• SPORE 74 PAGE 1 •
Over 97% of the world’s water 
is saline and in oceans. Of 
the 2.5% of water which is
fresh, only 3% is directly
available as part of the
cycle of rainfall and
evaporation, in rivers
and lakes; the rest 
is in ice, permanent
snow, and fossil
groundwater. The
UN Food and Agri-
culture Organiz-
ation (FAO) is in no
doubt that “human
demands are about 
to collide with the abi-
lity of the hydrological
cycle to supply water”.
The consequences for agri-
culture will be drastic.
The theft of water by farmers from acommunity water supply project inKenya made news in the North
recently. Water was being diverted for
irrigation of mange-tout peas, a chic item
on European dinner tables. Along with
strawberries and soft fruits, these peas are
grown in increasing volumes in many parts
of Africa and air-freighted to meet out-of-
season demand in European markets.
The export of food crops and other
biomass also represents the export of a very
scarce resource—water. According to the
World Water Council, a global think tank
on water issues, by the year 2050, water
shortages are forecast in more than 70
countries, including 35 in Africa and
several in the Caribbean, resulting in what
is called ‘water stress’.
Agriculture is the major consumer of
water. “Irrigation uses more than two-thirds
of the world’s available freshwater resources,
producing 35% of the world’s agricultural
output from 17% of the world’s arable land.
In all, agriculture uses 90% of all the
freshwater which is economically
accessible”, reports A M Shady, President
of the International Commission on
Irrigation and Drainage. “To produce more
food and fibre with less water is the
challenge for the 21st century”. 
In sub-Saharan Africa, virtually all
farmers practise rain-fed farming, but this
is increasingly subject to unreliable and
short rainy seasons, drought and other
forms of climate change. Closing the gap
between the growth rates of population and
a reliable food supply through intensified
production requires a two-pronged
approach: intensified water harvesting and
conservation, and intensified irrigation.
Low-cost methods exist for improved
water harvesting: rehabilitation and
protection of water catchments to reduce
erosion, floods and silting; prevention of
loss through evaporation and leakage;
management of groundwater resources, and
improved storage. Improved attention to
conservation measures can also bring
important savings.
Major savings can be achieved through
more efficient irrigation, such as drip
methods, and through changes in cropping
patterns, using mixes of less water-intensive
crops, shifting the cropping period into
seasons where there is less evaporation, and
improving the water-holding capacity of
the soil.
Using treated waste water in irrigation
has great potential, especially in peri-urban
agriculture, when water from industrial and
domestic sources could be used. It also
requires investment. According to the
International Food Policy Research
Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, USA, this
approach could provide the major long-
term irrigation supply in those countries
suffering from ‘water stress’.
‘The vision thing’
Overall water policies are slowly emerging
at national and global levels, with increased
activity during 1998: conferences hosted by
the French government in March, and by
UNESCO in June. World Water Day
(March 22), organised in 1998 by the
International Reference Centre on
Community Water Supply, focused on
groundwater. The United Nations
designated the April 1998 session of its
Commission on Sustainable Development to
be devoted entirely to freshwater resources.
Two years from now, on World Water Day
Water : will there be conflicts?
No 74                 APRIL 1998
WATER : WILL THERE BE CONFLICTS? 1
DOSSIER: A WORLD OF BANANAS! 3
A new european banana regime • Niche markets ready
for expansion
IN BRIEF 6
Gatsby • Lucid • Cassava root and leaf flour in poultry
feed • The Land • A Directory for Southern Africa
• CABI CD-ROM • Useful newsletters launched
• Manure sheds and milk production : encouraging
results in Senegal • New on the Web • PELUM
Association • Electronic journal on www • Courses
MAILBOX 10
VIEWPOINT 11
Climate change: can we change our horizons?
NEWS FROM CTA 12
Seminars on new EU measures for food security in ACP
States • Agricultural research: strengthening the
contribution of universities • Study visit: livestock
systems in humid and sub-humid zones of Africa
• Bilingual atlas of livestock in the Lake Chad basin
• Available from CTA • Obtaining CTA publications
BOOKS 14
Ethiopia • Malthus • Gender • Biodiversity • Post-
harvest • Cytokines • Agroforestry • Palms • Kenya
• Termites
INFORMATION SOURCES 16
EMBRAPA • Finding funds, sharing success
In 1996, the European banana import regime was under attack by the World Trade Organisation
(WTO). The United States, supported by three major multinational corporations in the banana
industry along with four Latin American countries, placed pressure on Europe to comply with
trade obligations regarding its banana import regime, as they deemed it was functioning illegally.
There will be many meetings and consultations in the coming year culminating in a vote on
modifying fundamental rules of the Common Market Organization for Bananas (CMOB),
which had been adopted at Marrakech in 1995. The new legislation may be very detrimental to
member states of the ACP. The possibilities for growth of ACP member states, traditional
suppliers to Europe, is dependent upon current negotiations regarding repartition of quotas. The
extent of the current socioeconomic crisis, which could prompt WTO to take corrective measures,
is already quite alarming for other Caribbean countries where banana production is the main
resource (particularly, for example, Dominica, St Lucia, and Jamaica). Indeed, for several years now, these
countries have suffered from diminished competitivity because they have not made needed structural
changes. However, opportunities for diversification exist, these include: the opening up of other markets,
reinvigoration of local markets, amelioration of channels of production and commercialization of high
quality products such as organic bananas and the fair trade banana. But it is wise to be realistic, the roads
to diversification, although realizable, are not without their challenges.
• SPORE 74 PAGE 3 •• SPORE 74 PAGE 2 •
World trade figures for bananasaccount for only 13.3 tonnes ofbananas (FAO, 1996). Whereas
80% of all bananas produced worldwide go
to domestic markets. In most producing
countries, bananas are very popular and
used in a variety of local dishes. Both in
terms of production and consumption,
plantain is at the top of the popularity hit
list. It literally provides food security for
millions of people.
Of the 28.3 million tonnes of plantain
produced worldwide, 69.4% is destined for
human consumption, 11.1% processed and
8% fed to livestock. More than 60% of this
world volume is produced and consumed
in central and western Africa.
Plantain production is targeted for
domestic consumption and thus marketed
according to traditional strategies. The
plantain trade is closely tied to urban mar-
ket trends, with demand rising steadily as
the population grows. This trade is also
dependent on the marketing subsector
organisation — transporters, wholesalers,
retailers — which varies from country to
country.
Plantain is transported from plantation
to market in a variety of ways, e.g. on
labourers’ backs, in a refrigerated lorry, by
Water Forum will meet in The Hague,
Netherlands, to present a ‘Vision for Water,
Life and The Environment’ to Heads of
States and other leaders. 
The task of these policy forums is to work
out realistic programmes that accept that,
in many low-income countries with high
water stress, water consumption per head
will actually fall. At the same time, water
prices are bound to rise. This increases the
difficulties of small-scale farmers, says
Jacques Diouf, Director General of the
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO),
since “other sectors, such as domestic
demand and industrial supply, can general-
ly afford to pay more”.
It may be necessary, suggests IFPRI, to
“help small irrigation farmers, particularly
with partnerships that will give them access
to capital, technology, know-how and mar-
kets”. To compete at all, the farmer must
first have access and control, and this
requires ownership, control and capacity
building. As long ago as 1993, in its annu-
al State of Food and Agriculture report,
FAO called for farmers to be assisted in
obtaining ownership rights and manage-
ment responsibilities for water supply sys-
tems: “Without such developments there
will be less scope for farmers and consumers
to benefit from existing agricultural tech-
nologies.”
The choices are clear: if the cost of water
is passed on to the consumer, then food
prices will rise, with all that this means for
food security. If farmers have to absorb the
increased cost, then poorer farmers grow-
ing relatively low-value products will
require support or could be forced out of
business. 
The market place turns 
into a battlefield?
The pricing of water will almost certain-
ly lead to a new wave of structural adjust-
ments. Within many countries, including
at least half the ACP States, the implemen-
tation of pricing policies will have to take
account of the possible economic and social
impact on the peri-urban and rural poor. It
is recognised at national and global levels
that many strongly water stressed countries
will become less self-sufficient in food pro-
duction—indeed the idea is already being
floated of one country abandoning agricul-
ture. 
There is a real danger that water scarcity
will lead to local unrest, and even interna-
tional conflict. The hope of A M Shady that
“mankind will never have to fight over
water” is not yet a promise that mankind
can make to itself.
l
WATER: WILL THERE BE CONFLICTS?
‘Geographical and climatic conditions do
not help the work of the water distribu-
tion agencies. The chronic lack of rainfall
is compounded by the fact that most agri-
culture is irrigated, and there is not
enough water for simple human con-
sumption. In addition, distribution net-
works often have losses of up to 50% and
are often decrepid, the result of old age,
poor installation and bad water quality.
The topic of water resources is especially
sensitive. The north enjoys an abundant
supply, whereas there are serious short-
falls in the coastal areas of the east and
the south. Conflicts between farmers,
electricity companies and drinking water
suppliers are numerous, and lead to
painful settlements in court.’ 
See answer on bottom of page 16.
WHICH COUNTRY IS
DESCRIBED HERE?
The export of food crops and other biomass also
represents the export of a very scarce resource—
water. Low-cost methods exist for improved water
harvesting. Improved attention to conservation
measures can also bring important savings.
A world of bananas!
The European Union (EU) is currently the main market outlet for imported
bananas, with an estimated annual turnover of ECU 2 billion ($1.8 bil-
lion) in 1996 (excluding trade between EU members). By 1999, Euro-
pean demand for bananas (excluding EU production) is projected to
reach about 3.3 million tonnes annually.
Who are the leading suppliers of bananas to the European Union? In
addition to EU producers, suppliers include ACP signatories to the Lomé
Convention and some Central and Latin American banana-producing
countries.
The Common Market Organisation for Bananas, set up in 1993 and
extended by the Framework Agreement endorsed in Marrakech (1994),
led to allocation of import quotas based on three different banana origins, with a provision
for compensation to make up for any loss of income subsequent to market consolidation. A
tariff quota of 2.2 million tonnes was established for dollar bananas from third country ori-
gins, at a tariff of ECU 75 a tonne.
In September 1996, USA, supported by Guatemala, Ecuador, Honduras and Mexico, con-
tested the terms of the Marrakech trading agreement and lodged a complaint for violation of
trade laws. What is actually at issue? Is the percentages of the third-country tariff quota allo-
cated to four Latin American signatories to the Framework Agreement.
It is the quotas designated for non-traditional ACP bananas (80,000 t) that are being con-
tested. The percentages of the tariff quota allocated to Venezuela and Nicaragua are being
disputed, i.e. WTO contends that these two countries do not have a sufficient vested interest
in the banana industry. Rejection of the terms of the Marrakech agreements, along with the
modified status and increased demands of American multinational corporations (Chiquita,
Dole, Del Monte), could create a new order with respect to the import subsector. Many small-
scale banana importers or ripeners will be affected by the economic and political implica-
tions of the future Common Market Organisation for Bananas.
