C ome fly with us. Only a bird coulddo this. Imagine (we exhort you)that you are a bird. You are a bird
flying on your annual autumn migration
from Finland to the Niger delta in Mali.
Your journey takes you over northern seas
unnaturally full of algae and empty of fish,
over fields of temperate Europe, yellow
with the harvests of rapeseed, sunflower
and maize, and brown with the ploughed
stalks of wheat too dear to harvest, over
the quasi-deserts of southern Europe full
of subsidised olive trees and hydroponic
tomatoes, down over the citrus orchards of
north Africa and its reviving vineyards,
before crossing the bleak Sahara. Less than
a hundred years ago, it would have looked
different, very different. Smaller fields,
many more woods and forests, less dust in
the air, less glare from glass-housed sur-
faces, the nights unscarred by streaks of
light, and more errant insects to snap up
out of the airstream. 
Why the change? Was it man who chose
to change, man, that most conservative of
beasts? In a way, yes, because the hand of
the farmer changed the fields. It was not,
though, the farmer who had the idea. His
hand was guided by changing markets, in
turn steered by interventionist politicians
responding to changes in land use, in pop-
ulation, in governance, and to changes in
climate (though they are only recently
understood, and then only slightly). 
Come, now, come back down, down to
the ground, back to being the farmer. We
SPORE 92 • PAGE 1
Adaptability of agricultural systems
The age of the flexi-farmer 1
Hydroponics
More than just adding water 3
Connectivity
I connect, therefore I am ... 4
IN BRIEF 6
LINKS 10
PUBLICATIONS 11
BETWEEN US 14
VIEWPOINT
Gender, development 
and empowerment
Power shared is power gained 16
Website: www.cta.nl
Information 
for agricultural 
development 
in ACP countries
Number 92
APRIL 2001
In this issue
You know that old
adage “Don’t make
promises you can’t keep”? In this
issue we look at which promises
have been kept amidst all the hype
surrounding the ‘computer
revolution’, and at hydroponics, a
technology whose promises may
finally be coming true.
We look at problem-solving, from
saline soils to fruit cultivation, and
at solutions, from fruit packaging to
lake restoration. The focus is, as
ever, on people and the produce
they are proud of, such as silk in
eastern Africa or the ackee fruit in
the Caribbean. The focus is also on
making people’s achievements safe
and indestructible, as in the case of
the law and rural women’s rights,
people and power.
Dozens of news stories, publications
and opinions come together to
paint an overall picture of vibrancy
and resilience in the way people
face up to life’s changes and
challenges. The one that says it all?
You tell us, but we reckon you’ll
choose the letter from the school
class whose harvest of egg plants
paid off well.
Adaptability of agricultural systems
The age of 
the flexi-farmer
Adapt! Adopt! Be adept! The exhortations of—well, of those who
exhort—rain down every day on the heads of farmers. Out in
the field, the flexibility of agricultural systems is not top of the
agenda, but just how far should a farmer look ahead?
Illu
str
at
io
n 
M
at
hi
eu
 Ta
ng
uy
/L
ou
m
a 
pr
od
uc
tio
ns
all recognise the changes seen by the gen-
erations of birds. Of our generations, of
Spore readers, our adult feet have all trod-
den and trudged the soils of the second half
of the last century and we have all seen
changes happen to our countryside, our
livelihood and our cultures. The deserted
or deserting villages and smallholdings of
our youth, the arrival of new land owners,
or vacationing visitors, from the town. The
building of long sheds by men with strange
accents to raise fowl that neither walk nor
fly, to sell in town. The demise of your
entire groundnut sector because of newly
discovered consumer allergies in another
continent. 
The fun of watching strangers telling
you how to plough straight, and you beat-
ing them in a ploughing competition. The
long walks to school and to market
replaced, for the fortunate, by journeys on
pedal bikes and mopeds and trucks. The
intrusion of radio and television, blaring
out their, your, reasons to leave and rea-
sons to stay, like a nanny goat unsure what
to bleat, but not knowing what else she
should do.
And they say that nothing ever happens,
nothing ever changes, in the countryside.
No way. It’s in the town that things don’t
change so much. The crowding, smells,
hustle and bustle, the anonymity of city
life, and the regret that country life will
not, apparently, provide a living for our
nearest and dearest. A city life is fuller of
shared regrets than it is of shared harvests,
yet it is the countryside that they exhort
to adapt, to be flexible.
Change is always with us
Why is there so much talk about change in
agriculture at the moment? It is a tad incon-
gruous, is it not, to see so much nervous
twitching about change in a profession
where it is known that some things just can-
not be hurried along. At the level of global
macropolicy, specialists are struggling to
practise the very imprecise art of balancing
agricultural production with masses of
other inter-related issues: biodiversity, cul-
tural diversity, economic diversity, ecology,
energy, employment, empowerment, food
security, gender, health, industry, least-
developed, rural life, trade, water… to
name but a few (in alphabetical order).
During these considerations, a recurring
concern is that the agricultural systems of
the ACP States and other developing coun-
tries may not be flexible and resilient
enough to face up to the challenges of glob-
alisation, or the threats of climate change.
The problems lie not in flexibility, but in
being able to look ahead clearly.
Globalisation, like climate change, is
not the splinter new phenomenon that
some people like to pretend. Climate
change, with its hot and cold flushes, has
been affecting people on the planet for
ages. Globalisation, a man-made process,
is younger but no babe either. Used as a
code word for The Strange, The Innova-
tive and The Opportunity, for a Threat to
be tamed and harnessed, communities
have been dealing with this reality ever
since man first saw a horizon. What is per-
haps new is the scale and the pace of each
phenomenon; what is surely new is the
depth and complexity of our understand-
ing of it, however incomplete it may be.
Opposing directions, 
or rainbow farming?
What do these phenomena mean to the
farmer? What do they mean in terms of pri-
orities for those who should serve the
farmer—the scientist, the banker, the trad-
er—even though they may describe their
role differently. There are routes attracting
us whichever way we look, enticing us to
serve different markets. A seminal list of
attractions was recently set out by Stein Bie,
the director general of the International Ser-
vice for National Agricultural Research, for
his own profession of soil scientists, but his
routes (ladders) have a general value: the
green ladder, which emphasises natural
resource management; the equity ladder,
stressing fair development aimed at poverty
eradication; the eco-label ladder, producing
healthy, often organic, food and the cheap
food ladder, maintaining high-yielding agri-
culture.
To choose one route to market will mean
missing out, in part, on the benefits of the
others. They are in part an illusion of con-
tradictions, in part complementary, a sort
of ‘rainbow agriculture’. Each route requires
obtaining and investing various forms of
capital, of which the single most important
element is probably information, namely on
production techniques and the nature and
needs of the market. There are countless
examples, starting with a farm near you, of
the flexibility of the ACP farmer in shifting
production towards export of organic, or
fair, or dinner-party products, or meeting
regional demand. With access to adequate
financial, social and informational capital,
such a change can be made. But can the
next? And the next?
Agriculture needs 
actuaries
The smart farmer these days, the one who
plays her or his cards right, is the one with
ideas about the changes after tomorrow’s
changes. On some you can take a well-
informed guess, if you analyse recurring
themes in Spore and other agricultural
media: the costs of energy and transport,
water stress, and the regulations affecting
food hygiene and safety, will be but three
key factors of increasing importance in ACP
agriculture’s choices. There are other, less
tangible elements, of which volatile climate
changes will probably have the most impact.
It may well be that future agricultural prac-
tices will need to be more sheltered, perhaps
more intensive in management if not in
energy input, and more separated from the
environment whilst being more respectful
of natural cycles. The potential of hydro-
ponics, featured in this Spore, could be a
example of such agriculture.
How can a farmer plan, how can a poli-
cy maker shape an ‘enabling environ-
ment’, and how can a trader invest in a
supply chain, without being able to calcu-
late risk? Each of these players in the food
chain is flexible, pliable and adaptable, but
they each need to be able to see further
ahead. Information systems must start to
address the issue of assessing and covering
risk. In past issues of Spore we have urged
the banker and the planner to join the
trader and the farmer. Perhaps the next
partner to join in strengthening our agri-
culture is the insurance agent; few know
better than the actuary how to plan for the
day after tomorrow. 
The age of the flexi-farmer • 
SPORE 92 • PAGE 2
What will sell well next year?
Ph
ot
o 
W
es
tst
oc
k/
Su
ns
et
Flexibility
• To anticipate or to respond to chang-
ing circumstances has always been part
of agriculture, for the farmer, trader,
processor, researcher and other stake-
holders
• Flexibility requires the confidence not
to see change as a threat
• In terms of resources, flexibility re-
quires finance and information 
• The more you can forecast, the better
prepared you are
A t a demonstration plot at theManicaland Agricultural Show inZimbabwe in 1997, 50-year old
Oliver Waziweyi showed off his ‘poor
man’s garden’, according to a report in The
Manica Post. Using hydroponics—or
growing food in chemically-enriched
water—he explained that one needs nei-
ther land nor soil. His garden occupied
just one square metre of land, and had ten
strawberry plants, four peas, ten spinach,
six covo, one pineapple, six shallots, ten
carrots, four herbs, two cabbages, three
lettuces and several flowers. The plants
were growing in bamboo sleeves, with four
centimetres of water in the bottom, and
requiring just five litres of water a day.
A very ancient medium
Hydroponics is also a rich person’s technol-
ogy, used increasingly by astronauts on mis-
sions in space. It is a historian’s technology
too, thought to have been behind the
Hanging Gardens of Babylon several thou-
sand years ago, and the floating gardens on
Lake Titicaca high in the Andes mountains
of South America. In more recent times,
market gardeners in the Netherlands, a
“hydroponic nation” composed of waves of
refugees who took shelter in a very soggy
wetland, have turned hydroponics into an
intensive industry, pushing even exotic
fruits out of nutrient-enriched water under
the glare of 24-hour lighting. 
Despite its ancient origins, it is only
since the Second World War (1939-1945)
that hydroponics have been properly
researched and applied. As with many
innovations, it was a war that stimulated
the research, then into ‘nutriculture’, as
part of Britain’s Grow More Food cam-
paign, and to feed military personnel in
transit in such non-arable places as Ascen-
sion Island in the Atlantic and Bahrein in
the Gulf. In the last 50 years, the technol-
ogy has spread fast in wealthy arid zones,
in the land-scarce industrial world, in
southern Africa and in several ACP island
states. The last decade has seen the tech-
nology simplified, for household use,
indoors and in greenhouses, raising the
question: why did we wait so long?
Essential: correct mix 
of nutrients
The simple key to hydroponics is the
understanding that a plant does not need
to grow in soil, as long as it can get from
elsewhere the physical support and the
nutrients normally provided by the soil.
