T wo in three people in developingcountries use herbal medicine fortheir primary health care. Yet it took
a small prickly plant and a group of bush-
men to shine the world’s spotlight on
medicinal plants, and the issues around
their cultivation and ownership.
In June 2001, a report on the hoodia cac-
tus in the London-based broadsheet news-
paper, The Observer, made quite a stir.
Since time immemorial, the succulent
hoodia has grown in the Kalahari desert in
southern Africa and has been eaten by the
San bushmen during their long hunting
trips. Its juice takes the edge off appetite
and thirst, and has enabled the hunters to
respect their tradition of bringing home
their entire catch, without eating of it on
the way. 
The appetite-suppressing essence in the
plant caught the attention of the South
African Council for Scientific and Indus-
trial Research, which patented it in 1995
under the code name P-57. In 1997, they
sold the commercial drug rights to a British
biotechnology firm Phytopharm plc. The
next year, Phytopharm licensed P-57 to the
giant US pharmaceutical company Pfizer,
to develop as a weight-loss product in the
massive t 6.5 billion dieting market. That
deal was worth up to t 34.5 million.
In June 2001, alerted by journalists, the
San decided at their annual gathering to
demand compensation, feeling that their
knowledge was being stolen. They argued
that the companies should have made an
agreement with them, instead of claiming
they were extinct! In mid-March 2002, the
San and Pfizer worked out a benefit-shar-
ing plan, entitling the San to a share in
future royalties. The P-57 anti-obesity pill
is now in its clinical testing phase and
should enter the market in 2006. The San
will use these four years to develop the cul-
tivation of hoodia, to protect it from
becoming extinct.
SPORE 99 • PAGE 1
Medicinal plants
Pluck, not plunder 1
Food packaging
Package deals 3
Book development and agriculture 
Not by word of mouth alone 4
IN BRIEF 6
LINKS 10
PUBLICATIONS 11
BETWEEN US 14
VIEWPOINT
Participatory approaches
When decentralising, 
put the fisherfolk and farmers first 16
Website: www.cta.nl
Information 
for agricultural 
development 
in ACP countries
Number 99
JUNE 2002
In this issue
Among the coded
language, in any
language, of young people the
world over, as they gather on 
street corners or under trees, is
“The Word”.  
The Word on the street, or
wherever, is usually a simple and
fundamental truth, which may or
may not challenge accepted
knowledge. It is cool, it is brill, 
it is right.
How does a word become The
Word? Quite simply, by being
there, and by catching the mood of
the listener and reader. One of the
most enduring homes of The Word,
and for many other messages, is
the book. This issue looks at the
book as a store and carrier of
knowledge. We look too at an area
which is full of people’s knowledge,
even if there are not enough books
full about it: medicinal plants.
And having examined trends in
food packaging, we have packed
piles of news, book reviews and
readers’ letters into this issue.
Sunflowers, urban cowboys,
courses, participation, fishes,
forums, decentralisation, rubber
and trade tariffs. Cool.
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Medicinal plants
Pluck, not plunder
Demand for medicinal plants is growing. But in the rush for
quick profits, we may lose inestimable knowledge, 
much biodiversity and some common sense.
Whose property was this knowledge, and
who should be compensated? Was it the
Dutch anthropologist who first recorded
the tribe’s use of the plant in 1937, his
descendants, the tribe, or the country,
asked Phytopharm? Or which of the four
countries that the San people live in? 
The Hoodia-P-57 case illustrates the
complexity of medicinal plants issues,
nowadays. In April 2002, at a United
Nations’ meeting on the Convention on
Biological Diversity, guidelines were adopt-
ed that “promise to improve the way for-
eign companies and other users gain access
to valuable genetic resources in return for
sharing the benefits with the countries of
origin and with local indigenous commu-
nities”. There was, though, no agreement
on intellectual property rights, nor against
overexploitation of medicinal plants. 
It is around those property rights that
the heat is on. A coalition of 325 NGOs
and farmers’ organisations has drawn up a
draft treaty to protect the world’s gene
pool, also known as the Genetic Com-
mons. The aim is to prevent plants from
being treated as intellectual property and
being patented. The coalition has been
pushing, with scant success, for the treaty
to be adopted by the World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannes-
burg, South Africa, in August 2002. 
The argument goes further, and takes
on an agricultural side, amongst others.
While property rights may or may not be
traded, genetic materials and plants can,
and are. Grown in the field, or plucked
from the bush and the forest, dried, fresh,
in powder, processed into pills or dissolved
in potions, botanical essences are used by
all the various ‘schools of health care’,
from modern pharmacological science, to
aromatherapy, homeopathy and tradition-
al medicine. The latter, incidentally, is
defined by the World Health Organisation
as being “the sum total of the knowledge,
skills, and practices based on the theories,
beliefs, and experiences indigenous to dif-
ferent cultures, whether explicable or not,
used in the maintenance of health … “
Explicable they are, in most cases. The
issue of scientific validation of medicinal
plants certainly needs further research, but
most plant-based medicines today are used
for what native people originally saw as
their use. According to Maurice Iwu, direc-
tor of Nigeria’s Bioresources Development
and Conservation Programme, claims of
local communities and the subsequent sci-
entific evidence were in agreement in 85%
of the cases studied by BDCP.
The cradle of cultivation
Some even say that medicinal plants stood
at the cradle of agriculture. More than
50,000 years ago, the Neanderthal people
in western Asia used woody horsetail
(Ephedra) as a stimulant. It seems that
active cultivation started with psychoac-
tive and medicinal
plants and not
with foodcrops:
Cinchona sp. for
quinine against
malaria, liquorice
from Glycorrhyza
glabra, a tranquil-
lizer from serpent
wood (Rauwolfia
serpentine) and
periwinkle (Catha-
ranthus roseus). 
History is long,
but memories and
time are short. The
Worldwatch Insti-
tute reports that
only 1% of all
plant species have
been screened for
bioactive compounds, and that traditional
knowledge about medicinal plants is dis-
appearing even faster than the plants
themselves. Many are suffering from loss
of habitats through land clearance and
deforestation – and from overharvesting.
Heavy demand, for example, for the bark
of the Prunus africanus, used to treat
prostate diseases, has led to severe deple-
tion of the tree in central Africa.
Production, mainly by wild harvesting
and increasingly by cultivation, is being
pulled by a strong surge in world demand,
growing at 15% a year. Prices paid to gath-
erers are often too low for small farmers
to take up cultivation, although larger
enterprises in, say, Senegal and South
Africa, have done so.
The volume of world trade in medici-
nal plants is hard to measure, according to
the International Trade Centre which esti-
mates an export market value of several
billion dollars, not to mention domestic
opportunities. A substantial part is
unrecorded, or underground, and it is dif-
ficult to separate medicinal usage from
other uses, such as flavouring, tenderisers,
insecticides and perfumes. 
While the leading world suppliers are
China, Singapore, Brazil and Egypt, several
ACP countries have medicinal plants (and
plant extracts) high on their list of exports,
including Sudan, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Vanuatu and Madagascar.
Could be good for 
your financial health
The leading importer is the USA, followed
by the EU, with Mexico, Poland and
South Korea rapidly expanding their mar-
kets. The world trading centre for medici-
nal plants is Hamburg, Germany, mainly
because of that country’s leading position
within the European market. 
Despite the massive growth in market
opportunities, the import trade is, if any-
thing, getting harder to enter by the day.
In the USA, Japan and the EU there are
ever stricter quality criteria for consumer
safety. The European Parliament is tus-
sling with new definitions, alongside a
similarly jumpy US legislature. The com-
plexities and volatilities of these markets
have been identified as a major constraint
to ACP exports during the series of
regional ‘herbs’ seminars involving the
Commonwealth Secretariat, the Centre
for the Development of Enterprise and
CTA, of which the next, Caribbean ver-
sion, is set for December 2002.
It is though a slice of business well
worth going for, as long as you neither
clutch at straws in the market, nor pluck
too greedily at the plants. Most medicinal
plants can be harvested – leaves, pods,
seeds, flowers, bark - without killing them,
in a measured way. Several community-
based programmes have embarked on a
sustainable use of forests. Cases in Mada-
gascar, Indonesia and Belize have shown
that one hectare of forest, when sustain-
ably used for logging and harvesting
medicinal plants yields more income than
clearing it for crop cultivation or animal
husbandry. 
The wiser option is cultivation. That
requires investment, and thus a security of
income, as well as the guarantee that the
habitats of the wild relative plants can be
protected, and owned, somehow, for the
common good.
See Links, page 10
Medicinal plants • 
SPORE 99 • PAGE 2
The steps towards a sound medicinal plants
scenario:
– Resolution of intellectual property rights 
– Recording local knowledge 
– Scientific validation of medicinal plants 
– Accessible market information, especially
trends and regulations 
– Research to define sustainable levels 
and methods of cultivation and wild 
harvesting 
Knowledge and hard work is of the essence: 
preparing the oil of cloves in Madagascar 
Ph
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At Owino market in Kampala,Uganda, there are times when themarket becomes flooded in more
ways than one. First with the rains, and
then with an excess of produce due to
over-production after the rains. Crop pro-
duction and yields in Uganda, like else-
where, depend very much on the rainy
seasons. 
In the market, Sarah Masaaba beats her
competitors by cleaning her fresh produce
and then wrapping it in fine green leaves
and dry produce in transparent polythene
sheets. It gives her produce that added
attraction for some customers. 
Packaging is as important as the prod-
uct itself. It protects the product against
damage and spoilage, improves handling,
transport, informs the buyers about the
contents and will make the produce easier
to use. Sarah Masaaba and thousands of
other tradeswomen know that the crucial
determinants for profitable and safe trade
in horticultural produce, as with all other
perishable goods, are that the goods reach
the consumer safe and whole. 
In many ACP countries, the packaging
of horticultural produce for the domestic
market is usually carried out at the pro-
duction area, but some farmers transport
their produce from farms to go downs or
retailer shops in containers not specifical-
ly designed to carry produce. This affects
the nutritional and storage quality. 
More still, in particular in larger enter-
prises, or where produce is pooled for
export, it is packed in containers that facil-
itate accumulation of ethylene gases in
storage. This accelerates the aging of pro-
duce. 
In Uganda, post harvest losses account
for 30% of cost of production in agricul-
tural produce. In Senegal, research has
shown that half the failures of small-scale
food enterprises are due to bad distribu-
tion, and spoilage from poor packaging. 
The boxes box
It is not just customer care and being eco-
nomical with your produce that make it
necessary for food processors and retailers
to pay more attention to food packaging.