BANANA ORIGINS
• Community bananas. These are produced by EU countries: Martinique and Guadeloupe
(France); Madeira (Portugal); Canary Islands (Spain); Crete and Lakonia (Greece).
854,000 tonnes is the maximum quantity of Community bananas that can be marketed to
qualify for loss-of-income compensation.
• ACP bananas. These are produced by African, Pacific and Caribbean countries signatory to
the Lomé IV Convention along with the EU. This category includes:
– traditional ACP bananas. These are exported to the EU by traditional ACP supply countries
(Belize, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Madagascar,
St Lucia, St Vincent/Grenadines, Somalia and Suriname). The quota designated for all of these
countries collectively is based on a maximum export volume of 857,700 t of bananas.
– non-traditional ACP bananas.These are exported to the EU by ACP suppliers that have sur-
passed their quota, or by non-traditional ACP suppliers of European markets. WTO is contest-
ing the 80,000 tonne quota allocated in the Marrakech Framework Agreement.
• Third-country bananas, or dollar bananas.These are produced in Central or South Ameri-
can countries where USA has a strong vested interest (Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, 
Mexico, etc.).
A NEW EUROPEAN BANANA REGIME
The value of local and regional markets 
is not yet fully appreciated. 
For more information: 
AWN — African Water Network, PO Box
10538, Nairobi, Kenya. Fax: +254 2 555513;
Email: awn@elci.gn.apc.org
CSD — Commission on Sustainable Development,
United Nations, New York, NY 10017, USA.
Website: www.un.org/csd
FAO — Water and Agriculture section, via delle
Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy. 
Fax: +39 6 514 6172; Website: www.fao.org
GWP — Global Water Partnership, c/o Sida, S-
10525 Stockholm, Sweden. 
Fax: +46 8 698 5627; Email: gwp@sida.se;
Website: www.gwp.sida.se (for technical
assistance issues)
ILRI — International Institute for Land Reclamation
and Improvement, PO Box 45, 6700 AA
Wageningen, Netherlands. 
Fax: +31 317 417187; Website: www.ilri.nl
ICID — International Commission on Irrigation and
Drainage, 48 Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri, 
New Dehli, India. Fax: +91 11 301 5962; 
Email: icid@sirnet.ernet.in
Unesco, Division of Water Sciences, 1 rue Miollis,
75732 Paris 15, France. Fax: +33 145 68 5811;
Website: www.unesco.org
WWC — World Water Council, 10 place de la
Joliette, Atrium 10.3, 13304 Marseille Cedex 2,
France. Fax: +33 491 99 4101; 
Email: council@worldwatercouncil.org; Website:
www.worldwatercouncil.org (for policy issues).
INTERNATIONAL FRESHWATER CONFLICT
A study published in August 1997 by Green Cross International—a world environmental
group chaired by former Soviet leader Michael Gorbachov—points to at least 16 inter-
national freshwater conflicts, with seven rivers in Africa:
- Chobe (Botswana, Namibia, Angola): ‘tense’
- Senegal (Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea) : ‘tense’
- Okavango (Botswana, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Namibia) : ‘tense’
- Komati (Swaziland, South Africa, Mozambique)
- Nile (Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Rwanda, Burundi)
- Volta (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Mali)
- Saharian fossil aquifers (Libya, Egypt, Chad, Niger, Sudan) : ‘open dispute’
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• SPORE 74 PAGE 5 •• SPORE 74 PAGE 4 •
canoe and on bicycles. In Ghana, market
retailers and traders go to the plantations
or villages themselves to purchase plantain
supplies from farmers with whom they have
established agreements. Whole bunches are
placed in baskets; banana hands and fingers
are put in bags and carried out manually to
the road. A lorry driver is then paid to
transport the fruit to market, and collector-
wholesalers often arrange the lorry trans-
port operation. The bananas are sold to
middlemen or traders, who sell them to
retailers, who in turn sell them to con-
sumers in bunches or separate fingers.
The complexity of the intermediary sub-
sector increases proportionally around dis-
tribution hubs with the distance between
production and supply markets, especially
when the approach routes are in good
shape. This trend is well established in
Caribbean countries such as St Vincent,
whereas it is just emerging in Africa. For
instance, jobbers group around important
markets in southwestern Cameroon (Mile
60, Bole and Owe). The banana planta-
tions are quite remote from Douala (100-
150 km), not easily accessible, and often
impassable in the rainy season. Large
quantities of plantain are delivered to the
city markets on a daily basis via regular dis-
tribution channels, and the longest one
involves three main types of middleman:
collector-wholesalers (purchasing 50-500
bunches from the producers), sedentary
wholesalers, who sell to retailers on a per-
bunch basis in the wholesale and retail
markets of Douala, and these retailers in
turn sell to consumers or other retailers on
a per-finger basis.
Middlemen have a key role in the plan-
tain marketing subsector — from the
wholesaler to the retailer. As this domain
becomes increasingly complex, growers are
forced to produce greater quantities of
higher-quality plantain, more regularly, and
at lower cost. Production criteria are gath-
ered by middlemen on the basis of infor-
mation they obtain on selling prices,
consumer demand and market trends. By
professionalizing the subsector, the most
organized of these go-betweens (dealers,
transport agents, etc.) could become key
stakeholders and thereby influence domes-
tic market patterns. 
Reducing postharvest 
losses
As domestic consumer demand is con-
stantly increasing, local market dynamics
depend on producers’ capacity to maintain
adequate sustainable production levels,
while staving off postharvest banana losses.
The most common cropping practice
involves extending yearly production over
as long a period as possible. Soil potential
is crucial for the success of this strategy. In
Cameroon and Rwanda, on volcanic soils
in the Dominican Republic, and on river
alluvia in the humid intertropical zone,
plantain growers have adopted a sustainable
production strategy, and this crop is often
their main source of income.
In Ghana, consumer demand for plan-
tain is high and its retail price is steadily ris-
ing, however production has been stagnant
for 10 years. This situation could be turned
around by planting high yield, strongly pest
and disease resistant, cultivars.
Postharvest plantain losses are generally
heavy and are estimated at about 3 million
tonnes worldwide. These losses are due to
poor harvest and handling conditions, in
addition to a shortage of distribution
channels (e.g. Côte d’Ivoire). The quality
of communications networks is also an
important factor. In most African coun-
tries, access routes to markets are in poor
condition and poorly maintained, except
around large urban centres. For instance,
farmers in Rusitu valley in Zimbabwe pro-
duce high volumes of dessert bananas.
They lose a substantial portion of their
overall production during the rainy season
because of the very long distances along
poor roads that have to be travelled to the
nearest urban markets. The EU has set up
a system whereby farmers can rent vehicles
to facilitate getting to local markets. Still,
asphalting the roads represents the most
efficient way of promoting trade to exter-
nal markets. Cameroon is a case in point,
there are now paved roads allowing com-
paratively easy access to the main markets
and the capital.
l
(there must be sufficient foliage to supress
weed growth) and reclaiming a banana plan-
tation takes at least a year without growing any
banana trees. Also, nearby cropfields must be
considered, these should not be infested with
pests, and water runoff has to be carefully
monitored for chemicals.
Taking up 
the challenge
Productivity is not actual-
ly a problem when grow-
ing organic bananas. In
comparison with traditional
Cavendish bananas, organic vari-
eties are more fragile at the fruit-bearing stage
but show higher vegetative resistance. Organic
bananas are not yet being cropped on a large
scale. Organic banana production is still gen-
erally a small-scale undertaking. Special pro-
duction and handling techniques are required
for this crop, packaging and distribution sys-
tems are not yet completely professionalized,
and marketing strategies are lacking. Conse-
quently, organic bananas presented on fruit
stands in specialized European shops some-
times are not visually appealing. Organic
bananas do taste about the same as traditional
Cavendish bananas, and they are purchased by
discriminating customers (who consider that
they are better tasting because of their lower
moisture content and firmer texture), for
prices that range from 30% to 40% higher
than average. The industry should now strive
to win over another clientele, one that does
not equate organic with unattractive and
expensive. Marketing promotion of this prod-
uct should stress its competitive potential in
terms of volume, quality and price. 
Meeting industrial,
environmental
and social
standards
The market for organic
bananas is currently vo-
latile because of poor trade
and monetary flows. Only a few
tens of thousands of tonnes are being traded
on this narrow market. The core of the clien-
tele is in northern Europe, in a market run by
highly specialized leading operators.
There is substantial growth potential for
this market, but quality standards similar to
those of traditional export bananas will have
to be applied throughout the subsector —
from producers to consumers. This has been
the thrust of research carried out in the Cape
Verde archipelago (see box).
Fair-trade bananas offer another possibility
for diversification. They are bananas that can
be produced using environmentaly friendly
techniques similar to those used to produce
organic bananas, but the production restric-
tions are not quite as drastic and some pesti-
cides can be used. The non-nematode bearing
volcanic soils found in the West Indies and
Guadeloupe are especially suitable for this
crop. In addition, a critical social requirement
must be met before these bananas qualify for
the fair-trade label, which can only be
assigned to a product after certifying that no
employees were unfairly exploited during any
production phase (human respect, social
insurance, sanitation, adequate salaries, etc.).
Fair-trade bananas fall within the same cate-
gory as certain silk shirts that customers know
have not been manufactured by child-labour-
ers, political prisoners or any other oppressed
peoples. An ethical issue that deserves to be
followed... (see also Spore 67, page 5).
l
Sources:
CIRAD-FLHOR, parc scientifique Agropolis, 
34397 Montpellier cedex 5 - FRANCE.
International Network for the Improvement of
Bananas and Plantains (INIBAP), 
parc scientifique Agropolis, 34397 Montpellier
cedex 5 - FRANCE. Fax: (33) 4 67 61 03 34.
SA Bonneterre (trader in organic fruit and
vegetables), 
1, place des Planteurs, 94150 Rungis - FRANCE.
Fax: (33) 1 46 87 91 68.
Revue FruiTrop No 40 
12, square Pétrarque, 75116 Paris - FRANCE.
Fax: (33) 1 53 70 21 70.
Infomusa, vol. 3, No 2, December 1994. INIBAP.
Banane, délicieuse inconnue, le livre de la
Plantation Grand Café - Belair. 
Route de Belair, 97130 Capesterre Sainte-Marie,
Guadeloupe - FRANCE. Fax: 05 90 86 91 69.
Europeans, particularily northern Euro-peans, increasingly consume organicproduce. These consumers place a high
value on organic farm products (fresh or pro-
cessed) because no chemicals are used in their
production. For many Europeans, the organ-
ic concept is a mark of quality and associat-
ed with “healthy eating”.
