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RNRRS legacy

Research reports for UK

A new system helps smallholders keep pace with world markets
Rapid urbanisation and globalisation have opened up a world of opportunities for smallholder farmers who supply fresh produce. Yet big supermarket chains have high food-safety, quality and agricultural-practice standards, which present both technical and financial challenges. Partners in Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the UK have come up with a cost-effective and sustainable management and control system that allows fruit and vegetable smallholders to meet the stringent requirements of high-value EU retail markets. Either a farmers' organisation or an exporter acts as the primary marketing organisation, ensuring that all growers involved are complying with the requirements. In the process, farmers and cooperative organisations strengthen their ability to negotiate with buyers, suppliers, banks and service providers. Although developed for fresh fruits and vegetables, the system could readily be adapted for other crops, livestock or aquaculture. (Ref: CPH20)
Clean-gene technology has promise for safe genetically-modified crops
An easy and efficient way to develop genetically-modified crops that are 'biosafe' is now available. People worldwide are reluctant to accept genetically-modified foods. They are afraid that they might contain genes, such as those resistant to antibiotics or herbicides, which could be harmful. The clean-gene technology has great potential for Asian and African research programmes that aim to improve rice by genetic methods. It can also be readily used to improve crops grown by poor farmers in China, India and South Africa. Not only important staples, such as maize and wheat, but also orphan crops, such as millet, cowpea, sorghum and many fruits, nuts and vegetables could be improved by this technology. And laboratories in Asia, Africa, the USA and the UK are already using this process. (Ref: PSP18)
Getting everyone to agree in natural resources management
Trade-off analysis is a way of building consensus among stakeholders in multiple use natural resource areas. It involves working with stakeholders to identify their interests and importance, developing different scenarios and iterative weighting of information leading to consensus. It is in use at the Buccoo Reef Marine Park in Tobago, where wide agreement was reached on the long-term objectives of sustainability and conservation of resources. Co-management, facilitated through trade-off analysis, has benefits for the wider social goals of conservation and social-ecological resilience. The method has been widely disseminated in the literature and is being used in Barbados, Canada, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Tanzania and the UK, in contexts such as fisheries, forestry, agriculture, tourism and climate change mitigation. (Ref: NRSP08)
Participation makes ethical trade work for the poor
Although social and environmental codes of practice are now widespread in the export horticulture sector, they are not always effective in improving working conditions and livelihoods. New models and methods developed through work in Europe (the UK) and Africa (Ghana and Zimbabwe) allow poor people to participate directly in developing and implementing ethical codes of practice. They include guidelines on how to build support for such codes, as well as multi-stakeholder organisations to develop and implement them. The guidelines also set out how to develop practical criteria, indicators and verifiers, and how to conduct integrated social and environmental audits. The new knowledge also provides a better understanding of how future strategies, options and constraints will affect the further development of codes of practice for the benefit of poor people. Key ethical trade or fair trade bodies, both in horticulture and in other areas, are already putting these insights into practice. (Ref: CPH16)
Rainfall modelling can predict future yields
PARCHED THIRST (PT) is a decision-support tool that addresses the challenges of low and unreliable crop and livestock production in semi-arid areas. Unlike most other models, PT includes the effect of the weather, water management and soil variability on cereal crop yields. Planners can therefore use it to estimate food deficits or surplus, and so anticipate their import or export strategies. The model is currently used by the Early Warning Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and by agricultural extension offices and training institutes in several areas of Tanzania. It is also used for research and teaching in Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Greece, the UK and the USA. It is available for download from websites in Tanzania, UK and Belgium. (Ref: NRSP13)
Transgenic banana could feed millions
A safe transgenic banana could prevent nematodes (worms) destroying around 6 million tonnes of bananas a year. This is enough to feed the 60 million people in Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon for whom banana is a staple food. Because bananas are sterile, it's very hard to breed resistance to nematodes by conventional plant breeding methods. And the chemicals that are used to control nematodes are harmful both to humans and the environment. The gene introduced into East Highland African Bananas stops the nematodes growing and laying eggs, but does not affect humans at all. This technology is already being used in the UK, and also in Uganda on local cooking bananas. The transgenic method is also being applied to develop nematode-resistant potatoes and rice. (Ref: PSP20)
A new animal health and livestock training network for sub-Saharan Africa - 3