There is also a growing volume of legisla-
tion. Each country has its own require-
ments for local and imported produce,
and its standards are often derived from
the guidelines of the international Codex
Alimentarius Commission. This has
drawn up standards for processing,
labelling, presentation, advertising,
weights, hygiene, and practices in process-
ing and handling as well as packaging
material requirements. They are complex,
and sometimes hard for the small-scale
operator to obtain, but they are available
in national bureaux of standards, min-
istries, chambers of commerce, university
food science departments, and embassies.
Importing countries also require evi-
dence that processed food has had a Haz-
ard Analysis and Critical Control Point
check. The HACCP check examines criti-
cal points on the path taken by food from
the farm-gate to the final distributor: pur-
chase, storage, pre-preparation, cooking,
cooling and packaging. 
It is in the West that Codex Alimentar-
ius and HACCP standards are applied
most stringently, but since they directly
affect exports from ACP countries, they
will soon be incorporated into the laws of
most ACP countries. They may not be rig-
orously applied, for lack of adequate
mechanisms, but they will be there, in a
statute book near you.
The role of technology
A similar ‘trickle-down’ effect will affect
the nature of packaging, and its produc-
tion, from the paradoxal perspective of
environmental laws. Many Western
nations are reducing the amount of mate-
rial and energy used in packaging food
and non-foods, while respecting hygiene
laws. The use of non-recyclable plastics is
being minimised, with recyclable materi-
als such as cloth and non-wood paper
being preferred. 
An extreme example: a factory in
Wageningen in The Netherlands, about
two kilometres from the Spore offices, pro-
duces degradable waste-bags from maize
cobs, for the collection of household
organic waste to central composting sites.
Here lies a future business opportunity for
a resourceful ACP packager! The concern
for ‘dematerialisation’ is not, though,
always ‘anti-plastic’. In Switzerland, con-
sumers’ shopping bags in plastic are about
twenty times thicker than the ubiquitous
thin blue plastic bags which now pollute
cities and green belts the whole world
over. The reason: a thicker bag will be used
more often, and the energy used in pro-
duction will be lower. Similar calculations
lie behind recent changes in the shape of
juice cartons in Europe. Taller and thin-
ner, more can be shipped in a lorry, and
more placed on shop shelves – all requir-
ing less energy.
Banana leaf, or banana skin?
The sums guiding the choice of packag-
ing are complex, and in the future rare will
be the times that a banana leaf wins over
something manufactured. Yet for ACP
processors and shippers, it is not just a
question of getting proper information
about laws and trade trends. It is much
more about accessing the technology to
produce the right cartons and cans. The
sale of obsolete packing plants to ACP
entrepreneurs, and the adoption of com-
plex HACCP practices, may not be delib-
erate ploys to exclude some produce from
Western markets, but one can see how the
idea arises. While trade barriers fall, the
technology barriers get higher. That
requires a different strategy than demand-
ing exemptions and quotas. It requires
machines.
SPORE 99 • PAGE 3
Food packaging
Package deals
New food packaging protects the product, seduces 
the consumer, and follows the law. The challenge is in 
keeping up with the latest trends.
• Food packaging
Ph
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... coffee in Senegal: 
industrialisation is here
Tomatoes in Kenya...
Ph
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“Producing quality books is onlypart of the publishing story. Thesecond part consists of getting
them to the readers.” This comment by
Serah Mwangi, of Focus Publishing in
Kenya, sums up some key rules for suc-
cessful publishing anywhere, and not least
in the area of publishing books on agricul-
ture and rural development in developing
countries.
How important are books in many ACP
countries? As some people speak of the
world entering the ‘knowledge century’
and the ‘Information Society’, some ACP
regions seem to be far removed from these
notions. In sub-Saharan Africa, the aver-
age level of book production in the 1990s
was less than 9,000 titles a year. A lot of
ink and paper, and more books than most
SPORE 99 • PAGE 4
sity in Kampala. “The phrases ‘ours is not
a reading culture’ and ‘African society is an
oral society’ are often used in discussions
of literacy, of publishing, of education lev-
els, of book publishing and bookselling and
of the availability of reading material in
Africa. The discussions often centre around
the vicious circle that afflicts African read-
ing and writing and its book industry: no
reading material, therefore no reading cul-
ture; therefore no market for reading mat-
ter; therefore no publishing and … This,
like any other circle, could be started at any
point in the circle.”
Turning the vicious circle into a virtuous
circle is the challenge that a number of
publishing professionals have responded to
emphatically in the last few years. Con-
ceived in the late 1980s, the Harare-based
African Publishing Network has now
grown into a vast and respected association
of publishers in the majority of African
countries. It has inspired the bookselling
trade, as personified by the Pan-African
Booksellers Association, to seek creative
partnerships with publishers, to address the
issue of the virtuous circle. APNET has
even inspired other regional networks to
promote their publishing sectors: CAPNet,
the association of Caribbean publishers, is
the most renowned (see Spore 95), while a
similar network organisation is emerging
in the Pacific.
Safety in numbers has certainly been a
motif for these bodies, and those who have
invested in their development can be
proud of having made a wise strategic
bookstores in a capital city have in stock.
Yet the largest chunk of these titles was
produced in one country – South Africa –
and schoolbooks dominated the list of
every country’s output. 
That a book is an incalculably valuable
way of storing and sharing knowledge is
beyond any shadow of doubt. Yet in soci-
eties with oral tradition, and where literacy
rates are low, there is little readership. The
question then arises of which comes first,
the book, or the reader? Some countries,
with high rates of school attendance, have,
relatively speaking, vibrant publishing sec-
tors. Kenya, with an average literacy rate of
78%, in which 86% of men and 70% of
women are literate, is a case in point, as are
Zimbabwe, Jamaica and Fiji and many
other countries. Some countries fare less
well: Mozambique’s average literacy rate is
40%, with 23% of women and 58% of
men. Niger’s literacy rate is 14%, with men
21% and women a mere 7%.
Vicious or virtual circle?
The impasse looks like it is blocked solid,
and there seems no way except forward –
but how? It is all put succinctly by
Gertrude Kayaga Mulinda, the former
head of the Botswana National Library Ser-
vice, and now at Uganda Martyrs Univer-
Ph
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Book development and agriculture 
Not by word of mouth alone
Even in cultures dominated by oral tradition and history, the promotion of readership and of
the book is one of the surest ways of breaking the cycles of lean lives. The book records, 
informs, exhilarates, liberates and makes history. Plough some pages today.
Courage and consequence
The old expression “If it’s not appropriate to women, it’s not appropriate”, which was origi-
nally coined for technology, also holds true for publishing in Africa and other continents. 
Whilst women publishers are part and parcel of the Caribbean publishing scene, it is different
in the top management levels of African publishing, where women are under-represented.
An exceptionally moving – and encouraging – book, Courage and Consequence, relates the
personal experiences of ten African women who head their own publishing houses or organi-
sations, of how and why they got into publishing, and their successes and failures. The women
– from Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda and Zimbabwe – represent state,
commercial, non-profit and community publishing, a women’s writers group and a bookseller.
An eleventh contribution provides an overview of women in publishing in South Africa.
What is so moving about this book, which is recommended to all readers of Spore with an
interest, professional or private, in the book and in publishing, and with a grasp of English?
Few of the contributors, if any, had encountered direct discrimination on the grounds of
their gender; the barriers for women are lack of education, and cultural factors. As a whole,
the contributions give an overview of the sobering realities of African publishing, and in par-
ticular for women. They celebrate what the ten women have achieved, and show the courage
needed to start and run cultural institutions in Africa. They are an inspiration for others to
play their part in the cultural development of the development, and, who knows, in empow-
ering the publishing sector to fully embrace rural life and agricultural development.
Courage and Consequence: Women Publishing in Africa. 
African Books Collective, Oxford, 2002, 109 pp., ISBN 0952126974, GBP 11.95 • US$ 19.95
ABC, 27 Park End Street, Oxford OX1 1HU, UK
Fax: +44 1865 793 298, Email: abc@africanbookscollective.com, Website: www.africanbookscollective.com
■ The African Books Collective markets the output of member publishers on the international market, using
the most efficient and cost-effective infrastructure for distribution and financial management.
choice. Jane Katjavivi, who founded New
Namibia Books in 1989, and was an early
member of APNET sums up her ten years
in publishing in Courage and Consequence:
“I felt very lonely in my work. The
APNET and African Books Collective net-
works provided friendship, encourage-
ment, support and guidance, and without
this, I might well have not lasted ten
years.” These and other professional and
trading associations have strengthened
their membership with training, resource
guides, established standards, trading
information, promotion support and rep-
resentation at trade fairs, including Harare,
Dakar, Accra and Frankfurt. They have
also undertaken vital lobbying work in
pulling donors and investors heading in
the same direction, on issues ranging from
funding priorities to respect of interna-
tional conventions on copyright, and
duties (or the need to abolish them) on
paper, ink and printing.
Publishing where 
there’s no market
Every Spore reader knows the meaning of
access to reliable, published information,
even in areas regarded as marginal and
unprofitable by publishers. The trouble is,
and has long been, the absence of a viable
market for technical publications, at least
the absence of a demand that express itself
in paying. If there is one place to break the
vicious circle it is – though we can only
write this with some trepidation – at the
level of viable income for publishers. The
potential income from sales of agricultural
publications is, realistically speaking, not
enough to cover the costs of their produc-
tion: the readers simply cannot afford to
pay a realistic price.
Is such pessimism justified? The only sure
way to move it towards optimism is to cover
any losses with income from other sources.
These can include external grants and loans,
sales from other activities and publishing in
more profitable sectors, namely school
books and popular fiction. This approach
has been taken by publishers for centuries.
Almost all publishers, though hard-headed
enough to read a profit-and-loss statement,
are also soft-hearted enough to treat their
wobbly balance sheets kindly. There is
something special about The Book, and,
thanks to the superhuman efforts of the
dedicated publisher, bookseller and distrib-
utor, and strengthened by new media which
help in the complex task of publishing, it is
as much part of the future as it is of the past.
It’s just that, in terms of agricultural knowl-
edge, we still need to find ways to reduce
the fear of losses.
The ABC of book publishing: a training
manual for NGOs in Africa by J A Nyeko. Co-
publication CTA/J A Nyeko, 1999. 118 pp. ISBN 9970
510 012 — CTA number 961, 20 credit points.
Wanted: 
the book equation
To fully promote the publishing sector in
ACP countries, and in particular its role in
information for agricultural and rural
development, there is a need to convince
investors, whether internal or external,
statal or private, of the value of a book
to society. What are the financial gains
that arise from the right reader having
enriched her or his knowledge, and apply-
ing it, whether it is technical, organisa-
tional or literary? What are the economic
gains of the cultural aspects?