The demand for organic foods in Europe
is real. Just as for the pineapple and orange
industries, producers could diversify their
export production by tapping into the fresh
organic fruit market, despite the fact that it
is not yet fully developed, by growing
organic bananas. The Dominican Republic
is cashing in on this trend and has already
captured 80% of the organic banana mar-
ket — the remaining 20% is shared by the
Canary Islands, Colombia, Ghana and
Israel.
What are organic bananas? Organic
Cavendish bananas are produced without
chemical fertilizers, fungicides or pesticides.
Production, packaging and shipping tech-
niques have to comply with European 
standards set for organically-grown food
products. These standards are applied and
monitored through control operations car-
ried out in banana plantations, at the pro-
cessing, packaging and ripening stations
(specific procedures) and in the importer’s
facilities. These Cavendish bananas have to
be certified by a European authority or 
registered organization before they can be 
marketed in Europe under the “organic
product” label. Produce is transported
through the same subsectors as utilized 
for non-organic bananas and reaches EU 
markets via the large northern European
banana-import ports of Rotterdam (Nether-
lands), Antwerp and Zeebrugge (Belgium),
and Hamburg (Germany).
Getting in on 
the organic
banana market
Not all organic banana
producers are fortunate
enough to have plantations
in regions such as Cape Verde,
Guadeloupe or Martinique, which are ecolog-
ically ideal for growing organic bananas, or
producers have no access to dry land or sugar-
cane fields. They are thus obliged to cultivate
their crops in a traditional banana- growing
zone which can, ironically, lead to a struggle
with nature. How can the challenges of deal-
ing with weeds, weevils, nematodes, Sigatoka
and black leaf streak disease be met without
recourse to chemical pesticides? Various tech-
niques exist, such as the use of “thermal” or
steam weeding when sowing micropropagated
plants in fields reclaimed through crop rota-
tions, fallowing or systematic uprooting of old
plants; or even trapping weevils through drip
irrigation to hinder fungal development.
These tactics are not always simple nor rapid:
three cycles are needed to obtain sustainable
production in an organic banana plantation
Niche markets ready for    expansion
PLANTAIN PRICES
IN DOUALA
What is the market price for a banana
bunch (30-40 kg) in Douala (Cameroon)?
That depends upon the time of year. The
volatility of banana prices can mainly be
explained by seasonal variations in sup-
ply, which in turn are dictated by planta-
tion, climate and socio-economic factors
(e.g. a shortage of workers at harvest can
diminish banana supplies from October to
December).
There can also be a drop of around 50%
in the per-bunch price from the middle of
the rainy season to the middle of the fol-
lowing dry season. Other parameters,
such as the practice of inflating prices dur-
ing the end of the year festival season, can
also influence these patterns.
The number of middlemen involved in mar-
keting the product and the different extra
expenditures (market fees, transport costs,
police inspections during transport, etc.)
affect producer prices, which can some-
times be more than 50% lower than the
retail price.
The retailer mark-up for banana bunches
is constant— 200-250 F CFA (2-2.50 FF)
CAPE VERDE: 
THE NEW WAVE — ORGANIC BANANAS!
Along with seafood, bananas represent one of Cape Verde’s few exports. This declining
traditional export sector was reactivated by a community-wide desire to find an agricul-
tural means of boosting economic development in the country. For the approximately
450,000 inhabitants, a lot is at stake. Conditions are ideal in Cape Verde for setting up
an organic banana industry. This development project involved upgrading a small 80 ha
banana plantation having a production potential of around 4,800 tonnes of bananas.
The target — the organic food market. The operation is handled as it would be on a reg-
ular industrial-scale banana plantation, with the application of international quality stan-
dards. The overall aim is to export Cape Verde labelled organic bananas and capture a
30-40% share of this specialised market.
Who eats the most bananas?
Organic and 
fair-trade bananas
Illu
str
at
io
n 
M
. B
ov
y
Land issues are at the heart of
many current problems in the
world of natural resources. Relat-
ed to degradation of soil, water,
forests and farmlands, natural 
disasters, pollution, or the shrink-
ing genetic base, the problems
impinge on a wide range of disci-
plines: these call for a substantial
base of knowledge upon which
informed and balanced decisions
can be made. The Land Use Soci-
ety launched a new journal in
1997 to support this process and
to provide a forum for discussion
and information about the use
and management of land in its
broadest sense. 
The Land, which is supported
by the Food and Agriculture
Organization for its first year of
production, not only spans all the
disciplines involved in land use
and management but aims to pro-
vide information which is accessi-
ble, authoritative and of a high
scientific standard. Contents vary
from scientific research papers 
to case studies, interviews and 
letters. 
The move by land use planners
to acknowledge the aspirations
and perceptions of farmers, and
the importance of natural re-
source information as a basis for
sound planning are just two of the
issues tackled in the first issue of
Land. The second issue investi-
gates among other things, several
contentious issues in Africa
including land tenure, land evalu-
ation for livestock, and land
degradation.
The editors are calling for arti-
cles, technical notes, research
papers and letters, which can be
submitted in English, French or
Spanish. The Editor’s Mailbag is
open to receiving queries on prac-
tical problems.
- Dr Willy Verheye (Editor),
Acacialaan 21, 9840 De Pinte,
Belgium
Fax: +32 9 282 5413, 
Email: willy.verheye@rug.ac.be
- Dr David Dent (Editor), School of
Environmental Sciences, University of
East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ,
United Kingdom. Fax: +44 1603
507719, Email: d.dent@uea.ac.uk
- Membership of the International
Land Use Society is UK£ 20 per
year, details available from:
Dr Robert Ridgway, Natural
Resources Institute, Chatham
Maritime, Kent, ME4 4TB, United
Kingdom. Fax: +44 1634 883959,
Email: robert.ridgway@nri.org
• SPORE 74 PAGE 7 •• SPORE 74 PAGE 6 •
IN BRIEF IN BRIEF 
A private foundation has helped
develop a system of ‘research-man-
aged extension’ as an alternative to
current nation-wide services in
Africa which are constantly ham-
pered by a lack of resources. The
Gatsby Charitable Foundation,
working with collaborating organi-
sations in countries such as
Cameroon, Uganda and Kenya
since 1985, has reviewed its expe-
rience and believes lessons can be
learned for presenting an effective
alternative to conventional tech-
nology transfer* .
The majority of scientists in
research institutes suffer from
chronic under-funding, according
to Laurence Cockcroft, adviser on
African programmes for the Foun-
dation. Their potential contribu-
tion, he says, is hardly tapped.
Most extension services are barely
able to deliver farm-level advice
because they are effectively ground-
ed, and few agricultural credit
agencies have managed to provide
incremental finance to farmers.
Most marketing boards have been
wound down in the context of eco-
nomic liberalisation.
The Foundation’s approach
provides scientists with the power
to fund and mobilise small cadres
of extension staff in selected areas,
and to reward them according to
the degree of farmer contact. Tar-
geting resources to carefully
defined objectives while recognis-
ing the limits of what can be
achieved is, says Mr Cockcroft,
essential to success. So also is hav-
ing a ‘project champion’ within the
scientific community - an individ-
ual clearly identified to work con-
tinuously to ensure the project
objectives are achieved.
In Cameroon, a project with
IRAD, the Institute for Agricultur-
al Research and Development and
the International Institute of Trop-
ical Agriculture (IITA) trialled and
disseminated improved varieties of
cassava and sweet potato. In its sec-
ond phase, a Root Crop Fund was
established and a project co-ordi-
nator provided grants for research
and loans to farmers for multipli-
cation and commercialisation of
the new varieties. The support later
concentrated on women’s group
saving schemes (‘tontines’) which
were connected to a network of
rural microbanks giving them an
opportunity to move into the for-
mal banking system. As this
approach worked well, the fund
and its board was to be formalised
as the Cameroon Gatsby Trust and
take the project to a third stage.
A second case mentioned by Mr
Cockcroft comes from Uganda
where the cassava mosaic virus dis-
ease reached epidemic proportions
and resistant varieties were urgent-
ly needed. A cautious low-cost
approach was taken given the
uncertain response of the improved
varieties to such intense infection.
The project had six basic aims: to
sensitize farmers, identify target
areas, select extension workers to
support on-farm trials, to establish
a main source of planting material,
set up local multiplication centres
to serve target areas, and provide
training in rapid mulitplication
technqiues developed at IITA.
The co-ordinator of the Nation-
al Agricultural Research Organisa-
tion’s cassava programme managed
the budget. He provided daily
allowances for time and fuel, and
purchased bicycles, motorbikes and
vehicles. Between 1991 and 1996,
1,350 extension workers, 2,000
‘opinion leaders’, and 16,000 farm-
ers were sensitised to solutions and
the availability of planting materi-
al. At a district level 20% of the
total cassava area came under
improvement. The project, sup-
ported by the Gatsby Foundation,
then moved to other districts and
was to look at the feasibility of
establishing a self-standing trust or
a not-for-profit company instead of
working through the public sector.
The benefits of closer integra-
tion of research with extension-
type activities and the farming
population is largely undisputed,
and the Gatsby experiences may
provide food for thought wherever
transfer systems are being reviewed.
See Spore No. 72 (page 8) for
more information on the cassava
mosaic virus disease.
* Cockcroft, L. 1996. Transferring the
benefits of research to resource-poor
farmers in Africa: the experience of a
private foundation. In: International
Service for the Acquisition of
AgriBiotech Applications Annual
Report. pp17-19.
Women in
Cameroon have
small group 
saving schemes
which fitted into
the research-
managed 
extension scheme
Ph
ot
o 
C
ira
d
A new edition of the Southern
African Development Directory
was launched in November 1997
on the tenth anniversary of the
Programme for Development
Research at the Human Science
Research Council in South Africa
which publishes the directory
annually.
The directory provides back-
ground chapters and a listing of
more than 4,000 organisations
involved in the Southern African
development process. It gives 55
categories of development work
and covers the 14 member coun-
tries of the Southern African
Development Community:
Angola, Botswana, Congo,
Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius,
Mozambique, Namibia, Sey-
chelles, South Africa, Swaziland,
Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbab-
we. Special attention is given to
important regional, continental
and international institutions,
such as the Common Market for
Eastern and Southern Africa and
the African Development Bank. 
- The directory is available for
R200 (US$80) from: Programme for
Development Research, Human
Sciences Research Council, P O Box
32410, 2017 Braamfontein, South
Africa. Fax: +27 11 482 4739,
Email: bb@zeus.hsrc.ac.za
A Directory 
for Southern Africa
The Land
n AGRIFORUM
A quarterly newsletter, AgriForum, has
been launched by the Association for
Strengthening Agricultural Research in
Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA)
to provide information about its regional
research networks and programmes, and
other activities related to co-operative
work in the region. It is being supported
by a grant from the Swiss Agency for
Development Corporation.
