Through direct development assistance, FAO helps improve the nutrition, food security and standard of living in Member Nations. In 1993, significant achievements were reported in Integrated Pest Management, development and use of hybrid rice and other improved crop varieties, water and soil management, and many other priority areas.
The subject of the restrictions is ethylene dibromide, a pesticide used in fumigation treatments against the fruit fly. While ethylene dibromide has been banned by many of the large importers, fruit flies continue to wreak havoc with fruits and fleshy vegetables before and after harvest. Between 1990 and 1993, FAO joined the Australian Government, UNDP and the South Pacific Commission in a project to help the island countries develop alternative control methods.
The first stage of the project involved data collection to fill existing information gaps concerning the many species of the fruit fly and their behaviour. With were able to develop alternative control measures and test them on laboratory colonies while assessing the susceptibility of various fruits and vegetables to the pest.
Later in the project, protein bait sprays made from the yeast waste of local breweries successfully replaced cover sprays in field treatments. Hot air and water treatments were proved viable in quarantine. The testing programme also identified many commodities that can safely be exported without quarantine treatments. Finally, local staff were trained in the use of the new methods and a prototype plant was established in Tonga to produce protein bait. International collaborative linkages were set up with other fruit-fly programmes, extending the project's effectiveness.
This very profitable venture has already resulted in the reduction of field damage levels from 40 percent to less than 5 percent in guavas, from 25 percent to less than 5 percent in mangoes, and from 92 percent to less than 4 percent in capsicums. As a result of its success, the project has been prolonged to 1996 in the four pilot countries and is currently being extended into Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia.
The FAO Bay of Bengal Programme involved small-scale fisherfolk in Bangladesh in a project focused on learning ways of improving their living conditions. A wealth of potential for community development was discovered in the women when given organizational and financial support.
In a pilot exercise, 15 women's groups in ten villages were provided with training to build their collective strength, increase health and nutrition awareness and address priority community problems. A revolving fund provided credit to the women for income-generating ventures and technical guidance was supplied for small enterprises.
After a year and a half, returns on the credit reached 97 percent. Many of the women managed to increase their own savings in the process, generating an equivalent of more than 40 percent of the total credit provided to them. By building women's knowledge in health, nutrition, sanitation and family planning, the extension work also laid the groundwork for continued improvement in village living conditions.
A similar project currently involves 22 villages in the Philippines and will probably be expanded to other areas. One of the factors considered crucial to the projects' success is their operation by female extension staff, who have easily gained the confidence and interest of the village women.
In Sri Lanka, a long-term silk production project achieved excellent results by shifting its production strategy: cocoon and raw-silk farms were moved off government land into the hands of smallholders. As a result, by 1994 Sri Lanka is expected to produce 100 tonnes of cocoon annually. This will provide the raw material required by the country for the silk fabrics used in traditional sari clothing. At the same time, it will generate savings in foreign exchange, contribute to absorbing otherwise idle rural labour, provide additional income for the poor and help diversify agricultural and industrial activities.
FAO and IAEA established a laboratory to promote nuclear-based methods and related molecular techniques for diagnosis of livestock diseases. Accurate diagnosis is fundamental to disease control and eradication. The laboratory will cooperate closely with national and international organizations to promote standardization and transfer of techniques designed specifically for the difficult conditions often experienced in less advanced countries. Priority is being given to the diseases of greatest importance such as rinderpest, trypanosomiasis and foot-and-mouth disease.
FAO and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) gave support to the process of democratization in Eastern and Central European countries by organizing a seminar to tackle farm mechanization problems emerging with the privatization of the agricultural sector. Agriculture is highly mechanized in the region, and farm machinery manufacture and support services were previously state-owned and controlled. The transition from large, centrally planned cooperatives and state farms to privately based farms requires the rapid development of an efficient private subsector. Delegates from 14 countries gathered at the seminar in Hungary in June 1993.
