be much stronger in
mountain communities. 
However, additional attention has to be
paid to the aspects of isolation and remote-
ness, in particular to infrastructure. For pro-
duce and livestock to reach external markets,
and inputs to be imported, the routes are
longer, more arduous and more expensive.
The infamous ‘last mile’ in telecommunica-
tions – and this applies to all forms of com-
munications – is always going to be tougher,
longer and dearer in the mountains. That
said, current advances in satellite communi-
cation are fast removing remoteness in terms
of access to information. This can have its
benefits in, for example, agricultural prac-
tice and market information, although there
may be an erosion of local indigenous
knowledge and cultural values. 
Like all minorities, the important thing
is to get noticed, listened to and responded
to fairly. The people and other species of
the mountain are perhaps the furthest away
from the mindset of the development plan-
ner and policy maker, but they should not
be forgotten. Taking care of their particular
needs will, literally and figuratively, have
positive consequences downstream.
Because they are there.
For further information:
Year of the Mountain 2002 secretariat.
Website:www.mountains2002.org
The mountain forum. 
Website: www.mtnforum.org
African Mountains Association (AMA)
c/o Department of Agricultural Engeneering
University of Nairobi
PO Box 30197
Nairobi, Kenya
Email: fgichuki@cgiar.org
The montain is coming to you • 
SPORE 96 • PAGE 2
There are limits to what
mountains can take, and
what they can give,
bountiful as they are
Ph
ot
o 
S.
 S
pr
ag
ue
 (
le
ft
) 
an
d 
G
. 
M
an
sfi
el
d 
©
 P
an
os
 P
ic
tu
re
s
Mountain development requires a sensitive
balance between human and other natural
interests:
• recognition of the limits of human 
settlement
• adaption of traditions to further reduce
erosion and loss of vegetation
• promotion of economic incentives and
communications facilities
• recognition by policy-makers
F or thousands of years, shifting culti-vation has fed many, and it contin-ues to support the livelihoods of
300 million people worldwide. And that
is a conservative estimate. It can be
defined in numerous ways but it is best
described as a practice whereby farmers
clear a patch of forest or savanna, often
using fire to release the nutrients for
growing crops, and then alternate periods
of cultivation with periods of fallow, dur-
ing which the forest and soil fertility are
allowed to be restored, while the farmers
shift to a new patch. Besides having many
names, – milpa in Belize, swidden on
Niue or chitemene in southern and central
Africa – this way of farming has many
faces, which for a long time were not
recognised but lumped together. 
The general belief has been that in
cases of low population densities and
abundant forests, the periods of fallow
were long enough to make this method
of farming sustainable. Steady population
growth during the twentieth century was
assumed to have increased the pressure
on the forest, unacceptably shortening
fallow periods. This also led to soil deple-
tion and shrinking forests and forced
farmers to move to more marginal lands.
Combine this with agriculture being
modernised and intensified, and needing
to meet growing demands for food, and
it seems not so strange that shifting culti-
vation was denounced as irrational and
destructive. This has certainly been true
in part but research in the 1990s found
that it might be a pity to throw out the
baby with the bathwater.
Limiting their shifts
The lessons were not slow in coming. The
Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn Pro-
gramme, coordinated by the International
Centre for Research in Agroforestry
(ICRAF), was established in 1992 on the
basis of assumptions similar to those
described above. They did not entirely
hold true. Case studies around the world
indicated that although more than 15 mil-
lion ha of tropical moist forests disap-
peared each year due to slash-and-burn
farming, only 17% of the shifting cultiva-
tors cleared actual primary forest and an
even smaller percentage eventually
brought about a permanent treeless form
of land use. Increased deforestation is
more likely to be the result of civil war,
drought, market mechanisms and govern-
ment policies than of slash-and-burn. For
instance, changes from communal to pri-
vate ownership of land is giving way to
loggers, miners, plantation farmers and
cattle ranchers, at the same time literally
stopping the shifting cultivators in their
tracks. This applies less to central Africa,
where deforestation in the forest fringes of
the Congo basin is indeed largely caused
by smallholder agriculture. Yet there are
other reasons for farmers to abandon shift-
ing cultivation and to adopt a sedentary
way of farming: the vicinity of markets,
schools and infrastructure also encourages
people to settle. 
Low yielding but stable
No two farmers are the same, and shift-
ing cultivation is not one uniform way of
farming. The Overseas Development
Institute, a UK based research body,
points out that indigenous communities,
who often live in remote areas, have
developed their way of farming over gen-
erations and apply long fallow periods
and complex farm management practices.
Each decision is carefully taken on the
basis of sound agronomic criteria, result-
ing in a low yielding but stable and sus-
tainable food production. On the other
hand there are the new settlers, often
nearer to urban areas, who focus on
short-term gains from cash crops, use
short fallow periods until the soil is
depleted, or just move on and on. 
In between these two extremes, there is a
continuum of farming men and women
who shift part of their operations once in a
while but return later. In forests, which can
sustain the existing population of shifting
cultivators, the practice even contributes
positively to the system’s biodiversity. In
these cases it is crucial that the mosaic of
patches in different stages of fallow, forest
cover and cultivation does not get too frag-
mented and threaten any of the natural tree
species in their survival.
Where the shifting cycle cannot be main-
tained, a conversion to sedentary agro-
forestry cultivation systems can be an
option too. The central issue here is to
maintain soil fertility more effectively. In
recent years a whole spectrum of viable
alternatives to expensive chemical fertilis-
ers has become available. For instance
improved fallow techniques which enrich
the natural fallow vegetation through the
planting of nitrogen-fixing and multipur-
pose trees to improve soil productivity.
Applying manure from livestock, green
manuring, mulching, planting cover crops
for inter-cropping and alley farming are
other examples. Agroforestry systems can
be good alternatives too, such as multi-
storey cultivation, systems that allow nat-
ural tree species to rejuvenate alongside
annual crops and economic trees. It would
not harm to lend an ear to the traditional
shifting cultivators themselves or, as Paul
Sillitoe of the University of Durham in
England argues, to combine anthropolog-
ical research with soil science. His work
explained how the Wola of Papua New
Guinea have developed their own sustain-
able system while avoiding their tradition-
ally long fallow periods. They grow non-
perennial crops semi-permanently by
incorporating compost from grassy fallows
into soil mounds, with sweet potato as a
staple crop.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Trees and multistorey agriculture in Africa
H Dupriez & Ph de Leneer 
CTA / Terre et Vie. 1998. 280 pp. 
ISBN 92 9081 1781
CTA number 860. 40 credit points
SPORE 96 • PAGE 3
Shifting cultivation
Ready for 
the next shift?
Is shifting cultivation (slash-and-burn) just inefficient, and
destructive of the soil and local biodiversity? Or does it also offer
promising models?
• Shifting cultivation
In Guinea (top), people grow the restorative
Pueraria to shorten the fallow period after the
cycle of slashing, burning and growing rice.
Mixed cropping – here in Seychelles – 
is another option
Ph
ot
o 
Lo
um
a 
pr
od
uc
tio
ns
 
Ph
ot
o 
FA
O
We all have at least
one, locked up in
the cupboard of
our memories. The
Marketing Board.
Remember it? It’s
not that long ago
that they were
being wound up, as part of the text-book
practices and prescriptions of those fresh-
faced visitors from somewhere out in
outer space known as Structural Adjust-
ment. How many shed a tear when ‘their’
board folded? Did you?
Not that the Marketing Boards were real-
ly theirs, for they did not belong in reality
to the individual farmer or trader. No, it
was more the other way around, or at least
seemed to be, if the truth be told. Normal-
ly the boards – for all sorts of commodities
- were statal bodies, some with private par-
SPORE 96 • PAGE 4
scurried for cover, like beetles from an
overturned stone, uncertain of where, and
on what terms, to buy their inputs and sell
their outputs. Traders, more flush with
cash and confidence than most farmers,
were able to dictate prices for a while.
Gradually, market services were devel-
oped and put in place, often by enterpris-
ing former officers of the defunct boards
or civil servants. In so doing they demon-
strated yet again that wherever there is
some sure supply and some tangible
demand there is a market. And a market
for market information services there sure-
ly was. It is a new way of organising what
has to be one of the oldest professions in
the world – the middleman (or woman),
the broker. Whether we are looking at the
trade routes along the coast of West Africa,
dominated for thousands of years by bro-
kers from Benin and Phoenicia (Lebanon
in today’s terms), or the inroads made in
ticipation at the beginning, and many of
them being gradually, or abruptly, priva-
tised as their numbers were being written
ever more clearly on the wall. 
“At least you knew where you were with
the board, though” is a common refrain to
be heard in any discussion of a group of
farmers when the talk turns to nostalgia.
In an way of life that must seem alien to
people below the age of twenty, they were
part of the ‘cradle to grave’ philosophy of
an overbearing top-down economic
approach. The board provided the farmer
with seeds and tools, set production quo-
tas, fixed prices, made loans, paid out fixed
earnings, provided training and extension
services and settled scores. Not only did the
farmer know where he stood (the board
tended to deal more with men than women
farmers), but so did traders, processors and
the Minister of Finance, who were assured
in advance of prices and revenues. At times,
it seemed that the only uncertainty was the
weather, since even the most powerful
board could not regulate that, though some
may have wanted to do so.
Bye bye board, hallo market
And then, one day, the marketing boards
were gone, and the market place stood
unfamiliarly empty. Producers literally
Made in Mozambique
In Maputo, the Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Development operates an agricultur-
al  MIS known as SIMA. SIMA produces a
weekly bulletin ‘Quente Quente’, and a
monthly report. It provides price informa-
tion on 25 products in 27 producer, whole-
sale and retail markets throughout the
country, as well as regional and interna-
tional prices of selected commodities and
well-presented market commentary. 
Ministério da Agricultura e Desenvolvimento
Rural (MADER)
CP 1406, Maputo, Mozambique
Fax: +258 1 46 0055 
Website: www.map.gov.mz
FoodNet
The FoodNet project in Uganda is a joint
venture involving, amongst others,  gov-
ernment services, the International Insti-
tute of Tropical Agriculture, and CTA.