ASARECA was established by the 10
National Agricultural Research Institutes
of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mada-
gascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, which recognized
that co-operation was essential if the regional research systems were
to be effectively and efficiently maintained. The association has a
number of successful research networks, for example, agroforestry,
root crops, beans, potato and sweet potato, and banana. In 1997
it established three additonal networks: sorghum and millet to be
‘backstopped’, or provided with an advisory service in the field, by
ICRISAT, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics; maize and wheat, backstopped by CIMMYT, the interna-
tional centre for research on maize and wheat; and dairy, beef and
small ruminants.
- ASARECA Secretariat, P O Box 765, Entebbe, Uganda
Fax: +256 42 21126/21070, Email: asareca@imul.com
n MEAT AND LIVESTOCK MARKETS 
IN WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA
This new quarterly newsletter, entitled
“Marchés bétail-viande en Afrique de
l’Ouest et du Centre”, is the offshoot of
work undertaken by the Conference of
Ministers of Agriculture in West and
Central Africa (CMA-AOC) in the
domain of regional livestock. It draws on
a network of national contacts (in Benin,
Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte
d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria,
Senegal and Togo), who gather informa-
tion on several market indicators. The
newsletter carries a wealth of useful
information for public and private deci-
sion-makers (supply and prices of livestock, meat prices, news
exchange) allowing them to keep in close touch with regional and
European markets. Each issue also carries a feature article, examin-
ing in depth a specific topic, such as foreign trade policy or poultry
production.
- Production: CRETES, BP 1965, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
USEFUL NEWSLETTERS LAUNCHED
In the Brazilian state of Ama-
zonas, the poultry-farming indus-
try is experiencing a number of
difficulties due to high production
costs brought about by the expense
and scarcity of the raw materials
used to make feed for domestic
fowl. The main ingredient in the
feed is maize which, along with
soya flour and meat and fish meal,
has to be brought in from other
parts of the country leading to 
a consequent rise in production
costs.
The total or partial replacement
of the main ingredients in conven-
tional feed by locally-produced raw
materials (in particular cassava,
which is a high yield traditional
crop) could bring about a substan-
tial reduction in the production
costs of feed thereby making local
poultry farming economically
viable. With this in mind, the
CPAA (Forestry Research Centre
of Western Amazonia) carried out
a research project aimed at:
– Partially replacing maize in
poultry feed by whole flour
made from the roots (FRIM)
and branches (FRM) of the cas-
sava plant;
– Reducing the costs of poultry
feed in order to make local
poultry-farming economically
viable and to enable poultry
farmers to produce part of the
feed themselves.
The upper portion of the cassa-
va foliage (branches and leaves) is
used in the manufacture of FRM.
This is ground and left out to dry
in the sun for two days in layers
approximately 6 cm thick; this is
turned over twice a day to facilitate
dehydration. Cassava roots are
used to make FRIM. These are
washed and cut in pieces approxi-
mately 5 cm long and 1.5 cm wide
then left to dry in the sun for four
days in layers of 7 kg per m2; they
are turned over twice daily for
optimum dehydration.
Information available on the
manufacture and cost of feed for 1
kg of live chicken indicated that
the partial replacement of maize in
feed was both economically and
biologically viable at all stages of
the test (1 to 54 days). Up to 45%
of whole flour made from cassava
roots and 10% made from cassava
leaves can be used.
With a view to practicality and
biology, according to the CPAA,
the region’s poultry-farmers could
replace maize with up to 30% of
whole flour made from cassava
roots and up to 5% of flour made
from cassava leaves in poultry feed.
This applies both to the early (1 to
35 days) and final (36 to 54 days)
stages of life.
- Ministério da Agricultura e
Reforma Agrária
Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa
Agropecuária - EMBRAPA
Centro de Pesquisa Agroflorestal da
Amazônia Ocidental - CPAA
Rodovia AM-010, km 30
CP 319
69001 Manaus, AM
BRAZIL
Gatsby CABI CD-ROM
A Crop Protection Compendi-
um giving details of the lastest sci-
entific information for practical
pest management has been pro-
duced by CAB International on
CD-ROM. This module includes
text, maps and full-colour illustra-
tions on over 1,000 major pests,
natural enemies and crops. It
focuses on pests of the Pacific and
South East Asia but also includes
many of global significance.
CABI describe the compendium
as a simple tool for pest diagnosis
that narrows down possible pests
by criteria of country, crop and
symptom and also by means of
several illustrated diagnostic and
taxonomic keys. It can be used as
an information resource and a
training aid. 
- Free trial copies and the
complete module are available from:
The Publishing Division, 
CAB International, Wallingford,
Oxon, OX10 8DE, UK. 
Fax: +44 1491 826090, 
Email: marketing@cabi.org
Lucid
An electronic package for the
delivery and presentation of taxo-
nomic data, LucID, has been pro-
duced by the Co-operative
Research Centre for Tropical Pest
Management (CTPM) in a joint
venture with the University of
Queensland and the Common-
wealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organisation, in Aus-
tralia. A demonstration of the sys-
tem, which the publishers claim
provides a new approach to deal-
ing with taxonomic data, can be
found on the Internet.
LucID is delivered on a CD-
ROM and has an accompanying
booklet. It provides an identifica-
tion key system in two modules: a
builder to construct the identifica-
tion sets, and a player to view and
interact with the data. According
to CTPM, the package provides a
comprehensive search and query
system for information and the
keys can be used as educational
and training tools.
- LUCID is available for Australian
$ 495 from: Software Information
Officer, Co-operative Research
Centre for Tropical Pest
Management, Gehrmann
Laboratories, University of
Queensland, Brisbane, Qld 4072,
Australia. Fax: +61 7 3365 1855,
Email: software@ctpm.uq.edu.au,
Website:
http://www.ctpm.uq.edu.au
Cassava root and leaf flour 
in poultry feed
• SPORE 74 PAGE 9 •• SPORE 74 PAGE 8 •
IN BRIEF IN BRIEF 
A “college without walls” is
gaining strength in Zimbabwe
and in June this year will begin to
offer training in sustainable agri-
culture and community develop-
ment. This pilot project being
established under the auspices of
the PELUM (Participatory Eco-
logical Land Use Management)
Association is bringing together
universities, national NGOs,
community based organisations
and government depart-
ments in a unique
alliance to pool
resources and offer
training that
might be beyond
the scope of a sin-
gle organisation. The
PELUM College Zim-
babwe draws on the
resources of 15 organisa-
tions to fulfill its role in
training NGO staff with an
ultimate aim of tackling con-
tinuing problems such as land
degradation, top-down extension,
and ad hoc NGO activities.
PELUM itself was officially
launched in 1995 based on a four-
year planning period by NGOs in
Eastern and Southern Africa. It is
optimistic about its long-term
survival largely because it believes
its roots are firmly in the region
and it is evolving as a direct result
of felt rather than perceived
needs. There are currently around
60 members and a regional co-
ordinating desk based in Harare.
The association centres around
the joint development of curricula
by its members but it has also
given itself the task of making
existing training materials more
easily available in the region.
Other objectives include the pro-
vision of appropriate accreditation
for its courses, the establishment
of working groups and the devel-
opment of an up-to-date invento-
ry of resource peronnnel.
A number of innovative
approaches have developed and
evolved over the last 30 years, say
the organisation. These include,
for example, participatory
rural appraisal, holistic
resource management,
permaculture, training
for transformation, the
organisational work-
shop, low-external-
input sustainable
agriculture and the
recognition of indige-
nous knowledge. Using
practical activities the
aim is to try to bridge the
canyon that still remains
between awareness raising
and action on the ground;
PELUM is taking up the chal-
lenge to adapt and link them
using the experience of people
already working in the region.
This experience, they say, needs to
be put in a form than can be
widely shared to avoid it being
lost and PELUM’s networking
approach will help the process.
- Publications Catalogue and
further information is available from:
The coordinator, PELUM Association,
Box MP 1059, Mount Pleasant,
Harare, Zimbabwe. 
Fax: +263 4 726 911, 
Email: pelum@mail.pci.co.zw
See page 9 for details of the PELUM
training workshops in 1998.
PELUM Association
Raising cattle in cowsheds is
proving to be a great success in the
cotton growing zone of Senegal.
The local textile fibre development
company (Sodefitex) is encourag-
ing this type of intensive livestock
husbandry as one way the area can
better face the combined pressures
of unsettled climate, devaluation of
the CFA franc, population and
over-use of natural resources.
Manure cowsheds, as they are
known, are simply shelters having
a pit and a feeding trough. In cer-
tain cases, the pit is cemented and
in others, it is simply a hole dug in
the ground. The animals receive a
health check and surveillance (ver-
mifuge and trypanocide treat-
ments), are watered once a day, and
fed on stalks from the bush and
from maize. The major supplement
given is cotton seed. The system is
seen as a “technology package”
which results in organic manure for
fertiliser and for producing biogas. 
The cowshed system is viable,
according to a recent study con-
ducted on twelve family small-
holdings in villages around the
town of Tambacounda. Sales of
milk and the production of
manure are well in excess of the
costs of the health treatments and
the cotton seed. Profits are even
higher for farmers that have con-
creted cowsheds. Still, this system’s
success depends heavily on Sodefi-
tex’s cotton seed price subsidies.
Even so, manure sheds help to con-
serve natural resources, which ben-
efits rural people. For this reason
alone this innovation deserves to
be supported as an integral part of
the cotton production chain, and
it should help maintain productiv-
ity over the long term. 
- Contact: Cheikh Ly, Service
d’économie rural et gestion, Ecole
inter-états des sciences et médecine
vétérinaires (EISMV), BP 5077,
Dakar, Senegal.
Manure sheds and milk
production : encouraging
results in Senegal
n REPAHA
• Sustainable beekeeping, 20 - 31 July 1998
• Aquaculture production technologies, 20 - 31 July 1998
• Use of computers in livestock programmes, 20 July - 7 August 1998
• Dairy development, 10 - 28 August 1998
• Livestock programme planning, 10 - 28 August 1998
Details of the above five courses in the Caribbean plus details of ‘distance
mode’ courses from: The Principal, Regional Education Programme for
Animal Health Assistants (REPAHA), P O Box 10962, Georgetown,
Guyana. Fax: +592 20 6557.
n INTERNATIONAL COURSE ON VEGETABLE PRODUCTION
26 July - 31 October 1998
With ever increasing pressures to improve the productivity of their existing
farmland, farmers need more support from advisers and researchers in
production and marketing techniques. This three-month course is for horti-
cultural advisers, lecturers and researchers, and includes: vegetable pro-
duction and seed technology, variety testing, crop protection and ecology,
plant nutrition, mechanisation for small-scale systems, post-harvest han-
dling and marketing, extension methods and strategies, and planning.