If economists can estimate what the gains
are of building a covered market or a silo,
or a link road from a village to the main
road, then surely we can express the
worth of a book. 
We invite readers to send suggestions on
how to formulate the so-called Book
Equation. Please use the addresses on
page 15 or email: book-equation@spore-
magazine.org
Less than 2% of the world’s books are published
in Africa
SPORE 99 • PAGE 5
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Be damned, and publish?
“The old adage of “Publish and be
damned” could well be reversed in the
case of many of those publishers met dur-
ing the study [conducted by CTA on pub-
lishing activities in nine African countries
in 1990 – ed.]. In addition to the obstacles
faced by African publishers, and the self-
maintained obstacles of brethren Euro-
pean publishers, there is another aspect
of the book which is not paid (and usual-
ly cannot be paid) sufficient attention.
An essential part of the complex profes-
sion of publisher is to ‘read’ the demand
and expectations of the readers, and to
match the work of the author to them. In
reality, few of the African publishers of
technical publications get involved in this
work, and they limit themselves to the
technical steps of publishing: correction,
preparation and printing. This is perhaps
inevitable, given the distance between
the potential reader and the publisher. It
makes it more difficult to measure the
readers’ specific needs and it implies that
income from sales will be low.
All this is compounded by the relative size
of the publishing house; economies of
scale have to applied at all points in the
book chain, including those that are
essential to serving and expanding the
market. Similarly, donor and development
agencies often underestimate the value
of communication between the public’s
wishes and the author. As a result, the
quality and focus of a publication are
often left entirely in the hands of the
author and the agency. In such cases,
quality and focus are less subject to an
understanding of the demand than they
are to the ever-changing fashions in
development, to the desire of the agency
itself to position itself and to the pres-
sures of institutional competition.”
Extracted from: Promoting technical publishing
in Africa. Seminar proceedings, Arnhem,
Netherlands, 3 – 6 November 1992. CTA,
Wageningen, 1994, 129 pp. ISBN 92 9081
103 X. Out of print.
• Book development and agriculture
SPORE 99 • PAGE 6
Internet caravan
■ In mid-March, 2002, the
Mauritanian government gave
a bustling send-off to its new
‘Internet caravan’ to introduce
the Internet to rural
communities. It is travelling
through the Hodh El Chargi
region, near the border with
Mali and is set to continue for
several months. Wherever it
passes, free Internet sessions
are offered to allcomers.
Mauritania – or Mauret@nie.mr
as it calls itself online -
established full Internet
connectivity in 1997 but the
volume of subscribers remains
very low – a problem being
addressed by establishing
permanent uplink services in
rural centres.
Tree saver wins
■ The African winner of the
2002 Goldmann prize of
US$125,000 is Fatima Jibrell, a
Somali woman who founded
the Horn of Africa Relief and
Development Organisation.
Since the mid-1990s, Jibrell and
her organisation have halted
environmental damage by
training young people – and
getting government to apply
laws - to stop acacia trees
being chopped down to make
charcoal for export. Despite
prices of US$ 10 a bag, exports
of Somalia’s ‘black gold’ have
dropped by 80%. The project
has also cut local charcoal
consumption by introducing
solar cookers.
Moor fruit and veg
■ After years of investment in
irrigation, exports of
Mauritanian fruit and
vegetables are now surging
towards European shops,
reports Afrique-Agriculture.
Watermelons, French beans
and chilli peppers will try to
gain a foothold in a crowded
market.
Virtually organic beef
■ From September 2 to
October 15, 2002, join in an
online conference on organic
beef production. Each week
will have a different focus:
Agroecology and sustainable
production; welfare and animal
health; food and nutrition;
meat quality; economic and
social aspects and, last bite,
organic production. If you
cannot go online, ask the
organisers for paper copies.
✍ EMBRAPA-Agricultural Research
Centre for the Pantanal
CEP 79320-900
Corumba, MS, Brazil
Email: rsilva@cpap.embrapa.br
Website:
www.conferencia.uncnet.br/
pantanal/organica.en.html
In brief •
■ It is hard to find a sheep or
goat in a tropical country with-
out gastrointestinal parasites
(helminths), and usually with an
extremely high incidence. 
Sheep and goats take in these
parasites with the grass and herbs
they eat and they survive for
months in the intestines and
spread easily through dung. 
A study carried out in 2001 by
the Zootechnical Research Cen-
tre in Kolda, Senegal, is one of
many which confirms high levels
of contamination. 70% of the
animals were infected with
Oesophagostomun columbianum
alone, not to mention other par-
asites. These helminths cause up
to 40 % of ruminants’ deaths
and 33% loss in a herd’s produc-
tivity.
A similar study in Ethiopia
reports the presence of helminths
Haemonchus contortus and O.
columbianum in more than 90%
of the investigated ruminants. In
Guadeloupe and Martinique,
prevalence of parasites in rumi-
nants is 100%. Here H. cortus
and Trichostrongylus colubriformis
are the biggest culprits.
These infections can be treat-
ed with anthelminthic mixtures
of chemicals which destroy or
expel these parasites. They are
not easily available nor afford-
able, and only effective in repeat-
ed and well-timed applications.
They are best applied at a time
when the risk of infestation is
highest, including when the
breeding levels of the parasites
are dangerously high in the graz-
ing areas. 
Well-fed, healthy animals are
obviously less vulnerable to these
parasites. More specifically,
nitrogen dietary supplements
increase the resistance of rumi-
nants to H. contortus. Mixed
species grazing systems, such as
sheep mixed with cattle, also
reduce infestation levels and pro-
ductivity losses. Overgrazing, no
wise method in any case, also
increases the infestation levels.
Pesky parasites
■Late in 2001, the Association
for Strengthening Agricultural
Research in Eastern and Central
Africa reported a new viral dis-
ease in sunflowers, found in
Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania
and Zambia, causing
leaves to crinkle and –
in cases of severe infec-
tion over 70% –
smaller heads. The
virus is tentatively
placed in the genus
Umbravirus and is
found mainly on
improved hybrids.
This new threat
comes at a bad time for
sunflower cultivation
which has been booming
in recent years in many ACP
countries. On domestic and
international markets, demand is
increasing for cooking oil, most
notably oil from sunflowers
(Helianthus annuus). Twenty
years ago, most ACP countries
imported more than 60% of edi-
ble oils for consumption, and
sunflower oil has played a large
role in cutting this back. 
Edible oils are an essential part
of a balanced diet and help to
absorb vitamins and proteins.
Traditionally, intake of fats in
sub-Saharan Africa is among the
lowest in the world. Over the last
two decades, instead of relying
on – relatively expensive – com-
mercially available oils, home-
made or locally produced edible
oil has been promoted as a cheap
and healthy alternative in the
rural areas.
Now, of the 15 million
hectares of sunflowers cultivated
worldwide, half a million
hectares are in Africa.
Part of the sunflower success
story in Africa comes from the
successful replication of a small
manual ram press developed and
introduced in the mid-1980s by
Appropriate Technology Interna-
tional. ATI, incidentally, has
been remodelled as an organisa-
tion and is now known as Enter-
priseWorks, with regional offices
in all ACP regions. Originally
known as the Bielenberg press, it
now has many variants and is
being manufactured
locally in much of Africa, called
RAMCO in southern Africa, and
RAM32 in Uganda, for example.
Different types are sold at a pri-
ces ranging from t100 to t300.
The press can process both sun-
flower and sesame seeds With a
yield from 50 kg of sunflower
seeds of 10 litres of oil, the press
is also manufactured and used, in
Senegal, for sesame seeds.
✍ EnterpriseWorks Worldwide
1828 L Street NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20036 
USA
Fax: +1 202 2934598
Email: info@enterpriseworks.org
Web site: www.enterpriseworks.org
Blotches on the sunflower
Ph
ot
o 
N
H
PA
 ©
 S
un
se
t
Diversity under local
management 
■ The ‘Growing Diversity’
Website was launched in 
May 2002 with dozens of 
case studies of successful
agricultural biodiversity
projects based on people’s
control and local knowledge,
worldwide. Run by the Genetic
Resources Action International
network (GRAIN), well-known
for its Seedling newsletter, the
site is in English and French
and facilitates debate and
exchange of success stories on
sustainable local management
of agricultural resources. Join
in, and turn the 55 starting
projects into 5,000 or more!
✍ GRAIN
Girona 25, pral., E-08010,
Barcelona, Spain
Fax: +34 93 301 16 27
Email: grain@grain.org
Website: www.grain.org/gd
Click that sack!
■ Seventeen lots of quality
gourmet coffee, good for
almost 4 tonnes, were up for
sale at Africa’s first Internet
coffee auction, held in Nairobi,
Kenya, on 10 April 2002. They
came from growers in from
Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and
Uganda. Only two lots got sold,
but at a much better price 
(US$ 4.10/lb for Kenyan Arabica
AA) than at the local auction
(US$ 3.13/lb). Plans to alert
more purchasers, earlier, are
being made by the organisers,
Eastern Africa Fine Coffee
Association (EAFCA) and 
Lion Coffee Ltd.
✍ EAFCA
PO Box 27405
Kampala, Uganda
Fax: +256 41 34 71 45 
Email: fkawuma@eafca.org 
Website: www.eafca.org
Knock on wood!
■ The XII World Forestry
Congress will be held in
Quebec City, Canada from
September 21 to 28, 2003,
organised by the Canadian
Department and the Ministry
of Natural Resources, with FAO
(the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization). The
theme: Forests, source of life. 
Website: www.wfc2003.org
On stinging relationships
■ The System-wide Initiative
on Malaria and Agriculture
(SIMA) is organising a 
one-day seminar on its theme,
on 20 November 2002 during
the Third MIM Pan-African
Malaria Conference in 
Arusha, Tanzania. 
✍ SIMA 
PO Box 2075
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Email: w.van-der-hoek@cgiar.org
Fax: +94 1 78 68 54
Website : www.iwmi.org/sima
• In brief
SPORE 99 • PAGE 7
■How can ACP countries par-
ticipate most effectively in the
world’s highly complex agricul-
tural negotiations? What strate-
gies in information and com-
munication could help? What
barriers need removing, what
bridges need building? 
The questions will be debat-
ed in an electronic forum from
late-September, and in person
at CTA’s international seminar
to be held at the end of 2002,
by negotiating teams, support
groups, lobbyists, trade experts
and others. 
And answered, it is hoped,
with action, swift and sharp.
Among the key negotiations are
those within the World Trade
Organisation. Between now
and March 2003, countries
need to define their ‘modalities’
(“how to”) for the negotiations.