The particular interest in the MIS operated
by FoodNet is the way it seeks to serve
macro-level interests (policy makers and
large traders) as well as a micro-level thrust
aiming to provide localised information to
small-scale producers and traders. The
micro-MIS has focused initially on pilot sites
for maize, beans and root crops, with
information flows using local radio, email
and classical print media.
A similar attempt, involving the govern-
ments of Jamaica and the Netherlands, and
local financial and information agencies,
was made ten years ago in Jamaica to link
micro- and macro-levels in a micro-enter-
prise development project. That project
also launched a modest trade information
service. The lessons learned at micro-level
had to be translated into macro-level poli-
cy, hence the all-important emphasis on
support and training of stakeholders at dif-
ferent levels in communication.
Market information services
Mr Two Percent, 
what hope 
do you have?
The smart market information service (MIS) combines 
market prices with the farmer’s savvy. We look at some success
stories which have made some farmers very happy indeed, 
but how long can it all last? Pho
to
s 
D
.L
ai
né
 ©
 C
os
m
os
 a
nd
 K
A
C
E,
 K
en
ya
Ph
ot
o 
E.
 D
ao
u
The Mali Market 
The Mali Market Information Project (Pro-
jet d’appui au système du marché agricole
– PASIDMA) brings together the APCAM
Assembly of Chambers of Agriculture of
Mali with United States aid and academic
support.  In addition to setting up net-
works to collect and make accessible mar-
ket information, including using rural radio
and the Internet, its major focus is in train-
ing farmer groups about how to use short-
term market outlook material in deciding
when to sell their surpluses. This has
involved partnerships between the private
sector and the gradually devolving public
bodies. Their initial project period of three
years was dominated by a painstaking pro-
cess of analysing users’ needs, covering
farmers/herders, traders, food processors
and consumers. As they entered their sec-
ond phase late in 2001, the question still
remained: how can this activity become
donor-independent? 
PASIDMA
S/c Observatoire de Marché Agricole
BP E5589, Bamako, Mali
Fax: +223 21 40 73
Email: dembelen@pilot.msu.edu 
• Market information systems
SPORE 96 • PAGE 5
the Horn of Africa all the way to the Great
Lakes by traders from Oman and Gujarat,
long before the first fresh-faced wave of
European colonialism, or at the cattle and
meat commodities markets in Brazil and
the mid-West of America, you’ll always
find one on the first boat or bus in.
For many producers, processors and
purchasers on the ACP food chain, the last
two decades have seen more changes to
their use of markets and market informa-
tion than just the loss of stable prices and
certain supplies. The dropping of tariff
barriers and duties, and the overall liberal-
isation of trade has led to increased com-
petition from producers elsewhere in the
world. In essence, to be able to compete
fairly is a fairer system, but such was the
effect of the ingrained protection of mar-
keting boards that their removal has led to
squeals of ‘unfair and unjust’. In a very real
sense, the emergence of MIS has helped
to lessen the pain.
The rude awakening has led to the need for
greater market alertness, and dealing with
the associated practices of just-in-time
delivery, and out-sourcing of products and
services. With global, literally planet-wide,
ordering networks and delivery chains now
in place, it is possible for even a small and
previously isolated ACP producer, or group
of producers, to hook into distant markets.
But you have to know how.
To maximise these opportunities, a smart
producer will also want to follow trends in
hitherto unknown markets. It is no longer
enough to
know the ‘dead
certainties’: for
a Kenyan fruit
grower to
know that the
British have a massive surge in strawberry
consumption during the June weeks of ten-
nis at Wimbledon, or the Zimbabwean hor-
ticulturist to know that the annual peak of
all flower purchases in Austria is in the week
in September that secondary school exami-
nation results are announced. These dates
are known years in advance. 
More than that, a smart mango produc-
er in, say, Mali, may want to know not only
what fruits are
in fashion in
Europe this
year, but what
produce is
being prepared
for promotion
next year?
What are the
Brazilians up
to? A women’s
jam making
cooperative in
Grenada may
want to know
what the pro-
jected volumes
of tourist arrivals are for the coming season
not only in their own country but in neigh-
bouring countries too. Is UNIDO helping
a British supermarket owner set up a large
jam factory that could spell doom for
them? 
Any level, any produce, 
but not any price
The task of an MIS is, therefore, much
more than simply to provide price informa-
tion to producers, and offers of supply to
purchasers. As MISs establish themselves in
most ACP countries, the first challenge is
to define the scope of its coverage, in man-
ageable amounts and periods. Scoring on
the market place means exploiting your
comparative advantage as a supplier, or
being better informed than any other
potential purchaser. An MIS can operate at
any level, handle any type of produce or
inputs, deal with any volumes; the more
complex the demands of the trading par-
ties, the greater the complexity of the sys-
tem. The tendency is therefore to comput-
erise, and to link up a local MIS with
similar MISs in other localities, and with
national and international networks. This
can place an MIS under technical stress.  
The converse can be true too, with high-
ly capitalised MISs following the sadly
repeated path of many development pro-
jects of being excessively ambitious, over-
manned, over-financed and under-used.
Several services in the Caribbean and West
Africa run the risk of being ‘coffee-table’
exercises, of no use to farmers or to traders
in the market place. Yet again, with a more
measured and modulated approach to pro-
ject design, some basic market research and
an understanding of local conditions, many
efforts could be much better focussed.
Who pays in the end?
The prime challenge to establishing and
keeping an effective and sustainable MIS is
not in getting the technical mix right: it is
in achieving financial viability. This is going
to have to rely largely on generating income
from its users, along the age-old lines of the
market place. In some MISs, such as that
operated by KACE in Kenya, the standard
fee for brokering a transaction is 2% of the
agreed sale price. With that sort of fee, there
is obviously going to be a temptation for
MIS operators to live from being a trading
enterprise itself, or from sub-letting its facil-
ities for other uses, or offering technical ser-
vices. Fair enough, if it can be managed, but
the clear risk is that the attention paid to
necessary information will wane, and the
quality of service to the stakeholder farmer
will worsen.
Income from users, as with any network
at a given stage of its development, depends
on their satisfaction and continued ‘loyal-
ty’. In that sense, the idea of providing
‘value-adding’ services to price information
is a sensible way to build up user loyalty,
and thus turnover. The problem arises when
users are savvy enough to do their own deals
directly, without any broker service. When
the MIS has no more tricks or special infor-
mation up its sleeve, it will wither and die.
That was not the point of all the investment
made in these services. The next step, then,
is to help MIS operators to adapt them-
selves to the changing market place and to
stay one step ahead of the competition.
Which is where they came in.
For more information, see section Links
The case of KACE 
On a typical weekday morning, the trading
floor of the Kenya Agricultural Commodity
Exchange at the Jamhuri Show Ground in
Nairobi bustles with farmers, brokers and
traders. Up on the boards, based on faxed
and computer-delivered data, are the
offers of farmers from various regions to
supply all sorts of produce: maize, millet,
dry maize, potatoes, ripe bananas (KACE
has introduced a banana-ripening plant to
help farmers target their sales), beans and
sorghum. KACE now has almost 150 mem-
bers, and the numbers are growing by the
month.
After a good three years of gradual expan-
sion, KACE is confident of the future. Their
main concern, confided to Spore by a staff
member, is in enabling the farmers to learn
the rules of the game, and to accept mar-
ket prices, even if they want higher.
KACE
PO Box 59142, Nairobi, Kenya 
Fax: +254 2 441831 — Email: kace@arcc.or.ke
I fixed my price through
the MIS
Street markets work for
mamas and middlemen, but
there may be better deals on
the trading floor
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SPORE 96 • PAGE 6
Malawian women win
■ July 2001, Jesse Kaunde, an
entrepreneurial woman farmer
from Malawi, was presented in
the name of all women farmers
in the country with the African
Woman Food Farmer Award of
the Hunger Project, worth US$
200,000. In 1993, with a US$ 600
loan from the National
Association of Business Women
of Malawi, Kaunde attended a
fish farming course and
constructed a fish dam. She has
three dams and sells fish on the
market and fingerlings to other
women fish farmers. What’s
more, she is one of the few
farmers using gravity irrigation
for her crops. She cannot
dispose of the award money
herself – that has been added
to a national fund for small
loans to women farmers.
A fine cup of coffee
■ Persuading the coffee world
that East African coffees have a
high quality and special taste is,
in short, what the new East
African Fine Coffee Association
(EAFCA) aims to do. Low prices
for normal coffees and higher
ones for high quality coffee, led
to 150 producers, coffee
authorities and traders of
Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya,
Mozambique, Rwanda,
Tanzania and Uganda attending
EAFCA’s first general meeting in
June 2001. Country committees,
a market information system
and the EAFCA secretariat will
be funded by USAID.
✍ EAFCA 
PO Box 21679 
Kampala
Uganda 
Fax: +256 41 343 692 
Email: fkawuma@eafca.org
Website: www.eafca.org
Now the Web is yours
■ Is your organisation looking
for top quality, professional and
sympathetic online guidance on
how to make the best use of the
Internet? A new Website,
designed especially for civil
society organisations,
telecentres and the like, in
developing countries, was
launched end-November 2001. It
is a really useful resource centre,
with more than 20+ sections
covering as little or as much as
you want to know: Email basics,
databases, multilingualism, Web
strategies, training (of trainers)
and much more. You can
download all you want. It is
free, accessible and – important
in these days of change – robust.
Operated by six trustworthy
organisations active in the field,
often mentioned in Spore (APC,
Bellanet, IICD, IISD, INASP and
OneWorld), it is already in
Spanish and English, with the
French roll-out in April 2002 and
Portuguese in planning.
Website: www.itrainonline.org
In brief •
KISS 
and tell
■A key motto for communica-
tors is “Keep It Simple, Stupid!”
or KISS in short. Sometimes
though, even information spe-
cialists cannot speak clearly,
and they end up transmitting
convoluted and confused mes-
sages. This is lazy, since it often
takes a lot of hard work to make
a complex subject understand-
able in simple terms. Tough,
but not impossible.
