The article discusses progress being made in Mali and Senegal to develop dried mango exports following Burkina Faso's example. Dried mango production in West Africa represents 40% of global production, ranking second behind Brazil. Senegal and Mali aim to improve dried mango quality and packaging standards to better access the European market. Weed management was identified as a key constraint to increasing cassava production in Nigeria.
1 of 28
Download to read offline
More Related Content
Spore_Magazine_Feb_Mar_2015
1. The magazine
for agricultural and
rural development
in ACP countries
http://spore.cta.int
N°174
february-march 2015
Sustainable
development goals
Setting the
course
LYCHEE
A festive
commodity
Feeding Africa’s livestock
Fodder and
forage solutions
interview
Afiavi Agboh-Noameshie,gender specialist at theAfrica Rice Center
2. How can we
rejuvenate
family farming?
Discover 4 routes to
success proposed by
the experts at CTA
Learn more at www.cta.int/iyff
4. A
t the end of the 1990s, the 191 United Nations
Member States adopted the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) and pledged to
halve world poverty by 2015. This initiative
has been instrumental in channelling funds and energy
towards meeting eight key objectives. But the results have
been mixed (see box, Millennium Development Goals -
mixed results) and, although the MDGs had been drawn up
by international consensus at the outset, it was a serious
oversight that the process was not participatory. This
grievance was tackled head on by the UN, which launched
a series of consultations in 2012 to deliberate on a new
post-2015 development agenda, but this time involving all
the stakeholders.
An ambitious and complex process
Discussions to set the post-2015 goals were first
conducted within the UN and a task force was set up
following the MDG Summit in 2010. In June 2012, the
Rio+20 Conference then focused on formulating a set
of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These two
discussiongroupsweresubsequentlymerged.Development
issues were thus consolidated with environment and
sustainability issues and it was officially pledged that
the future development programme would include the
SDGs. The Open-ended Working Group (OEWG), founded
in January 2013, is an intergovernmental committee
responsible for drafting a summary document formalising
the different SDG options based on The Future We Want
outcome document adopted at the Rio+20 Conference.
In parallel, consultation sessions were held in many
countries on different topics such as food security and
governance. The United Nations Development Programme
also initiated ‘a global conversation’ to gather the opinions
of citizens worldwide online or by SMS with more than
1.8 million people participating. In addition, the global
MY World survey will run until 2015 in which any citizen
can participate to give their views; nearly 2 million people
in over 190 countries voted on their six development
priorities during the first quarter of 2014 alone.
Negotiations between UN Member States to set new
SDGs will be underway in early 2015 based on the
OEWG final report, which proposes 17 goals and 169
targets for the 2015-2030 period. These SDGs are more
ambitious than the initial MDGs and have a broader scope,
encompassing economic, environmental and social issues
- the three dimensions of sustainable development. The
focus is primarily on developing countries, but some of the
goals and targets are universal.
Poverty eradication is the first goal. The OEWG report
underlines the importance of agriculture regarding
food security and nutrition, while stressing the need to
conserve resources and the environment. Three of the 17
goals relate to agriculture in a broad sense: the first is to
end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and
promote sustainable agriculture (goal 2); the second is to
conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine
resources (goal 14); while the third aims to protect and
restore terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity (goal 15).
ACP countries are getting positioned
In December 2013, the ACP Council of Ministers adopted
the ACP Declaration, which is a common set of needs
and expectations regarding the post-2015 programme.
According to Achille Bassilekin, Assistant Secretary
General of the Secretariat of the ACP Group of States,
it is hinged on four pillars to stimulate economic and
social growth; the definition of sustainable development
Sustainable development goals
Setting the course
2015 will undoubtedly be a pivotal year for the development agenda.
The dialogue, which began in 2012 between UN Member States, civil
society and the private sector on the post-2015 period, is well
underway. What about ACP countries in agriculture?
COVER STORY
As elsewhere in
Africa, the
population in
eastern Uganda
continues to grow as
the environment
deteriorates, putting
more and more
pressure on land
that grows ever drier
4 | Spore 174 | february-march 2015
14. A
frica’sconsumptionofanimalproductsisrapidly
increasing as demand from its burgeoning
population rises. Between 2005 and 2030, it
is forecasted that meat and milk consumption
in Africa will grow by 2.8 and 2.3% per year. However,
Africa’s livestock producers are currently not able to
meet the rising demand. In particular, providing Africa’s
livestock with sufficient quantity and quality of feed is a
critical issue that researchers, NGOs and policymakers,
amongst others, are working to address.