They then prepare their ‘first
offers’, to go to a Ministerial
conference in Mexico in
September 2003. After that, for
15 months, they can strike
deals in groups of interested
parties or bilaterally, and get
them endorsed before 1 January
2005. It will require clear
vision, and cool, informed
heads. The seminar is not a
moment too soon.
A nose for negotiation The morning
news
■Do you want everyone in
your organisation to be up-to-
date on the latest agricultural
news? See if you can adapt this
simple but smart practice devel-
oped over the last fifteen
months by the Office of Infor-
mation and Communication
section of Fiji’s ministry of agri-
culture. 
For more than a year, four
members of staff – writers and
designers – have come into
work an hour early, at 7 am,
spending their first 60 minutes
reading the newspapers – and
making one. First they cull sto-
ries from all four national
morning papers published in
their nation’s capital. On a typ-
ical day (the picture shows an
issue from mid-February) there
were eight such stories, includ-
ing support from northern
province farmers for reorganis-
ing the sugar board; a probe by
US health authorities into
alleged liver failure caused by
consuming kava (a major Fijian
export); reports of misused
agricultural project funds; a
failure in fertiliser quality tests,
plus listings of that evening’s
rural radio programmes in
Fijian and in Hindi.
They write up summaries of
these stories, adding some
proverbs, quotations and pho-
tos. Then, using their desk-top
publishing set up, they produce
and print a newssheet of 2 or 4
pages, delivering it at 8am to all
departments in headquarters,
and slipping into the morning’s
internal post to out-stations
and extension staff.
■This could be a good time to
get back into natural rubber.
Although prices fell 50% from
1996 to US$ 0.70/kg in 2001,
a study published early in 2002
by the University of Amsterdam
predicts that a rise in demand
and prices in the mid-term
future. 
Liberia, Ghana and Came-
roon have increased production
in recent years, but the market
share of Côte d’Ivoire and Nige-
ria – Africa’s biggest producers
– is at risk. In Côte d’Ivoire pri-
vatisation has not worked well,
leaving smallholder producers –
the majority – to fend for them-
selves. In Nigeria, replanting
has long been neglected and
most trees are more than 30
year old, at least 5 years past
their prime.
Replanting is dear for small-
holders: new trees (Hevea
brasiliensis) take six years before
they can be tapped; regular
replanting, and delayed produc-
tion, cuts directly into the flow
of sap and income. The Nation-
al Agricultural Research Centre
in Côte d’Ivoire has ways to
soften these blows. Rubber can
be intercropped with any one
crop of rice, yam, groundnut,
plantain, maize or vegetables,
without any loss of yield. They
claim it also grows alongside
such cash crops as coffee, cocoa,
oil palm, kola and lemon.
Elasticity in inter-cropping methods
Ph
ot
o 
J.
Sa
in
te
-B
eu
ve
 
Good bet on rubber
Almost TBT free
■ Bad news for the Caribbean
Tropical Bont Tick (TBT or
Amblyomma variegatum). Now
four of the nine originally
infested islands (St Kitts, St
Lucia, Montserrat and Anguilla)
comprising the Caribbean
Amblyomma Programme (CAP)
have succeeded in eliminating
this livestock pest. At least
‘provisionally’, since ‘definite’
status will be given only when
all islands are clear. Dominica is
not far behind, and should
achieve provisional free status
by the end of 2002. The
programme, which was
launched in 1994, envisaged
eradication of TBT and
associated Dematophilosis and
Heartwater diseases by the end
of 2002. More than half-way to
the target is, well, almost
there; maybe a gale could blow
the rest of the pests away.
✍ Caribbean Amblyomma
Programme
PO Box 631-C, 
Bridgetown, Barbados
Fax: +1 246 427 27 60
Email rcu@sunbeach.net
Website:www.capweb.org
Restless leaf rust
■ For the first time since it was
introduced in Nigeria almost
one hundred years ago,
soybean cultivation in Nigeria
has been seriously hit by a leaf
rust disease, this time caused
by the fungus Phakospora
pachyrhizi. Losses in the south-
western region are as high as
80%. The leaf rust was first
discovered on the African
continent in South Africa, in
March 2001, and has also
affected Zimbabwe. The
National Cereals Research
Institute (NCRI) and the
International Institute for
Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in
Nigeria have launched a search
for resistant soybean lines.
✍ NCRI
PMB 8
Niger State, Nigeria
Fax: +234 46 46 234
Fermented healing
■ Here’s a tip for healthy
eating (and healthy sales if you
grow soya). Fermented soya
(tempeh) can reduce the
duration and severity of
diarrhoea, by preventing E. coli
bacteria – notorious for causing
diarrhoea - from attaching to
the intestines. Normally, when
they attach, the bacteria
release a poison that increases
moisture content in the
intestines. A researcher at
Wageningen University and
Research Centre, J Kiers,
successfully tested Indonesian
tempeh on piglets, reducing
diarrhoea by 25%. Tempeh is
widely used as a baby food
ingredient in Indonesia, Europe
and the Americas. 
In brief •
SPORE 99 • PAGE 8
■A shortage in skilled livestock
managers was a key problem to
emerge from ten studies on
urban agriculture sponsored
recently by Canada’s Interna-
tional Development Research
Centre. Under IDRC’s Agropo-
lis programme to support post-
graduate research projects (other
type of projects: do not apply!),
they included practice and
prospects in southern Africa,
Argentina, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba
and Togo. The first results of an
annual wave of research, they
were unveiled in late March
2002 – with plans for a full pub-
lication by early 2003.
The studies reveal the inge-
nuity required to grow herbs,
fruits and vegetables, and keep
small livestock, on balconies, in
backyards and unused blocks of
land. For a few producers, it
means a living, but for most
city dwellers it means little to
food security. Persuading city
managers to tolerate and sup-
port it with extension services,
urban vets and hygiene mea-
sures is still a major task. Clear-
ly more research is needed.
✍ Agropolis
IDRC, PO Box 8500
Ottawa, ON K1G 3H9
Canada 
Email: agropolis@idrc.ca
Website:
www.idrc.ca/cfp/agrhome.html
Urban cowboys
needed
South Africa’s town of Soweto is now famous for its urban farm too
Ph
ot
o 
E.
 D
el
iry
-A
nth
ea
um
e 
©
 IR
D
There is some-
thing about
deserts that
makes the
mind more
fertile. To sur-
vive in a desert you have to be
creative, and more. So too you
must be if you are to protect
your arid and semi-arid land
against desertification through
over-cultivation, over-grazing,
deforestation and poor irriga-
tion. Different to the spread of
existing deserts, desertification
directly affects 250 million peo-
ple, including in much of
Africa, parts of Pacific islands
and significant areas of Cuba,
Dominican Republic, Haiti and
Jamaica and threatens another
800 million.
It was surely fertile minds
who were behind the ‘Desertifi-
cation 2002 Conference’ held in
South Africa and Namibia over
three weeks in April. Three
weeks. The classical bit with
speeches was sandwiched
between longer field sessions
with key stakeholders, and then
spliced into the on-going work
– through National Action
Plans (NAP) – of the United
Nations Convention to Combat
Desertification. The UNCDD,
agreed in 1992, will be reviewed
at the World Summit on Sus-
tainable Development in Johan-
nesburg, South Africa, in
August 2002 – with a hefty
input from this conference.
Let’s start in the middle. A
three-day symposium in Cape
Town brought together 150
‘combatants’ from 11 southern
Africa countries; West, eastern
and North Africa; Argentina;
and from several south and cen-
tral Asian states. Prior to these
exchanges of scientific and prac-
titioners’ insights, there were
four training days for commu-
nity organisations in designing
NAPs, writing proposals and
assessing desertification through
community perceptions and
remote sensing.
And then 100 ‘combatants’
took themselves off in groups to
five stressed areas of South
Africa and Namibia for a week,
learning local communities’
relationships with berries, water
tables, game, soil, plants, ele-
phants, traditional forecasting,
and much more. Three days
of inter-group debriefing 
followed, swapping tales and
sharing plans, at the renowned
Gobabeb Training and
Research Centre in the Namib
desert. 
Among the deals they made
in the desert (to be evaluated
after 6 and 12 months): hori-
zontal information flows; study
exchange on microfinance;
medicinal plant knowledge
swaps; and co-producing
action-reports for taking
home. Five more days training
awaited community groups on
crafts marketing, community-
based environmental assess-
ment and land use alternatives.
The whole, exemplarily inclu-
sive, endeavour was co-led by
the Desert Research Founda-
tion of Namibia, the German
development agency, the US
Bureau of Land Management
and CTA with support from
Canada’s and Japan’s develop-
ment funds, UNCCD, and
South African and Namibian
authorities.
Voices from the desert
Even without dunes, as most
are, deserts are to be avoided
Ph
ot
o 
P.
C
en
in
i ©
 F
AO
■Since 1 January 2002, the
European Union has applied
lower import tariffs on some
oils and fats from developing
countries, primarily for sun-
flower, groundnut, ricinus and
palm oils. Bad news for ACP
countries, who already enjoyed
preferential tariffs of 0%
(100% reduction).
Depending on the oil and its
country of origin, the new sys-
tem has two preferential reduc-
tions, instead of four before:
either 100% reduction, or a
deduction of 3.5% from the
official tariff percentage.
Here’s how some competitors
benefit. The full tariff for unre-
fined sunflower or groundnut
oil is now 6.4%. Under earlier
preferences, groundnut oil
from Argentina was taxed at
5.4%. Now, by deducting
3.5% from the full rate, the tax
is 2.9%. As a result, Argentina
– the second largest exporter to
the EU – can now breathe
down the neck of Senegal, the
leader. Others such as Brazil
and India have similar advan-
tages with other oils, and in
2003, Indonesia, Malaysia and
the Philippines will join in.
There’s another twist in the
tale. The full tariff for refined
sunflower oil is 9.6% . Under
new preferences, Argentina and
Ukraine can deduct 3.5%. The
EU has decreed, however, that if
they sign certain labour rights
conventions, they can deduct
8.5%, making a preferential rate
of just 1.1%. There is a certain
justice in all this, and not just
statistical. But from the point of
view of an under-capitalised,
drought-afflicted, small-scale
producer, as our main article in
Spore 98 says, survival is a deci-
mal place. Is there life after zero?
Some fat in the fire
■Some 20 members of the
cichlid fish family – supposedly
extinct - have adapted remark-
ably to the changed environ-
ment of Lake Victoria and are
back in business. Scientists were
surprised to learn in 1997 that
local fishermen were catching
cichlids again, and hurried to
understand why. 