One complex topic is mea-
suring the impact information
has on agriculture (or any other
field). Take the article on mar-
keting information services in
this issue of Spore as an exam-
ple. If it helps ten MISs in ten
countries to become sustain-
able, and thus enables years of
profitable growth in agricultur-
al trade, how much is thanks to
the article? Do we include the
impact on farmers’ incomes,
and what that means for their
children’s education? If so, how
much?  The people who invest
in information, including
donor agencies, would just love
to know the answers and apply
them to their publications,
rural radio, uses of the Internet
and training seminars.
It is an inexact science, as a
meeting on ‘information impact
assessment’ in October 2001 
in Bonn, Germany, showed.
Organised by CTA and the
International Institute for
Communication and Develop-
ment with a range of specialised
partners, this technical consul-
tation made considerable
progress at helping this new
profession adopt common stan-
dards and evaluation frame-
works. They have a lot to do
still, in part in making their
work understandable to out-
siders, and especially to the
people who invest in or con-
tribute to it. Get to it, people. 
Elsewhere, the Drumbeat network,
experts in clarity, exchanges
experiences in impact assessment
and other concerns of information
professionals in development.
✍ Drumbeat – the Communication
Initiative
5148 Polson Terrace
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
V8Y 2C4
Fax: +1 250 658 1728
Email: wfeek@comminit.com
Website: www.comminit.com
■ “The farmer knows best, and if
s/he doesn’t know all the options,
then let’s make more information
available” was the message ema-
nating from a workshop on
‘Incentive measures for sustain-
able use and conservation of
Agrobiodiversity’ held in Lusaka,
Zambia, in mid-September
2001. The encounter was collec-
tively organised by the SADC
Plant Genetic Resource Centre,
CTA and the international part-
ners GTZ, IDRC and SIDA,
and pooled the skills of 74 par-
ticipants from 16 countries in
eastern, central and southern
Africa and Europe, India and
Japan. The topic was discussed in
the main article of Spore 90.
As well as stressing govern-
ments’ roles in protecting local
intellectual property, participants
proposed a holistic mass of farm
fairs, local seed banks, awareness
building, training and informa-
tion networks to benefit farmers.
And they placed their faith in
market forces: the farmer should
conquer the niche food markets
in Africa, Europe and beyond,
where exotic fruits, vegetables
and special animal breeds can
command premium prices.
Diversifying into biodiversity
Look different, taste different, stay different 
Ph
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■A new sorghum variety with
low levels of tannin has been
developed by researchers of the
Serere Agricultural and Animal
Production Research Institute
in Uganda. Tannin gives a bit-
ter taste to common sorghums
but this variety tastes almost
sweet. It is good to use as a flour
which when mixed with wheat
flour is suitable for making
bread. Its sweet taste also
makes it a good alter-
native cereal for
animal feeds. 
The variety
is drought
resistant and
matures in less
than four months. If
managed properly, har-
vests can reach 3,000 kg
per hectare. 
After the next growing sea-
son in 2002, the Uganda Seed
Project should have enough
seeds to distribute nationwide.
In the meantime, the Serere
Institute can provide limited
amounts of seeds to farmers.
✍ Serere Agriculture Research Institute
Sorghum and Millet Unit 
Serere PO Box Soroti 
Uganda
Fax: +256 45 614 44
Email: saaridir@infocom.co.ug
Bitter tastes turn sweet
Bred for
bread
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Neem hinders pollination
■ Many people sing the praises
of the neem tree, partly
because of its insect repellent
constituents. Rightfully so.
However, its growing
popularity is causing problems
for fruit farmers with neem in
the vicinity. Its insect repelling
component (azadirachtin) keeps
insects away, thus preventing
pollination of nearby flowering
fruit trees. In 2001, a mango
plantation in Uganda failed to
fruit after neem trees, planted
in 1999, started to flower for
the first time. 
Tender boost
■ Papaya production on the Fiji
Islands has steadily increased
from 400 t in 1992 to more
than 2,600 t in 2000. The pink
fleshed Sunrise Solo is an
especially popular exportable
variety. The construction of a
heat treatment facility for
meeting pest free export
standards has boosted
production. The fruits are
exported fresh, dried and as
paste. Latex from unripe fruits
is processed locally into papain,
which is widely used as a meat
tenderiser.  
Bitter, dry and popular
■ Bitterleaf (Vernonia spp.) is,
despite its common name, a
very popular leafy vegetable,
commonly found in Nigeria,
Cameroon, Gabon and the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
Its rising popularity in and
outside its region of origin, plus
its scarcity during the dry
season, has encouraged the
Cameroon training and
research centre CFAPP to
develop a practical method for
drying and conserving the
leaves. CFAPP provides training
in this and in marketing the
end product. 
✍ CFAPP
BP 148 
Nkongsamba 
Cameroon
Fax: + 237 49 17 39
Email:
cfapp.gic@benoue.camnet.cm
Match and manage
■ The 17th World Congress of
Soil Science, to be held from 
14 to 21 August 2002 in
Thailand, will focus on
indigenous and scientific
knowledge systems. (Note: 
the 18th conference will be in
2006, in Philadelphia, USA).
✍WCSS office
Kasetsart University 
PO Box 1048 
Bangkok 10903, 
Thailand
Fax: +66 2 94 05 788
Email: o.sfst@nontri.ku.ac.th 
Website: www.17wcss.ku.ac.th
• In brief
SPORE 96 • PAGE 7
■Masau fruit or ber (Ziziphus
mauritiana) is no stranger in
many ACP countries. The tree is
believed to originate from south
Asia, but can be found through-
out Africa, and in the Caribbean
on Barbados, Guadeloupe,
Jamaica and Martinique.
Despite its name, some of its
properties and possibilities are
not widely known. With good
reason the International Centre
for Underutilised Crops has
included the masau tree in its
first set of publications on
underutilised crops. 
The masau is a multipurpose
tree, used for hedges and inter-
cropping; its leaves serve as ani-
mal fodder and its hardwood
timber is well-suited for agri-
cultural implements, building
and charcoal.
Relatively unknown is the
fruit’s high vitamin C content -
much higher than citrus - and
its high phosphorous, carotene
and calcium content. The
leaves also provide an excellent
source of vitamins C and A. To
top it all, the tree is drought
resistant, salt tolerant and
thrives on poor soils.
But the masau might not be
underutilised much longer.
Rural communities in Rushin-
ga, Zimbabwe, have started to
grow the tree commercially for
its fruit, with support of the
Southern Alliance for Indige-
nous Resources (SAFIRE).
Masau jam is already sold in
Zimbabwean supermarkets,
through the company Tulimara
Speciality Foods of Africa Ltd.
The company started produc-
ing masau jam some years ago
with fruit from pickers but will
now also use semi-processed
fruits from the Rushinga com-
munities. Trained by SAFIRE,
they clean the fruit and extract
the juice, thus earning more
than if they were selling it raw. 
The jam is heavenly, and rich in vitamin C  
Ph
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 S
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■The growth of the dairy sec-
tor in many ACP countries,
welcome as it is in terms of pro-
ducers’ income and consumers’
nutrition, is full of challenges.
Among them are issues of mar-
keting, regularity of supplies
from producers and delivery to
markets, health and hygiene,
storage and management.
In a word, the core issue is
formalisation. What used to be
an informal sector, with its
short but uncontrolled net-
works of delivery to small num-
bers of customers is now faced
with the task of organising
itself. This includes making
contracts with producers, sup-
pliers, transporters and sales
outlets; setting up and imple-
menting rigid procedures for
storage and processing of milk
products; and safe distribution. 
These major points were all
raised during a study visit to the
dairy sector in Mali undertak-
en by 18 representatives of
dairy enterprises, milk proces-
sors and support agencies in
early October 2001. Partici-
pants from eight countries in
West and Central Africa spent
12 days visiting milk collection
points, dairies, bottling plants,
and cheese and yoghurt pro-
ducers and discussing future
directions for their work. They
highlighted the value of sharing
experiences and launched an
‘African Milk forum’ to contin-
ue their discussions by email.
The visited was organised for
CTA by Gret (and local part-
ners, Sénéconseils and Service
Plus) who will be a focal point
for the follow-up activities.
✍ Gret Pôle Alimentation FCA
213 rue La Fayette
75010 Paris, France
Fax: +33 1 4005 6110
Email: dudez@gret.org
Milk it for all you can
■We thought we’d seen them
all. Often a seminar produces
stylish speeches and lyrical rec-
ommendations, but we’d never
seen a participant’s poem as the
summary report of a meeting
(although Spore Mailbox does
receive readers’ poems regularly).
Maybe it was the relief at the
end of a fortnight’s hard work
that drove the regional Ques-
tion and Answer Service (QAS)
workshop in Kingston,
Jamaica, to put its findings
into rhyme. Fifteen partici-
pants from eight Caribbean
states, with resource people
from Ghana, the Netherlands
and Trinidad and Tobago, cov-
ered all the steps of operating a
QAS (see Spore 94, section
Links). The emphasis was
heavily on human contact:
understand your clients, net-
work with your peers, market
to the target, and know your-
self – above all, what you know
and what you don’t know.
All in all, this CTA workshop
marked an important step in
the devolution of agricultural
information QASs throughout
ACP regions. The QAS service
centre at CTA (address page
15) can provide more details, a
detailed report – and the full
poem. Here’s an excerpt:
The personal touch, 
remember to share
And we’ll all agree 
it was worth being here.
Him a poet 
and boy 
he know it
Fruit, fodder and fuel
Getting the
numbers right
■Statistics. You cannot get very
far in today’s world without
statistics, but to get anywhere
you have to be sure they are
available, accessible and reli-
able. Two regional workshops
have recently addressed the spe-
cific needs of researchers in
agricultural institutions in
terms of the collection, process-
ing and analysis of statistics. In
April 2001, 17 researchers from
seven francophone countries in
West and Central Africa attend-
ed a week’s course in Cotonou,
Benin, whilst 19 East African
researchers from seven coun-
tries, came together in Dar es
salaam, Tanzania, in August
2001.