The Director, International Agricultural Centre, P O Box 88, 6700 AB
Wageningen, The Netherlands. Fax: +31 317 418552, Email:
iac@iac.agro.nl
n MSc IN FORESTRY EXTENSION
29 September 1998 - 25 September 1999
Lectures, seminars, project work, case studies and practical activities
form the basis of this course intended for foresters with a degree or
higher diploma in forestry or related subject and whose work involves
dealing with rural people. Content includes: theories of development,
society and change, understanding human communication, and tech-
nology for rural development. Specialist options can be chosen such
as: the role of NGOs in rural development, participatory approaches,
computer applications and statistics.
Verity Smith, Agricultural Extension and Rural Development Department,
University of Reading, P O Box 238, Earley Gate, Reading, RG6 6AL. 
Fax: +44 118 926 1244, Email: aerrd@reading.ac.uk, 
Internet Website: http://www.reading.ac.uk/acadepts/ea
n PARTICIPATION IN LOCAL DEVELOPMENT 
26 - 30 October 1998
Development workers with little or no experience in the use of partici-
patory methods will be interested in this five-day course which provides
insight into the theoretical background and practice in the most widely
used participatory technologies. It is organised by Agromisa and the
Institute for Applied Communication and Innovation.
Agromisa, P O Box 41, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands. 
Fax: +31 317 419178, Email: agromisa@worldaccess.nl
n CURRENT METHODS IN TROPICAL FORESTRY
July - September 1998
People concerned with the stewardship of trees and forests should be
familiar with a range of methods. The Tropical Forest Resource Group, an
association of organisations specialising in tropical forestry, education
and information, project management and consultancy are therefore
offering this course for professional foresters and conservationists, envi-
ronmental managers, land use planners and forestry research managers.
Nell Baker, course organiser, Tropical Forest Resource Group, Oxford
Forestry Institute, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3RB,
UK. Fax: +44 1865 275146, Email: nell.baker@plants.ox.ac.uk.
n FARMER TO FARMER WORKSHOP
10 - 21 August 1998
The PELUM (Participatory Ecological Land Use Management) Associa-
tion is running this two-week workshop in Tanzania.
PELUM Association, P O Box MP 1059, Mount Pleasant, Harare,
Zimbabwe. Fax: +263 4 744470, Email:pelum@mail.pci.co.zw
n TRAINING PROGRAMMES IN GERMANY
• Peri-urban livestock production in the tropics and subtropics, 
19 August - 16 September 1998
For participants from Africa and Asia
• Promotion of rural development in the tropics and subtropics, 
20 August - 29 September 1998
For participants from Africa and Asia 
• Conservation and utilisation of plant genetic resources in agriculture
and forestry, 9 September - 5 October 1998
• Promotion of self-help organisations, 1 - 27 October 1998
For participants from Africa and the Caribbean
• Farming Systems Development, 5 January - 2 February 1999
The above six training programmes are to be held in Germany for
participants world-wide unless otherwise stated. They are organised
by the German Foundation for International Development and the
Food and Agriculture Development Centre.
Applications to be submitted to the local German diplomatic mission
administering the German Scholarship Scheme, or, Zentralstelle für
ernahrung und landwirtschaft (zel) feldafing und zschortau, 
D-82336 Feldafing/München, Germany. 
Fax: +49 8157 938 777, Email: zel@zelfe.dse.de
n SCIENCE AND HORTICULTURE, INTERFACES 
AND INTERACTIONS
2 - 7 August 1998
This international conference organised by the International Horticultur-
al Congress (IHC), will cover topics such as culture techniques, quality
of horticultural products, computers and automation, application of
biotechnology and molecular biology. It comprises general and com-
modity sessions, separate symposia and workshops, poster sessions
and exhibitions of equipment and publications.
Hector Willcox, 25th IHC, c/o Ministry of SME and Agriculture, 
P O Box 182, B-1210, Brussels 21, Belgium. 
Fax: +32 2 501 6350, Email: 25ihc98@tornado.be
n AGRICULTURE IN THE CARIBBEAN - 
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
16 - 23 August 1998
This conference and exhibition will be held at the St Augustine Campus
of the University of the West Indies, Trinidad, and will be based on sci-
entific papers on issues and challenges in agriculture; the exhibition
will be open to private companies and international institutions; and
workshops will be held on agricultural diversification and agricultural
productivity.
Professor Lawrence Wilson, programme co-ordinator, Continuing Education
Programme in Agricultural Technology, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural
Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and
Tobago, West Indies. 
Fax: +868 662 1182, Email: tuf@wow.net
n DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF TRAINING EXTENSION MATERIALS
TO PROMOTE STRIGA AND OROBANCHE CONTROL
Last quarter 1998
This two-week course is designed to improve the ability of participants
to promote management practices for the control of parasitic weeds.
The course will draw on the experience and knowledge of the Regional
Ecology and Management of Parasitic Weeds Project. Personnel are
encouraged to apply for the course in teams of three: a resource per-
son and a representative from the official and non-governmental organ-
isations active in agricultural extension. The course will be conducted in
French and English.
Dr Stefan Kachelriess, Ecology and Management of Parasitic Weeds,
University of Hohenheim (380), D-70593 Stuttgart, Germany. 
Fax: +49 711 4593843, Email: kachries@uni-hohenheim.de
COURSES
Please write to the addresses given above, and not to CTA, if you are interested in participating in these events.
n NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR IMPROVED MUSA (BANANAS 
AND PLANTAINS)
PROMUSA (a Global Programme for Musa Improvement) is a
research network created on the initiative of INIBAP and the World
Bank. Launched in 1997, the network brings together researchers into
thematic working groups such as genetic improvement, fusarium wilt
disease, Sigatoka diseases, nematodes and viruses. Three key objec-
tives founded the creation of the programme: to increase the produc-
tivity of bananas and plantains in a sustainable way, respectful of the
environment, and with an emphasis more as subsistence food than
for local and export markets; to promote the development of improved
varieties of Musa and to disseminate them to producers through
National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS); and to facilitate and
encourage partnership between national systems, institutes and inter-
national agricultural research centres.
PROMUSA’s Website (http://www.inibap.fr/promusa/) carries gen-
eral information about bananas
and plantains, describes its pro-
grammes, and provides links to 
the multitude of sites covering
bananas: producers associations,
research centres, etc.
- Contact: INIBAP, Agropolis
Science Park, 34397 Montpellier
cedex, France.
Fax: +33 467 61 03 34
E-mail: inibap@cgnet.com
See also: Frison, E., Orjeda, G.,
Sharrock, S., editors, 1997 : 
A Global Programme for Musa
Improvement. Proceedings of a
meeting held in Gosier, Guadeloupe,
March 5 – 9, 1997. International
Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain, 
Montpellier, France / The World Bank, Washington, USA. 
NEW ON THE WEB
The electronic journal Livestock
Research for Rural Development
whose distribution on diskettes was
supported by CTA in its early
years, is now available on the Inter-
net’s World Wide Web enabling
researchers and development work-
ers access to information as soon as
it has been approved for dissemi-
nation.
The journal is now considered
sustainable and no longer depen-
dent on donor agencies, according
to Dr Thomas Preston who co-
founded it with Dr Andrew Speedy
of Oxford University. It was one of
the first scientific journals to be
made available exclusively in elec-
tronic format, he says, and was pub-
lished by the Centre for Research in
Sustainable Agricultural Systems in
Colombia. It is now available in
‘pdf ’ and ‘html’ formats which can
be easily downloaded from the
Internet for printing or storage.
The tenth anniversary of the
journal is being commemorated by
the issue of a compilation CD-
ROM holding a complete set of
back issues, plus a scanned version
of a second journal Tropical Animal
Production which ran from 1976 to
1985.
- Website: http://
sunny.plants.ox.ac.uk/homepages/
Electronic journal on www
Human actions can contribute to climatechange, mainly through combustion offossil fuels, land-use changes and
agriculture. These have increased green-
house gases in the atmosphere (mainly
carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous
oxides) which reflect back part of the earths
warmth to its surface, causing global
warming. World temperatures are expected
to rise by 2°C by 2100 if human activities
continue as they are, perhaps leading to
different climate zones, rises in sea-levels
and more frequent severe climatic events
such as droughts and storms. 
For ordinary people and political leaders in
Africa, climate change is not an immediate
priority; our focus is on immediate needs
and problems. Structural adjustment has
imposed short-term perspectives upon us;
many people in the North have the freedom
of longer-term perspectives.
The Kyoto meeting reaffirmed social and
economic development and poverty elimin-
ation as developing countries top priorities;
reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is a
second priority. The major efforts to reduce
these gases are needed in the industrialised
world and the decisions to cut them by 5%
over the next ten years compare badly with
the reduction of 20%-plus, that is actually
needed now.
Sharing the effects, 
not the blame
Africa is not a major contributor of
greenhouse gases; its emissions amount to
less than 8% of the worlds total. It is,
however, very vulnerable to climate change.
Experts on the International Panel on
Climate Change predict more widespread
drought in Saharan and Sahelian countries.
Lower rainfall will lead to soil degradation,
lower arable and pastoral production and
chronic food supply shortages.
In general, considerable loss of biodiversity
and severe damage to transport and
communication networks are forecast. Worst
of all, large-scale human migration and
political instability are predicted, with social
unrest and breakdown and impacting other
continents through migration and terrorism.
How much of this can we prevent?
We can reduce the footprint of African
agriculture on the environment and improve
production, through better resource man-
agement, agro-forestry, and rational land-
use. At the same time, our predominantly
peasant-based farming has to shift to in-
tensified production. Some approaches can
both meet immediate needs and help to
minimise the effect of greenhouse gas
emissions. ENDA’s SysPro programme in
Senegal has successfully irrigated seedlings
in relatively barren soil, increasing pro-
duction and creating carbon sinks, which in
turn support trees that capture carbon
dioxide gases and remove them from the
atmosphere. 
Despite our disappointments in Kyoto, we
have to seize every opportunity, especially
for our own capacity building. The Clean
Development mechanism proposed by
Brazil is one such chance. Since the Rio
Earth Summit in 1992, where Heads of
State of most nations met for the first time
to discuss global environment and devel-
opment issues, awareness has grown that
solutions cannot be imposed, and that in
Africa we have to create capacities to allow
people to make and take their own de-
cisions. Remember that only a handful of
Africans are professionally involved in
climate change, compared with hundreds in
Europe and thousands in North America.
When we have built up our capacities, our
decisions including for the future of African
agriculture will be very different from those
we are locked into now.
The need to know
We have to find ways and means to explain
the nature of the changes that will probably
happen. It is hard to explain to the small
fishing communities on the Petit Côte in
Senegal, for example, that their livelihoods
will probably disappear as a result of sea-
level rises and coastal erosion, but it must
be done, and in a positive way that will not
sow panic. Many people in the North see
climate change as a threat to their way of
life, which should be protected at almost
any cost. They should look more at their
wasteful consumption, and understand that
the scenarios in store for Africa will affect
them too.