One key factor for considering how to feed Africa’s
livestockinthefutureisthedifferenceinfeedrequirements
for various livestock. Monogastric animals such as pigs
and poultry farmed commercially are predominantly fed
on concentrates produced by feed mills. However, with
rapid population growth, there is growing competition
between humans and livestock for grain. The best quality
grain (e.g. maize in Eastern Africa) is used for human
consumption, with that used for animal feed tending
to be rather low. However, despite this, strong demand
keeps prices high, and in most countries, feed accounts
for up to 65% of poultry production costs. To address this
issue, feed mills are innovating in the way they work with
farmers supplying the grain (see Field report, Integrating
poultry and poultry feed on p18) and to alternative source
ingredients, including agro-industrial waste products.
In contrast, whilst some concentrates are fed to dairy
and beef cattle, the main source of livestock feed for
ruminants, including cattle, sheep and goats includes
crop residues, forages and fodder shrubs. So a key
research issue is how to better integrate and promote
efficient crop-livestock systems. The development of
the dairy industry in Kenya, for example, demonstrates
how integrating crops and livestock can simultaneously
intensify livestock and crop production.
Fodder for more milk and income
in Eastern Africa
In Kenya, some 1.8 million smallholders provide more
than 80% of the milk; a typical farm has just one or two
cows. Most dairy cows are kept in ‘zero-grazing’ pens and,
in addition to small amounts of purchased concentrates,
are fed a variety of fibrous feeds. A key fodder source has
traditionally been Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum),
which is typically cut and chopped before being fed to the
animals. “We use Napier grass because it’s nutritious and
dossier
Faster fodder
James Wainana, CEO of Hydroponics Kenya, supplies
hydroponic grown fodder to 500-1,000 livestock
farmers from his farm in Kitengela. The fodder is
grown from barley seeds (wheat and oats can also be
used) and is ready to harvest in 7-10 days; if grown
conventionally on soil, the fodder takes 12 weeks to
harvest. The hydroponic system involves spouting
the barley seeds in mineral solution rather than soil:
1 kg of barley seeds produces 8 kg of fodder and a
farmer with two dairy cows only needs a space of
3 x 6 m to grow sufficient fodder compared to 0.8 ha
required for growing Napier grass.
M-fodder* is a mobile phone-based SMS system
developed by students at the University of Nairobi
to link smallholder livestock keepers to hydroponic
fodder producers. Livestock keepers use the
m-fodder app to order fodder by SMS 8 days in
advance. The hydroponic fodder costs €0.5 per 10 kg
compared to buying Lucerne fodder, for example,
which costs €4.40 per 10 kg stack. “I have used
hydroponically sprouted fodder for approximately
7 months. My milk yield has increased and enabled
me to earn an extra profit of €9 per day,” says Mr
Ochieng, a farmer from Nakuru county.
*M-fodder is a Top 20 innovation supported by CTA
ILRI is
collaborating
with the Napier
grass
breeding
programme of
EMBRAPA, the
Brazilian
agricultural
research
corporation, to
develop
improved lines
that are disease
resistant and
have high
nutritional value
14 | Spore 174 | february-march 2015
16. for instance, pasture and crop residues represent about
90% of feed for large ruminant animals. However, residues,
especially from cereals, are often of low nutritional quality.
Research to improve fodder feed value in recent decades
often emphasised postharvest treatment of crop residues.
In contrast, ILRI and collaborating CGIAR centres have
focused on crop breeding to develop dual purpose
cultivars for crop-livestock systems with improved grain
and residue yields and higher overall fodder quality for a
wide range of grain crops (e.g. maize, rice, sorghum, pearl
millet, barley, cowpea and groundnut). ILRI estimates
that in West Africa alone, up to 1.4 million ha could be
intercropped with dual purpose cowpea varieties, directly
benefiting over 9 million people.
Sweet potato vines are another valuable animal feed
providing more protein and dry matter per unit area than
other staple feeds. In China, 25-30% of sweet potato is
currently used as animal feed. The potential in sub-Saharan
Africa has not yet been realised but pig farmers in Kenya
and Uganda already use sweet potato vines supplemented
with commercial feed. To overcome dry season shortages,
researchers have developed an improved silage tube.
