Asia's ricefields are losing productivity - Spotlight WELCOME to the Web site of the Agriculture Department (AG) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Regular visitors will notice some changes. We've remodelled our Home Page, re-naming it Agriculture 21 to reflect AG's mission: to promote food security and sustainable development into the next millennium. We've also introduced two new services: a Magazine with in-depth features on world agriculture, and a series of Guides to the gigabyte of documents and data hosted on our divisional sites. These improvements are designed to keep you up-to-date on events and issues in agriculture and provide quick access to the information you need. For new visitors, let us introduce ourselves. FAO is the leading United Nations agency for agricultural development. AG is responsible for implementing FAO's major programme on agricultural production and support systems. We do this through programmes for animal production and health, land and water development, plant production and protection, agricultural support systems, and agricultural applications of isotopes and biotechnology. You will get to know more about our work in these pages. Interview James Cock, visiting scientist Dr James Cock joined AG in August as a visiting scientist in the Department's Crop and Grasslands Service (AGPC). He'll be with us for five months developing technology transfer methods for sugar cane producers, investigating supply contracts between farmers and processors, and helping put together a new global strategy for cassava. James Cock has been on the cutting edge of agricultural development for most of his career. He has worked at IRRI in the Philippines designing more efficient plant types for semi-dwarf rice cultivars, at CIAT in Colombia, where he led an innovative cassava programme for 17 years, and at the World Bank as a senior agriculturist. He is now Director-general of Colombia's Sugar Cane Research Institute. From his unique perspective, Dr Cock talked to Agriculture 21 about issues facing agriculture in the 21st century for our inaugural Interview. Spotlight Rice productivity "declining" in Asia The prospect of rice shortages is looming as a threat to world food security. Rice is the main food of much of the world's population, especially in Asia where 90% of rice is grown and consumed. But a report to the International Rice Commission (IRC) this month warned that growth in rice output is steadily declining in many Asian countries. The commission, which met in Cairo on 7-9 September, called for wider adoption of hybrid rice, which produces yields up to 20% higher than those of conventional "high-yielding" varieties, and efforts to narrow the gap between yields obtained at research stations and those actually harvested by farmers. Research was also needed to understand the causes of declining productivity in intensively cropped systems. AG's Plant Production Service, which hosts the commission secretariat in Rome, will help develop strategies to encourage greater private industry involvement in hybrid seed production. For more details, see our Spotlight article, Rice crisis looms in Asia. For more on the IRC, follow this link. Biofertilizer boosts Zimbabwe farmers' output, income Small farmers in Zimbabwe have used soybean seeds inoculated with biologically fixed nitrogen ("biofertilizer") to boost yields by up to 500% and save hundreds of dollars on chemical fertilizers. The increased productivity came thanks to isotope tracer techniques, developed by the Joint FAO/IAEA Division (AGE) in Vienna, that identify efficient rhizobium bacteria strains used to make biofertilizers. Inoculated into the seed of a suitable pulse legume, the bacteria stimulate production of root nodules that convert atmospheric nitrogen to a plant-useable form. This nitrogen promotes growth in the host pulse, and is available to other crops grown later in the same field. Fighting flies with flies Farm-by-farm control of insects with pesticides harms the environment and is often uneconomical. An FAO/IAEA international conference in Malaysia in June proposed a better solution: area-wide insect control using biological techniques. For example, tsetse flies - vectors of the livestock disease trypanosomiasis - have been eradicated on Zanzibar Island, Tanzania, by "fighting flies with flies". Eight million male tsetse mass-bred in an escape-proof factory were sterilized with gamma radiation and released over infested areas. The result was natural birth control: wild females mating with sterile males produce no offspring. By late 1996, Zanzibar's tsetse flies were history. See also FAO's Programme against African trypanosomiasis. New convention to control trade in toxic pesticides The governments of 62 countries and the European Community have signed the first international legal agreement for monitoring and control of international trade in toxic pesticides and other chemicals. The Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent (PIC), adopted in the Netherlands on 11 September, replaces a voluntary PIC scheme operated since 1989 by FAO and UNEP and will enter into force once ratified by 50 countries. The convention, which gives countries the power to decide which chemicals they wish to import and sets labelling and information requirements for traded products, will initially include five industrial chemicals and 22 pesticides banned or severely restricted for health or environmental reasons. UNEP and AG's Plant protection service will serve as the convention's secretariat. Download the full text of the convention (in Word or WordPerfect, zipped). Spotlight Defusing livestock threat to environment AG's Animal Production and Health Division (AGA) is collaborating in a multi-donor initiative to defuse environmental threats posed by rapid growth in world livestock production. The livestock sector has been blamed for a variety of environmental problems, including deforestation, water pollution and emission of greenhouse gases. An interagency study between 1994 and 1996 produced two reports