Countries from Latin and North America, Europe, North Africa and the Near East joined the International Cactus Pear Network at a round table held in Guadalajara, Mexico. Cactus pear (Opuntia spp.) is important in subsistence-agriculture schemes in many arid and semi-arid regions of the world, where it provides fruits, forage, vegetables and natural dyes. With very low labour and water requirements, cactus pear generates income for rural families, creates work for seasonal labour (selection and packing of fruits and stems) and prevents soil degradation.Silk moths feeding on mulberry leaves
An international symposium in Brazil provided a forum for postharvest experts from the public and private sectors of Latin America, Europe, the United States and Canada to exchange ideas about ways of reducing postharvest damage. In Brazil alone, losses after harvest amount to US$2 500 million per annum. Participants at the symposium discussed how to avoid losses by applying and disseminating alternative technologies and introducing appropriate facilities for grain handling, drying and storage. They focused, in particular, on ways of extending the benefits to medium-and small-scale farmers.
Twelve African countries joined forces in 1993 to secure their natural and agricultural resources from the ravages of exotic pests. At workshops sponsored by FAO, two networks were established, for southern and eastern Africa respectively, to develop strategies for pest control while facilitating trade and exchange of agricultural products and germplasm. By promoting collaboration and avoiding duplication of efforts, the networks will help member countries harmonize and enforce phytosanitary and quarantine legislation, inspection, disease detection and treatment.
On a study tour organized by FAO in August 1993, plant protection specialists from 22 countries in Africa, Latin America and the Near East visited Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and Viet Nam to see first-hand integrated pest management (IPM) practices that have helped over half a million rice growers in Asia minimize pesticide use and raise profits.
The participants in the tour found that throughout Asia, classrooms without walls known as "field schools" help farmers learn skills that make them more efficient producers, and more demanding clients for agricultural research and extension systems. The tour gave the visitors direct experience of developments taking place at the village level that would not otherwise have been possible.
In field schools, farmers are taught to use careful observation and interpretation to analyse crops within the entire cropping system rather than focusing on isolated techniques of pest control. By doing so, farmers are able to reduce pesticide use. This not only increases their earnings; it helps to protect their health and the health of consumers while minimizing the harmful impact on the environment and conserving the essential biodiversity of natural pest control agents. In Bangladesh, over 64 subdistricts run farmer field schools for IPM. The situation is similar in Indonesia, where nearly 250 000 farmers have graduated from season-long field schools. In Nueva Viscaya, the Philippines, field-school farmers reported reducing their spending on pesticides from almost 600 pesos to zero in the 1993 wet season. The importance of women's participation is notable in the Viet Nam experience; in one field school, 26 out of 33 participants were women.
Organized with a hands-on, learning-by-doing approach, field schools show farmers how they can conduct their own research, testing new approaches under real circumstances. Participants develop a clear understanding of how the new techniques and methodologies work, and trainers, in turn, are able to learn from the farmers' experience. After attending field schools, farmers are encouraged to share the IPM principles they have learned with others. In the words of one participant: "Now our teacher doesn't teach us; we teach ourselves. We understand."
The field study tour was followed by an international meeting that provided a forum for the interchange of ideas and experiences with NGOs, donors and colleagues from institutions working on IPM worldwide. Both events were cosponsored by FAO, UNEP, the World Bank and UNDP.
Using irradiation and chemicals, plant breeders are able to induce inheritable changes in the genetic background of a plant and then select offspring with the characteristics they are looking for. Known as "mutation breeding", this technique has allowed FAO and IAEA scientists to achieve positive results in a project to improve oilseed crops.
Seventeen participants from 14 countries joined in the project, raising the yields of important oilseed crops by improving their morphology; they also improved oil quality by inducing genetic changes in the plants' fatty acid composition.
The researchers achieved remarkable breakthroughs with sesame: increasing the length of the fruiting zone on the stem, the number of capsules or fruits, the uniformity of ripening and the plants' tolerance to important diseases. The success in improving yield and quality was manifested in the official release of 19 mutant varieties over the period covered by the programme. In Korea alone, 17 mutant varieties were released. Additionally, a total of 30 promising sesame mutant lines were obtained in Bangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Oilseed crops are important both for edible products such as cooking oil and margarine for human consumption, and oilcake or meal for animal feed and for industrial use in the manufacture of soaps, cosmetics, paints and pharmaceuticals.
When asked about their priorities in forest management, the Latin American countries called upon FAO's Forests, Trees and People Programme (FTPP) to conduct a workshop on dispute resolution.
Management of forest resources often brings into play conflicting interests from many sectors. Reaching the appropriate balance between immediate needs and future considerations for the environment and between community and commercial concerns can be a difficult task.