“This technology allows farmers to make any amount of
silage they wish depending on the amount of sweet potato
vines and non-commercial roots available on farms, which
allows farmers to better utilise their local feed resources
which would have otherwise gone to waste,” says Ben
Lukuyu, an ILRI animal nutritionist.
Making use of agro-industrial waste (including
dossier
Finding the right feed
Nearly 1,400 livestock feed resources are included
in Feedipedia, an open encyclopaedia of animal
feed resources. The feed resources are categorised in
four main categories: forage plants, plant products/
by-products, feed of animal origin, and other feeds,
which are further divided into sub-categories.
The main objective of Feedipedia is to provide
extension and development workers, planners,
livestock farmers, researchers and policymakers,
amongst others, with the latest information to help
them identify, characterise and properly use feed
resources to sustainably develop the livestock sector.
The information on www.feedipedia.org is jointly
managed by FAO and the French research institutes,
AFZ, CIRAD and INRA.
IMPORTANCE
OF FODDER
HYDROPONIC VS NAPIER FODDER Hydroponic Napier fodderBENEFITS OF FODDER
HYDROPONIC FODDER PRODUCTION VS CONVENTIONAL FODDER PRODUCTION
HYDROPONIC VS LUCERNE FODDER Hydroponic Lucerne Commercial feed
Protein content
24%
90%
€0.10
8 kg
€0.10
€4.4
40%
80%
€30
30 kg
2.5 kg
45%
€5.40
4%
Daily amount
for one dairy cow
Cost per 10 kg
% cost vs
hydroponic
Digestibility
Cost per 10 kg
less
space
used
less water
(and it can be
recycled)
less
fertiliser
30%
70%4TIMES
Grown by an estimated 4 million
farmers in Eastern Africa
Constitutes up to 80% of total feed
Kenya’s economic benefit = €18.5
million (1993 and 2008)
Farmers spend ~ €8.8 raising and
transplanting 500 fodder seedlings
in the first year
4 kg of vines can replace
1 kg of dairy concentrate
•
•
•
•
•
napier
grass
fodder
shrubs
sweet
potato
vines
Source: CGIAR & Elvis Ouma, m-Fodder founder/University of Nairobi
16 | Spore 174 | february-march 2015
21. publicationspublications
@
In sub-Saharan Africa, informal
markets are the dominant sales route
for meat, milk, eggs and processed foods
made from animal products. Conventional
thinking tends to regard such markets
as food safety hotspots, owing to their
lack of health and safety regulation, their
tendency to operate outside taxation and
licensing systems, and their use of traditional
processing methods. However, the authors
of this new publication call for a reappraisal
of food safety in informal markets, based on
information gathered from 25 case studies.
An important theme to emerge is the
need to focus on risks rather than hazards.
For instance, current systems to assess food
safety would likely identify the high levels
of bacteria in Kenya’s informally-marketed
fresh milk as a dangerous hazard that merits
tougher enforcement of safety standards. In
reality, however, risks to human health from
this milk are very low, as it is normal for
families to boil milk before drinking it. This
is also an example of how culture is a vital
determinant of food safety, which means that
simply providing information may not be
enough to change food safety behaviour.
Other lessons from the case studies include
the findings that traditional, informally sold
foods often have no worse compliance with
food standards than food sold in the formal
sector, that traditional processing methods
can be surprisingly effective at controlling
risks, and that food safety problems are
most often best solved through stakeholder
engagement and incentives, rather than
regulation and enforcement.
Food Safety and Informal Markets
Edited by K Roesel & D Grace
CTA, 2014; 288 pp.
ISBN 978-11-3881-876-7
CTA no. 1797
20 credit points
Understanding risk Gender study
■■ While drawing on research projects in 14
countries in Africa and the Middle East, this
fascinating account of how women and girls
are gaining empowerment through the use
of ICTs is not a typical end of programme
summary. Rather than excising the emotion
from their account in the views of scientific
objectivity, this excellent book presents
science that matters, with readers left in no
doubt of the importance of the subject and
the potential for positive change that ICTs
could bring.
That said, the authors do not present ICTs
as a panacea to gender inequality, being
mindful of the need to be balanced and
realistic, as well as hopeful. Examples include
community radio as a catalyst for democracy
in Cameroon, use of social networking
by Zambian women to create a space for
social change, and ICT-mediated responses
to sectarian violence in northern Nigeria.