Way back in the 1950s, fry of
the Nile perch was planted in
the lake. This large, protein-
rich, predator fish, was believed
to be more useful and nutri-
tious for the lake-shore com-
munities, than the small, bony
collection of more than five
hundred, closely related types
of cichlids that swam there at
the time.
By the 1980s, it was clear
that an ecological disaster had
been triggered off. The Nile
perch fed on the local fish,
reducing their numbers. The
volume of algae, the cichlid’s
food, rose sharply. This reduced
the amount of light and oxygen
and threatened some fishes’ sur-
vival, , since they could no
longer pick out fine algae for
feeding, nor potential partners
for breeding. All in all, two
hundred local fish species dis-
appeared. 
The 20 species that did
recover, owe that largely to their
eyes and to natural selection
and adaptation. Research by the
Institute for Evolutionary and
Ecological Sciences, of the
Netherlands’ Leiden University,
and local partner institutions
revealed, in February 2002 that
the least light-sensitive species,
such as the Haplochromis
pyrrhocephalus, were the least
bothered by the changed envi-
ronment. In addition, they
have adapted their eyes to less
clear and bright water and start-
ed to prey on larger organisms,
which are easier to see. The sur-
vivors also adapted their gills.
Compared to their ancestors
from the 1960s, they can now
increase the oxygen intake from
the oxygen-poorer water. The
sieve in the gills became more
coarse-threaded enabling them
to handle larger prey.
The twenty survivors offer a
small glimmer of hope about
the adaptability of nature, even
if they take nothing away from
the ecological disaster in Lake
Victoria. 
Sleek, smart and adaptive, the Haplochromis pyrrhocephalus can see in troubled waters too
Lake Victoria’s eye-openers
Plant of the month 
■ One of the features of
MedPlant (see Links, page 10) is
the “plant of the month”. In
May 2002 it was Vernonia
amygdalina, a bitter leaf shrub
indigenous to sub-Saharan
Africa. Called mujonso by
Tanzanians or Iwuro by
Nigerians, it is used to treat
intestinal parasite infestation
such as in schistosomiasis (river
blindness) or bilharzia. 
Too early to market
■ The high prices for vanilla on
the world market (see Spore
98) has been leading to local
buyers in Uganda – a relatively
small producer – encouraging
farmers to harvest and sell
their beans prematurely. Other
farmers are harvesting unripe
beans to be ahead of thieves.
Compromising the quality of
the vanilla has led to lower
local prices.
This forum’s for all
■ The electronic conference to
prepare the ‘European Forum
on Rural Development
Cooperation’ (Montpellier,
France, September 2002) was
set for launch on 20 July 2002.
Discussions in French and
English, open to all interested
parties, cover sustainable
natural resource management,
land tenure and farmers’
associations. Options include a
Web edition on
www.agricta.org or text-only
emails. Send an email with
‘subscribe’ in the subject line
to: moderation-en@cta.nl
Let’s heat it
■ Following the lead of other
Pacific islands, the Samoan
government has procured a
High Temperature Forced Air
facility (HTFA) to comply with
import and pest quarantine
regulations in New Zealand
and Australia (see also Spore
92). The Samoan facility, which
rids fresh produce of fruit flies,
will be used first and foremost
for export papaw exports. It is
based at Nu’u Research Centre
in Western Samoa.
Nigeria beats China 
■ Nigeria has become the main
supplier of sesame to Japan,
pushing China into the second
place, and taking one whole
quarter of the market share. In
2001, Nigeria exported more
than 34,000 t of sesame to
Japan, 57% more than in 2000,
and just more than the
accumulated exports to Japan
of all other African countries
(Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Sudan,
Tanzania and Uganda). One
telling factor: Nigerian sesame
beat the Chinese, on price.
• In brief
SPORE 99 • PAGE 9
Ph
ot
o 
R.
A.
H
ill
SPORE 99 • PAGE 10
Links •
If you want to top up yourlocal knowledge, there areherbaria, botanical gardens,
research institutes, NGOs and
universities with agricultural,
biological and medical faculties
in your region or country that
focus on medicinal plants, their
cultivation, conservation and
curative properties. 
Some such services have a
wider scope or a regional focus,
such as the Centre for Scientific
Research into Plant Medicine
(CSRPM, Mampong-Akwapim,
Ghana, fax: +233 872 22 087 -
Email: csrpmg@ug.gn.apc.org) 
A herbalist’s heaven, it integrates
traditional medicine into formal
practice, operates three herbaria,
and sells medicines and books. 
The Enda-Santé programme
of the NGO Enda tiers-monde
(BP 3370, Dakar, Senegal - 
Fax: + 221 8 22 26 95 - 
Email: endaste@enda.sn - Web-
site: www.enda.sn/plantesmed)
works on enhancing the use of
medicinal plants and tradition-
al medicine. Its searchable data-
base is in French, Wolof, Pulaar,
Serer, Diola, Bambara, Man-
dingue, Djerma, Haoussa,
Moré. It sells phytomedicines
and publishes fact sheets and
pharmacopoeia (lists of drugs,
and their use). 
Enda’s Caribbean office
(Enda-Caribe, Apdo. 3370, Santo
Domingo, Dominican Republic -
Fax: +1 809 535 54 50 - Email:
ecaribe@aacr.net - Website:
www.funredes.org/endacaribe/
traducciones/tramil.html) run 
the TRAMIL programme of
applied research to integrate 
the use of medicinal plants in
health practices. Their Website
(English/French) provides a
regional directory of activities
and organisations.
One such body is Iwokrama
(Iwokrama International Centre
for Rain Forest Conservation and
Development, 67 Bel Air, George-
town, Guyana - Fax: +592 2 59
199). This R&D body demon-
strates how to conserve yet use
tropical forest biodiversity. 
The networks
On the other side of the globe,
the UNESCO-sponsored Asia-
Pacific Information Network
on Medicinal and Aromatic
Plants links up organisations in
14 countries. (APINMAP Net-
work Centre, c/o Agricultural
Information Bank for Asia
(AIBA), Los Banos, College,
Laguna 4031, Philippines - Fax:
+63 2 817 05 98 - Website:
www.pchrd.dost.gov.ph/apinmap).
Their database of bibliogra-
phies and pharmacopoeia is
compiled from members’ con-
tributions. It has been consis-
tently reliable since the 1970s.
It’s early days yet, but you’ll
probably find that most serious
people in the sector will plug
into the new interactive Med-
Plant Website of the Global
Information Network on
Medicinal Plants, supported by
IDRC and Bellanet: source.bel-
lanet.org/medplant
Somewhat staider is the
World Health Organisation,
whose Essential Drugs and
Medicines programme covers
the topic, and whose May 2002
document WHO Policy Perspec-
tives on Medicines will be a clas-
sic. WHO, avenue Appia 20,
1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland –
Fax: + 41 22 791 3111 - Email
info@who.int - Website: www.
who.int.
For an overview of networks,
go to www.genres.de/mpc-dir.
Of the international environ-
mental organisations, IUCN
(The International Conserva-
tion Union, rue Mauverney 28,
Gland 1196, Switzerland - Fax:
+41 22 999 00 02 - Email:
mail@hq.iucn.org) has the most
comprehensive set of data, not
always easy to find. There is
always a national or member
office near you. Website:
www.iucn.org/members/directo-
ry.cfm. 
The People and Plants pro-
gramme combines conservation
and development approaches. 
A partnership of WWF,
UNESCO, and the UK’s
Royal Botanic Gardens,
it has an excellent series
of books featured regular-
ly in our English edition.
(People and Plants, c/o
WWF-UK, Panda House,
Weyside Park, Catteshall
Lane, Godalming, Surrey
GU7 1XR, UK - Website:
w w w. r b g k e w. o r g . u k /
peopleplants/index.htm).
Protect 
and then trade
First follow the rules
when looking at trade opportu-
nities. The inter-governmental
Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES
Secretariat, International Envi-
ronment House, Chemin des 
Anémones, CH-1219 Châtelaine,
Geneva, Switzerland - Fax: 
+41 22 797 34 17 - Email:
cites@unep.ch) covers some
30,000 plant and animal species.
It has more than 150 signatories,
with Fiji, Mauritania and Grena-
da the most recent. Its rules are
often flouted (don’t you even
think of it!), but increasingly
well-policed. A user-friendly
window with documents and
advice on these very complex
issues is available at the TRAF-
FIC agency (219c Huntingdon
Road, Cambridge CB3 0DL, UK
- Fax: 44 1223 27 72 37 - Email:
traffic@trafficint.org - Website:
www.traffic.org). 
The International Trade
Centre (ITC - UNCTAD/
WTO, Palais des Nations, 1211
Geneva 10, Switzerland - Fax:
+41 22 733 44 39 - Email:
itcreg@intracen.org - Website:
www.intracen.org) is cluttered
with information about all
aspects of trade in medicinal
plants, and provides a regular
Market News Service.
Much clearer, though
restricted geographically, is
Guidelines for Exporters of
Medicinal Herbs to the Euro-
pean Market (2001, 130 pp, 
ISBN 0-85092-661-0. GBP 15
· t 24.) published by the Com-
monwealth Secretariat, Marl-
borough House, Pall Mall, Lon-
don SW1Y 5HX, England - Fax 
+44 20 7747 6168 - Email:
info@commonwealth.int - Web-
site: www.thecommonwealth.
org). This manual, unfortunate-
ly in English only at present,
reflects CommSec’s extensive
knowledge.
Refresher course
By now you may want to get
back to a clear overview of all
the issues, and maybe talk them
through. Here the welcoming
team of ConserveAfrica Inter-
national can help you. They
operate mainly on the Internet,
but if need be, pester them with
mail for paper information.
(CAI, 24 Carterhatch Road,
Enfield, Middlesex, London 
EN3 5LS, UK - Email:
info@conserveafrica.org - Web-
site: www.conserveafrica.org).
Their set of recommendations
of the Medicinal Plants Forum
held in Cape Town, South
Africa, in 2000 is the most suc-
cinct and comprehensive listing
of the key issues. They also host
a discussion forum – Phy-
tomedica – on phytomedicine,
traditional medicine and phar-
macopoeia, ethnomedicine and
other aspects. Send a blank e-
mail to: phytomedica-subscribe@
yahoogroups.com
Medicinal plants
Harvest more
knowledge
Ph
ot
o 
B.
Fa
vr
e
One of the most senseless
things to do is re-invent-
ing the wheel. Still, how do you
know, what is going on in the
field of agricultural research in
the world around you, your
region, your country or even
abroad? Secondly, doing
research, requires access to reli-
able information, either from
previous or new research. Infor-
mation management, including
libraries, research journals and
databases, are essential for
research organisations but also
for politicians and planners,
who need to know what
research to support, expand,
copy or abolish. 