Indeed, soil is a least preferred ‘medium’,
compared with clean water in a bacteria-
free sterile container such as plastic trays
and other non-corrosive units. This avoids
soil-borne pests and weeds, and saves
labour. 
The thirteen nutrients which a plant
needs, in addition to carbon dioxide and
oxygen from the air, can be bought in
mineral form, or—with great care—made
in organic form. The nutrients, which
include magnesium, sulphur, potassium
and nitrate nitrogen, can be obtained in
powder form and dissolved into water in
an exact mixture. This is a much more
precise way of feeding a plant than trying
to calculate a soil’s fertility and the
amount of fertilisers to be added, having
taken into account the tendency of a soil
to leach water and nutrients away from
plants. This need for precision can be met
by buying—usually importing—ready-
made mixes of nutrients. A realistic alter-
native is to make your own mixture, by
very carefully following standard ‘recipes’
or formulae, with such detail as 293 grams
of potassium nitrate for each 1000 litres
of water. A very precise pair of fine-tuned
scales is definitely part of the tool kit of
the hydroponic farmer! Furthermore,
since all nutrients in the water will be used
by the plant, the water will be safer to
recycle (heat at 85 degrees for 3 minutes)
than run-off water with fertiliser residues.
More folksy, but in fact more complex,
is the mixing of the same nutrients from
organic sources, such as chicken manure,
compost, worm casts, wood ash and straw.
Most practitioners advise against this
approach, if there is a possibility of using
a mineral mix instead. There are risks of
infection and contamination, and mea-
sures are less precise. Indeed, in the popu-
lar hydroponics movement, a vital area for
attention is how to break down into sim-
ple detail the precise composition of an
organic nutrient mixture, as has been done
for the inorganic.
Stop the hostilities 
please!
It is this attention to detail that has fed
the reluctance of much of the scientific
community to promote hydroponics as a
way to improve food variety and produc-
tion, for home consumption or for resale.
This is a shame. Surely the most magnifi-
cent science is not the most complicated
and impenetrable, but the one which,
despite its complexity, has been made sim-
ple—and affordable—to the man and
woman in the street, in the field, in the
backyard and—increasingly—on the
rooftop. We should be making hydropon-
ics more accessible, and more acceptable.
It is everyone’s right to grow, grow, grow!
To know more:
Global Hydroponic Network
PO Box 151, Corvallis, Oregon 97339, USA
Website: www.hydrogarden.com
Email: peggy@carbon.org
Further reading:
Home hydroponic gardens
GHN, 240 pp. US$ 34.95 • t 40.95
Address above.
Reviewed in Spore 90.
Hydroponics
More than
just adding
water
A method of growing fruit and
vegetables that needs little land, uses
two-thirds less water, and increases
productivity seven times. Too good to be
true? Not quite, but it asks more of you.
SPORE 92 • PAGE 3
Ph
ot
os
 P
eg
gy
 B
ra
dl
ey
Science on the street: three growing
beds will yield salad for a family. A yard
full of herb beds became a business in
Dakar. Start-up costs: US $30.
SPORE 92 • PAGE 4
Hands up if you have not seen anInternet café or telecentre in amarket near you this year! There
are thousands in ACP countries. Some are
public, others private, and a good many
are geared up to provide market informa-
tion (from costs of inputs and goods avail-
able, to sales opportunities) for agricul-
tural producers and traders, as just a part
of their services. Some are fumbling to
translate their fuzzy vision of an ‘ICT-
enabled knowledge society’ into working
reality, and some are more sanguinely try-
ing to sort out the most reliable sources
of market information.
None are yet financially viable, in the
same way that most Internet services in
the West are still climbing their expensive
learning curves. The rise and fall of ‘dot
com’ companies in the years 1999 - 2000,
when the balloon-like faith of finance
companies in electronic commerce
swelled and burst, bear witness to the
volatility of the new economics (see Spore
88). Far from being dead, electronic com-
merce, or e-commerce, has now culled its
weak and weak-hearted and is preparing
for a serious surge from 2002 onwards.
Unlike what happened in the first wave,
many ACP countries will be relatively
well equipped to join in. There is reason
for confidence; some even talk euphori-
cally of e-velopment.
Some of today’s initiatives will indeed
flourish. They will be the ones that looked
before they leaped. They will be taking a
deep breath and ensuring financial stami-
na to get through the thankless early days.
They understand that cash flow will come
from social phone calls, emails or Inter-
net searches (illness, family news, lotto
results, shopping lists for visitors
from the diaspora, even eco-
tourism bookings!). Calls and
emails about fertiliser prices, ship-
ping costs or veterinary services will
not alone provide the critical volume
of business. 
Is the waiting almost over? We think
so, for most.
A kind of magic, 
all the same
It all started with the second telephone,
and the world’s first telephone call, in
1876. The world has not looked back
since then. For the 3 billion people who
allegedly have never made a phone call,
most of them in Africa and Asia, the
notion of hearing the voice of an
unknown person, an untold distance
away, will be a surprise. It will come soon,
as more people become ‘wired’.
The stated goal of the telecommunica-
tions people—Universal Service—has suf-
fered from the ‘Last Mile’ problem. This
defines the technical and financial difficul-
Connectivity
I connect, therefore I am …
While the techies have been twiddling away with the Internet, and you’ve been
wondering if you’d be left out, the phone has still been getting on with connecting
people. Yesterday’s future is tantalisingly close, today. Make that call. Send that email.
The world recognises : 
e-farmer@acp-farmers.net*
With the Internet being a way to market
your goods and information, as 
well as to correspond or conduct
research, the way you look
becomes more important. Each
user has a unique address; most
people restrict it to their name (to
the left of @), using other people’s ser-
vices to manage their mailbox (to the right
of @). The part furthest to the right is a
top-level domain. By agreement among
Internet operators, it is used for abbrevia-
tions of country names, like .bf or .mz for
Burkina Faso or Mozambique, or types of
organisation, like .org for non-profit
organisations, or .com for commercial ones.
In November 2000, seven new top-level
domains were accepted. Subject to final
approval in April 2001, they include .info
for information services and .museum
(guess!). Of special interest to Spore read-
ers is .coop for cooperatives, which is for
genuine cooperatives only, and is an
excellent way to promote their ‘business’.
The Poptel cooperative will register coop
domains. More details: www.poptel.net
* This domain has been reserved by Spore to
keep it in safe hands. Any offers? Email:
info@spore-magazine.org
More businesslike approach in telecentres
In the second half of the 1990s, multi-purpose community telecentres (MCTs) were estab-
lished with heavy investments in many countries, including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guyana,
Kenya, Mali, South Africa, Suriname and Uganda. Their services included telephone and fax,
some email, and information brokerage – notably telemedicine and agricultural market infor-
mation. 
Recent evaluations expressed concern about inappropriate siting, lack of customer service
skills, management barriers and a predominance of public service orientation. Some observers
felt that with a technological thrust to the centres, there had not been sufficient apprecia-
tion of how to operate advisory services. More recent initiatives, such as with the Fédération
Nationale de l’Agroalimentaire du Burkina Faso, and the Jamaica Agricultural Society, have
taken this aspect of service provision into account.
Placing calls and placing orders is easier now
Do you see what I see? The way we share
information has changed.
Ph
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2BFRC 
KMS 
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ty of installing telephone
cables from a central point in
a city, or a market town, to
customers in surrounding
communities. With apologies
to the copper producers amongst
us, we have to stop thinking of only
phone wires, and Think Wireless.
Revolutionary: 
from cell to cell
While many specialists have focussed on
how to computerise ACP countries, the
telephone infrastructure has been grow-
ing fast. A virtual miracle has appeared in
the form of the handheld mobile cellular
phone, and low-cost satellite links. What
has made the mobile a revolutionary tool,
even in rural areas? The cost of installing
and maintaining local receiver/transmit-
ter stations (called cells) has fallen dra-
matically, as have the costs of sending sig-
nals by satellite. Each local station needs
to be at most at a few kilometres’ distance
from the next cell, literally to pass signals
along. In isolated areas where there are no
or few customers, and access is hard for
maintenance, the signals can now be
‘leapfrogged’ over longer distances via
satellite. Where there are just a few dozen
customers in a settlement, it makes most
sense to establish a local station with
fixed-line phone on the spot, ideally in a
so-called telecentre which provides fax
and computer services too. If there are
several hundred customers in the area, cel-
lular mobile phones become viable.
The economics of covering an entire
nation are not yet sound—even parts of
the densely-populated Netherlands have
no mobile phone access—but it is now
feasible to provide such access to a good
95% of your population in any country.
Universal Service has been quietly
replaced by Universal Access. If you can
get your hands on a mobile phone, or go
to a telecentre, you can reach any other
phone or computer in the world.
Many governments have resisted the
de-regulation which would allow such
systems to flourish, in part because a
heavily regulated system offered a slim
chance of collecting significant revenues
from incoming international phone calls.
The global telecommunications market,
however, is fast becoming a free-for-all,
and there are opportunities galore. 
Barefoot telecentres
Normally such liberal talk excludes much
of the ACP world. Not here. Here is not
a reason to curse globalisation, nor to
despair at the prospect of your rural com-
munity being isolated and never getting
connected. Those classical reactions just
do not work. The technology is evolving
so quickly that notions of “being priced
out of the system” or “the unbridged Last
Mile” no longer apply. Hence, The
Economist magazine reported in Novem-
ber 2000, Ghana now has five Internet
service providers, and three mobile-phone
operators. They set up a subscriber with a
phone for $50 and a crystal clear connec-
tion within four hours, instead of the dark
tunnel of a $150 connection, when it
came, from the former state monopoly.
It takes little to see what that means for
entrepreneurs with an eye for ICTs. The
Grameen Bank saw it first, seven years
ago, in Bangladesh, where almost every
village now has its barefoot telecentres
which rent out mobiles. In ACP countries
with deregulated telecoms, the telecentre
booths that line most markets show what
a flourishing trade there is in linking into
the national phone network. No network
nearby? No trouble (stay within the law
though!); make your own links. The
Economist: “The most deregulated and
dynamic system in Africa is in Somalia.
The state system was destroyed in the civil
war and has now been replaced, at least
in the main towns, by enterprising Soma-
lis. They simply buy a satellite dish and
telephones, build a shed of phone booths
and charge $1 a minute for anywhere in
the world. A model for the rest of the con-
tinent?”.
Isn’t it time you called someone today?