Themes explored include emancipation
versus tradition, developing a critical voice
through safe ICT spaces, and the role of ICT
in personal and social transformation.
Women and ICT in
Africa and the Middle
East
By I Buskens & A Webb
Zed Books, 2014; 336 pp.
ISBN 978-17-8360-042-7
£21.99 • €28
Zed Books Ltd
7 Cynthia Street
London
N1 9JF, UK
www.zedbooks.co.uk
Transforming farming
The latest edition of ICT4Ag
explores how ICTs are
transforming the lives of family
farmers, giving them better access
to information, markets, services
and inputs, and making them more
resilient to external shocks. Innovations
highlighted include the role of village
savings and loan associations and a
participatory radio campaign in Ghana
to help family farmers adapt to climate
change.
ICT4Ag: Building Resilience
for Family Farming
By CTA
CTA, 2014; 24 pp.
CTA no. ICT078E
Downloadable as PDF file from:
http://tinyurl.com/nozxz7x
Progress report
More than 500 million family farms
manage the majority of the world’s
agricultural land and produce most
of the world’s food. This annual
publication from FAO analyses family
farms and the role of innovation
in ensuring global food security,
poverty reduction and environmental
sustainability. The report argues
that family farms must be supported
to innovate in ways that promote
sustainable intensification of production
and improvements in rural livelihoods.
The State of Food and Agriculture 2014:
Innovation in Family Farming
By FAO
FAO, 2014; 161 pp.
ISBN 978-92-5108-536-3
Downloadable as PDF file from:
http://tinyurl.com/knps8wz
Community forests
Based on an analysis of legally-
recognised community forests in 15
countries, this report reveals a link
between community forests that have
strong legal recognition and government
protection with healthier forests and
lower carbon dioxide emissions from
deforestation and forest degradation.
The authors call on governments
to enforce the rights of forest
communities over their land and prevent
encroachments from illegal settlers and
loggers.
Securing Rights, Combating Climate Change
By C Stevens, R Winterbottom, K Reytar et al.
World Resources Institute, 2014; 64 pp.
ISBN 978-15-6973-829-0
Downloadable as PDF file from:
http://tinyurl.com/pk5owtj
february-march 2015 | Spore 174 | 21
22. publicationspublications
Market
transformation
Global review Working model?
■■ Passionate, personal, informed and
informal, Changing the Food Game is a bold
analysis of why and how current agricultural
systems must be transformed if they are to
sustainably feed 10 billion people by 2050.
With a background in sustainable market
transformation, Simons skilfully describes
the failures in agricultural markets, including
issues such as protection for European farmers
and the impacts this has in Africa, and how
such failures make unsustainability inevitable.
This includes the impact of agriculture on
land, water, biodiversity and climate change.
Having described the problem we face,
Simons then sets out the solution, in the form
of four phases of market transformation.
Examples from the palm oil, coffee, cocoa
and spice sectors are used to explain how
transformation starts. Further phases
proceed from first movers to the creation
of a critical mass and institutionalisation of
change, and finally reach a ‘level playing
field’. Real world examples and presentation
in short, manageable chunks, make the
analysis both accessible and fascinating.
■■ With increasing demands on forests as a
source of renewable energy and a wide array
of other products, the global forestry sector
is undergoing a major transformation. This
book, which provides an excellent overview
of the current state of the sector, presents
research studies conducted in the global
North and South under five main themes:
globalisation, governance, wood supply,
trends in non-conventional products, and
ecosystem services.
In looking at the impacts of globalisation,
the studies focus on the drive towards a green
economy, the development of renewable
energy products and the importance of
phytosanitary trade regulations. Governance
issues include illegal logging, certification,
forest tenure and the rise in corporate
social responsibility. In examining the
status of wood supply, trends in plantation
management are key, while the increasing
demand for bamboo to fulfil a diversity of
functions is covered in a chapter on non-
conventional products. A final chapter draws
lessons from two schemes offering payment
for ecosystems services in Costa Rica and
Ecuador.
■■ If farmers are to participate in modern
commodity value chains, and thereby
access lucrative markets, they must meet a
demanding range of requirements: regular
supply, high quality and safety in produce and
production, and compliance with logistical
procedures such as bulking, packaging and
transport, are all increasingly essential. So
do such demands exclude resource-poor,
small-scale farmers from modern markets?
Not necessarily, suggest the contributors to
this recent publication from FAO.