Nonetheless, in recent years
the research budgets – especial-
ly in the developing countries –
have been declining and
libraries and other information
processing activities faced para-
doxically the first and heaviest
budget cuts.
An extra reason and challenge
to organise information stor-
age, distribution and overall
management as efficient as pos-
sible. Knowing where you are
going accommodates a rich vari-
ety in concepts, examples and
methodologies to achieve this.
Small wonder that technolo-
gies, such as geographical infor-
mation systems and new infor-
mation and communication
technologies, receive ample
attention. The first part is
specifically written for the
research manager and explains
how to establish a Management
Information System, which is
practically illustrated with cases
in Ghana, Uganda, Zambia and
Latin American countries. The
second part is for the informa-
tion manager and is more tech-
nical of nature and deals with
information and computer sci-
ence, and new technologies.
Knowing where you’re going.
Information systems for agricultural
research management
By R Vernon, ISNAR-CTA co-
publication, 2001. 376 pp. ISBN 92
9118 054 8
CTA number 1075, 40 credit points.
Publications
Put research on its way
Green is my partner 
■ Two more volumes in the
‘People and Plant’ series. One
looks at marrying biodiversity
research and traditional
knowledge, which have for long
co-existed quite separately. It
offers practical guidance on
partnership building in
equitable biodiversity research
and prospecting.
The other is an accessible guide
to the value of the forest in all
its diversity: crops, fruits, timber,
game and tourism plus less
obvious benefits, such as soil
protection, carbon sequestration
and cultural values. Where shall
we be without the forest?
Biodiversity and Traditional
Knowledge. Equitable Partnerships in
Practice 
By Sarah A Laird, Earthscan, 2002.
546 pp.
ISBN 1 85383 698 2
GBP 24.95 • t 40.10
Uncovering the Hidden Harvest 
By B M Campbell & M K Luckert,
Earthscan, 2002. 280 pp. 
ISBN 1 85383 809 8
GBP 24.95 • t 40.10
Earthscan Publications Ltd
120 Pentonville Road
London, N1 9JN, UK. 
Fax: +44 171 278 11 42
Email: earthinfo@earthscan.co.uk
Living apart together
■ This inspiring and much
needed book explains the role
of Angolan women in the
society and economy, including
agriculture and food processing.
A fine set of text and tables, it
demonstrates that the often-
demanded ‘gender
disaggregation of data’
(separating data by gender) is
possible, even in a country at
war (until recently). May other
countries take heed! All text is
in English and Portuguese.
Beyond inequalities. Women in
Angola
By Naiole Cohen dos Santos,
Southern African Resource and
Documentation Centre, 2000. 138
pp. ISBN 0797417508
US$ 13.75 • t 15.20
African Books Collective Ltd
The Jam Factory
27 Park End Street
Oxford, OX1 1HU, UK
Fax: + 44 1865 79 32 98
Email:
abc@africanbookscollective.com
Gone fishing
■ A handy manual on basics for
small-scale fishermen,
presenting various traps and
pots and their construction. It
gives guidance on selecting the
right gear, rigging it, selecting
places to fish, and improving
and taking care of the catch.
Fishing with traps and pots
FAO, 2001. 66 pp. ISBN
9251043078
US$ 16 • t 17.65
For FAO’s address see p.12.
• Publications
■No need to tell a
farmer that over-use of
land leads to soil deple-
tion, they will know
that, but it is hard to
counter it if they do
not have the means to
do so with for instance
fertiliser. To improve or
prevent this from hap-
pening and to develop
a good soil manage-
ment plan, it is impor-
tant to know what exactly is
going on. 
One such way can be by
using the NUTMON toolbox.
It is not the only existing par-
ticipatory assessment method
for uncovering soil – crop –
farmer interactions, but it is a
user friendly, well tested,
includes socio-economic con-
siderations as well and finally
applies not only to the field or
farm level but can map an
entire region, making it an
important tool for policy mak-
ers.
Basically, the toolbox consists
of a manual and a computer
database. The first step is to col-
lect data and enter this into the
database. This includes infor-
mation from farmers, such as
soil characteristics, the amounts
of produce harvested, earnings,
the amount – and source - of
animal fodder used and so on.
This usually requires both
information from farmers,
through questionnaires and dis-
cussions as well as
existing data in litera-
ture and research on
climate, soils and
farming systems.
Next step is process-
ing, checking and
quantifying these
data. The result is an
overview of the nutri-
ent flows on a farm
and or region and
various economic
indicators. In the final stage
these results are presented and
discussed with the farmers and
a plan of action can be designed
and implemented. 
Monitoring nutrient flows and economic
performance in tropical farming
systems (NUTMON) 
Alterra – Agricultural Economics
Research Institute, LEI, (manual –
annex – CD Rom), Wageningen UR,
2001. ISBN 90 327 0303 x
t 250 per set but free for
universities, national agricultural
research institutes and NGOs in
developing countries.
Alterra
PO Box 47
6700 AA Wageningen
The Netherlands
Fax: +31 317 41 90 00
Email: nutmon-
support@alterra.wag.ur.nl
Website: www.nutmon.org
Measuring is knowing
SPORE 99 • PAGE 11
■The From farmer to planner
and back package highlights the
advantages of incorporating
participatory and gender
approaches in development
work. Two of the four-volume
set provide case studies from
Africa & the Near East and
from Asia & Latin America. On
the basis of some of these case-
studies a key-issues paper has
been synthesised, which gives
insights in recent development,
such as on the effect of decen-
tralisation of agricultural plan-
ning, on the effects of increased
participatory methods and on
the effects of increased atten-
tion to gender issues. 
Resulting form discussions
on these key-issues, a responsive
planner has been drawn up,
which offers ways to assure that
agricultural development is par-
ticipatory and gender respon-
sive. 
The final volume focuses on
trainers, offering ideas and best
practices for trainers, who inte-
grate gender and participatory
methods in their programmes.
Examples include for instance,
the use of visual techniques in
gender based natural resource
management and how to mon-
itor participatory impact.
In this package, the Women in
Development Service of FAO,
has brought together analyses
and lessons learned from field
projects carried out throughout
the world. The choice for the
slipcase-concept might be a bit
less fortunate, but there is a les-
son from the publication.
Feedback rules throughout!
From farmer to planner and back.
Harvesting best practices
FAO, 2001. (4 booklets in a slipcase -
not sold separately) 
ISBN 9251045720
US$ 50 • t 55.20
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
SPORE 99 • PAGE 12
Seaworthy volumes
■ Here are two new volumes in
the multi-volume field guide on
sea life in the Pacific, including
seaweeds, corals, bivalves,
gastropods, shrimps, lobsters,
crabs, holothurians, sharks,
batoid fishes, chimaeras, bony
fishes, estuarine crocodiles, sea
turtles, sea snakes and marine
mammals. Each resource group
chapter includes an illustrated
technical section per species. A
well-constructed standard
reference work, covering species
of interest to fisheries.
The living marine resources of the
Western Central Pacific, Vol. 5.
Bony fishes part 3. (Menidae to
Pomacentridae), FAO, 2001. 
590 pp. ISBN 9251045879
US$ 120 • t 132.45
The living marine resources of the
Western Central Pacific, Vol. 6
Bony fishes part 4. (Labridade to
Latinmeriidae), estuarine
crocodiles, sea turtles, sea snakes
and marine mammals, FAO, 2001.
844 pp. ISBN 9251045895
US$ 120 • t 132.45
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
Rate of return 
■ Whether you are in a private
or public sector, investing in
agricultural research is an
uncertain business, even though
you believe it will safeguard
future production, productivity,
and food security. Investments
are large and benefits unknown
and long-term, but with this
book you can be surer of cost-
effective outputs. 
Planning Agricultural Research: A
sourcebook
Edited by G Gijsbers, W Janssen, H
Hambly Odame & G Meijerink,
ISNAR, 2001. 363 pp. ISBN
0851994016
US$ 55 • t 60.70
Stock number: ISNAR288 
Earthprint Ltd.
P O Box 119
Stevenage
Herts SG1 4TP, England
Fax: +44 1438 748 844 
Email:
customerservices@earthprint.com
Where and how to look
■ A crisp and clear description,
atlas-style, of more than a
dozen farming systems, by
region and by continent. Co-
published with the World Bank,
it shows how to use farming
systems approaches to identify
local, regional and international
priorities for greater food
security.
Farming Systems and Poverty.
Improving farmer’s livelihoods in a
changing world.
By J Dixon, A Gulliver & D Gibbon,
FAO, 2001. 420 pp. ISBN
9251046271
US$ 30 • t 33.10
For FAO’s address see right.
Publications •
Gender and participation out of a box?
Food security might be a
complex issue, explain-
ing the ins and outs of food
security does not need to be
complex. The Agripromo
dossier on food security in
Africa, proves this quite clear-
ly. It is a collection of sheets,
each dealing with a specific sub
theme, such as history of food
security, trends in the world’s
food situation, the role of poli-
cies, effects of war, of farmers
and their organisations. As one
goes along, the sheets become
more technical and practical,
addressing questions on how to
improve nutrition, promote
the storage of food stuffs and
how to assess food situation at
local level. The sheets are clear-
ly written and well illustrated
with tables and cartoons. Per-
fect material for educators,
such as extension workers,
teachers and general develop-
ment workers.
This is the maiden English
edition of the Development
dossiers Agripromo, which are
also being published in French.
The dossiers each focus on a
single issue, such as develop-
ment financing or natural
resources management. Look
forward to the next ones!
Food security in Africa: a development
challenge
Dossier Agripromo, INADES-
Formation – CTA - Solagral, 2001.
102 pp. ISSN 1018 8568
CTA number 1064, 20 credit points.
Complex issues made clear
■To impart to others what
gender issues are and to ‘make’
other people gender sensitive is
easier said than done. Training
is one way of conveying this.
Dzodzi Tsikata brought togeth-
er an interesting set of essays on
gender training in Ghana. One
angle she elaborates, is based on
research among trainers, train-
ing institutes and participants
of gender trainings. Secondly,
various gender trainers, includ-
ing one male, share their meth-
ods and tools, such as theatre or
social impact assessment, used
in their trainings, and finally,
the book incorporates the
results of a national conference
of gender trainers, discussing
the research, underlying this
publication. 
All in all, this sturdy publica-
tion provides a comprehensive
picture of the Ghanaian situa-
tion and is interesting for peo-
ple elsewhere who work on gen-
der awareness raising. Books
like these are sorely needed in
other countries too.