Whether you are in Watagouna, in northern
Mali, or Winnipeg in Canada, or Rio or
Berlin, you cannot escape climate change.
We can be sure that extreme cases of effects
will become more common: islands off the
African coast will disappear, and massive
power losses, such as those in Quebec in
January 1998, induced by unprecedented
ice storms, will become more frequent. 
We are driven by our short-term needs,
even sometimes knowingly at the expense
of future generations. We also suffer from
the short-term vision of our partners in the
North. We need more patient investment in
success stories, in translating them into
policies, and in capacity building. Above
all, we must keep our own perspective of
optimism: that change can bring benefits.
l
Website:
http://www.enda.sn/energie/cc/energycc.htm
E-mail: energy2@enda.sn fax:+221 8222695
mail: ENDA Energie, BP 3370, Dakar, Senegal
Climate change: 
can we change 
our horizons?
Youba Sokona is Energy
coordinator at ENDA, an
environment and development
organisation in Dakar, Senegal.
He works extensively on the
United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC), which aims at
persuading governments to
modify the impact of human
activity on the environment 
and world climate.
Drastic changes in the world’s climate are predicted over the next few decades. Apparently inevitable, they will
force whole countries and cultures in ACP States and beyond to adapt their ways of life, and their agriculture.
Yet the reality of meeting today’s needs stands between them and the overwhelming changes which lie only just
over the horizon. Youba Sokona sees the UNFCCC climate change meeting in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997
as a missed opportunity to deal with urgent immediate and long-term challenges.
• SPORE 74 PAGE 11 •• SPORE 74 PAGE 10 •
MAILBOX VIEWPOINT
The views expressed are 
those of the author and do not 
necessarily reflect those of CTA
HANDOVER IS GUARANTEED
Mamadou Faye, of the Eaux et Forêts (Forestry department)
in Mbacké, Senegal, writes about the results of close
collaboration between the NGO SOS Sahel, government services
and local villagers. “The area where we live is wooded savannah,
now seriously deforested. There are only grazing plants left
(Faidherbia albida, Acacia spp., Balanites aegyptiaca); virtually
all the species with an industrial value have disappeared. The
NGO organised discussion meetings and awareness building
sessions to encourage people to plant and nurture young
seedlings. Groups were trained in tree nursery techniques. Every
year, small enclosed plantations (0.5 to 1 hectare) of Euphorbia
balsamifera were planted.” Mr Faye also mentions the digging of
two wells, opening up market garden plots, the purchase of a
millet mill, and the construction of two health posts. He concludes
by saying that “when the project ended in 1994, this did not stop
village leaders from continuing their planting activities, under the
leadership of Mrs Cazaty, who, with the support of the Forestry
Department, carries on the good work of working for the welfare
of our rural people.”
MORE INTEREST IN CREDIT
Emile N. Houngbo, a socio-economist in Benin, comments
on the article in Spore 71 (page 4), because the details given
do not, in his opinion, match the everyday realities of the street
banking sector in Benin. “Deposits are made on a daily basis; in
fact, savers do not really have a choice of days; the banker comes
round daily, except on Sundays, to collect deposits. The banker’s
commission paid for services rendered is the equivalent of one
daily deposit, regardless of whether or not the saver continues
saving to the end of the agreed saving cycle. These periods are
normally monthly, quarterly or annual. Cases of street bankers
running off with their depositors’ money have now become
common, and this has considerably reduced the once-high
credibility of these people. Nowadays, large depositors (of more
than CFA 400, about 60 US cents, a day) take out an interest-free
loan equivalent to the total intended for the whole month, and they
do this after just 5 or 10 deposits. For depositors, the availability
of this credit has become a criterion for choosing a street banker.
The situation is less a case of a depositor accepting to pay heavily
for the right to save, and more a case of him wanting to start
saving with a street banker in order to get, on the 5th or 10th of
the month, a loan equivalent to the total amount he expects to save.
On our ‘Mailbox’ page we publish extracts from letterssent to the editorial team at CTA. These letters havebeen selected for their potential interest to other
readers of Spore. Readers are therefore invited to send us
further information on subjects covered in Spore.
Spore would also be pleased to receive short articles and news
items on agriculture and rural development in ACP countries;
these will be considered for publication in our ‘In Brief’ pages.
Finally, under the heading ‘Viewpoint’, we will continue to pub-
lish personal opinions on the subject of agricultural develop-
ment in general. 
Please send your correspondence to Spore at CTA in the
Netherlands (see back page for our address) and please note
that we are unable to return manuscripts.
SEEING RED
Joseph Mawa Lufuku, of the Centre de promotion sociale et
agro-alimentaire (CEPROSA) in Kinshasa, Democratic
Republic of Congo, writes about the article in the French edition
of Spore 65: “The recommendation ‘Don’t whiten palm oil’ is
sound advice indeed, but not for the reasons given in the article.
The increase in cholesterol is due, in actual fact, to another factor
than the process of overheating the oil in order to whiten it. [...]
Palm oil cannot be classified as a food with lipids rich in
polyunsaturated fatty acids. It comprises saturated fatty acids
above all, which means that, whether raw or whitened, it always
increases the rate of cholesterol in the blood. [...] The effects of
whitening palm oil has more to do with the destruction of carotene
(which colours the oil red); this is a provitamin A which allows the
body to elaborate its vitamin A. Whitening palm oil also produces
a very poisonous and suffocating substance, acrolein, which is
carried in smoke. It is the housewives who suffer from this.”
GIANT SNAIL : THE END OF THE TALE ?
Victor Nobime, from CREDAC in Benin, reports having
received “a flood of mail” after his message in Mailbox in
Spore 71 : in one month, he received mail from more than 100
readers in twelve African countries about the giant African snail.
He remarks that “the demand for information up to now confirms
yet again that the snail is a special sector in livestock development
which should be encouraged.”
This photo was sent by the “Books and Life” working group
(Livres et Vie) (B.P. 20, Owando, Congo) which was formed
to help cooperatives and groups of disadvantaged farmers in
the Owanda region learn agricultural techniques and improve
their agricultural knowledge. The library is open free of charge.
Ph
ot
o 
Pa
sc
al
 E
le
ng
a
Bilingual atlas of livestock in the Lake Chad basin
Universities have a significant con-tribution to make to agriculturaldevelopment in sub-Saharan African
countries. That is the conclusion of an inter-
national workshop held in November 1997
at the IITA (International Institute for
Tropical Agriculture) station at Calavi in
Benin. The workshop was co-organised by
ISNAR (International Service for National
Agricultural Research), CTA, the German
Federal Ministry for development coopera-
tion (BMZ), and the German development
agencies GTZ and DSE. It brought togeth-
er more than 50 professionals, including 18
managers from universities and research
institutions who had undertaken preparato-
ry studies in six African countries on the
topic. Other participants were representa-
tives of regional organisations (ASARECA,
SACCAR and CORAF), of IITA (Ibadan,
Nigeria and Calavi, Benin) and of European
universities.
Workshop participants examined the fac-
tors which reduce the impact of agricultural
research on development, and discussed the
recommendations and action plans drawn
up for the universities of Benin, Burkina
Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Uganda and
Zimbabwe. They concluded that universi-
ties could and should conduct research
which is more relevant to the country’s agri-
culture. They felt that the universities
should become part of national agricultural
research systems (NARS), which encompass
the private sector and non-governmental
organisations as well as research institutions.
The importance of strengthening links with
extension services was stressed as a way to
heighten the relevance and impact of uni-
versity research.
The main obstacle to implementation of
the workshop recommendations was per-
ceived to be the low level of funding for uni-
versity research. Other equally important
constraints were short-comings in research
planning and management, lack of clarity
in institutional mandates and policies, and
lack of incentives for researchers.
The workshop concluded with represen-
tatives identifying specific activities which
could strengthen the contribution of uni-
versities to agricultural research in Africa.
ISNAR, the institution behind this initia-
tive, will use the conclusions from the
workshop and the six case studies as the
basis for developing broad guidelines and
study methodologies applicable to other
countries.
l
In the present economic and political con-text, significant changes are taking placein food security issues. Nowadays, empha-
sis is being placed on developing seamless
and sensible links between various food
security programmes, including emergency
aid and overall development policies.
In 1996, the European Union adopted a
new community programme with flexible,
trans-sectoral tools designed to:
– improve market supply through support
to local food production (local purchas-
es, and so-called triangular operations);
– facilitate the access of vulnerable groups
to basic food supply, instead of simply
providing food;
– create a stable and responsive political
and economic climate to encourage long-
term food security policies. 
Between October and December 1997,
CTA and the Food Aid and Food Security
Unit of the Directorate-General for Devel-
opment of the European Commission
organised a series of three seminars based
on this new set of measures. This was done
against a background of alarming perspec-
tives, especially with regard to sub-Saharan
Africa. The seminars were intended to
inform and encourage discussion about the
measures with ACP decision-makers (Per-
manent Secretary level of Ministries of Agri-
culture, Economic Affairs and Trade) and
with representatives of NGOs and regional
organisations, all of whom were actively
involved in this domain. The four regions
of Africa, and the Caribbean, were repre-
sented 1. 
Each participant approached the semi-
nars with their own particular experience
and vision, and together discussed various
sections of the new measures and their tools,
such as aid in kind, financial aid, counter-
part funding and foreign exchange arrange-
ments. A set of case studies underlined just
how diverse (e.g. countries in a critical state,
in the process of rehabilitation, and with a
high level of food insecurity) and complex
situations of food insecurity are, as well as
the difficulties of implementing corrective
steps. It was recognised that it was the role
of the State to create an institutional and
economic framework to protect the poorest
of the poor. Further, the importance of
making national, regional and international
policies coherent and complementary was
stressed. Participants also emphasised the
need for communication and consultation
between various partners.
l
1 West Africa: Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad,
Mali, Mauritania, Niger
Central Africa and Caribbean: Angola,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Haïti,
Madagascar, Rwanda, São Tomé and Principe
East Africa: Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi,
Mozambique, Somalia, Uganda, Zimbabwe;
Yemen also participated.
Seminars on new EU measures for
food security in ACP States
• SPORE 74 PAGE 13 •• SPORE 74 PAGE 12 •
NEWS FROM CTA  ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä ä NEWS FROM CTA
Agricultural research: strengthening 
the contribution of universities
Study visit:
livestock systems 
in humid and 
sub-humid zones 
of Africa 
In some countries in Africa, significantactivities have been developed in livestocksystems. The important experiences and
know-how gained are worthy of being
shared with other countries having similar
agro-ecological conditions. With this in
mind, CTA organised a two-week study
tour in Guinea, in collaboration with that
country’s Ministry for Fisheries and Live-
stock. Participants in the study tour were
twenty directors of national livestock ser-
vices and development projects from seven
West and Central African States, as well as
the coordinator of the Livestock Network of
CORAF (the Conference of Directors of
African Agricultural Research). They visited
19 sites, and developed an appreciation of
the innovative approaches of Guinean col-
leagues to the sector, and, in particular, of
their plans in mobilising stakeholders, insti-
tutional development and management of
natural resources.