These workshops are part of
a long-term CTA programme
to strengthen institutional skills
in biometrics (the statistical
analysis of biological data) in
ACP countries, a process start-
ed with a study and a workshop
in the mid-1990’s.
Hohenheim, 1996:
Strengthening biometry and
statistics in agricultural research.
CTA, 1997. 173 pp. 
ISBN 92 9081 1676
CTA number 850. 20 credit points
■Fresh tropical fruits1 are still
winning places on world mar-
kets. While total fresh fruit pro-
duction has risen by 4% annual-
ly since 1997, some exports of
diverse fruits have grown by
more than 10% annually. The
bulk of these fruits (98%) are
grown in developing countries
and the biggest importers are the
European Union (41%) and
North America (33%). Nonethe-
less, the traded amount is only a
fraction of the total production;
less than 10% of the fresh fruits
are shipped abroad. 
More than 40% of fresh fruits
exports originate from Latin
America and the Caribbean.
Africa, 
in particular Côte d’Ivoire,
Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya and
South Africa, accounts for 14%
of world trade. 
The latest figures show that
pineapple accounts for 44% of
the total traded volume, fol-
lowed by mangoes (27%), avo-
cados (12%) and papayas (7%).
The increase in demand is
mainly thanks to the growing
familiarity of consumers with
tropical fruits; their taste, nutri-
tional value and cooking quali-
ties. Other fruits like rambutan,
lychee, carambola, passion
fruit and guava are no longer
strangers on foreign markets
either. The major hurdles for
exporters to
o v e r c o m e
are strict reg-
ulations and
s t a n d a r d s
imposed by
the importers,
i n c l u d i n g
sanitary, phy-
t o s a n i t a r y
and logistical
m a r k e t i n g
requirements.
1 excluding bananas
World 
exports of fresh 
tropical fruits (in 1000 t) 
1994-97⇤
(average) 1999 20001998
Papayas 112
Avocados 174⇤
Mangoes 371
Pineapples 699
Papayas 128
Avocados 218
Mangoes 469
Pineapples 722
Papayas 137
Avocados 221
Mangoes 498
Pineapples 798
Papayas 140
Avocados 230
Mangoes 510
Pineapples 850
A bit of statistics 
Get your fruit trees growing
An even sweeter future
■ To rehabilitate Mozambique’s
biggest sugar plant at
Marromeu, near Beira, the
owners – sugar company
Companhia de Sena SARL and
the Government of
Mozambique – received a 
US$ 12 million loan from the
Development Bank of South
Africa in September 2001. The
funds will also be used to
improve infrastructure and
establish a new sugar cane area
of more than 10,000 hectares.
Bank officials are enthusiastic
about Mozambique’s
comparative advantage as a low
cost producer. By 2003, the mill
should be able to produce
100,000 t of sugar compared to
the current 30,000 t.
Naturally online
■ Learn and share experiences
on natural resources
management (NRM) in Africa
online at Frameweb. It provides
links to online databases and
country specific information.
One user-friendly database, the
NRM tracker, in French and
English, includes detailed
information on cases and
projects on NRM. You can
upload your own project and
check if similar projects are
happening in neighbouring
countries. 
Website: www.frameweb.org
Story Time
■ Have you established a virtual
souk or a regular
videoconference with regional
training centres? Share your
ideas and experiences and learn
from other successes and
mistakes. The International
Institute for Communication 
and Development and infodev
(the Information for
Development Program) invite
you to share your experiences
with Information and
Communication Technologies
(ICTs) for development, in the
form of an annual ICT stories
competition. You can enter the
2002 competition by writing 
and submitting your story
through the Website:
www.iicd.org/stories, 
before 15 April, 2002.
Email: stories@iicd.org
Up to the tree line
■ A conference on the strengths
and weaknesses of local
community-based management
of mountain forests, will be held
in Antananarivo, Madagascar
from 1 to 30 May, 2002. 
Association des Montagnes et
des Hautes-terres Malagasy
✍ Département de Géographie
Université d’Antananarivo
BP 907
101 Madagascar
Email: flsh@syfed.refer.mg 
In brief •
SPORE 96 • PAGE 8
■ You may
know it as the
horseradish tree,
drumstick tree,
ben tree, benzolive
tree or Nebeda:
the Moringaceae
group of 14
species of which
Moringa oleifera is the best-
known. Modern enthusiasts
rediscovering Moringa call it
the ‘Miracle tree’ because of its
many uses. In Africa its leaves
are used in medicine and in
cooking, and, latterly, as dietary
supplements for AIDS/HIV
patients; in India its pods are
preferred; its oil was used in
Egypt 3,000 years ago in per-
fume, and in Jamaica 200 years
ago in cooking. The water
cleansing qualities of its dirt-
gathering (coagulant) powdered
seeds have been known for cen-
turies in Sudan, India and
Indonesia.
Encouraging its use and
expanding its cultivation from
family farms to plantation scale
were the major topics of a work-
shop on the “Development
potential for Moringa products”
held in Dar es Salaam, Tanza-
nia, from 29 October to 2
November 2001. Organised by
the plant resources network
PROPAGE, in collaboration
with CTA and four other part-
ners, it was attended by more
than 100 practitioners from
public and private bodies from
five continents.
A productive workshop it was
too (though perhaps not a mir-
acle) with 22 practical propos-
als for research on genetic
improvement, intensive cultiva-
tion, uses in fruit storage,
improved oil extraction and
market development.
Look behind you, you could discover some moringa 
Ph
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My, my moringa
Ill
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■Could it be a fairy tale?
Pineapples that are good for
everybody, farmers, traders and
consumers alike? Perhaps not.
In 1999, around 170 Ghanaian
pineapple growers organised
themselves with the prime
objective of getting a better
price for their pineapples. With
support from the World Bank,
the farmers established a con-
sortium called Farmapine,
which consists of five produc-
ers’ associations, who own 80%
of Farmapine, and two export-
ing companies, who own the
remaining 20% of the shares.
Farmapine provides its share-
holders with credit, inputs and
advice on cultivation, hygiene
and market information. An
extra advantage for the farmers
is not only higher prices, but
prompt payment, two weeks
after delivery to Farmapine.
This is much more reliable than
when they delivered to individ-
ual traders and payments were
made much later or even not 
at all. 
Farmapine also operates a
warehouse, for packing and
shipping. The two participating
trading companies were chosen
for their experience in export-
ing to the European Union
(Ghana’s major market) and
their ability to comply with a
jungle of regulations concern-
ing uses of chemicals, labour
standards, freshness, hygiene,
storage and transport. 
From a modest 9,000 t in
1992, exports to Europe in
2000 exceeded 35,000 t of
pineapples. Of this, more than
12% (or 4,000 t) was exported
by Farmapine.
✍ Farmapine
PO Box 17811
Accra
Ghana
Fax: +233 21 225 828
Ill
us
tr
at
io
n 
Lo
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pr
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A pineapple a day
Lord of the rings 
IPM and Organic courses
■ The International
Agricultural Centre is offering a
course on Development of IPM
Approaches (12 May - 9 June
2002) and parallel courses on
the Role of Pesticides in IPM,
and Organic Farming: Principles
and Applications, from 10 to 
22 June 2002. 
✍ IAC, PO Box 88, 6700 AB
Wageningen, 
The Netherlands
Fax: +31 317 495395
Email: training@iac.agro.nl
Website: 
www.iac.wageningen-ur.nl
NGOs’ nook
■ FAO’s new Webpage
designed to make FAO’s online
information and services more
accessible to NGOs, will be
useful not only for NGOs but
also for other people and
organisations. It shows the
virtual visitor around the FAO,
provides contact details of all
UN-accredited NGOs by region,
publications, links, and much
more. 
Website: www.fao.org/
tc/NGO/index_en.htm
In it together
■ Two major mergers have
recently been concluded in
international agricultural
research. The International
Board for Soil Research and
Management (IBSRAM) and the
International Water
Management Institute (IWMI)
now share headquarters at
IWMI’s current office in
Colombo, Sri Lanka, but keep
their separate names.
In the Netherlands, the
Agricultural Research Council
(DLO), the International
Agricultural Centre (IAC),
Wageningen Agricultural
University and the
International Institute for Land
Reclamation (ILRI) and others
have completed their merger
as the Wageningen University
and Research Centre
(Wageningen UR).
B2B (bull-to-bull) 
■ A bull in Baringo district,
Kenya, has taught other cattle
to eat cactus (Opuntia
megacantha) as fodder, after
the thorns have been burnt off.
According to a report from the
International Development
Research Centre, two years of
drought had created a severe
scarcity of cattle fodder when
the staff of the local NGO
Rehabilitation of Arid
Environments heard about a
cactus eating bull in the area.
They bought up the animal and
had him eat cactus in front of
some 150 cattle of different
herds.
• In brief
SPORE 96 • PAGE 9
■Sisal has many uses. Future
issues of Spore will perhaps con-
tain sisal pulp. It is one of the
two natural fibres sanctioned by
the coffee trade for use as coffee
bags (along with jute) and in
the USA lift cables must by law
contain a sisal core. More com-
mon uses are in mats, carpets
and ropes. 
Of late, competition from
artificial fibres, plastics and
cheap jute bags has been severe,
causing a steady decline in price
and output. Recently, however,
Tanzania – once the world’s
leading producer – launched a
set of measures to revamp the
sector. 
After a steady decline from
the record production level of
230,000 t in 1963, the country
now produces only 20,000 t
annually and lags behind Brazil,
China and Mexico. Tanzania’s
production also suffered from a
lack of investment in agricul-
ture and infrastructure. All the
same, the sisal sector generates
US$ 17 million total earnings
per year and employs 90,000
workers.
This might all change. The
Tanzania Sisal Board, compris-
ing government and private
sector bodies, wants to raise
production to 50,000 t by 2005
by raising efficiency, tapping
into niche markets and empha-
sising its comparative advantage
of superior quality to that of
other producing countries.
Niche markets include increas-
ing demand for degradable
wrapping material, sisal pulp in
special papers, such as ultra
lightweight printing, curren-
cies, cigarette tubes, tea bags
and specialised filters, and for
the larger market of strengthen-
ing recycled paper. The more
often paper is recycled, the
weaker it gets. To restore its
strength, woodpulp is added
but sisal pulp, with its higher
fibre content could be good
alternative if the price were
more competitive and stable
quality were guaranteed. 