Gender training in Ghana. Politics,
issues and tools
Edited by D Tsikata, Woeli Publishing
Services, Ghana, 2001. 450 pp. 
ISBN 9964978766
GBP 21.50 • t 34.55
African Books Collective Ltd
The Jam Factory
27 Park End Street
Oxford, OX1 1HU, UK
Fax: + 44 1865 79 32 98
Email: abc@africanbookscollective.com
The art of gender training
SPORE 99 • PAGE 13
The green leaf
symbol indicates
p u b l i c a t i o n s
that are on CTA’s
list. Subscribers
to the Publications Distribution
Service (PDS) can obtain them
from CTA. All other publications,
indicated by an orange square,
are available from the publishers
listed, or through commercial
outlets, but not from CTA.
Publications on CTA’s list are
available free-of-charge to PDS
subscribers. Subscribers can
order publications on CTA’s list up
to the value of the credit points
available to them. Subscribers can
only request publications on the
order forms provided.
Non-subscribers who wish to
join the scheme should write to
CTA for an application form.
Applications will be considered
from agricultural and rural
development organisations in
the ACP (Africa, Caribbean and
Pacific) Group of States; individ-
uals resident in ACP countries
may also apply.
If you are not eligible for a free
subscription to the PDS, or if
you need publications beyond
your free credit allocation, you
may buy publications on CTA’s
list from our commercial distri-
butor: Triops, Hinderburgstrasse
33, D-64295 Darmstadt, Ger-
many, Fax: +49 6151 314 048,
Email: triops@net-library.de;
Website: www.net-library.de/
triops.html
How to obtain these publications
French lessons
■ Two more good overviews ,
translated from French originals,
from the Drylands Programme
of the International Institute for
Environment and Development
(IIED), whose ‘Issue paper’ series
offers many ways of looking at
natural resource management in
semi-arid Africa. 
Local development and community
management of woodlands:
Experience from Mali 
By Intercooperation, Issue paper
no. 106, IIED, 2001. 26 pp. 
ISBN 1843692198
Stock number: 9124IIED
US$ 5 • t 5.50
Securing secondary rights to land
in West Africa 
P Lavigne Delville, C Toulmin, J P
Colin & J P Chaveau, Issue paper
no. 107, IIED, 2001. 31 pp. ISBN
1843692201
Stock number: 9125IIED 
US$ 5 • t 5.50
Earthprint Ltd.
P O Box 119
Stevenage
Herts SG1 4TP
England
Fax: +44 1438 748 844 
Email:
customerservices@earthprint.com
This land is my land. 
You wish!
■ Still looking for case studies
of how women’s rights and
access to resources, particularly
land, are governed by legal and
customary arrangements? Or
how gender relations affect
women’s and men’s access to
property? You’ll reap a good
harvest here – including South
Africa and Côte d’Ivoire, but
you’ll find the best crop in the
well-weeded bibliography.
Gender perspectives on property and
inheritance
A Global Source Book Vol. 5, the
Gender, Society & Development
series
By S Cummings, H van Dam, A
Khadar & M Valk, KIT Publishers,
2001. 180 pp. 
ISBN 90 6832 714 3
t 22 
KIT Press
PO Box 95001
1090 HA Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Fax: +31 20 568 8286
Email: kitpress@kit.nl
Animal pharm, and more
■ Published twice a year – in
January and July – this
Caribbean journal reflects latest
developments in the region.
Scientific articles, case studies
and research and policy news,
such as in the January 2002
issue, focus, as island farmers
do, on small livestock. 
Journal of the Caribbean Veterinary
Medical Association
US$ 25 • t 27.60 per issue, 
US$ 40 • t 44.15 per year
The University of the West Indies
St. Augustine, Trinidad, W.I.
Email: caribjour@cablenett.net
• Publications
■Time has passed since the
cooperative movement in Tan-
zania was established and cele-
brated. Nowadays, many would
argue that cooperatives have
lost their use for alleviating
rural poverty – too much asso-
ciated with ‘old-fashioned’
socialist ideals. 
Jovin Banturaki conducted
an extensive study on the coop-
erative movement as it is today
in Tanzania. The data collection
is impressive. He covered 24
cooperative societies (most
focusing on agricultural mar-
keting, some on production,
savings, consumer interests)
and 1614 rural cooperatives in
4 regions in Tanzania main-
land. 
He touches the sore spots,
such as weak organisational set-
ups, mismanagement, weak leg-
islation and bureaucracy in
cooperatives and government
support structures, but empha-
sises the advantages of coopera-
tives’ potential for rural devel-
opment and sees them as prac-
tical and dynamic actors in alle-
viating rural poverty too.
The book concludes with an
extensive list of recommenda-
tions. Cooperatives need to
become more competitive, the
capital base and leadership
structures need improvement
and transparency, and a more
conducive legislation, are but a
few examples. 
Cooperatives and poverty alleviation
By J A Banturaki, Tema Publishers,
2000. 160 pp. ISBN 9987250227
GBP 8.95 • t 14.40
African Books Collective Ltd
The Jam Factory
27 Park End Street
Oxford, OX1 1HU, UK
Fax: + 44 1865 79 32 98
Email:
abc@africanbookscollective.com
■Land degradation seems a very
straightforward harmful process
of fertile soil and nutrients being
washed or blown away. Yet, ask
farmers about it and you will get
a variety of answers. Some will
tell you that it has become diffi-
cult to get the same harvests as
in past years, others that the
walking distance to find fuel
wood has increased and others
will explain that rocks and boul-
ders started to emerge in their
fields.
In field assessment of land
degradation, the authors pro-
mote a different way of working
to tackle land degradation. They
explain that countless technolo-
gies to fight erosion have been
applied in the past and have dis-
appeared again. Not that they
weren’t working, but probably
because the way they worked
had no relation to the way
degradation was perceived by
the farming community.
Understanding the farmers’
interaction with he land and
determining the indicators for
land degradation, provides pos-
sibilities to distinguish different
perceptions of erosion, defor-
estation, siltation and measure
the severity of the overall degra-
dation. Thus, appropriate action
can be taken. 
The handbook is practical,
offers forms, tables to asses and
measure land degradation and
how to interpret the results. A
useful book for fieldworkers in
agricultural development and for
students and staff in agricultural
education. 
This publication and the
NUTMON toolbox (see else-
where in this publication sec-
tion) are in fact complimentary,
but read this one first.
Handbook for the field assessment of
land degradation 
By M A Stocking & N Murnaghan,
Earthscan, 2001. 184 pp. ISBN
1853838314 
GBP 25 • t 40.20
Earthscan Publications Ltd
120 Pentonville Road
London, N1 9JN, UK
Fax: +44 20 72 78 11 42 
Email: earthinfo@earthscan.co.uk
Together we’re still strong
Where’s my land?
Annual Report
People at work
Most of us have done it. Trying tomaintain, rebuild and expandyour own house whilst still living
in it. Things like replace the roofing against
storms; move the kitchen doorway; rewire
the electricity; lay out the backyard for more
plants; add on an extension for visitors.
If you can picture CTA as a house, then
the year 2001 was very much like this.
Business as usual, and changes at hand.
Not that CTA’s well-maintained building
itself saw any physical construction. The
39 people working at CTA’s Wageningen
office, plus one in the Brussels office, were
all knuckling down to what the Director,
Carl B Greenidge, calls in his introduction
“changes in the work programme to meet
longer-term demands and challenges”, in
addition to traditional activities. He char-
acterises the changes as equipping ACP
actors with the means to cope with more
commercialised markets, liberalised inter-
national trade rules, advances in informa-
tion and communication (IC) technolo-
gies, and growing ACP interest in IC
management.
What stands out most from the Annual
Report 2001 is an indelible impression of
the creation of an infrastructure of institu-
tional links – a network – in which CTA
can function as the hub and be, in
Greenidge’s words, “a knowledge develop-
ment base for ACP agriculture”. 
The policy of developing partnerships,
launched in 1996, is now taking firm hold.
An attitude of partnership pervades all the
Centre’s activities, no matter the distinc-
tions between actual departments. Many
services have been decentralised – such as
Question-and-Answer, some book distri-
bution – and many central services are in
‘network mode’. The web of Spore’s own
network of correspondents in ACP regions
is a good illustration of this, as were, in
2001, the meetings and studies which laid
plans for network-style partnerships. 
The traditional networks of CTA were
busier than ever: Spore subscriptions rose
in a disciplined way above 33,000, with
the surge in new women subscribers and
Esporo, our Portuguese sister, stronger
than ever. More than 85,000 publications
were distributed, 75,750 on request, with
more than 40 new titles being produced
or supported. While the number of study
visits shrank, the number of attendees
(800-plus) grew at the year’s 13 (co-)semi-
nars, many featuring hands-on sessions,
with the highlight being the seminar in
Douala, Cameroun, on issues affecting
federations of farmers’ organisation. Simi-
larly, almost 200 people attended other
seminars with CTA support, and 369
attended the 23 training sessions run by
CTA – an all-time high.
And to answer the question many read-
ers ask of Spore: the 2001 budget, provid-
ed 98.5% by the European Development
Fund, was balanced at t12,140,000. Of
this, more than 61% was devoted to oper-
ational activities, clearly above the recom-
mended minimum. Put it this way: the
first person arrives at the office around 7 in
the morning, the last one leaves around
8 pm. People at work. Challenges to meet.
Annual Report 2001. CTA. 2001. 134 pp.
ISBN 92 9081 2567
CTA number 1078. Available free of charge.
PDS subscribers: please use your order form.
Downloadable in large PDF file from
www.agricta.org/annrep2001
The Special Paper in CTA’s Annual Report 2001, by
Betty Wampfler discusses “Achievements, limits
and prospects of microfinance as a means of
financing agricultural and rural development: the
experience in West Africa”.
The Special Paper is also available from CTA
separate from the Annual Report.
12 pp. CTA number 1080. Available free of
charge. 
PDS subscribers: please use your order form.
A fast mover!
■ A new subscriber, Paul Bassey Okon of
Macpolykon Agrocare - Farmers’ Welfare
Foundation International in Akwa Ibom
State, Nigeria, has already put Spore to
work on new business ideas. “I was really
challenged by the Viewpoint in Spore 97
that ‘we have to be more inventive and
more creative in finding viable niches’. In
fact, the ideas in Spore have helped us to
turn around and pull together local farm-
ers into larger associations, learning to
process perishables for northern or global
markets. Not that these ideas weren’t
there, but knowing what the recent trends
are is where Spore leads. I also really enjoy
connections provided by Spore; it is won-
derful.”