• Connectivity
Not all convergence is equal
There is talk of ‘convergence’ in ICTs, with
benefits from links between telephone
and computers. The benefits depend on
your ‘bandwidth’—meaning the carrying
capacity of the line to your phone. A nar-
row line (meaning older, cheaper) can
handle a voice or fax call, or a computer
call with only simple text. This is fine for
email, going through the Internet of
about 150 million computers or direct
phone calls. More complex use such as the
World Wide Web—“the library of the
Internet”—, requires more breadth. It is
available, technically, in more than 40 ACP
countries, but subscriptions are pro-
hibitive.
Many Spore readers have an email
address, but can only access the Web by
using someone else’s computer such as in
a telecentre. Agricultural information ser-
vices need to pay attention to providing
information in email format; some more
elevated ones seem to forget. Among a
number of email projects, CTA is looking
at converting information from the Web
to email format, on demand for PDS sub-
scribers.
Watch this space
The topic of ‘ICTs and rural development’
is still in the phase of the anecdote. Spore
has reported over the years of how readers
‘use the Internet’. Remember the chicken
farmer in Senegal who sold his 3,000 hens
by using the Internet café at a Dakar hotel
to locate a customer in the US, through the
World Wide Web? Or the readers who send
their technical enquiries by email? Or the
cooperatives who market their jams, waxes
and clothes to a global audience? 
The results of a survey of such CyberTales
by the International Institute for Commu-
nication and Development will be available
from May 2001. See www.iicd.org/stories
See p. 11 for details of CTA’s new ICT-
Update
SPORE 92 • PAGE 5
Ph
ot
o 
G
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 R
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It could be true today: “To Bolga Farmers’ Retail
Coop via Kumasi: “Thank you for your email price
list of 11h00 today. Please
confirm you can deliver by
airfreight to Amsterdam for
arrival on 29 June 2001: 500
crates of medium size
mangoes, 40 per crate, 1200
kg of small green peas. We
shall confirm by fax after your
reply. Thanks, ACP Traders bv,
Amsterdam 26 June 2001”
All welcome at the show!
 A highlight on the national
calendar, the annual Denbigh
Agricultural Show will take
place in Jamaica from 4 to 6
August 2001. The organisers,
CTA partners Jamaica
Agricultural Society, are keen
to welcome people from the
region and other ACP States
who are interested in
exchanging experiences about
the use of shows as a means to
inform and motivate farmers.
Sorry, no funds available for
travel or accomodation, but
the warmest of welcomes is
ensured!
JAS, 67 Church St, Kingston,
Jamaica 
Fax: +876 922 0610
Email: rib2.jas@jol.com
Sour sweet harvest
 After Fiji’s sugar crushing
season ended in January 2001,
it turned out that the country
only produced 341,000 tonnes
of sugar—about 25% less than
in 2000. A late start to the
season because of last year’s
coup, wet weather and an
over-supply of burnt cane were
blamed for the reduced
harvest. According to the Fiji
Sugar Corporation (FSC), Fiji
will meet its contractual
obligations. 
(Government of Foreign Affairs, New
Zealand, January 2001)
Beef improvement
 One hundred beef-type
cattle—sixty heifers and forty
bulls—from Guatemala and
another sixteen bulls and forty
heifers from Mexico have been
imported by Belize to improve
the growth rate and meat
quality of Belizian cattle. After
the required quarantine of one
month, the cattle will be
available for breeding
programmes in the Department
of Agriculture and to district
agricultural stations. These are
now in a position to provide
bull rental services to farmers
and supply them with quality
breeding stock. 
(Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and
Co-operatives, Belmopan,
February 2001)
African vets get together
 The heads of the Veterinary
Services of over 30 African
countries have agreed to
establish a regional
representation of the OIE, the
World Organisation for Animal
Health in Bamako, Mali. OIE
monitors the occurrence of
animal diseases and supports
governments in the prevention
of and dealing with diseases
and in harmonising regulations
in trade of animals and animal
products. 
(OIE, Arusha regional conference,
January 2001)
In brief •
SPORE 92 • PAGE 6
The communities of the wet-
land and catchment area of
Lake Chilwa, Malawi’s second
biggest lake and largest produc-
er of fish, are engaged in a com-
munity based project to con-
serve the ecosystem of this
inland drainage lake which
dried up in 1997. 
In partnerships with govern-
ment agencies, NGOs and
community based organisa-
tions, the communities have
used needs-based approaches 
to set up micro-community
groups to draw up concrete
plans for managing soil, trees
and fish resources. 
The lake is important at a
macro-level too. It used to con-
tribute 20 percent of the
nation’s catch, all the more sig-
nificant because fish is the only
affordable source of protein to
poor people, who form over 60
percent of the population. 
The Lake Chilwa wetland is
Malawi’s only listed site under
the ‘Ramsar Convention’ as a
wetland of international impor-
tance. Apart from fish it sup-
ports large populations of other
specific plant and animal
species such as water fowls. 
The inland drainage lake has
a maximum depth of less than
six metres; it is this shallowness
which contributed to its drying
up, alongside coastal agriculture
including rice and maize. Farm-
ing practices have been
reviewed and farmer experi-
ences exchanged through
micro-projects.
Now alert monitoring by
beach village committees is suc-
ceeding in curbing overfishing,
and other local watchdog bod-
ies are cutting back on defor-
estation. This is being helped
by reforestation work with
seedlings provided by the com-
munity’s financial partner, the
Danish development agency
Danida.
All hands on deck to save a lake
Ph
ot
o 
M
ar
ce
l C
hi
m
w
al
a
With a wave of disease threat-
ening citrus fruit production in
the Caribbean, it is no wonder
that a regional seminar on the
topic in Guadeloupe in Decem-
ber 2000 was well attended and
intensely followed.
In addition to significant lev-
els of domestic consumption
throughout the region, citrus
fruits are in heavy demand in
the tourist trade, and for export
to the markets of northern
America and western Europe.
At present there
are four diseases
which are seriously afflict-
ing or threatening the citrus
sector: the Tristeza virus; the
CVC virus or citrus variegated
chlorisis, which is spread by 
the  bacterium Xylella fastidiosa 
(see Spore 90); Huanglobing
(Greening)—this has reached
Guadeloupe, and ravaged crops
in Florida in the United States
during 2000; and citrus canker
(Xanthomonas campestris).
Among the key issues
addressed by the seminar was
the special position of many
countries in the region; given
their small size, they have very
little resources, staff or equip-
ment to identify, diagnose and
monitor the diseases. In this
light, the participants’
calls were for greater
information shar-
ing, the develop-
ment of common
diagnostic tools,
and the distribu-
tion of such tools
through the
World Wide Web,
which has a relative-
ly high level of usage in
much of the region. A special
role could be played here, it was
thought, by the Inter-American
Citrus Network (IACNET).
The seminar brought togeth-
er 42 participants from 17
countries in the region, with
representatives of the three key
regional bodies involved, name-
ly CARDI, IACNET, and
IICA. It was co-organised by
CIRAD and CTA.
The intracellular bacteria cause Huanglobing, depriving
the plant of minerals and stunting fruit growth
Ph
ot
os
 B
. A
ub
er
t 
A tonic for citrus research
Community takes initiative
SPORE 92 • PAGE 7
Now see the trees too
 With a recent surge in
forestry networks, it has been
getting hard to see the wood
from the trees lately. The
Federation of forestry research
institutions from 41 sub-
Saharan African countries
launched the Forestry Research
Network for sub-Saharan Africa
in the second half of 2000. The
goal of FORNESSA is to
strengthen forestry research in
sub-Saharan Africa for greater
impact on management and
conservation of forests and
tree resources. The network
includes AFREA, the Association
of Forestry Research
Institutions of Eastern Africa,
CORAF-Forêt, the network of
the West and Central African
Council for Agricultural
Research and Development and
SADC-FSTCU-Forest Research,
representing research
institutions in the 14 SADC
States. Let’s hope things are
getting clearer.
P Konuche
FORNESSA
Kenyan Forestry Research Institute
(KEFRI)
PO Box 20412, Nairobi, Kenya
Fax: +254 154 32844
Email: Kefri@arcc.or.ke
or
A M Yapi (Secretary) 
IUFRO-SPDC 
PO Box 1628, Accra, Ghana 
Fax: +233 21 7010934
Email: atse.yapi@fao.org 
Challenge of complex
change
 A workshop on “Agricultural
services provision and the
challenge of complex
organisational change” was
held in early December 2000 in
Tune, Denmark, with support
from Danida and CTA. The
several dozen participants,
including nine from Kenya,
Tanzania and Uganda,
examined changes to learning
approaches in extension work,
with a special emphasis on
changes taking place in
extension and agriculture
support agencies in terms of
privatisation and
decentralisation.
Institute develops seed
bank
 The Niger-based branch of
the International Crops
Research Institute for the Semi-
Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), has
recently set up a gene bank for
some 5,540 varieties of
groundnuts and 1,500 varieties
of millet. The bank will help to
stem the disappearance of
many locally adapted
landraces. 
ICRISAT Sahelian Centre
BP 12404, Niamey, Niger 
Fax: +227 734 329
Email: ICRISATSC@cgiar.org
• In brief
 It’s only a
yellow fruit,
but it is
almost sacred
among its afi-
cionadas, or
‘ackee-onadas’
as they are
coming to be
known. The
ackee is wide-
ly regarded as
poisonous, yet it is the official
national fruit of Jamaica,
among whose diaspora it is
revered.
The ackee (Blighia sapida) is
an evergreen tree of West
Africa, introduced into Jamaica
in 1797. It is widely known in
central America and the
Caribbean, with such Spanish
names as fruto de huevo (egg
fruit—its cooked fruit looks
like scrambled egg). In Ghana,
the fruiting tree is a much liked
ornamental. In Côte d’Ivoire it
is called kaka or finzan; in the
Sudan, finza. Elsewhere in
Africa it is known as akye, akyen
or ishin, and in Portuguese it is
castanheiro de Africa (African
chestnut).
How can a fruit which is so
widely known in at least three
ACP regions have been devel-
oped so little? In Trinidad it was
outlawed in 1900, having
allegedly caused fatalities; in the
United States, there was an
import ban for 27 years, until
July 2000. 
The reason is fear of poison-
ing, which are not fully found-
ed. The seeds are poisonous.
The fleshy arils surrounding the
seeds, however, whilst poi-
sonous for some species when
raw, are not toxic when
ripened, dried in the air and
cooked. So, as with so many
plants, pay regard to some basic
rules and the ackee is safe and
enjoyable to eat, and nutrition-
al. There are medicinal uses for
its bark, and its oils are used to
treat dysentery.
With the US export ban lift-
ed, Jamaican producers see a
prospect of export earnings
doubling within two years,
from the 2000 level of US$ 14
million—of which 70% was
from sales to Britain and Cana-
da. 