In recent years the less pro-
ductive public estates in Tanza-
nia, covering 70% of the land
under sisal but only producing
25% of the country’s total, have
all been sold to private compa-
nies. An extensive market study
by HurterConsult has con-
firmed the possibilities for Tan-
zanian sisal for both niche and
commodity paper markets.
Raking in the profits 
Ph
ot
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Tanzanian sisal back off the ropes
SPORE 96 • PAGE 10
Links •
T he road to a sustainableagricultural market infor-mation service (AMIS) is
not necessarily very long but it
is full of many steps. It is also
full of many temptations which
can cause its collapse.
Experience in establishing and
running an AMIS is compara-
tively limited. Most AMISs
have been launched, usually in
a hurry (see the article Mr Two
Percent in this Spore), in the last
two decades. What are the
issues to be considered before
making any plans?
There are several definitions
of an AMIS; the safest and
surest came from the FAO in
1995: “a service, usually oper-
ated by the public sector [that
has changed in the last six
years!], which involves the col-
lection of information on prices
and, in some cases, on quanti-
ties of widely traded agricultur-
al products from rural markets
and wholesale and retail mar-
kets. It equally involves the dis-
semination of this information
on a timely and regular basis
through various media to farm-
ers, traders, government offi-
cials, policymakers and others,
including consumers.”
A lot of people may come to
depends on an effective AMIS.
Primarily, it facilitates fair
trade and competition for
farmers, by improving their
bargaining power and lowering
transaction costs. By reducing
risks and expanding access to
information it encourages
innovation by farmers (in
changing cropping patterns,
for example). It can empower
the small trader and consumer.
It can also provide key data to
policy makers on how markets
are functioning, and provide
timely data for monitoring
food security situations.
The widest spread of infor-
mation available on AMIS is on
the Agricultural Market Infor-
mation Virtual Library, www.
aec.msu.edu/agecon/fs2/market_
information.htm. This gives
access to a fine set of docu-
ments, and selected Websites
presented by region (including
Africa, from Mali to Mozam-
bique), by commodity, on mar-
ket analysis and on e-com-
merce. The Library is run by
J-C Le Vallée, Department of
Agricultural Economics, Depart-
ment of Economics, Michigan
State University, East Lansing,
Michigan 48824, USA. Email:
levallee@msu.edu. The Depart-
ment’s Working paper number
64, Market Information Sources
Available Through the Internet:
Daily to Yearly Market and Out-
look Reports, Prices, Commodi-
ties and Quotes, updated in July
2001, is a valuable addition.
Correspondence is welcome in
French, Spanish and English.
But is it yours to do?
An AMIS today has several
characteristics: it must provide
reliable data, with the precision
of a proper statistics service; it
must operate as a viable busi-
ness, with the disciplines of the
profit and loss account, and the
balance sheet; it must commu-
nicate with people with low lev-
els of literacy, and sometimes
little experience in trading; it
must motivate users with extra
services – all within the profit
margin. Statisticians, farmers,
traders, processors, exporters,
communicators, bank man-
agers, businesswoman or busi-
nessman – some of the skills of
each of them are needed in an
AMIS. A few rules to follow:
Know the products and mar-
kets: at the outset, it is impor-
tant to restrict the range of
crops and produce covered to
those traded in major markets
in the country. Each additional
commodity means more data
collection and processing, and
more communication. It may
be far better to cover only six
crops and 75% of the market
than twenty-six crops and 90%!
Similarly, keep your horizons
low: cover the local regions first
before trying to cover the
national market, let alone the
markets of neighbouring coun-
tries or even other continents. 
Know the data: the core of an
AMIS is up-to-date data and
proper data collection is essen-
tial. It may be more appropri-
ate to acquire data from outside
agencies, on a contract basis,
than to organise data collection
by the AMIS itself. It requires
trained data collectors, who
may be found in national statis-
tics services, although these
may operate at a different pace
than a business. 
Organise and move informa-
tion: market data must be com-
puterised, and great care is
required in designing a simple
but sturdy programme that can
be used at many levels, and
quickly repaired if it develops
bugs. Data entry must be
straightforward; data analysis
must allow for following trends
in price and supply and
demand; data transmission
must be fast, reliable and afford-
able. One well-tested software,
FAO-AgriMarket, automates the
entry, processing, transmission,
reporting and electronic diffu-
sion of market data (mostly
prices and quantities of agricul-
tural products and inputs). It is
designed for marketing agen-
cies; statistical offices; ministe-
rial departments; local authori-
ties; chambers of commerce and
agriculture; trader, producer
and consumer associations;
import and export companies;
research institutions and
NGOs. It helps in analysing
market data, such as determin-
ing movements in price or sup-
ply movements over time, or
comparing prices and quantities
in different markets. The Agri-
Market package, on a CD-
ROM, is available, only in
English, free of charge to public
institutions and organizations
in developing countries. Other
users must pay US$ 25.  Email:
agrimarket@fao.org.
The producers of AgriMarket
have also produced two major
documents for AMIS operators
and users, which have guided
this article. The classic Market
Information Services – Theory
and Practice is available free for
download from the Agricultur-
al Marketing Website of FAO:
w w w . f a o . o r g / w a i c e n t /
faoinfo/agricult /ags/AGSM/
mis.htm. The printed copy, 54
pages, costs US$ 7.00 from
FAO publications, Viale delle
Terme di Caracalla, 00100
Rome, Italy as AGS Bulletin
125. Another publication
Understanding and Using Mar-
ket Information is on the same
Website and is available in print
free from: Marketing and Rural
Finance Service, Agricultural
Support Systems Division, FAO,
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla,
00100 Rome, Italy. Fax: +39 06
5705 6850/4961
Setting up an agricultural market information service
Know where you’re going
Ill
us
tr
at
io
n 
M
ic
he
l S
ov
og
ui
, p
ho
to
 L
ou
m
a 
pr
od
uc
tio
ns
It’s quite a recipe. Take a
growth sector, add ten
enthusiastic practitioners main-
ly from ACP countries, give
them time and space to work
together, let them write up
what they know best, add a few
herbs of grammar and some
spices of style, let the juices do
their work as they say, and you
will soon have a sturdy and
practical guide to, in this case,
food processing.
And have this guide you really
should, if, like many others, you
have selected food processing as
a sector with almost endless
opportunities for generating
income using locally available
resources. Or you may work in a
support role, in an advisory ser-
vice or finance institution. 
This book will not tell you
how to store dairy products,
package sun-dried fruits, track
down hand-operated canning
plants, think through recruit-
ment or design a poster. (Later
volumes will deal with specific
products and operations; the
first two in preparation cover
milling and baking, and the
processing of fish, meat and
dairy products; others will fol-
low.) Instead, this book will
help you deal with such topics,
but only if you genuinely want
to grow, whether from your
backyard worktable with six co-
workers or your bottling unit
with sixty employees. 
Apart from a chapter full of
nutritional data and explanations
of food poisoning, bacteria, stor-
age techniques and the effects of
heat, moisture, air, light and
acidity (for example, spilt fruit
juice can erode a concrete floor),
it is more about ‘process’ than
processing. It explains feasibility
studies; dealing with suppliers,
retailers and customers; setting
up production; laws covering
hygiene, labour and labelling;
managing the business; customer
care; and quality control. Proba-
bly the only notable omission is
relationships with trade unions,
since this sector is one of the
most unionised in ACP coun-
tries.
The book presents a fine set
of conventional wisdoms: the
chapters on finance and organi-
sation, for example, could have
come from any standard text-
book on enterprise develop-
ment. Its user-friendliness even
includes a feedback form which
many readers will no doubt
return to share experiences and
improve the resources lists for
future editions. 
Two aspects make it out-
standing. First the clarity of
presentation and text, despite
the editors’ lavish use of the
passive tense (normally a no-go
area, according to the manuals
about writing manuals) and
excesses in slapping the label
‘case study’ on what are often
just calculations or home
truths. That’s labelling, they
might say. Secondly, as well as
the ‘Tips for success’ which
kick off each chapter, it’s the lit-
tle gems of caution that make
the difference. Here are three:
avoid hiring unsupervised stu-
dents to do market research;
think twice and twice again
about cutting out the middle-
man; 50% of business failures
come through hiccups in the
distribution chain. And best of
all: you have many customers,
but it is the consumer who
decides if your products will
sell. This one will. Order it
now, it will help you sell your
products like hot cakes.
Setting up and running a small food
business. Opportunities in food
processing 
Edited by P J Fellows and B Axtell.
CTA, 2001. 298 pp. 
ISBN 92 9081 246X
CTA number 1041. 40 credit points.
Publications
The food processor’s guide
SPORE 96 • PAGE 11
Farming in the Pacific
■ A set of papers releasing a
wealth of information on
traditional farming systems in
the South Pacific has emerged
from the workshop organised
by the Institute for Research,
Extension and Training in
Agriculture (IRETA) and
supported by CTA in October
1999.
Improvement and development of
traditional farming systems for the
South Pacific. Proceedings of an
IRETA Workshop, 
18 – 22 October 1999.
IRETA, 2001. 158 pp. 
ISBN 982 175 136 9
US$ 20 • t 22.32
For IRETA address see below. 
The chickens and pigs of
the Pacific
■ A state-of-the-art manual on
the pigs and chickens industries
of five Pacific countries; Fiji,
Tonga, Solomon Islands, Samoa
and Vanuatu.
The Monogastric Livestock Industry
in the South Pacific Region.
Status, Production Systems and
Constraints
By A O Ajuyah & M Umar.
Institute of Research, Extension
and Training in Agriculture
(IRETA), 2001. 48 pp. 
ISBN 982 175 157 1
US$ 20 • t 22.30
IRETA address below.
What are the odds?
■ Report of a specialist
workshop on the role of
statistics in planning and
analysing agricultural
experiments in the South
Pacific, held on Samoa, from 
28 August to 1 September
2000, organised by IRETA, 
with support from CTA.