In good company
■ Spore moves all sorts of people in all
sorts of ways, says Simon Digdjag
Antcha, a rural communicator in
Moundou, Chad, who wrote “After receiv-
ing Spore, and re-reading it, I hand it to my
friends and relations to read. Several peo-
ple have got so interested that they wrote
in and have now become subscribers. Spore
is my constant companion and witness each
time I run an activity session. The contents
are informative for those people who can
read, and the illustrations are useful for
those who cannot. Magazines like this help
people develop their awareness. When we
put into practice a technique that we have
seen in Spore, the positive results encour-
age people to wake up to new possibilities
and it opens up the road to success for sev-
eral more people.”
One man’s watering hole …
■ Mr Alade from the Animal Science
Department of the University of Maiduguri
in Nigeria wants more attention for his
favourite topic. “Every copy has interesting
articles that address farmers’ problems
through the use of modern and local meth-
ods of farming. However it is a pity that few
articles are featured on livestock produc-
tion. It is of little use to people engaged
in animal production. Future editions
should address this.”
Don’t stampede us, Mr Alede, but we get
quite a lot of requests like this. In 2001, we
had an opening article (Spore 94), six news
items, five readers’ letters and 12 publica-
tions on livestock issues. Not enough, it
seems, but we have to cover all sorts of top-
ics for all sorts of aspects of farming and
food. We shall try harder!
Mailbox
Even whilst replying to the User Sur-
vey, some readers kept up their regu-
lar correspondence too.
SPORE 99 • PAGE 14
Between us •
@
Staying power
It’s time to saygoodbye – and“Thanks!” – to a
key person in the life
of a Spore reader.
After eleven and a
half years heading
the Publications
Distribution Service,
Nico Roskam has a new challenge: to
open an information shop in Cameroon.
He should do well there: he was an exten-
sion worker in the 1980s after his masters
in erosion control, has close family ties,
and his direct Dutch way of doing busi-
ness will foil the smoothest local trader.
He knows about keeping customers sat-
isfied: the walls of PDS’ offices are lined
with photos of PDS and Spore subscribers,
and the files bulge with 150,000 answered
letters. His greatest achievement? Bring-
ing some order into the flow of publica-
tion requests reaching CTA. Since 1997,
a subscription system has empowered the
customer with information on what to
select, and how much. That makes sure
there is (almost) enough for everybody,
each to her or his need. 
Will PDS outlive Nico? Of course, his
hard-working colleagues will see to that.
Nico himself foresees more decentralisa-
tion to national and regional publishers
and distributors, including a controlled
form of (subsidised) sales. He is right
there; such investment will strengthen the
information trade in ACP regions. What
will he miss most? Probably the eloquence,
guile, charm, and poetry of some sub-
scribers asking in the most fantastic ways
for more than their fair share – that always
won his smile, if not his big heart.
User Survey 
update
“C ount me in!” – a dozenreaders call out each week,with belated letters and
emails, keen to join the Spore User Survey
which officially closed several months ago.
Do not worry, your views have been
noted, even if some latecomers have not
been counted in our statistics.
The more than 1,300 responses show,
in broad terms, a specially high apprecia-
tion of news, publication reviews and long
articles. Most people find an issue every
two months fine. Almost every reader
shares their Spore with others (you’ll be
amazed at how many!) as extension work-
ers, advisors, trainers and policy makers,
as well as using it themselves – in their
own plots, as it were.
We are now finalising a survey of organ-
isations mentioned in Spore, to get the
other side of the picture of how it is used.
In August 2002, we shall publish fuller
details, in Spore 100, plus profiles of 100
users – and a separate report of results.
SPORE 99 • PAGE 15
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
Tel: +31 317 467100
Fax: +31 317 460067
Email: cta@cta.nl
Website: www.cta.nl
Email for readers’ letters: spore@cta.nl
Compiler: Spore is compiled by a 
consortium formed by Louma productions
and Médiateurs
Louma productions, 3 rue Neuve, 
34150 Aniane, France
Fax: +33 467 570 180
Email: louma@louma.fr
Médiateurs, W-Alexanderpoort 46, 
1421 CH Uithoorn, The Netherlands
Fax: +31 297 540 514
Email: info@spore-magazine.org
This issue was compiled by 
Marcel Chimwala, O'Neil Cuffe, Bernard
Favre, Singy Hanyona, Erik Heijmans,
Louise Kibuka, Catherine Marzin,
Paul Osborn, Jacques Sultan.
Layout: Louma productions
Printer: Imprimerie Publicep, France
© CTA 2002 - ISSN 1011-0054
Material published in Spore can be freely
reproduced. Please always credit it as coming
from Spore.
• Between us
Superlibrarian
spreads wings
Arole model for new-style informa-tion professionals, ThiendouNiang has little of the characteris-
tics of the 1970’s generation of librarians
from which he came. Timidity, temerity,
introversion, a dislike of doing deals, a fear
of fixing, none of those belongs to his
mind-set.
He joined CTA in 1985 to run its doc-
umentation services and left in April 2002
to lead the REPA expert network on agri-
cultural policy, based in his hometown,
Dakar, Senegal. In 1996, he took over the
new Information and Capacity Develop-
ment Department incorporating training
activities, rural radio programmes and
customised information such as Question-
and-Answer services. At the time, the
wind of the computer age and Internet
was blowing through both the institution
of CTA and across the landscape of its
many partners, and it was decidedly his
department that best hosted the many
opportunities of these new technologies.
In his spare time, he completed his PhD
on information profiling in small and
medium-scale enterprises.
Many who know CTA will have been
first charmed by the flair and perseverance
he applied to the job at hand – a fine
example of the empowerment he earnestly
sought for others.
Cassava calling!
■ “Let’s eat more cassava and cassava prod-
ucts!”. The President of the Association for
the Integral Development of Women, in
Dassa-Zoume in Benin, Mrs Pauline Dade
Dagbede is full of praise for cassava.
“Everyone knows that cassava is now our
second staple food, after maize. That’s why
it is more important than ever to extract
more value from it, because when it comes
to value, it has got a lot. 
You can eat cassava in various forms: boiled,
fried, grilled or ground. Or when it has been
made into gari, there are many ways to eat
it. So many in fact that some people say a
house without gari is not a home.”
Making gari into sticks (known as cosettes in
Benin) is a good way to keep the flour for
making pasta, as well as bread, cakes and bis-
cuits, just as good as anything from outside.”
Farmers need to have access to knowl-edge and know-how if they are tosucceed in improving their produc-
tion, both in terms of quality and quanti-
ty. They have long been hindered by tradi-
tional methods of agricultural extension
work characterised by being either ‘con-
tractual’, such as the trial-and-demonstra-
tion model, or ‘consultative’, making
much of trying to take endogenous
knowledge into account. These models
were managed in the hands of the trainers
and did not properly involve farmers. It is
little wonder that they either failed, or had
rather mediocre results.
Today, another model is emerging,
which is ‘collegial’ in nature, characterised
by a sharing approach. In this, farmers
have become partners and they are
involved in all steps of decision-making.
In our work in Benin, the national
research services have followed this line
and have come out with a new method-
ological tool: the village-level participato-
ry approach (VPA). It brings together the
stakeholder partners: farmers, growers,
fisherfolk, fish-farmers, herdsmen,
foresters, rural women, NGOs and devel-
opment associations at all levels of the
process. They are involved in analysing
constraints on the land, improving agri-
cultural production systems and in natu-
ral resource management. This has, in
turn, helped to strengthen the extension
system, and to arrive at a participatory
method of planning development activi-
ties. 
The village-level participatory approach
has four basic components: a general diag-
nosis of the situation; an analysis of the
problems at hand and identification of
solutions; planning; and setting up a con-
sultative committee.
This consultative committee is open to
all levels of occupation, and it has cap-
tured the interest of farmers in no uncer-
tain way. They know exactly what they
want, and they have caught on that their
future was in their hands.
The programme started in Benin in
1998 . Today it covers more than 1,000
villages across the country and in 77 sub-
prefectures. It works through multi-disci-
plinary teams and has a rigorous system of
monitoring and evaluation.
After three years of experience, it can be
safely said the level of awareness on the
part of the farmers has evolved. They are
now fully devoted to their work, well-
accustomed to their tasks and receptive to
new ideas. Now it is a question of helping
them to be better protected against pre-
and post-harvest diseases and attacks,
including in the area of storage. They are
prepared to take risks, to work hard and
to throw themselves at their work with
great determination. No programme, no
study, no development plan can even con-
template being objective from now on
without following this project, that much
is clear.
The idea behind decentralisation is that
it is local communities which manage
their own affairs, under the supervision of
the State. If this process is to succeed, we
need to make sure that the bodies of gov-
ernance are closer to the governed, and
that decision-making bodies are trans-
ferred to the levels of government and
administration which are closest to the
field.
As a phenomenon, decentralisation is
well established in Europe, and it has also
made great progress in Africa. Here, in
countries such as Mozambique, Uganda
and Zambia it has given an important
impetus to rural development, which has
moved forward as a result.
In other countries, those with a cen-
tralised form of government such as
Benin, the day of decentralisation has also
arrived. The government has taken all the
necessary steps, legal, social and institu-
tional, to move into decentralisation
mode. The government is playing its role
as guide, monitor and regulator, and large-
scale information campaigns are under-
way.
At the forefront of all this, the VPA has
taken the lead in already encouraging pro-
ducers to manage their own affairs.
Despite these moves, it has to be admit-
ted that rural development is a fragile and
vulnerable practice, and it needs locally
elected representatives and their advisers
to meet certain conditions. They have to
play the game fair and square with their
constituents and be accountable for their
activities and decisions.
It should be possible to achieve local
sustainable development through the
strategy of decentralisation, if it makes use
of the VPA. Then we can confront the
problems of poverty and open a new path
towards rural development at the grass-
roots.
This is an opportunity which we must
not miss.
SPORE 99 • PAGE 16
The opinions expressed in Viewpoint are
those of the authors, and do not necessarily
reflect the views of CTA.
Marcellin Laly is a trained
agricultural technician,
specialising in fisheries
and fish-farming. He is
the organiser of the
Committee for Village-
level Participatory
Approach (VPA) in
Grand-Popo in Benin.
“Our projects can succeed, 
if we put our trust in the creativity of producers”
Viewpoint • 
Throughout Africa, the dual influences of globalisation and
decentralisation are increasingly gaining a foothold. As a
result, agricultural production has become a high-risk activity,
a situation made worse by two key handicaps: natural disasters
and the disorganised state of producers. Against that, there is a
strong demand for quality products and we should find ways
to meet it. Where can we find the tools to do so?
Participatory approaches
When decentralising,
put the fisherfolk 
and farmers first