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Archive October 1998

 
THIS second issue of Agriculture 21 Magazine is published on World Food Day and in the midst of the second TeleFood global telecast in support of the fight to end world hunger. Theme of this year's World Food Day/TeleFood campaign is "Women feed the world", in recognition of rural women's key role in household, national and world food security.

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf says that "in many countries - particularly in developing countries and in agrarian societies, production of staple food, cash crops and livestock relies heavily on women's labour. Most of their back-breaking work is unpaid or grossly underpaid, and agricultural tool producers, researchers and extension workers give little attention to alleviating the drudgery of women's lives".

With this edition, we publish the results of a study - by IFAD and FAO's Agriculture Department - that drives the point home. A survey in five countries of sub-Saharan Africa found that many rural women are helping to "feed the world" using inadequately designed and poorly made handtools, and with little or no access to the income, credit and training that would allow them to adopt more efficient and productive technologies. The report urges farming services to involve women farmers in production training, promote consultation between blacksmiths and female clients, and include advice on farm tools and implements in extension campaigns. See Spotlight: Women and farm tools.


Agricultural finance revisited

The volume of agricultural credit has been shrinking in many developing countries since the beginning of the 1980s. Numerous agricultural development banks collapsed during that period, and the remaining institutions often lack the organizational strength and business skills needed to serve to small farmers. AG's Rural Finance Group and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) are collaborating a new publications series, "Agricultural finance revisited", that will analyse the impact of modern financial technologies for small-scale clients, and elaborate better policies and practices. Six modules are planned, covering FAO and GTZ experience, national-level policy formulation, technologies and resource mobilization for financial institutions, regulation and supervision, and improving financial skills on the farm. Follow this link for further details and to download the first two modules.


Spotlight  Seeds of hope during disaster

AG's Seed and Plant Genetic Resources Service (AGPS) is gathering support for a Global Seed Congress, scheduled for the year 2000, to guide FAO's work in strengthening the seed sector in developing countries. An important focus of that work is ensuring "seed security" during natural and man-made disasters, when farmers often lose not only their harvests but vital planting material for the following season. AGPS says some 1,500 million people live in farm families that are still largely self-provisioning in terms of seed. During emergencies, aid agencies often supply imported seed varieties that are not adapted to local conditions, which can lead to lower yields and undermine long-term food security. One solution is to return to affected areas local farmer varieties collected for conservation in genebanks around the world. For more, see Spotlight: Toward seed security.


FAO/IAEA centre for food and pesticide control

A newly established FAO/IAEA centre aims to help developing countries conform to international agreements on food safety and the control and safe use of pesticides. Under provisions of the recent Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, many countries need to upgrade laboratory facilities and personnel skills to monitor a wide range of microbiological and chemical food contaminants. Similarly, pesticide control legislation and international agreements - in particular FAO's International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides - require analysis of the quality of pesticide products in trade and the level of pesticide residues in food and the environment. The new FAO/IAEA Training and Reference Centre for Food and Pesticide Control will provide training, quality assurance and technology transfer services.


Rinderpest outbreak in Russia

Following an outbreak of the cattle disease rinderpest in the Russian Federation's Amur region, FAO animal health experts think "a hidden focus" of the disease may lurk somewhere in Asiatic Russia, Mongolia or China. Rinderpest is considered endemic in Asia only in parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Arabian Peninsula. The Amur outbreak - reported in August in a village near the border with China - recalls a similar case near the Mongolian border in 1992: that outbreak occurred more than 3,500 km from the nearest known endemic foci of the disease, in Pakistan, and its source remains a mystery. FAO, which coordinates the Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme, is working with the Office international des épizooties (OIE), Russian veterinary authorities and countries in the region to clarify the origin of the latest outbreak. For more on rinderpest, see FAO's Emergency Prevention System (EMPRES) for transboundary animal diseases.


Spotlight  Dialogue to resolve land conflicts

AG's Land and Water Development Division (AGL) is working with the United Nations Environment Programme to promote dialogue among stakeholders in the use of land resources. There is no time to lose: since mid-century, by some estimates, more than 12 million sq km of the Earth's land surface has been "moderately to severely degraded" by human activity. With world population expected to reach more than 8,000 million over the next 25 years, agriculture will need all the resources available to meet rising demand for food and non-food products. AGL and UNEP are developing a new strategy that bridges the gap between land users' production objectives and the long-term need to preserve the environment. The key is negotiated agreement using mechanisms and institutions that facilitate the participation of all land use stakeholders, especially the poorest. See our Spotlight feature, Resolving conflict over land, for more.


Focus on under-used Andean crops

Over millennia, farmers in the Andes conserved, adapted and developed more than 70 food crops. Some of them - notably potatoes, maize, sweet potato and beans - are now staple foods for much of the world's population. But they include many other, under-used pseudo-cereals, legumes, roots, tubers, vegetables and fruits that could be suited to highland, tropical and subtropical valleys of Latin America and other regions. A recent meeting in Peru, partly sponsored by AG's Crop and Grasslands Service, brought together 32 regional plant specialists to review progress in breeding, agronomy and technology transfer for Andean crops, with focus on three protein-rich grain varieties: Chenopodium quinoa (quinoa), Amaranthus caudatus (amaranth, kiwicha ) and Lupinus mutabilis (lupine or tarwi). Participants said the main obstacle to further development of these crops was their low productivity using available farming technology and weak market demand. The meeting prepared national projects for sustainable production and increased use of quinoa, amaranth and lupine.


Fertilizer use highest in developing world

Agriculture in developing countries has overtaken the developed world as the world's biggest consumer of fertilizer. Studies by AG's Plant Nutrition Management Service (AGLN) show that the proportion of total fertilizer consumed in the developing world has increased from 20% in the early 1970s to about 55%. There has also been a shift in fertilizer production from developed countries - especially in West Europe - to developing ones. These trends are confirmed by AGLN's latest report on the "Current world fertilizer situation and outlook". In 1996/97, world fertilizer consumption rose by almost 3% - or about 3.8 million tonnes - with increases recorded in all regions. Consumption grew by 12.5% in Latin America, 11.8% in Eastern Europe, 5.4% Africa and 4.7% in East Asia. While overall consumption rose by 5.7% in North America, it increased by little more than 2% in West Europe and 1.6% in Oceania.

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