Statistical methods for Agricultural
Experiments
By D Hunter, 
Institute of Research, Extension
and Training in Agriculture
(IRETA), 2001. 95 pp. 
ISBN 982 175 149 0
US$ 20 • t 22.30
IRETA 
USP, Alafua Campus 
Private Mail Bag 
Apia 
SAMOA 
Fax: +685 22347 
Email: uspireta@samoa.usp.ac.fj 
Water works
■ A good review and overview
of the prospects of various
irrigation technologies for
smallholder farmers. 
Smallholder irrigation technology:
Prospects for sub-Saharan Africa
By M Kay, FAO & International
Programme for Technology and
Research in Irrigation and
Drainage, Rome 2001. 42 pp.
ISBN 92 5 104 594 1
US$12 • t 13.40
FAO Sales and Marketing Group
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 
00100 Rome, Italy
Fax: +39 06 57 05 33 60
Email: publications-sales@fao.org
• Publications
■For ages, farmers have devel-
oped and produced their own
seeds and exchanged them with
neighbours and this is still
common practice. Somewhere
in history, commercial compa-
nies emerged to produce and
trade seeds and governments
started to play a role in plant
breeding, seed production and
distribution too. The contem-
porary issues of intellectual
property rights, biotechnology,
biodiversity and farmers’ access
to seeds, all entered the arena.
In Seed provision, Robert Tripp
analyses these developments in
terms of each key player, tradi-
tional suppliers, commercial
enterprises, government, aid
agencies and seed projects.
Each gets a chapter full of real-
istic and critical treatment and
shows the route towards desir-
able management of agricultur-
al development. The author
takes you by the hand through
all the controversies of seed
supply. Even if you have a vast
appetite for grasping the com-
plexities of seed supply, this
well-written and structured
book will sate you.
Seed Provision & Agricultural
Development
By R Tripp, James Currey Publishers,
Oxford, 2001. 175 pp.
ISBN 0 85255 420 6
GBP 14.95 • t 24.30
James Currey Publishers
73 Botley Road
Oxford OX2 0BS, United Kingdom
Fax: +44 1865 24 64 54
Email: orders@plymbridge.com
All around seeds
■Newcastle disease is an impor-
tant killer disease among poultry
and there is still no real 
treatment for it. You might not
know it as Newcastle disease
(ND) but perhaps under a local
name – konoku, Adza, Muzungo,
Chigubo-gubo or Ranikhet. 
The Australian Centre for
International Agricultural Re-
search (ACIAR) recently pub-
lished a practical manual for
veterinary workers and exten-
sionists on the disease. 
It describes how ND can be
diagnosed when poultry fall ill,
listing the symptoms and ways
to sample blood and tissue and
to handle these samples. It
briefly describes methods for
post-mortem analysis of ND
and how to classify the ND
virus.
Although there is no effective
treatment, it is possible to vac-
cinate against ND (see Spore
90). One chapter sheds light on
the advantages and disadvan-
tages of the two main groups of
vaccines, covering cost, shelf
life, applicability and effective-
ness criteria. 
Another chapter introduces
existing ethnoveterinary knowl-
edge about ND and numerous
local treatments. A final chap-
ter links earlier sections to
issues of extension work and
the best ways to integrate
knowledge on ND, vaccines
and vaccination in extension
efforts, vaccination campaigns
and control programmes.
Controlling Newcastle Disease in Village
Chickens: A Field Manual
R Alders & P Spradbrow, (ACIAR),
Monographs Series 82, 2001. 
112 pp. 
ISBN 1 86320 307 9
$AUD 25 • t 14.15
This publication is also downloadable
from: www.aciar.gov.au/publications/
monographs/82/Index.html 
ACIAR
GPO Box 1571
Canberra, ACT 2601
Australia
Fax: +61 2 62 17 05 01
Email: aciar@aciar.gov.au
Count your chickens after they are hatched!
SPORE 96 • PAGE 12
Do the weeding 
■ A wide collection of more
than twenty conference papers
on different aspects of weed
management in eastern Africa,
including the role of women
and children; water hyacinth;
weed control technologies;
striga management and
control and the role of
herbicides.
Proceedings of the 17th Biennial
Weed Science Society Conference
for Eastern Africa, held in Harare,
Zimbabwe in September 1999. 
Edited by OA Chivinge, G Tusiime,
P Nampala and E Adipala, WSSEA,
with support of CTA, as a special
edition of the African Crop
Science Journal, September 1999.
ISSN 1028-8791
Details of subscriptions and
membership available on request.
The African Crop Science Journal,
PO Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda 
Fax: +256 41 531 641
Email: acss@starcom.co.ug
Rice dish
■ More than 200,000
references on technical rice
literature from the 1950s to
today, in more than 80
languages.
The International Bibliography on
Rice Research, 1951 – 2000. 
CD-ROM published by the
International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI), 2001.
US$ 35 • t 39.05 (ACP countries)
US$ 95 • t 106 (non-ACP
countries)
Library and documentation service
IRRI
DAPO Box 7777
Metro Manila, Philippines
Email: m.ramos-irri@cgiar.org
Fax: +63 2 845 06 06
CAPNET sets sail
Unexpectedly large numbers 
of people attended the first
Annual Conference on
Publishing in the Caribbean,
held in Montego Bay, 
Jamaica, from 31 October 
to 4 November 2001. More
than100 delegates from 
26 countries attended,
signifying strong international
interest in the development 
of an indigenous Caribbean
publishing industry. Their 
lively debates covered
intellectual property rights,
ICTs, translations and 
book-selling.
The conference included the
Annual General Meeting of the
Caribbean Publishing Network
(CAPNET). Launched in 2000,
CAPNET now has members
throughout the region. Its full
work programme has already
completed the first survey of
publishing on 28 islands.
CAPNET President’s Office
c/o Ian Randle Publishers
PO Box 686, Kingston 6, Jamaica
Fax: +1 876 978 1156
Email: irpub@colis.com
It is commonly accepted
nowadays that partici-
pation, bottom-up approach-
es and the exchange of knowl-
edge are keys to the success of
development programmes.
How to make them work in
practice is a completely differ-
ent kettle of fish. As usual,
actions speak louder than
words. 
New ways of developing agri-
cultural technologies is a good
example of such actions. It is
the account of an integrated
pest management programme
on the islands of Zanzibar
that started as a top-down
programme but, through liv-
ing and learning, changed its
approach to a participatory
one. It adopted and applied
concepts like on-farm experi-
mental learning and Farmer
Field Schools.
Descriptions of site-specific
situations on the islands of
Pemba and Unguja illustrate
the changes that took place.
The book concludes, rather
naturally, that participatory
approaches can indeed work,
but it is far more interesting
to read how this happened.
New ways of developing agricultural
technologies: the Zanzibar experience
with participatory Integrated Pest
Management
By G C A Bruin & F Meerman, co-
publication Wageningen University
and Research Centre and CTA. 2001.
167 pp. ISBN 90 6754 624 0
CTA number 1047. 20 credit points
■No one needs to be told
about the purpose of a home
garden but some practical
advice about the do’s and don’ts
in your garden is always handy.
Improving nutrition through
home gardening is certainly not
the first of its kind, but it is a
sound and comprehensive
training package designed for
community development and
extension workers in Africa. Its
information sheets and illustra-
tions can be used in training
sessions with people who want
to establish a personal or com-
munal garden. 
The manual also integrates
food production and nutrition-
al aspects to assist people in
improving the quality of the
food production in their gar-
dens. It not only shows how,
when and where to grow plants
that are particularly nutritious,
but also gives recipes for nutri-
tious dishes, such as for wean-
ing or for young children.
Improving nutrition through home
gardening. A training package for
preparing field workers in Africa
FAO, 2001. 282 pp. 
ISBN 9251043884  
US$ 22 • t 24.55
FAO Sales and Marketing Group,
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 
00100 Rome, Italy.
Fax: +39 06 57 05 33 60
Email: publications-sales@fao.org
Nutritious dishes from the garden
Learning the hard way
Publications •
Are you planning to
become an agricultural
extension worker or trainer or, if
you are one already, would you
like to refresh your knowledge or
learn new tools? Learning togeth-
er is a good, practical handbook
for that purpose, dealing with
both practice and theory. One
section deals with communica-
tion and best and worst prac-
tices. Another describes the vari-
ous steps to define the need, con-
tent, planning and implementa-
tion of training. Links with agri-
culture and related issues cover
participation, gender issues, local
knowledge and cultural aspects.
Taking these into account will
heighten the impact of your
training. Finally, while practical
examples, tools, role-plays can be
found throughout the entire
book, there is also a concluding
section dedicated to making
your own materials. It includes
making puppets, producing
posters, ways to discuss animal
anatomy and games for forming
and warming up groups. 
Learning together: The agricultural
worker’s participatory sourcebook
By S Stewart, Heifer Project
International & Christian Veterinary
Mission, 1998. 350 pp. 
ISBN 1 886532 10 9
CTA number 1045. 80 credit points
SPORE 96 • PAGE 13
The green leaf
symbol indicates
p u b l i c a t i o n s
that are on CTA’s
list. Subscribers
to the Publications Distribution
Service (PDS) can obtain them
from CTA. All other publications,
indicated by an orange square,
are available from the publishers
listed, or through commercial
outlets, but not from CTA.
Publications on CTA’s list are
available free-of-charge to PDS
subscribers. Subscribers can
order publications on CTA’s list up
to the value of the credit points
available to them. Subscribers can
only request publications on the
order forms provided.
Non-subscribers who wish to
join the scheme should write to
CTA for an application form.
Applications will be considered
from agricultural and rural
development organisations in
the ACP (Africa, Caribbean and
Pacific) Group of States; individ-
uals resident in ACP countries
may also apply.
If you are not eligible for a free
subscription to the PDS, or if
you need publications beyond
your free credit allocation, you
may buy publications on CTA’s
list from our commercial distri-
butor: Triops, Hinderburgstrasse
33, D-64295 Darmstadt, Ger-
many, Fax: +49 6151 314 048,
Email: triops@net-library.de;
Website: www.net-library.de
How to obtain these publications
Time to beat the bugs…
■ A video on the sterile insect
technique – no offspring, no
insect pest reproduction –
intended as a teaching aid for
college and university courses.