But the export euphoria has
already blown away. Before
plans could even be firmed up
to expand cultivation into plan-
tations, Jamaica’s perennial
problem of ‘praedial theft’—
theft from the farm—was ruin-
ing existing plots. In the US,
unscrupulous traders have dou-
bled the price of a 500 gram
can to US$ 9, amid mutterings
of ‘mafia tactics’ and ‘ackee for
yuppies only’. Complacency is
also a threat: the widespread
belief that the nation’s ackee,
like its coffee or pimentos (all-
spice), are surely the world’s
best and probably the finest
too, has blinded people to other
countries starting to cash in on
the ackee hype. From Mexico
to Kenya there is barely a coun-
try without plans for this crop.
Be that as it may, this corre-
spondent recognises a nation’s
gift to the world: cook it with a
little onion, tomato and salt
fish, add a thyme leaf if you
like, and your day is made.
Finger lickin’
export sales,
for a while
at least
Ph
ot
o 
M
. A
rb
on
ni
er
/C
IRA
D
The CTA site on the World
Wide Web is being ‘hit’—or
visited—about 1750 times a
day, you might be pleased to
hear. Is that a lot? Not bad at
all, given the little publicity it
has had so far. It’s about one-
third of the number of visitors
to the South African Govern-
ment Online service, and one-
quarter of those visiting the
CGIAR family pages linking
almost twenty international
agricultural research organisa-
tions.
The ‘site’ is a collection of
‘pages’ which describe CTA,
reports on its activities, lists a
calendar of events, carries the
catalogue of publications, and
several full texts of publications,
and, of course, every issue of
Spore since the end of 1977.
The statistics for a two-month
period from mid-November
2000 onwards show that Spore
gets ‘hit’ the most, accounting
for one-third of all visits. This
is partly because the various
questions which bring people to
the site are mentioned most
often in Spore. Having read
Spore in part or in full (more
than 300 complete sets were
copied to other people’s com-
puters), it seems that many peo-
ple visit other parts of the site.
Who is hitting us? That’s
hard to tell; we can only see the
location of the ‘server comput-
er’ which is linking the enquir-
er’s computer to ours. We can-
not see where the enquirer is.
So when we say 63% of hits are
from North America and 32%
from Europe, 2.5% from Africa
and 0.5% from Oceania, we
are, for once, far from the truth.
Very many users of Internet sys-
tems in ACP and other devel-
oping countries use—knowing-
ly or not—computer servers
located in the North. The next
‘refresh’ of the site will include
an interactive space for users to
give their feedback directly and
that will help us know exactly
where our users are. Have you
hit us yet? On www.agricta.org,
it changes every day.
Hit me with your mouse
Ph
ot
o 
M
. T
an
gu
y
Sweet comeback or a rat-race for the ackee?
African Farmer’s 
Academy
 The African Farmers’
Academy, an initiative of the
APM Africa network, will
launch the first module of its
two-year—six module—course
at the Ecole Nationale
d’Economie Appliquée in
Dakar, from 1 to 16 December.
The module will cover the
topic of changes in local
communities and changes in
the national and international
context.
Details: 
ENEA, BP 5084, Dakar-Fann,
Senegal; fax: +221 825 25 48
Email: enea@telecomplus.sn
APM Africa, BP 10008, Yaoundé,
Cameroun; fax: +237 205 520
Email: apm@camnet.cm
Money, money, money…
 In November 2000, the Ford
Foundation launched the
International Fellowships
Program (IFP), providing
US$280 million over the next
10 years for post-
baccalaureate students in
selected countries, including
some in Africa. The IFP will
award 350 fellowships
annually, for up to three years
of master’s or doctoral study
at universities worldwide.
Fellows will be selected on the
basis of their leadership
potential, academic excellence
and commitment to
development; study will be in
fields that further the
foundation’s goals, such as
reducing poverty and
promoting international
cooperation. For the ACP
community, the IFP is starting
in Nigeria, Senegal and
Ghana. During 2001-2002 the
programme will expand to
other countries and regions. 
For Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana: 
Association of African
Universities (AAU) 
PO AN 5744 
Accra, Ghana 
Email: ifp@aau.org 
Website: www.aau.org/ifp 
Polish your skills
 The Tanzania-based Training
Centre for Development
Cooperation is offering a one
week course on gender and
development in Africa from 19
to 23 November 2001. Other
courses include basics of NGO
administration, community
development programme
officers, information
management, NGO
management and policy
advocacy.
Training Centre for Development
Cooperation
PO Box 254
Arusha
Tanzania
Fax: +255 811 651 715
Email: mstcdc@mstcdc.or.tz
Website: www.mstcdc.or.tz
In brief •
SPORE 92 • PAGE 8
 In view of the gradual global
banning of chemicals used in
pest control in packaging fruit,
the Cook Islands have trialled
and adopted a viable alternative
in heat treatment which meets
quarantine requirements for
their exports of papaya. In a
good year, the country produces,
besides for domestic consump-
tion, 258 tonnes, worth US$
322,000, for export mainly to
New Zealand. Previously ethy-
lene dibromide (EDB) was used
to control fruit flies (Bactrocera
melanotus and B. xanthodes), the
quarantine pests which require
control in papaya. Since 1994
however, New Zealand has
banned imports of produce treat-
ed with this fumigant. The Cook
Islands therefore adopted a high-
temperature forced-air (HTFA)
treatment, comprising basically a
treatment of 47.2°C for 20 min-
utes in sealed chambers. 
There is one heat treatment
facility in the Cook Islands, with
a capacity to treat 1,600 tonnes
of fruit annually. Heat-treated
mangoes have been exported and
there are plans to expand exports
to other produce, including
aubergines (eggplants).
If carried out properly, the
treatment even enhances the
market quality of fruit. It pro-
duces an even colour on the
fruit, and slows down the rate of
internal ripening. This helps to
extend fruit shelf-life and the
fruit flesh does not develop the
bitterness which is characteristic
of fruit treated with EDB. The
treatment can also be adapted for
controlling temperate pests in
avocadoes, litchis, bell peppers,
nectarines and apricots. 
HortResearch
Private Bag 92-169
Auckland, New Zealand
Fax: +64 9 815 4207
A full report is available on website:
www.uneptie.org/ozonaction.html
See also: www.pacifly.org
 The problem of saline water is
inceasing in ACP agricultural
production. Already half of the
world’s groundwater resources are
saline, and on almost half of the
world’s irrigated land salinity is
limiting production. Even if
today in most countries irrigation
is only used on a small proportion
of cultivated land, the problems
associated with it can only grow.
Some locations suffer more
from than others, within and
between ACP countries and
beyond. Coastal lands are obvi-
ously at risk. The problems are
now being addressed in those
areas with the acutest problems,
through the Dubai-based Bios-
aline Agriculture Centre (BAC).
The Centre became operational at
the end of 1999, and for the cur-
rent four-year period it is gradu-
ally developing its network. It has
started with a regional focus (“the
Gulf, and other regions of the
Islamic world”) and it intends to
develop a wider role during the
period. 
Its primary activities are
focussing on developing sustain-
able management systems for the
irrigation of forage and food
crops and greening plants with
saline water, on providing a
source of salt-tolerant plants, and
providing training and informa-
tion on saline-irrigated agricul-
ture and associated technology.
The applications will be focused
on coastal and marginal lands.
For the immediate future, the
geographic focus means that for
interested parties elsewhere, it will
be a question of observing and
noting the work of the Centre,
rather than seeking concrete
active partnerships. However, its
extensive research and develop-
ment portfolio, and its institu-
tional strength, are themselves
reason enough to follow its work,
and, once informed, spotting the
opportunity to develop closer
links.
The Centre has a regular
newsletter, published three times
a year, and it is set to grow into a
hub for the exchange of informa-
tion and experiences of people
and institutions working in saline
agriculture. 
Biosaline Agriculture Centre
PO Box 14660
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Fax: +971 4 336 1155
Email: bac@biosaline.org.ae
Too hot for comfort
Ph
ot
o 
Pr
oj
ec
t o
n 
Pe
st 
M
an
ag
em
en
t i
n 
the
 P
ac
ifi
c
This should have been a rice field
Ph
ot
o 
C
IRA
D
A solution to salinity
Heat treatment beats chemicals
SPORE 92 • PAGE 9
To catch or cultivate
 Faced with an annual import
bill of US$ 250,000 for
shrimps—mainly for tourist
consumption—the Government
of Grenada is supporting
attempts to establish shrimp
cultivation on the island.
Shrimp farming and research
was started two decades ago
by the Chinese Aquaculture
Demonstration Centre, and has
met a fair share of local
demand. Imports from Trinidad
and Guyana have remained
necessary and now five shrimp
farmers have started
production on a small scale.
The government’s plans will
cover a part of the initial
investments for the creation of
ponds and pipes, and for
providing concessions.
Nice rice wins 
a prize
 Farmers in West Africa prefer
local rice varieties for their
taste and adaptability to local
pests, drought spells and soil
conditions. However, these
varieties hardly yield enough to
cover home consumption, let
alone a surplus to sell at the
market. A breakthrough in
trying to combine good traits
of African rice with their Asian
relatives has won the West
African Rice Development
Association (WARDA), in Côte
d’Ivoire, the 2000 King
Baudouin Award. The New Rice
for Africa (NERICA) produces
up to twice as much grain as
the current popular varieties
and is more resistant to stresses
in African fields.
WARDA/ADRAO
01 BP 2551
Bouaké 01, Côte d’Ivoire
Fax: +225 31 63 47 14
Email: warda@cgiar.org
Well I’ll be dammed 
 Large dams generate 19% of
global electricity production,
provide water for 12 to 16% of
world food production, and
have displaced between 40 and
80 million people. Their role
should be better restricted and
channelled. In the future, all
stakeholders should review
plans from the perspective of
‘rights and risks’, the World
Commission on Dams
concluded in February 2000
after a two-year review, urging
government, civil society, local
populations, the private sector
and donors to share goals and
resources.
Meanwhile in Ouagadougou,
Burkina Faso, in November
2000, participants at the ‘Eau
et Santé’ (Water and health)
seminar urged more study of
the negative impact on health
and hygiene by small-scale
dams installed for agricultural
purposes.
• In brief
The Forest Policy and Envi-
ronment Group (FPEG) of the
Overseas Development Insti-
tute has launched a new inde-
pendent website (www.odif-
peg.org.uk) The well-stocked
site includes research papers
and a searchable database of all
Rural Development Forestry
Network (RDFN) papers, in
English, French and Spanish.