Drawing on lessons learned and the
exchanges of ideas that took place during
their visit, the participants drew up a list of
those activities that could well be extended
to other countries in the region: setting up a
rural credit programme focusing on animal
production; developing a market informa-
tion system; encouraging the organisation of
breeders into groups (with a ‘solidarity’ con-
tribution that helps gain access to credit);
encouraging the participation of women in
the sector, and carrying out studies on the
environmental impact of livestock. Another
experience of interest for all countries in the
region was the establishment of management
committees that bring together various par-
ties for the maintenance and running of
marketing systems for livestock products.
l
New in The Tropical Agriculturalist series
Market Gardening, by R. Kroll, describes
the cultivation, management and use of 59
different vegetables. General advice is given
on production factors such as climate, soils
and the use of fertilizers etc., as well as har-
vesting and post-harvesting operations.
Appendices give an overview of common
pests and diseases and suggest methods of
control.
CTA/Macmillan co-publication 1997, 176 pp.,
ISBN 0-333-65449-8, 10 credit points
Almost all of the world’s 40 million don-
keys are to be found in less developed coun-
tries, where they serve a variety of purposes,
as pack animals, for draft work and riding.
Donkeys, by D. Fielding and P. Krause, is a
guide for anyone involved in using or
breeding these animals. Besides giving
details of donkey physiology, nutrition,
health and husbandry, this book provides
practical information on the use of donkeys
as work animals, including training and
harnessing aspects and descriptions of the
equipment needed for transport and culti-
vation purposes. There is also a chapter on the infertile offspring of
the donkey and the horse: the mule and the hinny.
CTA/Macmillan co-publication 1998, 120 pp., ISBN 0-333-62750-4, 
10 credit points. 
Mechanisation of agricultural work in
sub-Saharan Africa: study report
This study report contains past and on-going experiences,
together with a brief description of the most common techniques.
The study explores the adoption and use of innovative manual tools,
cultivation using draft animals and engine driven equipment, in
the fields and for transport purposes. The main aims of the study
were to identify the most appropriate means of raising the aware-
ness of the various operators (small farmers, policy makers, and
research managers) regarding the contribution of mechanisation to
agricultural development, and to suggest
activities at a national or regional level to
promote the mechanisation of small- and
medium-sized farms. The study makes a
number of recommendations with a view
to improving the integration of mechanisa-
tion in rural development strategies. These
recommendations are addressed to govern-
ments, private operators, donors and
NGOs.
The report is divided into two major
sections. The first is devoted to analysis of
lessons learnt from the past and on-going experiences and an analy-
sis of the current status of technology including typology of critical
factors in the development of mechanisation. The second section
consists of recommendations and subdivided into several parts: con-
ceptual framework, priority for governments, role of private opera-
tors and NGOs, and proposals for regional cooperation.
CTA publication 1997, 70 pp., ISBN 92 9081 1749, 5 credit points.
Available from CTA
Obtaining CTA publications
Publications on CTA’s list are available free-of-charge to sub-
scribers to the Publications Distribution Service. Readers who
have applied to become subscribers will, in due course, receive
a response to their application and, if admitted, will be sent two
publications order forms, one of which will indicate the number
of CTA credit points available to them.
Credit values have been assigned to all the publications on CTA’s
list. Subscribers can order these publications up to the value of
the credit points available to them. Publications can only be
requested on the order forms provided.
Non-subscribers who apply by letter, fax or email will be sent an
application form. Applications will be considered from agricul-
tural and rural development organisations in the ACP (Africa,
Caribbean and Pacific) Group of States; individuals resident in
ACP countries may also apply.
Organisations which work for agricultural and rural development
in the ACP States, but are not based in an ACP country, should
write to CTA giving details of the publications they wish to acquire
and the reasons why they are needed.
L ake Chad lies at the heart of a large basinmeasuring some 427 300 km2. The regionhas suffered profound ecological change,
the product of a prolonged drought that has
afflicted the region over the last few decades.
The lake itself has shrunk from 22 000 km2
to around 7 000 km2 over the last thirty years.
Annual rainfall in the basin is very variable
lending to major uncertainties in livelihood.
As a consequence, the amount of fodder avail-
able can fluctuate greatly, in a region which is
dominated by livestock activities. 
This bilingual atlas (English and French)
is a useful reference tool for the develop-
ment and management of natural resources
in the region, and takes into account 
ecological risks and socio-economics. It was
produced in collaboration with the LCBC
(Lake Chad Basin Commission) which
comprises Cameroon, Central African
Republic, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. Its
three chapters – environment; livestock and
pastoralism; economics and socio-economic
aspects – cover fifteen topics in all. Sum-
maries, tables and photographs complement
the cartographic information. All in all, it is
a veritable mine of data on subjects as
diverse as hydro-geology, remote sensing,
wildlife and agro-pastoralism.
l
CIRAD-EMVT/CTA co-publication, 1996, 158 pp.,
format 40x50cm, ISBN 2-87614-248-1, 
120 credit points.
Gender
The key to sustainable natural
resource management is involving
all stakeholders, male and female,
in the planning process. It is
important that development work-
ers recognise and are familiar
with such gender issues, and, with
this in mind, a Gender Training
Workshop was held by the Forest
Action Network in 1997 at Naku-
ru, Kenya. Proceedings of the
workshop have been made avail-
able with assistance from the Food
and Agriculture Organization .
Gender training workshop. 
By L Nakhone. 1997. Forest Action
Network, P O Box 21428, 
Nairobi, Kenya. 
Fax: +254 2 718398, 
Email: fan@arcc.or.ke
Ethiopia
Ethiopia has suffered from
severe soil erosion and land
degradation for decades and past
attempts at rehabilitation have
been seriously disappointing.
However, a recognition of past
mistakes has led to the design of
a participatory approach to agro-
forestry and a description of this
has been published by Wagenin-
gen Agricultural University, the
Netherlands.
The approach addressed the
following needs: improved and
holistic production of food, fuel-
wood and fodder by farmers,
appropriate soil and water con-
servation and reforestation ini-
tiatives, and a systems approach
for the design of rehabilitation
schemes. Farmers were involved
in the study, adaptation, imple-
mentation and evaluation of the
rehabilitation work, and this is
reflected in the overall frame-
work and posing of research
questions. The recommendations
stress the importance of initia-
tives being carried out in ‘con-
ducive environments’ — and
what makes for such environ-
ments is also discussed.
A participatory agroforestry
approach for soil and water
conservation in Ethiopia. Tropical
Resource Management Paper 17. By
Azene Bekele-Tesemma. 1997. 229
pp. ISSN 0926-9495. NLG 20.
Wageningen Agricultural University,
Liaison Office, P O Box 9109,
6700 HB Wageningen, 
The Netherlands. 
Fax: +31 317 484 292.
Malthus
Exactly 300 years ago,
Malthus first put forward the
notion that food production can-
not keep pace with population
growth. This idea still resonates.
In 25 years the human popula-
tion on the planet could reach
eight billion. The general con-
cern about the world’s ability to
support such an increase and
whether technical advances, par-
ticularly in food production, will
be able to keep pace is increas-
ingly under intense discussion. A
group of scientists concerned
with natural resource manage-
ment met in 1996 to assess the
production potential of the avail-
able land. The presentations, dis-
cussions and conclusions have
now been published and cover:
current pressures on land and
water resources, the effects of cli-
mate on productivity, the need
for crop improvement, better
management of water, soil and
nutrients, economic factors and
environmental limitations.
The book will be of interest to
practitioners and students of
agronomy, forestry, soil science
and ecology concerned with nat-
ural resource management; and
to economists, policy-makers
and environmentalists with an
interest in global issues.
Land resources: on the edge of the
Malthusian precipice? Edited by D J
Greenland, P J Gregory and P H
Nye. 1998. ISBN 0 85199 235 8.
Publishing Division, CAB
International, Wallingford, Oxon,
OX10 8DE, UK. 
Fax: +44 1491 833508, 
Email: cabi@cabi.org.
A 300-year-old technology
developed by farmers in Kenya
to preserve milk should benefit
from future collaboration be-
tween farmers and researchers
and lead to improved use and
management of trees, according
to a study published by the
Forestry Action Network.
Milk is often treated before
drinking for reasons of palatabili-
ty and preservation. In the Trans-
Nozia District, farmers store milk
in gourds that have been coated
inside by the burnt wood ash-dust
of various tree species. Milk
stored in such containers is con-
sidered “treated”. Trees chosen
for this purpose are multipurpose
species and Cassia didymobotrya
was found to be the most popular
species for the task, 60% of farm-
ers had planted it around their
homes. According to the author,
William Mureithi, indigenous
knowledge and practices often
enhance the conservation of bio-
diversity and can be used as the
basis for developing future forest
conservation and tree planting
strategies. By documenting and
adding to their own knowledge,
conventional research can help
farmers integrate into mainstream
rural and economic development.
The farmers choose particular
trees for the milk treatment using
certain criteria but the treatment
itself remains subject to trial and
error. The study calls for further
work to provide a basis for ‘hor-
izontal learning’ and communi-
cation among communities, for
example, of the product market
potential, and for research to
help farmers raise seedlings to
ensure their long-term supply of
the raw product.
A second study published by
the Forest Action Network also
sees potential in strengthening
linkages between farmers and
research and extension institu-
tions to recognise traditional
knowledge systems as para-
mount for progress in agricultur-
al development. The authors of 
A Community’s Initiatives to Sur-
vive in a Semi-arid Area note 
the advances made by farmers 
in solving their production prob-
lems. The farmers studied effec-
tively combated particular dis-
eases and pests through the use
of wood ash and extracts of
pyrethrum, tobacco and Mexican
marigold. They devised ways of
establishing tree seedlings under
conditions of scarce water sup-
plies by using wood flumes and
stone quids, inverted bottles,
double-digging, perforated cans,
sawdust and mulch. Such tech-
niques have promoted a steady
increase in the number and
species of trees grown in the 
district.
The authors conclude that tra-
ditional knowledge can be
strengthened by blending it with
modern science on a greater
scale than in the past.
Milk treatment using selected tree
species: a case study in Trans-Nzoia
District, Kenya. 1997. 
By W Mureithi. Moi University.
A Community’s initiatives to survive in
a semi-arid area: the case of Kikapu,
Njoro location, Nakuru, Kenya.
1997. By E M Njoka and P M
Makenzi. Egerton University.
Forest Action Network, 
P O Box 21428, Nairobi, Kenya. 
Fax: +254 2 718398, 
Email: fan@arcc.or.ke
Termites
Termites, while a fascinating
subject for students of insect
behaviour, are major pests of
crops and buildings in the tropics
and subtropics. An introduction to
termites has been written by Mike
Pearce, formerly of the Natural
Resources Institute, for advanced
students of entomology and pest
management and professionals
concerned with urban and agri-
cultural pest control. Among the
subjects he treats are: biology,
behaviour, status and control.