The accompanying booklet can
be freely copied and used as
lecture notes.
The sterile insect technique: an
environmental-friendly method of
insect pest suppression and
eradication
Video, by the Animal Production
& Health Section of the joint
FAO/IAEA Division. 
28.5 minutes, in PAL, NTSC and
SECAM and available for free to
course organisers and lectures in
ACP countries. Apply to the
section of the Joint FAO/IAEA
Division below.
...on fruits…
■ This account of research
efforts to improve and
implement the area-wide control
of insect pests as a way of
minimising the use of pesticides
and protecting the environment,
is based on an FAO/IAEA
International Conference, and
the Fifth International
Symposium on Fruit Flies of
Economic Importance, both held
in June 1998 in Penang.
Area-wide control of fruit flies and
other insect pests
Edited by K-H Tan, School of
Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains
Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. 2000.
782 pp. ISBN 983 861 195 6
A limited number of copies are
available for readers in ACP
countries. Apply to the Joint
FAO/IAEA Division below.
…and livestock
■ Proceedings of the second
FAO/IAEA seminar for Africa, held
in Zanzibar, Tanzania in 1995. 
Animal trypanosomosis: vector and
disease control using nuclear
techniques.
Published by Backhuys Publishers,
Leiden, Netherlands, 1999. 
311 pp. ISBN 90 5782 048x
A limited number of copies are
available for free distribution to
tsetse affected countries. Apply to:
Insect Pest Control Section
Joint FAO/IAEA Division
P O Box 100
A-1400 Vienna, Austria
Fax: + 43 1 26 007
Email: official.mail@iaea.org
For healthier livestock
Two new practical issues in
FAO’s new Animal Health
Series.
Manual on the preparation of African
swine fever contingency plans
By W A Geering, M L Penrith & 
D Nyakahuma, no 11, FAO. 2001. 
77 pp. ISBN 92 5 104581 x
US$ 20 • t 22.60
Manual on procedures for disease
eradication by stamping out
By W A Geering, M L Penrith & 
D Nyakahuma, no 12, FAO. 2001.
142 pp. ISBN 92 5 104585 2
US$ 22 • t 25.90
For FAO’s address see page 11.
• Publications
Garlic, leek and onion may
never be staple foods but
countless dishes around the world
would simply not be the same
without them. These three plants
are such obvious ingredients in a
diet that they are often over-
looked in agricultural handbooks.
That is a pity, since all manner of
considerations are involved in the
cultivation of these members of
the onion family (liliaceae). 
After his earlier, similarly
practical guides on soya bean
and sweet potatoes, Pius Ngeze
has given us a splendid step-by-
step manual to cultivate these
three crops. The book addresses
climate and soil and fertiliser
requirements and describes the
best ways to sow, transplant,
weed and harvest. For each plant
there is also a small section on
major diseases and pests.
Learn how to grow onions, garlic 
and leeks
By P B Ngeze, Acacia Stantex
Publishers - CTA – Friends of the
Book Foundation, 2001. 27 pp.
ISBN 9966 917 20 9
CTA number 1006. 5 credit points
You can’t live without them
■Let’s drop those generalised
statements and doom scenarios
about declining fertility and
increasing degradation of
African soils, argues Ian Scoones
in his latest book Dynamics and
Diversity. These assumptions –
which he once seemed to share -
are only partly correct. Soil con-
ditions vary enormously
throughout the continent, even
at farm level, and over time. 
All sorts of factors are at play,
he asserts. Relatively new soils
with volcanic origins are highly
fertile; soil processes releasing
nutrients can proceed much
faster under certain regimes of
temperature and moisture, vary-
ing according to season. Even
the arrival of an immense gully
in a field might not be the most
important degradation issue at
that moment. 
The book includes detailed
field studies with farmers in
Ethiopia, Mali and Zimbabwe
on local soil classifications, their
coping strategies and soil degra-
dation and fertility issues, which
all illustrate a rich diversity. 
It is, Scoones stresses, these
dynamics and diversity which
should be the starting point for
policy makers, extension work-
ers and scientists in developing
new ways of thinking about
farming in Africa. 
Dynamics and Diversity. Soil Fertility and
Farming Livelihoods in Africa
Edited by I Scoones, Earthscan -
International Institute for
Environment and Development (IIED)
and Institute of Development
Studies, Sussex (IDS). 2001. 244 pp.
ISBN 1 85383 820 9
GBP 16.95 • t 27.55
Earthscan Publications Ltd
120 Pentonville Road
London N1 9JN, 
UK 
Fax: +44 20 7 278 1142
Email: earthinfo@earthscan.co.uk
Training is 
serious fun
Ground for new thoughts
Amajor gain from the fourthConsultative Expert Meeting ofCTA’s Observatory on ICTs (infor-
mation and communication technologies),
held in May 2001 (see Spore 94), is the infor-
mation it made available about ‘wireless’
communication. The report of the meeting
includes a wealth of clear detail. It discusses
the applications of new technologies, such as
mobile telephones and satellites in various
orbits above the Earth. It discusses the
‘bandwidth’ problems which determine the
quantities of information that can be
exchanged through the Internet, and it
explains how data broadcasting allows docu-
ments to be transmitted to local receiver
radios linked to a computer. Who knows,
maybe one day soon Spore may be ‘broad-
cast’ to subscribers? This Wireless Working
Document can help you understand a lot of
options and is a solid introduction to a com-
plex topic.
At the other end of the information spec-
trum, far away from the issues of delivering
data, is the question of persuasion. How do
you persuade someone to use particular
information, to go and look for it and to
assess its value? The new Working Docu-
ment on ‘Evaluating information’ tries a spe-
cial approach. It is essentially an introducto-
ry manual for project managers. It recognises
that evaluation can be threatening, and so it
is written in a friendly and familiar style, in
the form of a letter to ‘you’. Its goal is to pro-
vide the project manager with a series of
guidelines, checklists and practical sugges-
tions for carrying out an evaluation of an
information project. There is nothing new
in its content, but its novel way of talking
with the reader is a good way to get evalua-
tion accepted as part of the family, instead
of as a stranger to be feared. The author,
Byron Mook, has wide experience of evalua-
tion in agricultural research.
Wireless: a help line for agricultural
development? 
CTA, 2001. 39 pp. CTA Working Document
number 8024. 5 credit points
Evaluating information: A letter to a project
manager
CTA, 2001. 63 pp. CTA Working Document
number 8025. 5 credit points
Between us •
Sorrel for sale
■ Samuel Taryanouba, of the Groupement de
Producteurs de Karkandji (GPK, BP 97, Koum-
ra, Chad) says the group “comprises twenty
farmers of sorrel (oseille de Guinée in French,
karkandji in Arabic, bisap in Wolof and agria
in Jamaica). We have agreed to put half our
earnings from selling sorrel into a local sav-
ings and credit fund for farmers to invest in
farm improvements. We grow it organically,
and dry the leaves in the sun. Please
announce in Spore that we are ready for cus-
tomers from afar.”
Save cash 
with termite soil
■ Erik Petersen of ASAL Consultants in Kib-
wezi, Kenya, has been prompted to exchange
experience with Professor Gupta of the Cen-
tre for Alternative Agricultural Media in
India, whose use of termite soil as a cleansing
agent was described in Spore 94. He reports
that “we have used termite soil to replace
80% of the cement for building water tanks
in Kenya and Zambia. This has given us a
great cost reduction”.
You heard it first 
on Radio Spore !
■ Benjamin Dembele, President of the Urban
Group for Poultry and Farm Development in
Bonoua, Côte d’Ivoire, tells us “how our fif-
teen farms get together to get and discuss
Spore. When we go back to town, we run a
reading club to reach out to more
entrepreneurs. We are all convinced that
Spore is a communication tool for rural com-
munities. We could even say that Spore means
to us what the Internet means to developed
countries. In fact, Spore is our Internet, an
essential tool. And, we want to be kept up to
date with everything going on in agriculture,
so Spore should consider setting up a radio
station, with no advertising.”
We are hearing you loud and clear, Mr Dem-
bele. Maybe one day you will be on the radio
too! Perhaps the local FM station in Mpraeso,
north-west of Accra in neighbouring Ghana,
cannot be received in Bonoua. That’s a shame
because Samuel K Allotey, who works with
the Ministry of Food and Agriculture there,
broadcasts an extension show. “Although I
am not a well-trained radio presenter, your
information in Spore has helped me a lot in
the presentation of agricultural programmes
on the station. My listeners have shown much
interest and acknowledged that the pro-
gramme is actually serving its result-oriented
purpose.”
Do you broadcast, or listen to, radio pro-
grammes which use material from Spore?
Please write in and tell us. 
No more finger-tip 
shelling!
■ Writing from the Department of Agricul-
tural Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah
University of Science and Technology, Kumasi,
Ghana, Emmanuel Y H Bobobee (Email:
ebobobee@yahoo.com; fax: +221 51 34434)
responds to our call in Spore 91 (‘No more
pounding’) for information about post-har-
vest food processing equipment. “I am happy
to introduce to you a similar piece of equip-
ment for cracking groundnut and other puls-
es developed by myself through student pro-
jects. 
The traditional methods of shelling dry pods
(finger-tip pressure, or beating with stones)
is tedious and expensive. It is to solve this
problem that this manually operated or
motorised cracker-winnower had been
developed. I shall be willing to answer any
further enquiries.”
Mailbox
As well as replying to the Spore reader
survey, don’t forget to drop a note to
the Spore mailbox. You’ll be surprised
who you meet there! Write in, right
now.
SPORE 96 • PAGE 14
Connecting and engaging
@
Ph
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E.
Y.
M
.B
ob
ob
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Reader survey 
update
H ave you sent in your response tothe reader survey of How You UseSpore, which was introduced in
the Between Us section of Spore 95?