A new network of African universities is being developed to produce teaching materials for disseminating the results of DFID-funded research into animal health and livestock production in sub-Saharan Africa. It aims to overcome the fact that the massive amount of DFID-funded research done to improve animal health and livestock keeping has had very little impact - mainly because new knowledge simply isn't reaching the people who need it. The African Universities' Veterinary E-Learning Consortium (AUVEC) therefore aims to provide bite-sized, easy-to-revise, distance-learning materials that animal health professionals can use to regularly update their knowledge and skills. This developing network consists of veterinary departments and veterinary bodies in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. (Ref: AHP12)
Easy diagnosis of livestock diseases
New methods have been developed to check the health of animals in areas of sub-Saharan Africa where vets are in short supply. One is a cheap, reliable low-tech instrument which can be used to test whether or not livestock are anaemic. Known as a haemoglobinometer, this easy-to-carry device could make a real difference to smallholder farmers since the presence or absence of anaemia is a key indicator of animal health in the tropics. A decision-support tool has also been developed to complement the haemoglobinometer. The colour-banded card helps users to match symptoms to eight major diseases and guides them towards the most likely diagnosis. The decision tool is already being used in Uganda and Eastern Zambia. However, great scope exists to expand its use. (Ref: AHP07)
Information maps: a path to effective solutions
Practical software tools - known as 'Step Tools' - are helping local users to make better and more effective use of information, creating flexible, database-driven solutions without the need for high-level technical expertise. This contributes to pro-poor development by improving local practices and information flow. The innovations apply information mapping to help users visualise their requirements. Customised programming transforms the information maps into searchable web-based databases. The methodologies and tools were developed and pilot-tested with partners in Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe. They are currently in use in Kenya, Malawi, Pakistan, Tanzania and Uganda. (Ref: CPH45)
A new animal health and livestock training network for sub-Saharan Africa - 1
A new network of African universities is being developed to produce teaching materials for disseminating the results of DFID-funded research into animal health and livestock production in sub-Saharan Africa. It aims to overcome the fact that the massive amount of DFID-funded research done to improve animal health and livestock keeping has had very little impact-mainly because new knowledge simply isn't reaching the people who need it. The African Universities' Veterinary E-Learning Consortium (AUVEC) therefore aims to provide bite-sized, easy-to-revise, distance-learning materials that animal health professionals can use to regularly update their knowledge and skills. This developing network consists of veterinary departments and veterinary bodies in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. (Ref: AHP08)
A new animal health and livestock training network for sub-Saharan Africa - 2
A new network of African universities is being developed to produce teaching materials for disseminating the results of DFID-funded research into animal health and livestock production in sub-Saharan Africa. It aims to overcome the fact that the massive amount of DFID-funded research done to improve animal health and livestock keeping has had very little impact - mainly because new knowledge simply isn't reaching the people who need it. The African Universities' Veterinary E-Learning Consortium (AUVEC) therefore aims to provide bite-sized, easy-to-revise, distance-learning materials that animal health professionals can use to regularly update their knowledge and skills. This developing network consists of veterinary departments and veterinary bodies in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. (Ref: AHP11)
Combating rice sheath blight in Bangladesh
Farmers in Bangladesh now have ways to lessen the damage that sheath blight can do to their rice crops. Sheath blight is a serious disease and difficult to detect. Due to better methods of detection, improved varieties of rice that are more resistant to blight (but still have good eating and cooking qualities), and simple biological control methods, farmers in the Comilla, Gazipur, Bogra and Rajshahi districts are already reaping better rice harvests. Agricultural organisations in Bangladesh use the new molecular techniques to detect rice sheath blight and develop better varieties. This will help combat the disease and make a major contribution to raising the country's food production by a quarter within five years - an important government goal. (Ref: CPP59)
Farmers learn to profit from not saving seed
Seed-tuber production schemes are helping farmers in Kenya and Uganda to produce quality potato planting material. Previously, because of the difficulties smallholders faced in purchasing good quality seed-tubers, they found themselves forced to depend on tubers saved from their own harvest. Yet infected home-saved tubers often carried bacterial wilt over to the next crop. A method known as the 'seed-plot' technique now allows smallholders with limited access to land to multiply seed-tubers effectively, lessening the impact of home-saved seed practices. Farmer associations, market chains, and communication and management structures support these production schemes. Materials designed to strengthen farmers' knowledge of marketing, finance and group dynamics help to ensure success. (Ref: CPP10)
More informed decisions for livestock keepers in dry areas