that analysed livestock-environment interactions and proposed measures for sustainable livestock development. This was followed by consultations in 80 countries and an international conference on policy and technology issues. The programme's sponsors are now developing an Internet-based virtual centre for research and development, and policy/technology "menus". For an overview of the issues, see Spotlight: Livestock and environment, or get the full report. DAD-IS, 2.0 AGA's Animal Genetic Resources Group launched on 7 September the second stage of its Domestic Animal Diversity Information System (DAD-IS). A multi-language system available on Internet and off-line on CD-ROM, DAD-IS serves as a clearing-house for FAO's Global Strategy for the management of farm animal genetic resources. It fosters links among farmers, scientists and policy-makers and helps countries develop networks for managing the genetic resources of domestic farm species and breeds. DAD-IS includes a databank containing data on 5,300 breeds in 180 countries - users can access information on breed features, population size, location, production and performance characteristics, as well as details of adaptive qualities and a description of production environments in which the breeds are developing.. This way to DAD-IS. Spotlight Adding value to tropical starches Starch is an ingredient in many processed foods and a surprising range of non-food items, including diapers, face creams, dry cell batteries - and computer circuit boards. Almost of all of it is produced from wheat, maize and potato, and virtually none from tropical plants such as cassava, sago and yam. Tropical starch crops are disadvantaged by scanty research into the functional properties that interest industry - a survey by AG's Agricultural Industries and Post-harvest Management Service has found that almost 90% of publications on the physical properties of starches focused on wheat, maize, potato or rice. Suggested remedy: broaden the scope of tropical agriculture research to include characteristics needed for developing high quality, value-added products. For more, see our Spotlight article, Tropical starch misses market Information network on postharvest losses Each year, millions of tonnes of harvested crops are lost in developing countries through inadequate handling and storage, pest damage, and transport and marketing problems. Losses of cereals and legumes can reach up to 50% in Africa and Latin America, while up to 50 million tonnes of rice are believed to be lost post-harvest in Asia. To help reduce this colossal waste, AG has launched, in cooperation with CIRAD, GTZ and USAID, the first global reference centre on postharvest management. The Information Network on Post-Harvest Operations (www.fao.org/inpho/) aims at collecting and disseminating a broad range of information on handling and storage of specific crops and post-production technologies. Already on-line are some 150 full-text documents, photographs and even videos. Go there now... Soil fertility initiative in Africa An AG study of soil fertility in sub-Saharan Africa found that in every country surveyed more nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium was being lost than replaced. Simply "adding fertilizer" is no solution: sustainable soil fertility strategies require sound tillage and cropping practices, soil conservation, and use of both organic matter and mineral fertilizer. This is the approach being promoted through AG's Soil fertility initiative for sub-Saharan Africa (SFI), which seeks to develop national strategies for restoring and enhancing fertility in the medium and long term. SFI also stresses the need for policies that ensure farmers a return on investment in soil - such as land tenure security, resource pricing, access to inputs and markets. Spotlight Aral sea, a study in unsustainability Central Asia's Aral sea is a man-made ecological disaster. Since the early 1960s, massive irrigation development has reduced its surface from 66,000 sq km to less than 40,000, and its volume by three-quarters. In the process, the sea's fish stocks and marsh ecosystems have been destroyed, drinking water polluted, and more than 3 million hectares of farmland left waterlogged or salinized. Even the climate is worsening. This tragic picture emerges from a recent survey by AG's Water Resources Development and Management Service (AGLW). Is the Aral past saving? The report sees hope for a partial recovery: water withdrawal has stabilized, and surrounding countries are at least talking about increasing water discharge into the sea. See this month's Spotlight: Time to save the Aral sea?. For the full AGL report follow this link. Three e-conferences on livestock E-mail traffic through AG's Animal Production and Health Division (AGA) soared recently with three electronic conferences under way involving nearly 1,000 participants worldwide. Ongoing is a conference co-hosted with the UK's Overseas Development Institute to analyse livestock and drought. Themes covered are drought impacts on people's livelihoods, livestock keepers' responses, and the effects of relief and post-drought restocking programmes. Recently completed are two e-conferences that focused on Latin America. One looked at livestock production in tropical agroforestry systems, the other at the challenges and opportunities facing veterinary services following liberalization of global trade in meat and meat products (the links lead to detailed documentation for both conferences). magazine: home | spotlight | archive guide: site map © FAO, 1998
For new visitors, let us introduce ourselves. FAO is the leading United Nations agency for agricultural development. AG is responsible for implementing FAO's major programme on agricultural production and support systems. We do this through programmes for animal production and health, land and water development, plant production and protection, agricultural support systems, and agricultural applications of isotopes and biotechnology. You will get to know more about our work in these pages.