Drawing on nine diverse case studies
from the developing world (including citrus
production in South Africa, and vegetables
in Tanzania), the book offers a detailed
examination of the extent to which contract
farming is helping small farmers to access
markets and meet the requirements of
manufacturers, retailers, exporters and
others, in both the food and non-food
(biofuels and forestry) sectors. The studies
also aim to clarify the significant ways in
which contracts can vary according to the
commodity, the market, public policies and
other country-specific factors.
Changing the Food Game:
Market Transformation
Strategies for Sustainable
Agriculture
By L Simons
Greenleaf Publishing, 2014; 268 pp.
ISBN 978-17-8353-230-8
£24.99 • €30
Greenleaf Publishing
Aizelwood Business Centre
Aizlewood’s Mill
Nursery Street, Sheffield
S3 8GG, UK
www.greenleaf-publishing.com
Forests and Globalization:
Challenges and
Opportunities for
Sustainable Development
Edited by W Nikolakis & J Innes
Routledge, 2014; 226 pp.
ISBN 978-11-3878-739-1
£85 • €105
Routledge
130 Milton Park
Abingdon
OX14 4SB, UK
www.routledge.com
Contract Farming for
Inclusive Market Access
Edited by C A da Silva & M Rankin
FAO, 2014; 227 pp.
ISBN 978-92-5108-061-0
US$55 • €44
FAO Publications
Viale delle Terme di Caracalla
00153 Rome, Italy
www.fao.org/publications
Downloadable as PDF file from:
http://tinyurl.com/peak29m
Managing risks
In Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, farmers
are increasing their resilience to climate
change through adoption of technologies
which improve soil health and fertility
and facilitate water conservation, and
through better diversification of sources
of livelihood and income. The results
and lessons learned from these pilot
activities show that adapting to climate
change will require renewed efforts in
improving land and water management
through supportive policies, capacity
development and targeted investments.
Adapting to Climate Change through Land and
Water Management in Eastern Africa
By FAO
FAO, 2014; 180 pp.
ISBN 978-92-5108-354-3
Downloadable as PDF file from:
http://tinyurl.com/mj758n6
Adaptation
The causes of vulnerability to drought
in Eastern Africa and the western
Indo-Gangetic Plain of South Asia are
reviewed in this report, before the
options to increase resilience to drought
in the agricultural sector are discussed.
Strategies outlined include sustainable
management of agroecological
landscapes and measures to improve
access to food, to protect people’s health
and to lower the risk of investment in
farming.
Drought Risk Reduction in Agriculture
By N Cenacchi
IFPRI, 2014; 56 pp.
Downloadable as PDF file from:
http://tinyurl.com/p9uscd5
Reducing contamination
Groundnuts are prone to contamination
by aflatoxins during production and
storage. This study found that while
inferior groundnut kernels, which are
likely to be contaminated, are sorted
out, the rejects are not taken out of the
food chain; instead they are offered
to consumers in a crushed form as an
ingredient in cooking. A strategy suitable
for developing countries, where stringent
enforcement of regulation may not be
feasible, is presented.
Strategies to Control Aflatoxin in Groundnut
Value Chains
By W J Florkowski & S Kolavalli
IFPRI, 2014; 28 pp.
Downloadable as PDF file from:
http://tinyurl.com/pym6zc6
22 | Spore 174 | february-march 2015
23. publicationspublications
JES WEIGELT / ALEXANDER MÜLLER / CHARLOTTE BECKH / KLAUS TÖPFER (EDITORS)
SOILS IN THE NEXUS
A Crucial Resource for Water, Energy and Food Security
Hunger weapon Informal economy Multiple values
■■ Featuring in a series titled the Anthropology
of Food and Nutrition, this collection of papers
offers a transdisciplinary examination of food
during times of war, including social, cultural,
political and nutritional perspectives. The
politicisation and militarisation of hunger
is a key theme, with food, or the lack of it,
consistently used as a weapon, and hunger
and high food prices often being a major
driver of revolution. But beyond the political
machinations, the volume also offers much
more personal accounts of food in times of
conflict, including peoples’ determination
and innovation in preserving something
of their traditional cooking and eating
experiences even when faced with refugee
camp rations or war-zone famine.
The examples, both contemporary and
historical, are drawn from around the world,
including several from Africa, as well as
Asia, Latin America and Europe. War-time
experiences in Sierra Leone, the relationships
between land mines, cluster bombs and
food insecurity in Africa, and the special
nutritional needs of those living in refugee
camps are all covered.