Moreover, commonly used eco-
logical and laboratory techniques
are described in the appendices.
Termites: biology and pest
management. By M Pearce. 1998.
ISBN 0 85199 130 0 
Publishing Division, CAB
International, Wallingford, Oxon,
OX10 8DE, UK. 
Fax: +44 1491 833508, 
Email: cabi@cabi.org.
Biodiversity is recognised as a
key issue in the general debate
about the sustainable use of the
world’s natural resources; the
urgent need now is to collect,
manage and disseminate infor-
mation in an efficient and useful
way. This book reviews what are
the information needs critical to
biodiversity and how this informa-
tion may be efficiently communi-
cated; it is based on papers
presented at a workshop held in
London in 1996. The workshop
focused on the need to let infor-
mation move between its point of
origin and its many points of use,
so that global priorities may be
met with a rapid assessment and
response.
CTA supported the participa-
tion of some delegates in the
workshop which itself was organ-
ised and sponsored by CAB Inter-
national, the International Union
for Biological Sciences, the Inter-
national Union of Forestry
Research Organizations, the UN
Environment Programme and the
World Conservation Union.
Biodiversity information: needs and
options. Edited by D L Hawksworth
and P M Kirk. 1997. 194 pp. 
UK£ 35.
Publishing Division, CAB
International, Wallingford, Oxon,
OX10 8DE, UK. 
Fax: +44 1491 833508, 
Email: cabi@cabi.org.
• SPORE 74 PAGE 15 •• SPORE 74 PAGE 14 •
BOOKS BOOKS
Unless otherwise stated, the books on these two pages 
are not available from CTA. Readers are advised to write 
to the publishers for further information.
Palms
Despite having around 2,500
species worldwide commonly
growing in tropical forests and
being the source of a vast range
of useful products, palms have
been largely ignored by foresters
when designing and implement-
ing forest management plans. In
an attempt to right this oversight
the Food and Agriculture Organi-
zation have published the results
of a study which described palms
and their products, linked prod-
ucts to specific species and their
conservation status, and provid-
ed details for additional sources
of information. This publication
helps to assess the role palms 
and their products can play with-
in integrated forestry, agriculture,
conservation and natural re-
source management activities. It
will be of interest to forestry tech-
nicians, international develop-
ment workers, policy makers and
international conservation and
development agencies.
Non-wood forest products: tropical
palms. By D V Johnson. 1997. 166
pp.
Distribution and Sales Section, 
Food and Agriculture Organization,
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla,
00100 Rome, Italy.
Biodiversity
Post-harvest
Tropical and subtropical fruits
are becoming more important
food items both in countries
where they are produced and in
an increasing number of import-
ing countries in temperate zones.
Production has increased sub-
stantially and with it interest in
post-harvest issues, especially
because post-harvest losses in
the country of origin can be con-
siderable. CAB International
have published a comprehensive
volume dealing with post-harvest
storage, physiology and conser-
vation of all the economically
important tropical and subtropi-
cal fruits. It will be of interest to
horticultural researchers and stu-
dents that work with these crops
as well as growers, exporters
and importers.
Post-harvest physiology and storage of
tropical and subtropical fruits. Edited
by S K Mitra. 1997. 423 pp. 
ISBN 0 85199 210 2. UK# 65.
Publishing Division, CAB
International, Wallingford, Oxon,
OX10 8DE, UK. 
Fax: +44 1491 826090, 
Email: cabi-nao@cabi.org
Agroforestry
Agroforestry can make a
major contribution to sustain-
able land use with its potential,
in well-managed systems, to
control runoff and erosion,
maintain soil organic matter
and physical properties, and
promote nutrient cycling. CAB
International have updated
Agroforestry for soil conserva-
tion, published in 1989, by pro-
viding a new synthesis that
draws on over 700 recently
published sources including
results of field trials of agrono-
my systems and research into
plant-soil processes. The book,
published with the International
Centre for Research in Agro-
forestry, also contains infor-
mation on soil erosion, con-
servation, and management. It
will be of interest to anyone con-
cerned with agroforestry: stu-
dents, research scientists, soil
scientists, agronomists and
foresters.
Agroforestry for soil management.
2nd edition. By A Young. 1998.
ISBN 0 85199 189 0.
Publishing Division, CAB
International, Wallingford, Oxon,
OX10 8DE, UK. 
Fax: +44 1491 833508, 
Email: cabi@cabi.org.
Cytokines
Cytokines are regulating pro-
teins that perform an intercellu-
lar communication function in a
variety of biological processes.
This book brings together a
wealth of recent advances in the
understanding of cytokines and
how this may be applied to diag-
nosis and therapy of diseases in
animals such as cattle, sheep,
pigs, horses, cats, dogs and
birds. It will be of primary inter-
est to researchers in veterinary
microbiology and immunology.
Cytokines in veterinary medicine.
Edited by V E C J Schijns and M C
Horzinek. 1998. 
ISBN 0 85199 209 9
Publishing Division, CAB
International, Wallingford, Oxon,
OX10 8DE, UK. 
Fax: +44 1491 833508, 
Email: cabi@cabi.org.
Kenya
• SPORE 74 PAGE 16 •
INFORMATION SOURCES
SPORE is a bi-monthly publication providing information on agricultural development for ACP countries
Publisher: Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) – ACP-EU Lomé Convention.
CTA: Postbus 380, 6700 AJ Wageningen, The Netherlands. Tel +31 317 467100. Fax +31 317 460067. E-mail: cta@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. E-mail: louma@hol.fr
Médiateurs, W-Alexanderpoort 46, 1421 CH Uithoorn, The Netherlands. Fax: +31 297 540 514. E-mail: paul.osborn@mediateurs.org
Layout: Louma productions Printer: Imprimerie Publicep, France © CTA 1998 ISSN 1011-0054
W ho do you turn to when you havea promising project and arelooking for an appropriate
funder? Both ENDS (Environment and
Development Service) may be what you
need. They act as ‘brokers’ for projects —
in this role they also aid funders who are
looking for special projects to invest in.
Independent and professional, with gro-
wing support from government, NGOs and
international bodies, Both ENDS is not itself
a funder, although this is a role it may
develop in the future, possibly with a small
grants initiative, but its present priorities are
to provide information on where to find
funds, and – increasingly – where to locate
projects with similar experiences in, for
example, agriculture, water management,
community organisation and natural re-
source management.
In the last ten years, Both ENDS has helped
almost ten thousand development initiatives
get started, in its role as a ‘support centre’
for environment and development organ-
isations in the ‘South’. Since its inception in
1986, Both ENDS has primarily played a
facilitating and responsive role, in addition
to its part in the capacity building of the
global environmental movement. 
Each year, working contacts are made with
more than one thousand organisations in
ACP States and elsewhere, and 250 funders
and donor agencies. 
Both ENDS provides a customised infor-
mation service, including help in developing
and submitting funding proposals, advice
on fund-raising and entering partnerships,
assistance in locating information and in
making contact with decision-makers, and
support in capacity building and institu-
tional development. 
Another important task is to make successful
projects known to a wider audience
worldwide, through publications, work-
shops and seminars. Organisations working
in similar fields and conditions can thus
benefit from the successes of others.
Under its policy plan for 1988 to 2000,
Both ENDS will focus on five areas:
sustainable land use, energy, urban
sustainability, sustainable production and
use of raw materials.
It will continue its service which provides
information on funds and expertise, and will
develop a global “Encylopaedia of
Sustainability”, with detailed descriptions of
where initiatives have succeeded, the
conditions of success, and the risks of
failure. The “Encylopaedia” will be
published in print form and on the World
Wide Web, to become, Both ENDS say,
“not a shelf full of inaccessible, dusty books,
but a dynamic, interactive collection of
lessons learnt at the field front-line of
sustainable development, lessons worthy of
replication elsewhere, lessons to inspire.”
l
Both ENDS, Damrak 28-30, 1012 L J Amsterdam,
Netherlands.
Fax: +31 20 6208049
Email: bothends@bothends.org
Website: http://antenna.nl/bothends
Finding funds, sharing success
Answer : Spain. Quoted from a survey by
Générale des Eaux, Paris, 1997.
EMBRAPA 
T he Brazilian Agro-pastoral ResearchCompany, EMBRAPA, was set up on 26April 1973. The company possesses
modern laboratories and research stations
and is organised into two departments and
37 Research Units , which are situated in
very diverse ecological conditions all over
Brazil. EMBRAPA’s workforce numbers
9,500 including 2196 researchers (55%
possessing a master’s degree, and 35%
doctorates).
In addition to work directly related to agro-
pastoral research, which is carried out at
the Company’s headquarters, research
units and departments, EMBRAPA also co-
ordinates the SNPA (National System for
Agro-pastoral research). This is made 
up of both public and private institutions 
such as state research enterprises and
universities.
Among EMBRAPA’s priorities are projects
aimed at generating employment and
productivity. Moreover, it works alongside
its partners to: encourage the creation of
small or micro agro-industries in Brazil,
maximise the use of production resources,
improve the quality and competitivity of
agricultural industries, and develop the
basis for a sustainable agro-pastoral
industry by reducing regional imbalances.
A number of other countries and scientific
institutions have also benefited both from
EMBRAPA’s varied scientific skills and its
institutional flexibility. Through agreements
and contracts for technical co-operation,
EMBRAPA has developed research partner-
ships, trained research and technical staff,
established research and development in-
stitutions in developing countries and ex-
changed or sold genetic materials. It has even
registered a number of international patents.
Among EMBRAPA’s many partners are
institutions such as the Rockefeller Foun-
dation, JICA, GTZ, CIMMYT, CIRAD, ICRISAT
and IFPRI. These partnerships extend to over
20 countries, including Argentina, South
Africa, Cuba, Egypt, Japan, Australia,
Nicaragua, Tunisia and a number of
Portuguese-speaking African countries.
Through the SNPA, EMBRAPA is developing
programmes in a number of fields,
specifically: natural resources; genetic
resources; biotechnology; grains; fruit and
horticulture; animal husbandry; raw
materials; forestry and forest-farming
techniques; rationalisation of subsistence
and low-yield agriculture; post-harvest,
processing and conservation of agropastoral
products; environmental protection; agro-
pastoral mechanisation; rural and regional
development; support information for
research and development projects; technical
and financial co-operation with national
research, management and institutional
administration systems. l
EMBRAPA - Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa
Agropecuária
Assessoria de Comunicação Social - ACS
SAIN Parque Rural (Final da W3 Norte)
Caixa Postal 04.0315
CEP 70770-901-Brasilia, DF, BRAZIL
Tel: +55 61 348 44 33, 
Fax: +55 61 347 10 41