Decision-support tools have now been developed to help decision makers and livestock keepers address the difficult question of how to cope in semi-arid areas where forage levels can fall to critically low levels. Deciding how to manage livestock in these areas, and how many animals to keep, are difficult choices when rainfall cannot be predicted from one year to the next. This means that you can't be sure that there will be enough grazing for your livestock. Using tools like the SimSAGS Decision Support System will make it easier to balance the many factors that have to be taken into account when keeping livestock in areas where rainfall is very variable. (Ref: LPP23)
New tests keep poisons out of food - and off the table
A simple and affordable diagnostic tool is allowing food companies to measure the mycotoxin content of their foods. Mycotoxins are highly poisonous compounds produced by certain moulds that grow on a wide variety of foods and feeds. When eaten, they can cause disease and even death in livestock and people. Mycotoxin ingestion causes about 250,000 deaths a year in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. In cereals, edible nuts and oilseeds, the distribution of mycotoxins is highly localised. The new technology addresses this problem, zeroing in on infested areas accurately. This will have a major impact on food safety and productivity, significantly reducing the costs of testing. What is more important, it is available to all players, including people in developing countries with limited resources. (Ref: CPH17)
Sustainable use of medicinal plants
New methods are available to help communities extract medicinal plants and other non-timber forest products (NTFPs) from their community forests in sustainable ways. More and more communities are now managing or co-managing their forests and pastures, and this is boosting the amount of medicinal NTFPs being collected. To ensure that resources like medicinal plants last, researchers have worked closely with communities in India and Nepal to develop appropriate ways of ensuring sustainable use. The project has produced a variety of useful outputs, ranging from a method of assessing the sustainability of extraction activities to a handbook to help extension workers train villagers in the new techniques. The methods developed are proving popular and have recently been taken up and transferred to Peru by the UK's Darwin Foundation. (Ref: FRP38)
'Off-the-shelf' biocontrol for weeds in India
Scientists in India now have the skills to screen and use biological controls for pests. The exotic noxious weed Parthenium not only causes severe crop losses but also affects people - causing contact dermatitis and allergies. Already used in many countries, biological controls for weeds are sustainable and environmentally friendly. Now, Indian scientists have successfully imported, screened and released a rust to control Parthenium. Proven in UK and Australia, this opens the door for other 'off-the-shelf' pest controls to be introduced. Biological controls could have a major impact on raising incomes of the poor, helping them to use less pesticide and boost crop yields. Interest in these biological control methods is now spreading throughout Asia. (Ref: CPP71)
From mangos to markets
Mango farmers producing for UK export markets have benefited from new methods for evaluating the relationships among stakeholders, as well as their respective roles in marketing high-value produce. A manual helps them to establish individual responsibilities, providing trouble-shooting and feedback mechanisms. It includes procedures for strengthening the ability of the farmers and labourers to accurately assess their technology needs and communicate these to suppliers. It also provides tools to help in interactions with other stakeholders in the supply chain. The manual will assist organisations working with smallholder producers producing a range of commodities. It will do this by helping them to access and monitor scientific resources more effectively - bringing them to bear on pre- and post-harvest problems affecting market access. (Ref: CPH37)
Lessening risks for fishers in climate-change hot spots
A new approach pinpoints places where climate change is likely to affect fisheries most. As well as fishers' lives, climate change will affect trade, economies and jobs. 'Vulnerability mapping', as it is called, alerts people to climate-change hot spots where action is urgently needed. Communities can use this approach to help prepare for climate change. Fishing groups in Malawi have now included migration and other ways to adapt to climate change in their plans. Benin, Malawi, South Africa, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brazil, Chile, Italy, Finland and the UK are also using vulnerability mapping. It has great potential for lessening the risks of climate change throughout Central and West Africa, tropical coastal areas in South America and South East Asia. (Ref: FMSP03)
Tissue culture removes obstacle to control of banana nematodes
To get rid of banana nematodes without using chemicals, farmers in East Africa had to uproot all infected plants, grow a break crop, and then replant with pest-free bananas. But, they couldn't be sure that the new banana plants were free of nematodes. Now, low-cost tissue culture removes this obstacle and makes mass plantings of disease-free bananas possible. The break crop plus tissue-culture plantlet method was proven by farmers in Kayunga and Kayanamukaka, Uganda. Their soils were badly infested with nematodes but they didn't want to use harmful pesticides. Now, a laboratory in Uganda produces 10 million plantlets a year by tissue culture. So, this technology has major potential for banana production in East Africa and for poor producers. (Ref: CPP73)

RNRRS legacy: Rest of the World

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