At the workshop on "Dispute Resolution and Community participants from Latin America, Asia and Africa explored practical methods for working through conflicts in forest management. Five case-studies were presented for analysis. They highlighted the fact that rural communities often lack the political strength to make their voices heard. For example, government policy-makers may grant logging concessions despite indigenous people's claims to sovereignty over traditional lands. In addition, rapid social, political and economic changes have broken down many traditional decision-making structures.
Community representatives at the workshop emphasized the importance of training in dispute management skills, such as negotiation, to empower rural groups involved in conflicts over natural resources. As a direct offshoot of the workshop, four countries Bolivia, Ecuador, Mali and Thailand have begun to institutionalize training programmes for environmental dispute resolution.
Seeing the results their Chinese neighbours to the north were achieving with hybrid rice production, Vietnamese Government officials called on FAO to help them intensify the development of a similar technology. From 1991 to 1993, the government expanded its original 100 hectares of experimental plots for hybrid rice production to almost 1 000 hectares.
As officials had suspected, the new technology spread quickly to farmers' fields. By 1993, producers in the northern provinces were planting nearly 40 000 hectares, accounting for a 17.5 percent increase in output. Although a small amount of hybrid seed was produced locally by the Vietnamese, the widespread success of the hybrids depended on the importation of large amounts of seed developed and produced by the Chinese. This seed is particularly suited for use in the north of the country where growing conditions are similar to those in China.
Hybrid strains which produce yields 15 to 30 percent higher than those of commonly used rice strains offer other added benefits. In the mountainous north, increased availability of locally produced, affordable rice has taken the pressure off upland farmers, reducing their slash-and-burn cultivation considerably and thus helping to arrest deforestation and soil degradation in the area.
In Viet Nam, the prevailing problem is rice monoculture. This practice is driven by the limited availability of arable land coupled with the importance of rice in the diet of a growing population. Thanks to its high yield efficiency, intensively produced hybrid rice is now freeing fields for other crops such as vegetables and fruit-trees. Hybrid rice's higher yields also allow farmers to cover demand in the prime season, circumventing the need to plant late rice crops which are subject to the risks of monsoons.
But there are still major constraints to increased use of hybrids in Viet Nam, among them the dependence on seed imports from China and the resulting scarcity of seed adapted to the southern regions. FAO is helping the Vietnamese Government train local rice workers and farmers to produce hybrid seed tailored to their specific needs. This will boost the national economy while generating employment at the rural level.
In the context of economic and institutional reforms, FAO's Rural Development Organization Group is helping non-governmental agricultural and professional organizations in numerous African countries assume rural development responsibilities previously concentrated in the public sector. To this end, a regional workshop was held in July 1993, bringing together for the first time responsible officers of agricultural and agriculture-related organizations..
RELACO is an FAO-initiated network on soil tillage linking nine Latin American countries. At the network's second workshop held in Venezuela in November 1993, tillage effects on soil productivity were explored. By developing land management technology to maintain and improve soil quality, members protect the environment while achieving higher, more stable crop yields.
Participants in a seminar on "Forestry Statistics for Latin America" identified two priorities for the effective collection and dissemination of forestry data in their countries: development of national capabilities, and improvement in international and regional exchange. The seminar, held in Chile in April 1993, was attended by representatives from 19 countries
FAO has helped boost the efficiency of village-level meat processing by developing modular designs for slaughtering and processing facilities. The designs employ affordable, easily available materials and the modules can be selected and adapted by users according to their needs. Use of the facilities will help reduce losses and limit contamination while increasing employment particularly for rural women as well as income for small producers.8
The neem tree is treasured in the arid and semi-arid tropics. Not only does its spreading crown provide relief from the tropical sun; neem foliage and seeds have valuable insecticidal and medicinal properties. Neem trees have been introduced in many arid areas to protect crops from wind erosion. But poor seed viability and limited genetic variability outside the species' natural range have narrowed the neem's genetic base. In 1993, FAO joined several international partners to establish a programme for neem seed exchange and improvement.
Diets have been improved in Viet Nam by focusing on increasing knowledge of nutrition within households and among women and mothers in particular through an FAO project. The project placed particular emphasis on vitamin A deficiency, a major problem in many parts of the country.
Awareness of the need to improve the frequency and quality of meals was built up through participatory, pilot-family programmes concentrating on nutrition education and home gardening. Households were encouraged either to grow the foods they need to fill their dietary gaps or to use income from home gardens to purchase those fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin A that they could not easily cultivate.