■■ The first in a two-book series on
Africa’s participation in global trade, this
volume focusses on what is described as
‘globalisation from below’. This is the world
of informal traders and entrepreneurs,
operating under the radar of the police,
regulation and taxation. Yet as Lee makes
clear through her series of ethnographic
studies, it is a world of passionate
entrepreneurs who long to be successful
and whose work makes a significant
contribution to African societies, in
achieving their material aspirations.
Much of the book focusses on trade
between Africa and China. In the southern
Chinese city of Guangzhou, traditional
gateway for Chinese products to the world,
a large population of African traders
uses a complex network of contacts and
connections to send Chinese goods to
Africa. Another chapter focusses on those
who trade in these goods back in Africa.
A final chapter looks at clothing factories
established under the US African Growth
and Opportunities Act, a system which
Lee argues has failed to bring about better
standards of living for African workers.
■■ Our planet’s soils make an enormous
contribution to our existence, supporting
over 90% of global food production, storing
10 times the amount of carbon held in forests,
preventing floods by storing water, and
providing a home to enormous and essential
biodiversity. But soils are increasingly under
threat from erosion, exhaustion and urban
expansion, putting at risk their capacity
to support the growing population in the
coming decades. If they are to be protected
and sustainably managed, a new recognition
of their multiple functions is needed,
extending integrated resource management
approaches to include the ecosystem services
that soils provide.
Reappraising the value of soils goes beyond
their physical properties and functions,
requiring vital perspectives from social
sciences: politics, anthropology, economics
and other cultural studies must all make their
contribution in building an understanding
of ‘soils in the nexus’. Transdisciplinary and
technical, this collection of research papers
is primarily aimed at a scientific audience
rather than the general reader.
Food in Zones of
Conflict
Edited by P Collinson
& H Macbeth
Berghahn, 2014; 252 pp.
ISBN 978-17-8238-403-8
£60 • €75
Berghahn Books Ltd
3 Newtec Place
Magdalen Road, Oxford
OX4 1RE, UK
www.berghahnbooks.com
Africa’s World Trade
By M C Lee
Zed Books, 2014; 176 pp.
ISBN 978-17-8032-350-3
£21.99 • €28
For Zed Books’ address,
see p21
Soils in the Nexus
Edited by J Weigelt,
A Müller, K Töpfer, et al.
Oekom, 2014; 164 pp.
ISBN 978-38-6581-431-9
€34.95
Oekom
Waltherstr. 29
80337 Munich
Germany
www.oekom.de
Investment
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have
increasingly become seen as a way to
stimulate investment in agriculture
and technology, in order to increase
productivity and foreign exchange
earnings. But are PPPs an effective way
to achieve poverty eradication and
improve rural livelihoods? This analysis
by Oxfam reveals that ‘mega-PPPs’ are
unproved and risky, and it is the poorest
who are likely to lose out, be put at risk
or be bypassed.
Moral Hazard? ‘Mega’ Public-Private
Partnerships in African Agricultures
By R Willoughby
Oxfam, 2014; 40 pp.
ISBN 978-17-8077-685-9
Downloadable as PDF file from:
http://tinyurl.com/otsg2f8
Sustainable farming
This case study describes the factors
that enabled 200,000-300,000 ha of
degraded land in Burkina Faso to be
brought into productive use through
the application of improved traditional
farming techniques. Farmers and
their local knowledge of suitable
and efficient methods, diffusion of
improved techniques through community
networks, and provision of financial
support for the initial start-up costs are
seen as the key factors that contributed
to such success.
A Greener Burkina
By A Lenhardt, J Glennie, N Intscher et al.
ODI, 2014; 44 pp.
Downloadable as PDF file from:
http://tinyurl.com/nk5uduy
Conservation
Forest genetic resources are essential
for the continued productivity, services,
adaptation and evolutionary processes
of forests and trees. This first report
from FAO aims to build the information
and knowledge base required for
action towards better conservation
and sustainable management of forest
genetic resources at the national,
regional and international levels.
The State of the World’s
Forest Genetic Resources
By FAO
FAO, 2014; 304 pp.
ISBN 978-92-5108-402-1
Downloadable as PDF file from:
http://tinyurl.com/qfj826e
february-march 2015 | Spore 174 | 23
24. publications
To obtain
publications
Publications marked @
may be downloaded from the
following website:
http://publications.cta.int
Titles marked with the logo
can be obtained as follows:
If you are a subscriber to
CTA publications:
Use one of these options.