Their ‘links’ page points to all
well-known national and inter-
national players in the world of
trees, forests and related
research including ICRAF and
CIFOR, and some lesser-
known sources. The interna-
tional Network for Bamboo
and Rattan at www.inbar.int
offers you all there to is know
on these two versatile plants. At
www.sdnp.org.gy/iwokrama/, the
website of the Iwokrama Inter-
national Centre for Rain Forest
Conservation and Develop-
ment in Guyana, you’ll find
multi-lingual information on
the management, conservation
and sustainable development of
about 360,000 hectares, of pris-
tine tropical forest. The govern-
ment has dedicated the Iwokra-
ma forest to the international
community to demonstrate
how tropical forests can provide
economic benefit while con-
serving biodiversity.
Finally, at the website of the
Forestry Conservation Portal at
http://forests.org—it is all in 
the name—you’ll find a vast
amount of news and informa-
tion on forest issues. Particular-
ly helpful are the regional
‘forestry search engines’
enabling you to find forestry
news updates in your own
region.
Seedling, trees, forest… networks
Wild silkworms in Africa
could soon be a serious com-
petitor to Chinese and domes-
tic silkworms (Bombyx mori).
Wild silk demands high prices,
but in many African communi-
ties the worms are ignored
without knowing their worth as
the source of precious silk
cloth. As part of its sericulture
(silk growing) programme in
Kenya and Uganda, the Inter-
national Centre of Insect Phys-
iology and Ecology (ICIPE) has
identified at least 65 different
wild silkworms and has select-
ed two wild species, Argema
mimosae and Gonometa spp. for
their high quality silk
fibre. Studies in Kenya
on Gonometa spp.
show that a single aca-
cia tree with a canopy
of 8-10 cubic metres
can host up to 200 lar-
vae. A two hectare
orchard of 1,000 trees
can yield 200,000
cocoons — worth about US$
3,300 — annually. ICIPE is
providing information, eggs
and training to farmers to take
up the cultivation of wild vari-
eties. Thus far, 5,000 farmers
have been trained, and the yield
of 9 tons of silk from Uganda
last year justifies their enthusi-
asm for this new line of micro-
business.
ICIPE
PO Box 30772
Nairobi, Kenya
Fax: +254 2 860 110
Email: icipe@icipe.org
Argema mimosae has antennae
shaped like mimosa leaves
A.
 B
an
ni
ste
r/
N
H
PA
/C
os
m
os
Silk route now through Africa
 In late 2000, several African
countries were startled by an out-
break of foot and mouth disease
(FMD). Besides a probably mod-
est outbreak in the south of
Mauritania, eastern and south-
ern Africa were particularly badly
hit by the highly contagious dis-
ease. After 44 years of absence,
FMD broke out in South Africa
in September. In November, in
KwaZulu Natal thousands of
animals had to be slaughtered
and a 20,000 square kilometre
quarantine zone was put in place
to contain the outbreak. Early in
December, FMD was discovered
in Mpumalanga, the area that
accounts for 13% of South
Africa’s beef product industry.
From here, it probably spread to
Swaziland, where an abattoir was
placed under quarantine after
detection of FMD in cattle
imported from Mpumalanga. 
Despite extensive measures,
such as slaughtering and quar-
antining animals, followed by
an outbreak-free period from
mid-December onwards, a new
case reared its ugly head in the
Northern Province in February
2001. In all, the FMD outbreak
in South Africa has prompted
around 30 international bans
on the country’s meat products,
including the countries of the
European Union, themselves
hard hit by an outbreak origi-
nating in the UK in February.
A third outbreak in southern
Africa has occurred in Tanzania
in herds of the Serengeti wilde-
beest, where the disease had
never been reported before.
These herds might spread
FMD further since they tend to
migrate to Kenya in the month
of July.
The OIE, the world organi-
sation for animal health has a
very up-to-date monitoring and
news section on its Website
(www.oie.int).
OIE
12, rue de Prony
75017 Paris
France
Fax: +33 1 42 67 09 87
Email: oie@oie.int 
Website: www.oie.int
Foot and mouth disease outbreaks in Africa
SPORE 92 • PAGE 10
Links •
T he traditional sources ofinformation on small-scale food processing have
been commercial (the manufac-
turers of equipment) and the
information networks which
operate question-and-answer
services (QAS). Most QASs are
now organised nationally and
regionally, having been ‘decen-
tralised’ from, typically Europe
and the USA to other, more ‘in-
touch’ centres of knowledge.
CTA’s own service, which was
dominated by enquiries about
food processing, is operated by
partners in the Caribbean, Pacif-
ic and four regions in Africa.
(Note that each CTA-QAS can
handle other topics too!). Each
new CTA-QAS is announced in
Spore’s ‘Between Us’ section, and
all addresses are in the CTA
Annual Report (see Spore 87 and
93), available from the ‘QAS desk’
at CTA, and on www.agricta.org. 
QASs on the move
The few residual QASs in
Europe have formed a func-
tional consortium to direct
queries to the most relevant
response, under the label Inter-
national Network on Technical
Information (INTI). On food
processing, one lead agency is
the perennial Dutch NGO
Agromisa, which is also shifting
much of its work to new cen-
tres in the South: Agromisa, PO
Box 41, 6700 AJ Wageningen,
Netherlands; fax: +31 317 419
178; email: agromisa@wxs.nl
The other lead QAS agency on
food processing was the “Tech-
nologies Produits Alimentaires”
programme of the French con-
sultancy GRET: TPA, GRET,
210 rue La Fayette, 75010 Paris,
France; fax: +33 140056110;
email: tpa@gret.org; Website:
www.gret.org/tpa However,
early in 2001, GRET ceased to
operate the TPA secretariat and
its QAS, and halted its publish-
ing work. The TPA programme
will continue as a decentralised
network with ‘cells’ in several
countries which have included
Madagascar, Senegal and Benin
in the past. TPA-GRET will
continue to distribute existing
publications, and is planning to
launch an electronic newsletter.
Both Agromisa and GRET
have also provided some of the
substance of the InPHo Post-
Harvest information network
which pools the experiences of
the German GTZ and the
French CIRAD with its hosts at
FAO. InPHo, FAO, via delle
Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome,
Italy. Email: inpho@fao.org.
The well-respected ACO-
PAM, of the International
Labour Office, ceased opera-
tion in June 2000. Its publica-
tions are available from former
participants in West Africa, and
from ILO. Get their addresses
from ACOPAM-Employment,
ILO, 4 route des Morillons, 1211
Geneva, Switzerland. Email:
edemp@ilo.org. Full details on
Website: www.ilo.org/public/
english/employment/ent/coop/
acopam.htm
Much of ACOPAM’s her-
itage has been carried forward
by the many national West
African partners of the well-
established Procelos network
for promoting local cereals.
PROCELOS, 01 BP 1625,
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso;
fax: +226 333 173.
New stars
The overall trend for food pro-
cessing information services is
to go national, serving only
local farmers and traders, and
often linked to national market
information systems. This has
the disadvantage, for the active
information seeker looking for
ideas and synergies from
abroad, of creating more inter-
mediaries than before. Howev-
er, information middle-men
and brokers have their uses too,
and it is a question persuading
them to hunt around for you! 
The most promising new-
comer is the Strengthening
African Food Processing Pro-
ject (SAFPP). Since its launch
in 1999, it has maintained its
information output with a rare
degree of perserverance and
clarity that deserves to be con-
tinued, and emulated and repli-
cated by others. SAFPP pro-
vides links to programmes,
sources of information and
finance, and market informa-
tion throughout Africa and
beyond (with a major focus on
southern and West Africa). It
has an impressive collection of
local commercial contacts
rather than just the subsidised
sector. Being dependent on
grants—up to 2004—is one of
SAFPP’s two weaknesses; the
other, which shows in some of
its technological choices, is the
familiar and transitional issue
of, as a body based in South
Africa, being able to flip
between the mind-sets of the
First and the Third World with
more ease than many of its
ACP partners. SAFPP, PO Box
395, 2000 Pretoria, South
Africa; fax: +27 12 841 3726;
email: dharcourt@csir.co.za;
Website: www.safpp.co.za 
Similarly promising but some-
what less proven is the Foodnet
network operated by the Associ-
ation for Agricultural Research
in Eastern and Central Africa
(ASARECA). Its current portfo-
lio of research projects aims at
encouraging market research
and implementing commercial
agro-enterprise activities, in
partnerships with public and
private enterprises throughout
the region. This Foodnet is not
to be confused with the thirty-
or-so other Foodnet networks in
the world, none of whom have
understood that Rule Number
Two when launching a new
product on any market is to
check out the ‘uniqueness’ of its
name! The Foodnet you want
has an international mailing
address: Foodnet, c/o Lambourn
and Co., 26 Dingwall Road,
Croydon CR3 9EE, England and
a national fax: +256 41 223460;
email: foodnet@imul.com; Web-
site: www.cgiar.org/foodnet.
A very lively service is provid-
ed (in English and Spanish only)
in the commercial post-harvest
sector by Poscosecha. com
(meaning post-harvest in Span-
ish), which publishes an exten-
sive International Directory of
Post-harvest Suppliers in printed
format (t 30) and on a Website
(free). More for the commercial
and cooperative sector than a
household business, the directo-
ry is clearly organised and sup-
pliers are listed by sector, by
name and by country, including
ACP countries. Ediciones Horti-
cultura, Apdo de correo 48,
43200 Reus (Tarragona), Spain;
fax: 34 977 753056; email: 
biblioteca@ediho.es; Website:
www.poscosecha.com
Food processing
Big changes in management of food 
processing information
Ph
ot
o 
FA
O
Publications
SPORE 92 • PAGE 11
Updating for onliners
The new bi-monthly
CTA electronic
newsletter ICT-Update is well
underway, with its third issue
planned for April 2001. It
serves to keep people abreast
of developments in the fast
moving world of ICT
(information and
communication technologies)
which are important to, or
could be applied in,
agriculture and rural
development. The February
issue includes stories of
networks in Benin, Burkina
Faso and Gabon; new
technological developments in
Africa, Caribbean services, free
softwares and significant
events. ICT-Update is available
only in electronic form, in
email and on www.agricta.org
To subscribe to the English
edition, send an empty email
to ict-bulleng-request@cirad.fr
with the word subscribe as the
subject. (For a French
subscription replace bulleng
with bullfr in the address.) To
correspond with its compilers,
write to ict-update@cirad.fr
Please note that the CIRAD
server has been known to be
sensitive to emails from
certain sources, including
major email services. If your
email is refused, please send a
copy of your email to
cta@cta.nl for forwarding.
The progress of
processing
The second volume in a
series of study reports
on small-scale food processing
subsectors. The first one
focused on Mozambique,
South Africa and Zambia (see
Spore 89. p 13). After this
volume, which assesses this
the subsector in Tanzania 
and Uganda, others covering
Benin and Senegal will soon
follow.