The participating communities especially those that had been characterized by high rates of malnutrition and low levels of vegetable production registered a significant reduction in children's undernutrition and in the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency. There was also a distinct increase in production of food from home gardens.
This project confirmed a major conclusion reached by the International Conference on Nutrition at FAO headquarters in late 1992: knowledge is among the most powerful tools for achieving nutritional gains in the needy populations of the world. Many other FAO activities in 1993 were devoted to increasing knowledge among vulnerable groups about dietary deficiencies and the alternatives available to combat them. A document for extensionists and communicators entitled Social communication in nutrition was published and an Intercountry Workshop on Nutrition Education for South and East Asian Countries was held. A training document, Population education and nutrition, was produced and used during a Near East regional training course (involving six countries) and during national training activities in five Latin American and four African countries.
To assist policy-makers in identifying needy groups, the "Methodological Workshop on the Identification of Families Nutritionally at Risk" was held in Egypt. Meanwhile, specialists helped governments determine the impact of their nutrition programmes on the population, targeting plans to reach nutritionally at risk households. FAO has produced country nutrition profiles for 100 developing countries to provide a concise view of their food and nutrition status, agricultural production and economic and demographic situation.
The impact of soil and water degradation is especially severe in the developing countries and in particular among the rural poor who have the least access to these vital resources. FAO has initiated several research projects to help farmers in developing nations make the most of the resources available to them.
One of these projects is in Africa, where it is estimated that by the year 2010 over two-thirds of the population will live in severely water-stressed countries. A joint FAO/IAEA/SIDA research programme uses neutron moisture meters to measure how water is used by crops and crop varieties. The study has shown that some varieties of cereals, for example, are up to three times more efficient in water use than others. By making information on water-efficient varieties available to farmers in water-scarce areas, FAO can provide them with welcome relief.
Another FAO/IAEA research programme uses a gene-marker technique to track down soil micro-organisms that can help leguminous species fix atmospheric nitrogen and produce higher yields. These studies are complemented by monitoring bacterial populations in the soil especially of those that may compete with the favourable, nitrogen-fixing ones to allow the development of cultural practices that will enhance symbiosis.Improved nutrition promoted through awareness building
Sugar cane is the leading export product in Cuba and therefore an important source of revenue. Until this project, germplasm for the crop was maintained principally in field collections, which are expensive to pests and pathogens, as well as natural and human-made disasters.
The cryopreservation project involved close collaboration with ORSTOM (Institut français de recherche scientifique pour le développement en coopération) in Montpellier, France. Cuban scientists were trained by ORSTOM staff in encapsulation and dehydration methods. Encapsulation actually creates an artificial "seed" capsule around the tissues or embryos to be preserved, allowing plant cuttings to survive drastic treatments that would otherwise be lethal.
Although sugar cane can also be conserved using more common in vitro techniques, cryopreservation requires much less space. Unlike the frozen cells, in vitro plants continue to grow and must be regularly cut back. Also, in the frozen specimens cell development is halted, removing the possibility of genetic variation.
Cassava, coffee and banana are the only other tropical plants that have been successfully conserved using encapsulation/dehydration cryopreservation techniques. The success of the work with sugar cane has resulted in the approval of a new FAO project to explore the application of similar techniques in Cuba for the conservation of vegetables, roots and tubers.
In a project successfully completed in Malawi in 1993, FAO introduced stunning equipment that protects animals from unnecessary suffering at the time of slaughter. The captive bolt pistols (or stun guns) were made available to rural and urban abattoirs under the safekeeping of the local veterinary service.
On-the-spot training in the use of the equipment was offered as an integral part of the project. As a follow-up, FAO's local representative will provide cartridges and spare parts.
The stunning equipment was well received in Malawi for many reasons. Not only did it achieve the primary aim of animal protection, it also made the work easier and safer while contributing to improved meat and by-product quality. FAO is confident that these benefits will encourage continued use of the equipment while generating interest and support from local authorities in other areas of the country.
The successful Malawi experience is now being followed up in selected locations in Africa and Asia where FAO, in collaboration with animal protection societies, will set up "nucleus" abattoirs with stunning equipment to implement similar projects. The pilot centres will help spread the word to nearby locations, giving special attention to local beliefs and customs that may have a bearing on the use of the equipment.