• If you have an account with
http://publications.cta.int, go
on-line and select your books
depending on the credit points you
have, then click on ‘Add to shopping
cart’ and ‘Proceed to checkout’.
• If you do not have Internet
access, you can continue using
the order form supplied by CTA.
If you are an ACP organisation
involved in agriculture but
are not yet a subscriber to
CTA publications, you can:
Request a subscription online at
http://publications.cta.int, by email
to pdsorders@cta.int or by mail to
CTA - PDS, PO Box 173, 6700 AD
Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Organisations that subscribe in 2015
will receive 200 credit points. Those
already subscribed will receive 200
credit points plus half of the amount
of credit points spent in 2014, i.e.
a maximum of 400 credit points.
If you are not an ACP
organisation involved
in agriculture:
You can either buy the publications
from the publisher or in a book shop.
Alternatively you can download
certain titles on the website
http://publications.cta.int.
More than half of our publications
are downloadable free of charge.
Titles marked with the symbol
can be purchased from the
publishers cited or from bookstores.
Power generation Neutral
Standpoint?
■■ The heavy dependence of developed
countries, in particular, on fossil fuels
for electricity generation, transportation,
industry and domestic energy needs, are a
cause of global climate change. About a third
of energy expenditure in developed countries
goes on electricity, largely generated by a
combination of fossil fuelled power stations,
nuclear power and renewable energies.
Understanding the pros and cons of these
various technologies, and their political
dimensions, is the main focus of this
excellent, accessible book.
Readers with a primary interest in the
agricultural dimensions of energy policy
will find a chapter on biomass and biofuels.
It’s also worth noting that the book’s scope
includes both developed and developing
countries. Many of the latter may be in a
better position to design energy systems
that meet a ‘triple bottom line’, balancing
costs and benefits in terms of the economy,
society and the environment, since they are
often closer to starting ‘from scratch’ rather
than having to redirect a highly developed,
inertia-driven existing system.
■■ Organic production or conventional?
Industrial methods or sustainable approaches?
Global food sourcing or local? These are just
three issues - among many - in food and
agriculture where views have become highly
polarised, with most people judging the oppo-
sing sides as either entirely good or entirely
bad. Economists take a different approach,
making judgements on the basis of costs and
benefits, and therefore finding both good and
bad elements in both sides.
Written by two senior American
economists, Depolarizing Food and
Agriculture is both very interesting and
very readable, offering economics-based
solutions to these seemingly irreconcilable
conflicts. Ultimately, our approaches to
food production and consumption, they
argue, need to be multifaceted, diverse and
targeted, with the goals of improving social
well-being and reducing misinformation,
transaction costs and hunger. The authors
focus heavily on examples in the US with
relatively little discussion of the developing
world. Nevertheless, the issues are globally
relevant.
Understanding Energy
and Energy Policy
By T F Braun & L M Glidden
Zed Books, 2014; 224 pp.
ISBN 978-17-8032-934-5
£21.99 • €28
For Zed Books’ address,
see p21
Depolarizing
Food and
Agriculture
By A Barkley & P W
Barkley
Routledge, 2014; 196
pp.
ISBN 978-04-1571-
423-5
£29.99 • €38
For Routledge’s
address, see p22
Managing resources
Water cuts across many of the proposed
Sustainable Development Goals - from
poverty, to health, energy and the
environment. According to this report,
key challenges include setting realistic
targets, carefully considering the local
context to address the needs of the
poor and promoting sustainable water
resources development in a way that
values healthy ecosystems.
On Target for People and Planet: Setting
and Achieving Water-Related Sustainable
Development Goals
Edited by van der Bliek, P McCornick & J Clarke
IWMI, 2014; 56 pp.
ISBN 978-92-9090-801-2
Downloadable as PDF file from:
http://tinyurl.com/pnzkv8t
Good practice
Documenting 30 case studies, this study
illustrates the vital role of women’s
grassroots organisations in ACP countries,
as well as their potential to stimulate
learning and innovation in development
programmes. The study also documents
examples, challenges and opportunities
for advancing women’s rights.
ACP Women: Actors of Development
By ACP Secretariat
ACP Press, 2014; 94 pp.
Downloadable as PDF file from:
http://tinyurl.com/mm55e4z
24 | Spore 174 | february-march 2015