Assessment of the small-scale food
processing subsector in Tanzania
and Uganda
Study report
By H M Dietz, S Matee & W
Ssali, CTA, 2000. 76 pp.
ISBN 92 9081 232X
Type of publication: study report
CTA number 1020. 
5 Credit points
Strategies for
strengthening small-scale
food processing in
Eastern and Southern
Africa
Proceedings of a
workshop, held in 1998
in Entebbe, Uganda.
CTA, 2000. 100 pp. 
ISBN 92 9081 2338
CTA number 1019. 
10 Credit points
• Publications
Small-scale and enterprising? Get the picture
On the basis of a case in
northern Cameroon, the
entire process of establishing a
water point for livestock in a dry
rural area is unfolded. What
considerations have to be made
beforehand, how to organise and
mobilise the community, to
choose the right spot, to get a
clear picture of the costs and
how these are being covered.
Finally various technical options
for design and construction are
provided as well as options to
arrange the management and
maintenance of the water point.
Establishing and managing water points for
village livestock: A guide for rural extension
workers in the sudano-sahelian zone
By A Teyssier, Agrodok series,
Agromisa-CIRAD-CTA, 2000. 
75 pp. ISBN 9907246 90 2
CTA number 1021. 5 Credit points
These designs hold water
If you hear the words
footwear, a car tyre and
condoms, what do you think
would be the connection? Well,
they are all made of rubber. Many
plants contain rubber and latex,
but Hevea brasiliensis is the only
one commercially grown for har-
vesting rubber. The latest issue in
The Tropical Agriculturalist series
is dedicated to it. A sound and
simple manual for anyone grow-
ing rubber, it covers the plant’s
history, biology, propagation,
processing and uses of rubber, as
well as how to establish, maintain
and operate a plantation. The
authors of Rubber focus on the
benefits of cultivating rubber as
an environmentally acceptable
closed ecosystem. In the habit of
this series, it is practical, well
illustrated and easy to read.
Rubber
By M A Delabarre & J B Serier,
Tropical Agriculuralist, Macmillan-
CTA, 2000. 154 pp. 
ISBN 0 333 68355 2
CTA number 1011. 10 credit points
Every person involved in
agricultural production
luckily left with a surplus will
seek possibilities to sell this pro-
duce. Marketing for small-scale
producers is a practical booklet,
guiding you step by step
through the basics of marketing,
weighing the advantages and
disadvantages. Storage of pro-
duce might affect quality, but
make better prices later in the
season when the product is hard-
ly available. Processing a prod-
uct adds value and if you put it
in a nice bag, jar, box or bottle
it will even be more attractive to
a possible customer. That is all
well and good but these things
cost money. How you can calcu-
late these costs and benefits and
determine the consumer price
and when and when not you
could borrow money for these
investments is also dealt with the
concluding chapters.
Marketing for small-scale producers 
By A de Veld, Agrodok series,
Agromisa-CORDAID-CTA, 2000. 
80 pp. ISBN 90 72746 93 7
CTA number 1007. 5 Credit points
Images are widely used to
convey messages. As such
they are a powerful, direct and
instant means of communication.
An image of a jagged arrow
pointing downwards from a
cloud means that there is a thun-
derstorm brewing and nothing
else. But things rarely are what
they seem at first sight. Certain
logos or symbols vary from one
place to the other to indicate sim-
ilar things. This can cause confu-
sion or misunderstanding, when
used in a different setting and
thus completely miss the point. 
Volker Hoffmann, author of
Picture supported communication
in Africa, argues that for commu-
nication purposes, the combina-
tion of imagery and language is
superior to either of the two alone
but that the potential of imagery
is both overestimated and under-
exploited. He elaborates the the-
oretical underpinning of concepts
like communication, expression
and perception in the field of
imagery. He explains the various
historical developments strongly
influencing these concepts and
which lead to substantial differ-
ences between, for example,
Europe and Africa. Having 
discussed different approaches
and communication settings in
rural development programmes
throughout Africa, the book con-
cludes with two extensively
described cases—one in Burkina
Faso and one in Rwanda—
describing two successful exam-
ples of using imagery for commu-
nication. How could we say all
this with pictures? 
Picture supported communication in
Africa: Fundamentals, examples and
recommendations for appropriate
communication processes in rural
development programmes in sub-
Saharan Africa
By V Hoffmann, Margraf-CTA, 2000.
367 pp. ISBN 3 8236 1342 1
CTA number 1014. 40 Credit points
It’s flexible and versatile
SPORE 92 • PAGE 12
Living off the fat of 
the land?
Land resources are a major
element in the development
of agriculture, no question
about that. Still, a lot has to
change in peoples minds and
in reality before this can be
taken in hand. Anthony Young
discusses land resources and
their management, how this
interacts and relates to food
security and poverty and what
the future options are. 
Land resources. Now and for the
future
By A Young, Cambridge
University Press, 2001. 325 pp. 
ISBN 0521785596
GBP 19.95 • t 31.30
Cambridge University Press
Edinburgh Building
Shaftesbury Road Cambridge
CB2 2RU, England
Fax: +44 1223 31 50 52
Not just for show
A technical paper highlighting
the potential of tissue culture
in ornamental plant
propagation allowing for mass
cloning of selected varieties.
The document describes
general information on the
state of the art of tissue
culture propagation and gives
details for propagating some
30 ornamental plant species.
Ornamental plant propagation in
the tropics 
FAO, 2000. 84 pp. 
ISBN 9251044600
US$ 14 • t 14.95
see FAO address elsewhere
Of dormancy and
germination
A comprehensive coverage of
all aspects of seed ecology,
including reproductive
allocation, dispersal,
predation, evolutionary
ecology of seed size, the roles
of fire and of gaps in
regeneration and seedling
colonisation.
Seeds: The Ecology of Regeneration
in Plant Communities 
Edited by M Fenner, CABI
Publishing, 2000. 416 pp. 
ISBN 0851994326
GBP 65 • t 102
Of all creatures itchy 
and small
A source book on all aspects
of insect pest management;
the major players, besides the
plants and pests, monitoring
techniques, yield losses,
resistance in plants, biological
and chemical techniques,
legislation, codes of conduct
and the principles of
integrated pest management.
Insect Pest Management
By D Dent, CABI Bioscience,
2000. 432 pp. ISBN 0851993419
GBP 27.50 • t 43.15
Publications •
You’ll probably know that
there is something like a ‘land-
issue’ in Zimbabwe and South
Africa. In most of the rest of
sub-Saharan Africa, tenure—
private or communal—owner-
ship, access, laws and rights
related to land are also much
debated issues. Partly, this has
historic reasons. Colonial rule
—also applying to land—
superposed local, often cus-
tomary laws; in the post-inde-
pendence era land was nation-
alised by various new govern-
ments to foster development,
modernisation or re-distribu-
tion of resources. Since then,
customary systems have been
both denied as well as recog-
nised and land has been both
privatised as well as nation-
alised by post-independence
governments. Evolving land
rights, policy and tenure in
Africa presents and discusses
these issues and the ongoing
land policy debates in various
parts of the continent. It
describes how different coun-
tries have approached this
highly political and sensitive
subject and explores possible
future scenarios. The book will
be of interest to those involved
in African land matters, from
officials in governments to
development practitioners,
donors, scholars and students.
Evolving Land Rights, Policy and Tenure
in Africa
Edited by C Toulmin & J Quan. 
IIED and DFID, 2000. 324 pp. 
ISBN 1899825517
GBP 12.50 • t 19.60 
(free to non-OECD) 
Drylands programme IIED
3 Endsleigh Street
London, WC1H 0DD, England
Email: drylands@iied.org 
This commendable practical
field guide from FAO covers the
major catches off the shores of
Namibia, but it has its uses for
other coasts. Catches include
shrimps, lobsters, crabs, sharks
and fish as well as some their
lesser known relatives such as
bivalves, gastropods and chi-
maeras. However, it’s not all fish;
seaweeds, turtles, seabirds and
marine mammals have their
rightful place in the book. 
The introduction outlines the
geographical, environmental and
ecological factors influencing
fisheries, and the basic compo-
nents of the fisheries of Namib-
ia. As an aid to identification to
higher taxonomic levels, a picto-
rial index to families is included
and most groups are preceded by
an illustrated guide to orders and
families. Each species-account
provides scientific nomencla-
ture, common names, sizes,
habitat and biology, diagnostic
features, and one or more illus-
trations. A list of useful refer-
ences is appended. All in all, an
exemplary presentation.
Field Guide to the Living Marine
Resources of Namibia 
FAO, 1999. 298 pp. ISBN 9251043450 
US$30 • t 32.05
FAO Sales and Marketing Group, 
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 
00100 Rome, Italy.
Fax: +39 06 57 05 33 60
Email: publications-sales@fao.org
A splendid road map 
of European funds
The European Community,
and the European Union, in
explaining the funds available
for external partners has often
presented a picture of a dense
and highly diverse jungle, seen
through a misty maze. You real-
ly do need a guide to get
through it all. The world has
been done a very great service
by the European Citizen’s Advi-
sory Service in their seventh
edition of the guide to ‘our
money’ as European taxpayers
rightly call it. The guide
explains the structure of the
European Commission and
related bodies, with an obvious
desire to simplify and clarify
that has not always been emu-
lated by the bodies themselves.
Importantly, it takes into
account the recent streamlining
and transparency reforms made
by the Commission in early
2001. 
For potential users in ACP
countries, the guide explains
which funds may be used, how,
and for how much, by civil
society, private sector and pub-
lic bodies. It also provides an
insight into what is available for
European bodies to mobilise as
co-funding for projects in ACP
countries. The procedures for
obtaining and accounting for
funds - sometimes surprisingly
simple, other times arcane – are
explained. 
The tireless and very under-
standing compilers must find
that this is a lifetime’s work, like
painting a big railway bridge. A
shame that they did not find
the time to fully remind appli-
cants of the disappointments
experienced by many civil soci-
ety organisations who have
been awarded a grant, and then
had to wait several years for the
first payment to arrive. 
Spore readers please note: this
book is compiled as a public ser-
vice by a non-profit organisation
with limited resources, and not by
the European Commission itself.
It is only fair to order a copy if
you intend to pay (or have some-
one else pay) for it in full. 
A guide to EU funding for NGOs
7th edition. ECAX, 2001. 451 pp.