As we go to press with Spore 96, we
have already received many replies by
mail, email and the special form on the
CTA Website. Whichever way you
choose to send us your response, we look
forward to receiving it soon – and before
1 February 2002 in any case.
Check your issue of Spore 95 for more
details, or fill in the form on www.agric-
ta.org/UsesOfSpore.htm. If you prefer, we
can send you a form by fax (fax us on +
31 317 460 067. Or send us an email
with the subject ‘form’, to 
usesofspore@spore-magazine.org.
It will take you just a few minutes, so
if you can, do it now.
After no less than sev-
enteen years of service
with CTA Mohun
Narain, who in recent
years has led CTA’s
Information Policies
and Partnerships Depa-
rtment, is set to enjoy his retirement on his
island home of Mauritius.  Mohun, who
studied agriculture and agricultural exten-
sion at Reading University in the UK,
worked on his native island until 1981,
when he was appointed to the ACP
Secretariat in Brussels as agricultural
expert. Four years later he was among the
first technical staff members to be appoint-
ed to CTA in the Netherlands.
Speaking to Spore, Mr Narain
explained how new ICTs have led to a
rethinking of the basic elements of agri-
cultural extension since CTA was estab-
lished, and how he had enjoyed working
in these new areas. But it has been his
work in the Pacific and in the Caribbean
that has given him the most satisfaction,
confirming our suspicions that he is an
islander at heart.
Mohun, whose quiet diplomacy and
sharp mind will be missed at CTA, is
looking forward to an active retirement
and expects to maintain his involvement
with agricultural development. We wish
him and his family good health and every
success!
SPORE 96 • PAGE 15
Do not disparage!
■ Writing from Umberleigh in Devon, Eng-
land, Trevor Wilson takes us firmly to task
and introduces a useful distinction between
judgement and implementation.  “Unfortu-
nately some of your authors disparage things
about which they clearly know nothing. I
refer, in particular, to the remark in the lead
article “Can we all be policy makers?” of
Spore 93 (June 2001) about “ill-judged and
ill-fated policies such as the groundnut
scheme in the East Africa of the 1940´s …
The scheme can hardly be considered to have
been a “policy” matter in the modern sense.
It was not ill-judged although it was initially
ill-executed mainly because agriculture can-
not be managed like a military operation.”
After listing the various benefits reaped from
the scheme such as infrastructural improve-
ments which led to diversified production,
improved cash earnings and food security, Mr
Wilson concludes: “It is easy to disparage
early attempts at development and empha-
sise the negative aspects. It is more honest,
however, to look for the benefits and
emphasise the positive ones. An objective
benefit-cost analysis of the totality of the
groundnut scheme would certainly show
very high economic rates of return.”
Thanks, Tshepo!
■ Álvaro Soares de Melo, formerly responsi-
ble for Spore’s Portuguese-language sister
publication Esporo, has some words of
thanks for Ms Tshepo Khumbane of South
Africa and her Viewpoint “Subsistence lives”
in Spore 91/Esporo 41.  “Congratulations for
your courage in defending subsistence agri-
culture against the economics-driven trend
of globalisation. You are not alone in this
struggle. In fact, we cannot even think about
food security and sustainable development
in Africa if we undervalue this most repre-
sentative sector of agriculture.” 
Spore is a bi-monthly publication 
providing information on agricultural 
development for ACP countries. Spore is
available free-of-charge to relevant
organisations and individuals in ACP and
EU countries. Subscriptions may also be
purchased from Triops (see page 13).
Publisher: Technical Centre for Agricultural
and Rural Cooperation (CTA) – ACP-EC
Cotonou Agreement
CTA: Postbus 380, 6700 AJ Wageningen,
The Netherlands
Te:l +31 317 467100
Fax: +31 317 460067
Email: cta@cta.nl   
Website: www.cta.nl
Email for readers’ letters: 
spore@cta.nl
Compiler: Spore is compiled by a 
consortium formed by Louma productions
and Médiateurs
Louma productions, 3 rue Neuve, 
34150 Aniane, France
Fax: +33 467 570 180
Email: louma@louma.fr
Médiateurs, W-Alexanderpoort 46, 
1421 CH Uithoorn, 
The Netherlands
Fax: +31 297 540 514
Email: info@spore-magazine.org
This issue was compiled by 
Marcel Chimwala, O'Neil Cuffe, 
Bernard Favre, Singy Hanyona, 
Erik Heijmans, Catherine Marzin, 
Paul Osborn, Jacques Sultan, 
Christine Tissot.
Layout: Louma productions
Printer: Imprimerie Publicep, France
© CTA 2001
ISSN 1011-0054
Material published in Spore can be freely
reproduced. Please always credit it as coming
from Spore.
• Between us
Back home 
to Mauritius!
Spore six days a week!
■ The Cooperative Agricultural Centre of Benin, in Houègbo, Benin, tells us that Spore, and
other publications ordered from CTA, have been given pride of place in their information cen-
tre. “Open six days a week, the centre runs a special Reading Club for farmers’ groups and vil-
lage associations, who
have used Spore’s prac-
tical information on
small-scale food pro-
cessing, animal health
and new technologies
as well as making new
contacts. It has been
planning a Best Read-
ers’ Group competition
for the end of 2001.”  
You’re welcome to send
us details of all the
groups’s uses of Spore,
to be included in the
Uses of Spore survey
mentioned on these
pages. Ph
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C
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gb
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T he number of people in the worldcategorised as genuinely under-nourished has decreased from 920
million in the early 1970s to 840 million
in the mid 1990s, but still one in five
inhabitants in developing countries, many
of whom are in ACP countries, are still in
need. 
The nine Sahelian countries which
comprise the Inter-State Permanent Com-
mittee for the Struggle against Drought in
the Sahel (known as CILSS, formed from
its French name Comité Permanent Inter-
États pour la Lutte contre la Sécherèsse au
Sahel) are a representative sample of this
panorama. With a total surface of about
five million km2, they have a total popula-
tion of 54 million, with a growth rate
approaching 2.8%. One-third of the pop-
ulation lives in urban areas. Almost three-
quarters of the countries’ overall area has
an annual rainfall below 300 mm, but it
is home to 10% of the population, who
live mainly as pastoralists. Many more
people – 80% in all – have made their
homes in areas where rainfall ranging
between 300 mm and 1,200 mm makes
dry-land agriculture possible. However,
for almost three decades, the Sahel area
has suffered from a prolonged drought
with only intermittent relief. Sahelian
countries are amongst the poorest in the
world.
The soils are generally shallow and poor
in nutrients; the vegetation is a savannah
of trees and shrubs, with annual grasses.
Water resources are generally scarce,
despite some permanent rivers that allow
some irrigated crops. Some of these rivers
also cross the territories of other countries
in West Africa. Cattle breeding plays an
important role in the economy in such
countries as Niger, Mali or Burkina Faso,
where it represents around 15 % of the
Gross Domestic Product.
Drought and desertification are the
main obstacles to development with two
black shadows always present, hunger and
poverty.
These countries recognised early on in
their current drawn-out crisis that,
because of their relative smallness, they
had developed a common political will.
That is reflected in the creation of the
CILSS, which was set up in 1974. Since
that time it has sought to establish com-
mon strategies and development policies.
Tough policy measures 
Together, these global objectives form a
mighty raft to carry many hopes, but it
also carries many monumental preoccupa-
tions which, uncomfortable as they may
be, need to be addressed. Let us examine
some of them.
First of all, it has to be said that the price
policies for export trades, which are deter-
mined by the industrialised countries, are
putting at risk commercial exchanges
between the CILLS member states. Hav-
ing no access to more developed technolo-
gies, they cannot reach the scales of pro-
ductivity reached in industrialised
countries or compete with their prices.
How can they respond to such competi-
tion in the global marketplace? Surely, this
requires protective mechanisms for local
production which will draw out its full
potential and stimulate regular growth in
local and regional markets.
Secondly, the effective decentralisation
of power is indispensable for political sta-
bility. It allows decision-making by local
communities, who must be empowered to
strengthen themselves and to shape their
destiny. In this, central bodies will have to
play the role of planning agents, regula-
tors and coordinators in the allocation of
available resources.
The consolidation of local production
requires a fundamental and active integra-
tion into local productive and cultural
structures and systems. Experience has
shown that the imposition of external
solutions is usually a path for disappoint-
ment, or even disaster. Central in this is
the way in which external methods often
have a negative impact on family struc-
tures, and on the all-important role of
women. Not only are their functions in
the production system put at risk, or even
removed, but their marginalisation also
threatens their irreplaceable task of trans-
mitting cultural values to the next genera-
tion.
Another essential factor is political sta-
bility between neighbour countries, and
within them. The starting point must be
respect of traditional structures, without
imposition of Western models of democ-
racy. Accordingly, traditional systems
should be strengthened, to enable them to
better evolve and adapt to new conditions.
Finally, the haemorrhage of rural exo-
dus has to be brought under control, on
the basis of integrated development pro-
grammes, where education, training,
health care and support to the social struc-
tures of local communities are common
parts of a common strategy. 
The world has by now accumulated suf-
ficient experience and wisdom, over so
many years, to know that if these premis-
es are not taken into consideration, then
we shall all be spectators, or even players,
in the collapse of hope and its replacement
by a failure of unimaginable proportions.
SPORE 96 • PAGE 16
The opinions expressed in Viewpoint are
those of the authors, and do not necessarily
reflect the views of CTA.
Horácio Silva Soares is an agronomist, who
taught at the University of Lourenço Marques,
nowadays known as the Eduardo Mondlane
University, in Maputo, Mozambique. In his
native Cape Verde, he was Director-General for
Natural Resources, and founder president of
the National Institute for Agricultural Research.
He was also Director-General of the CILSS
regional Centre AGRHYMET and Ambassador
to Italy, Greece and Egypt.
“External solutions often have a negative impact 
on family structures and on the role of women.”
Poverty eradication
From dream to reality: 
hope in the Sahel
Viewpoint • 
The World Food Summit held in Rome in November
1996 confirmed that access to food and the availability
of food was still a major challenge. Soon, a little later
than originally planned, the Summit’s achievements will
be reviewed, more than five years after the event. 
Now, as in 1996, there are some hopeful trends 
against a background of massive challenges.