ISBN 2-9600280-1-5
h 45 incl. postage
ECAS
53 rue de la Concorde
B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Fax: +32 2 548 04 99
Email: admin@ecas.org
Website: www.ecas.org
See how the land lies
A fine collection
of fish 
 Few would contest that
poverty in rural areas and envi-
ronmental degradation should
be dealt with urgently. Howev-
er, the ways to achieve each goal
may differ greatly. It is stresses
that poverty is caused by declin-
ing productivity and a degrad-
ing resource base (land, forest,
water, soil etc.), which, in turn,
is worsened by an increasing
population pressure. Measures
should be taken to increase pro-
duction, improve inputs,
expand information access, and
increase levels of organisation.
Many also feel that the solution
lies in actively involving com-
munities, building on their ini-
tiatives and designing participa-
tory programmes and policies
in order to reduce poverty and
achieve sound environmental
conservation management.
Whatever may be the per-
spective, African enclosures?
argues that the analyses use in
such approaches fail completely
to address the effects of the
wider political, social and eco-
nomic forces on different users,
and their uses and ways of man-
aging natural resources. Worse
still, most avoid addressing this
wider context, out of naivety,
and they make use of idealised
versions of a ‘community’, ‘gov-
ernment’, ‘participation’ and
‘good governance’. The book
examines changing land and
water use in four wetlands in
dry-land areas of Kenya, Mali,
Botswana and South Africa.
Each case is quite different but
can be compared, since they all
address changes in resource
bases, in social and economic
terms and how local governance
works. It reveals a far more
dynamic and detailed picture of
African society. It turns out that
production patterns change
rapidly in response to market
opportunities, even in remote
areas. These changes are driven
largely by local, often migrant,
farmers’ initiatives and an
increase in market-based access
to land under both ‘customary’
and private land tenure. The
social and economic conse-
quences are clear. Large increas-
es in aggregate production
widen the gap between winners
and losers from the changing
terms of access to land and
water. A theoretical, and impor-
tant and revealing book.
African Enclosures? The Social Dynamics
of Wetlands-in-Drylands
By P Woodhouse, H Bernstein & D
Hulme, James Currey, 2000. 256 pp.
ISBN 0 85255 416 8
GBP 14.95 • t 23.45 
James Currey Publishers
73 Botley Road
Oxford OX2 0BS, England
Fax: +44 1865 24 64 54
Email: orders@plymbridge.com
Something else is stirring in Africa
While reading Main pests
and diseases of cotton in
sub-Saharan Africa, you really
begin to feel sorry for the cot-
ton plant and increasingly
appreciate your cotton wear.
Bear in mind that this booklet
only deals with the main pests;
it leaves weeds aside, for
instance. It is a concise and
clear manual enabling cotton
growers to recognise what
might be attacking their crop.
This can vary from the entire
range of flying, creeping and
sucking insects to leaf and vas-
cular diseases and mineral defi-
ciencies. Three hope-giving
pages provide information on
‘beneficials’—predators and
parasitoids—in controlling
insect pest populations. With
an average of two beautiful
colour photographs per page, it
is a very attractive booklet on a
perhaps less attractive subject.
Main pests and diseases of cotton in
sub-Saharan Africa
By M Vaissayre & J Cauquil, 
CIRAD-CTA, 2000. 60 pp. 
ISBN 2 87614 416 6
CTA number 1012. 10 Credit points
Ever pitied a plant?
SPORE 92 • PAGE 13
The green leaf
symbol indicates
p u b l i c a t i o n s
that are on CTA’s
list. Subscribers
to the Publications Distribution
Service (PDS) can obtain them
from CTA. All other publications,
indicated by an orange square,
are available from the publishers
listed, or through commercial
outlets, but not from CTA.
Publications on CTA’s list are
available free-of-charge to PDS
subscribers. Subscribers can
order publications on CTA’s list up
to the value of the credit points
available to them. Subscribers can
only request publications on the
order forms provided.
Non-subscribers who wish to
join the scheme should write to
CTA for an application form.
Applications will be considered
from agricultural and rural
development organisations in
the ACP (Africa, Caribbean and
Pacific) Group of States; individ-
uals resident in ACP countries
may also apply.
If you are not eligible for a free
subscription to the PDS, or if
you need publications beyond
your free credit allocation, you
may buy publications on CTA’s
list from our commercial distri-
butor: Triops, Hinderburgstrasse
33, D-64295 Darmstadt, Ger-
many, Fax: +49 6151 314 048,
Email: triops@triops.de, Web-
site: http://www.triops.de
How to obtain these publications
Good governance in town
In a time that everyone argues
that participation and good
governance are prerequisites
for any successful attempt to
achieve sustainable
development, municipal
authorities are rarely
mentioned or taken into
account. Although the case
studies in this book are mainly
from South Asia, it provides
useful analyses about how
municipal authorities can
incorporate a permanent,
participatory engagement with
their citizens.
Municipalities and Community
Participation. A Sourcebook for
Capacity Building
By J Plummer, Earthscan
Publications, 2000. 146 pp. 
ISBN 185383744X 
GBP 20 • t 31.35
Earthscan Publications
120 Pentonville Road
London, N1 9JN, UK
Fax: +44 20 7278 1142
Email: earthinfo@earthscan.co.uk
Adam’s ale is 
a precious brew
A collection of papers that
assesses the eco-systems
approach, offers tools for
implementation and provides
case studies for development
and assessments of threats to
sustainable water resources
development in eastern and
southern Africa.
Advances in planning and
management of watersheds and
wetlands in eastern and southern
Africa 
Edited by J E Fitzgibbon, WEAVER
Press, 1999. 134 pp. ISBN
0797420177
GBP 14.95 • t 23.45
The Africa Book Centre 
38 King St, London WC2E 8JT, UK
Fax: +44 20 74 97 03 09
Email:
orders@africabookcentre.com
The perilous plight of
pesticides?
A series of compact Thin
country manuals offering you
the state of affairs of pesticide
usage, general laws, legislation
on banned and obsolete
pesticides and briefly,
conclusions and
recommendations.
Regulation of Dangerous Pesticides
in Ghana
Edited by A Thiam, PAN Africa,
Monitoring & Briefing no 5, 2000.
17 pp
Regulation of Dangerous Pesticides
in Uganda
Edited by A Thiam, PAN Africa,
Monitoring & Briefing no 6, 2000.
17 pp.
US$ 5 • t 5.35 per manual
(including p&p)
Pesticide Action Network Africa
PO Box 15938 Dakar-Fann
Fax: +221 825 14 43
Email: panafric@telecomplus.sn
• Publications
SPORE 92 • PAGE 14
Between us •
F ollowing on a workshop of its part-ners held in August 2000, theSouthern African Centre for Coop-
eration in Agricultural Research and
Training (SACCAR) has embarked upon
a Regional Information Project (RIP). The
RIP will be one of the four specific goals
for SACCAR to focus upon in its current
five-year plan. The workshop, held in
Gaborone, Botswana, gathered specialists
from Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique,
Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa Swazi-
land, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe as
well as the host country.
The project will address five major bot-
tlenecks to the smooth operation of its
information activities. The major con-
straint, identified during an earlier study,
is the poor recognition of the value of
information and communication, and
related inadequacies in local networking
at national and regional levels. This has
resulted in a poor dissemination of infor-
mation with the national partner networks
of SACCAR. Other constraints have
included poor physical resources and
infrastructure, in particular the lack of
modern equipment and facilities for rapid
processing of information; a lack of suffi-
cient skills in information technology and
communication; poorly organised infor-
mation resources and inadequate means
to sustain even conventional services. 
The RIP will therefore develop and
establish an interactive information sys-
tem, aimed at strengthening operational
capacity, as well as addressing issues of
training, provision of equipment and
facilitating the foundations of a regional
communications system. Some activities
will be supported by CTA, especially in
the realms of training in electronic com-
munication and publishing, traditional
publishing and networking, and exposure
to the experiences of similar initiatives in
other regions.
Regional programme 
strengthened
The community’s hand on
the wheel
 The article in Spore 90 on irrigation
management and “Whose hand on
the wheel?” rang more than a few
bells with Beruk Kabtamu, planning
and monitoring officer of the Luther-
an World Federation’s programme in
Ethiopia. As well as reproducing the
article in their annual report (Yes, re-
publishing is OK, if you mention Spore
– ed.), he told us about the “Soil and
water conservation projects which
have been involved in 115 small-scale
irrigation schemes for crop production
and 12 micro-earth dams mainly for
livestock and fishery since 1985. The
beneficiary farmers in these villages
are no longer affected by drought, are
the maintenance of structures and
canals.
In most rural areas, the community has
traditionally had Abba Melak (‘water
fathers’). In such areas, the project
strengthens them as Water Commit-
tees, with good results achieved in the
gender balance. In areas where there
are no such traditional institutions, the
project establishes and trains them.
Once the project hands over the struc-
tures, it is these water committees
which manage the water distribution,
maintenance and resolve any conflicts
with minimum assistance from the
local government bureaus and local
synods of the ethiopian Evangelical
Church Mekane Yesus. This has
worked well, as witnessed from the
project sites where interventions start-
ed more than 12 years ago are still
functioning, with no major problem
using the community management
system.”
Egg plants success 
in Mvara
 Roy Stephen Muto, teacher of agri-
culture at Mvara Secondary School in
Arua, Uganda, wrote in to “thank you
very much for the good agricultural
books you have been mailing me. I also
want to say thank you for Spore. With
all this literature, my agricultural
knowledge has increased tremendous-
ly!
I wish to give you a report on a veg-
etable growing project we carried out
in our school this year. We – the Senior
One and Senior Three classes – grew
Mailbox
able to produce at least three times a
year, have benefitted from increased
household income and are food
secure.
Each project is involved in a village for
two years intensively and two more
years as follow-up. Then who manages
the wheel? Before the intervention
begins, the request comes from the
community. Based on this, with feasi-
bility and other technical studies con-
ducted, the role and participation of
the community, from planning
through implementation to hand-
over, is clearly identified and agreed
upon. Once the project has completed
the major construction work for irriga-
tion – with community participation –
the farmers are trained on irrigation
agronomy, water management and
Haven’t you written to Spore yet?
It’s always a quandary, isn’t it? You
think we may not publish it? You
know that we get more letters than
we can publish, even if we read and
appreciate them all. We just do not
have enough space.
That is no reason to hold back. Some
statisticians will even try to persuade
you that the more letters are sent in
by readers, the greater are your
chances of getting yours published.
Don’t think too long about it. Just
write in now, and see what happens!
@
Dr M Mukhebi of Kenya Agricultural Commodity
Exchange shows the way to a new regional service
point in Bungoma, Western Kenya, where farmers can
get instant market information, and deal online
Farmers delighted with 
price information
W ith a far flung reputation forbuilding up farmers’ organisa-tions in Cameroon, the organ
known as the Network for Farmers’ Agri-
culture and Modernisation in Africa/
Cameroon (APM/Cameroon) has joined
CTA in a partnership agreement. Up to
October 2002, it will undertake a pilot pro-
ject to record and draw upon farmers’ expe-
riences and optimise their exchange
through appropriate information channels.
In the pilot project, which has an inten-
sity that is not for the weak of heart or
spirit, various farmers’ organisations will
be encouraged and empowered to share
information, and develop various forms of
cooperation such as alliances, common
platforms and geographical and thematic
networks. Their skills in the management
and communication of information will
be harnessed and strengthened around the
production of 30 programmes for rural
and regional radio stations; the produc-
tion of a film on the nation’s farmer move-
ment; the organisation of study trips,
exchange visits and four training work-
shops; the co-organisation of a national
workshop; the publication of profiles of
six farmers’ organisations; the production
of 30 leaflets about concrete experiences,
of which two will be developed into more
substantial volumes. 
It is expected that this pilot project will
provide a wealth of material on the
dynamics of partnership building within
a country or region, the role of lead or
pilot agencies, and the relationship with
external resources.
New partnership in Cameroon
SPORE 92 • PAGE 15
• Between us
Spore is a bi-monthly publication 
providing information on agricultural 
development for ACP countries. Spore is
available free-of-charge to relevant
organisations and individuals in ACP and
EU countries. Subscriptions may also be
purchased from Triops (see page 13).
Publisher: Technical Centre for Agricultural
and Rural Cooperation (CTA) – ACP-EC
Cotonou Agreement
CTA: Postbus 380, 6700 AJ Wageningen,
The Netherlands
Te:l +31 317 467100
Fax: +31 317 460067
Email: cta@cta.nl   
Website: www.cta.nl
Email for readers’ letters: 
spore@cta.nl
Compiler: Spore is compiled by a 
consortium formed by Louma productions
and Médiateurs
Louma productions, 3 rue Neuve, 
34150 Aniane, France
Fax: +33 467 570 180
Email: louma@louma.fr
Médiateurs, W-Alexanderpoort 46, 
1421 CH Uithoorn, 
The Netherlands
Fax: +31 297 540 514
Email: info@spore-magazine.org
This issue was compiled by 
Didier Chabrol, Marcel Chimwala, 
O'Neil Cuffe, Bernard Favre, 
Erik Heijmans,  Catherine Marzin, 
Dudley Moloi, Paul Osborn, 
Jacques Sultan, Christine Tissot.
Layout: Louma productions
Printer: Imprimerie Publicep, France
© CTA 2001
ISSN 1011-0054
Material published in Spore can be freely
reproduced. Please always credit it as coming
from Spore.
egg plants (variety: Black beauty) on
an area of 50m by 15m (750 m2). The
total harvest was 1,150 kg (1.15
tonne). The main market supplied was
our school (648 kg) and we also sup-
plied two other schools in Muni and
Arua, plus the teachers’ college in
Muni. The total amount earned from
sales was 323,450 Ugandan shillings,
or about US$ 161.80. 
The whole school population was
excited about the good yield, and we
hope to do much more in 2001.”
Stop bush fires!
 The President of the Ghana Wildlife
Society at the Kumasi National Univer-
sity of Science and Technology in
Ghana, Mr Abotsi Anselm, told us of
his group’s appeal to all concerned
parties to avoid bush fires at the criti-
cal period early in 2001. In a circular
public letter, he reminds readers that
the fires of 2000 did not spare “pre-
cious life, valuable properties, our
environment, our forest and our
wildlife. (…) Our farmers should be
careful about how they handle fire, in
cooking and trapping animals in the
bush. Burning of weeds should be
done only when very necessary since it
destroys soil nutrients and microbes.
They should also create fire belts
around their farms.
Hunters set the bush ablaze and wait
to kill any animal on the run. They
even smoke animal holes. They do not
realise any need to put out the fire,
and we appeal to them to stop these
destructive acts.
Smokers should be careful about
where and how they dispose of their
cigarette butts. And palm wine tap-
pers, who use fire extensively during
their operations, should be careful
about putting out every fire before
leaving the bush.
We believe by proper attitude and
positive cooperation from all, we can
save our environment the agony of
destruction for another year.”
Those missing yams
again!
 Ok, it’s over. Mr A A Olaniyan from
nothing less than the National Horti-
cultural Research Institute in Ibadan,
Nigeria, joins the masses of readers
who still remind us of our error of
publishing a photo a woman with a
basket of cassava with a caption refer-
ring to yams, with our article in Spore
87 (June 2000) called “Ghana yam
exports surge ahead”. Sorry, sorry,
sorry! 
This correspondence is now closed.
Except, of course, if you live in the Sey-
chelles. There, the Seychelles Bureau
of Standards (whose motto – we fool
you not – is ‘The Guardian of Quality’)
included the yam article and photo,
error and all, as one of several Spore
articles used in their Quarterly Journal
of July-September 2000. (Yes, even re-
publishing our mistakes is OK, we sup-
pose! -ed.). The people at SBS can
count their blessings. With a national
population of less than 110,000, at
least they might get fewer complaints
than we did. Good luck, SBS!
The new batch of Working Docu-ments based on studies undertakenfor CTA include an analysis of func-
tional literacy (see Spore 88), and a set of
two case studies on small-scale food pro-
cessing of cassava and maize in Congo and
Cameroon respectively. For those keen to
sharpen their skills in evaluating the
impact of agricultural information, a new
Working Document provides a selective
review of the issues and the relevant liter-
ature. Its illustrative case studies include
the Caribbean and Botswana. 
Study on functional literacy
programmes for agricultural and
rural development in Ethiopia 
CTA, 2000. 106 pp.
CTA number 8020. 5 credit points 
Approaches to impact evaluation
(assessment) in agricultural
information management 
CTA, 2000. 33 pp.
CTA number 8021. 5 credit points 
Savoir-faire et réseaux de petites
entreprises agroalimentaires en
Afrique
CTA, 2000. 68 pp.
CTA number 8022. 5 credit points 
More to work on
In Sindebele, the language spoken insouth western Zimbabwe, the equivalentword for ‘development’ means actually
taking control over what you need to work
with for survival. So development in this
sense means empowerment and that is a
very fundamental human right. When
things are difficult and resources are scarce,
it are always the weakest, who benefit the
last, and it are the strongest that get the
resources before the poor. I find that a great
deal of the poorest people in the poverty
stricken bracket of our communities are
women. So it is not by design that I focus
on women, it is because women are there
and because the majority of people that
need empowerment, are women.
A foremost strategy of people working
for development has to be assisting com-
munities to understand power. One can-
not empower somebody else. People can
only empower themselves and an essential
prerequisite for empowerment is under-
standing power and how it is acquired,
exercised and maintained, between women
and men, between those who own
resources and those who do not. Power
dynamics play within the family, the com-
munity, the society and the globe. 
Power is neutral until it is acquired and
used. But completely without it, we just
are lethargic. Power enables people and
enhances life but one should clearly distin-
guish positive and negative power. Positive
power is one of caring and sharing, the
power to connect and to work together.
Negative power is the power that domi-
nates and oppresses. It is selfish, greedy
and wants things for itself. It is often pos-
sessed by men, but by powerful women too.
They want to flex their muscles and exer-
cise their power in order for their presence
to be felt. However, since everybody has to
take part in this power analyses, I favour a
family approach rather than a women
approach. Both men and women must be
exposed to the same kind of dialogue.
The powers that be
As a member of a rural community, for
instance, ask yourself what the existing
powers are and which powers prevent you
from acquiring positive power. Who is it
that is sharing positive power in your fam-
ily and in your community and how can
you link up to this person? Power shared
is power gained. If it is a negative power
that is exercised in your community; who
is exercising it? Is it your husband, your
children, your neighbour, a rich neigh-
bour, the politician, the rural councillor?
This power could prevent your communi-
ty from doing things, from accessing eco-
nomic resources or infrastructure. Then
together you determine what the strategies
are which need to be put in place in order
to acquire positive power and to reverse
this negative power. There is a limit to
which you can hold negative power. Sus-
tainable development exists when you can
regenerate your energies and when you can
re focus and reconnect to a wider world. 
The positive power is the power we
should use in development. In agriculture
for instance we go back to our culture of
working together. The basis of the village
groups is a tradition of collective work
called ‘amalima’ whereby all members
attend to each family’s fields in rotation.
Most jobs are done collectively—gather-
ing firewood, fetching water, even home
improvements, which have been extensive.
You have to identify what you need to
grow or build and having identified that
you can see and find out whether your
neighbours also want to grow or build the
same and how they want to do that. This
is a process of empowering themselves
through empowering each other. This
applies for any activity, be it food process-
ing, harvesting or building dams. 
One example is the ‘Give a Dam Pro-
gramme’ that started with the drought of
1993-94. Various member communities
wanted to have a dam for water. In order
for the communities to achieve the imple-
mentation of a dam, they needed for
instance the approval of a councillor for
permits, a government official to peg the
dam, they had to authorise a NGO to get
the tools and had to organise themselves
to arrange manual labour. 
By working around this, they also dis-
cover that individuals might be blocking
the process. An NGO or political leader,
who is promising things that do not hap-
pen, a local leader who is corrupt and
using people’s time and resources. The pro-
cess of discovering, discussing and devel-
oping strategies to cope is really learning
and understanding the power dynamics.
Identifying the problem is the problem
half solved. A politician who wanted to
peg a dam for political reasons at a spot
not to the liking of the community, saw
his intentions abandoned. On the other
hand communities can be convinced by a
technical expert to choose a spot farther
away from the village than their initial
choice, simply for physical and geographi-
cal reasons. To me both examples illustrate
positive power. Constructive criticism and
engagement with others along the line.
Then together you share power. 
SPORE 92 • PAGE 16
Viewpoint • 
The opinions expressed in Viewpoint are
those of the authors, and do not necessarily
reflect the views of CTA.
Sithembiso Nyoni is currently president of
ORAP (the Organisation of Rural Associations
for Progress), based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
and which she co-founded in 1981. ORAP has
over a million members in more than 
800 village groups. From 1995 till June 2000
Mrs Nyoni has served first as Deputy Minister
of National Housing and Public Construction
and later as Minister of State for Economic
Ministries in Zimbabwe.
“Identifying the problem is the problem half solved.”
Gender, development and empowerment
Power shared 
is power gained
Development is empowerment, and that is not just a methodology
or a development gimmick. Empowerment means that people get
equipped to deal with their own situation in a practical and viable
way. The first step towards empowerment is assisting communities
in making power analyses. Help them understand the difference
between positive and negative power and how to cope with that.
Power is important, believe me, I have been in different power
circles including being a Minister, I know what power is.