TROPICAL AGRICUL TURE ASSOCIATION NNewsletter · tropical agriculture association taa...

TROPICAL AGRICULTROPICAL AGRICULTURE ASSOCIATURE ASSOCIATIONTION

NNewsletterewsletter

JuneJune20042004

VolumeVolume24:24:

Number 2Number 2

PO Box 3, Penicuik, Midlothian EH26 0RXWeb site: http://www.taa.org.uk

EditorialThe two Bio’s: Fuels and DiversityFarewell Paul—a real gentleman

Scottish and Borders RegionVisit to the Roslin Institute:Disease resistance—genetic-epidemiological models

South-West RegionBiofuels in the Developed and Developing WorldProduction of—overviewPotential from—tropical plantations…and Biomass experiencesWoodfuel?—short rotation coppiceDiscussion points

London and South-East RegionBiodiversityIn Bhutan—plant conservation…in a traditional Romanian landscapeEarthwatch Europe—sustainable environment

ArticlesGenetic Engineering—tropical plantation crops

LettersBin Laden’s harvest—opiumThe State of Africa—worse than it wasThe great debate continues—GM

NewsCABI Database; Annual Subs; Royal Show; BiennialSeminar (Agribusiness); Directory of CVs; ThailandConference

TAAF NewsAwardees: Annalisa Lodato, James Lomax, MattCracknell, Claire Teeling, Susan Azam Ali, RichardVokes, Janet Geddes, Daniel Fitzpatrick.

TAA Executive Committee

ISSN 0954–6790

TAA is a registered charity, No. 800663, that aims to advance education, research and practice in tropical agriculture.

Office Holders

PresidentMr A.J. BennettHirzbodenweg 15, CH4052 Basel, SwitzerlandTel: +41 61 3110824email: [email protected]

ChairmanMr R. W. Smith, Studdridge Farm Cottage, Ibstone Road,Stokenchurch, High Wycombe, Bucks HP14 3XSTel: 01494 484182; Fax: 01494 484651;email: [email protected]

General SecretaryDr E. Warham, TAA, PO Box 3, Penicuik,Midlothian EH26 0RXTel: 020 7023 0481email: [email protected]

Treasurer/SubscriptionsMr L.N. Robertson, Orchardton House, Acreplace,Wigtown, Newton Stewart DG8 9DUTel: 01988 402208; email: [email protected]

Membership Secretary/Change of AddressDr A.J. Smith, Rothes, Frankscroft, Peebles, Scotland,EH45 9DX. Tel: 01721 721052; Fax: 01721 721302; email:[email protected];

Editor NewsletterMr D. G. Robertson, 16 Lyndhurst Drive, Harpenden,Hertfordshire AL5 5QNTel: 01582 715223; Fax: 01582 762500; [email protected]

Directory of members available for consultation/employmentMr K.J. Virgo, Pettets Farm, Great Bradley, Newmarket,Suffolk CB8 9LUTel: 01440 783413; email: [email protected]

Award Fund Chairman/EnquiriesMr B.G. Hoare, 37a Arlington Road, Surbiton, Surrey KT6 6BWTel: 020 8399 6031; email: [email protected]

Committee MembersProfessor M.K.V. Carr, Tel/Fax: 01608 682184 (office)01608 682806 (home) 07932 612903 (mobile);email: [email protected]

Mr H.M. Gunston, Tel: 01235 223474;email: [email protected] M. Holderness, Tel: 01784 470111; Fax: 01784 470909;email: [email protected] J. Mann, Tel: 01582 763133 ext. 2475; Fax: 01582 467490; email: [email protected] R.G. Poulter, Tel: 01634 883226;email: [email protected] J.M. Waller, Tel: 01582 763973;email: [email protected]

Regional Group ConvenorsScotland/BordersDr A.J. Smith, Rothes, Frankscroft, Peebles, Scotland,EH45 9DXTel: 01721 721052; Fax: 01721 721302;email: [email protected]

South-WestMr G.L. Taylor-Hunt, 19 Abbotsridge Drive, Ogwell,Newton Abbott, Devon TQ12 6YSTel/Fax: 01626 362 782;email: [email protected]

Mr J.W. Reed, Lower Hains, Hains Lane, Marnhull,Sturminster Newton, Dorset DT10 1JU.Tel/Fax: 01258 820245;Email: [email protected]

London/South-EastMr R.N. Jenkin, 45 Linden Close, New Haw, Addlestone,Surrey KT15 3HGTel: 01932 344528Dr J.K. Coulter, Lower Cowden Farm, Five Ashes, E.Sussex TN20 6HL. Tel: 01435 873143; email: [email protected]

East AngliaMr K.J. Virgo, Pettets Farm, Great Bradley, Newmarket,Suffolk CB8 9LUTel: 01440 783413;Email: [email protected]

Specialist Group ConvenorsAgribusinessMr J.W. Turnbull, 32 Oakley Road, Chinnor, Oxon OX39 4HBTel: 01844 352385; Fax: 01844 354991;email: [email protected]

Association for Better Land Husbandry (ABLH)Mr M.A. Brunt, 71 Church Road, Richmond, Surrey TW10 6LXTel: 0208 940 3657; email: [email protected]

Overseas Branch CoordinatorEast AfricanIn abeyance

BESO Co-ordinatorMr J.S. Mulholland, OBE, 15 Uplands Road, Sutton, SurreySM2 5HW, Tel: 020 8642 2742

Royal Show StandMr H.M. Gunston, 6 Clement Close, Wantage, Oxon OX127ED. Tel: 01235 223474; email: [email protected]

Mr M.T. Long, 49 Bewdley Road North, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcs DY13 8PT.Tel: 01299 826016; email [email protected]

Editorial: The two Bio’s: Fuels and Diversity ............2

Farewell Paul—a real gentleman ............................2

Scottish and Borders Region

Roslin Institute: Investigating breeding for diseaseresistance using genetic-epidemiologicalmodels. M Nath & S C Bishop ........................3

South-West Region

Seminar on Biofuels in the Developed and Developing World

The need for and production of biofuels: an overview.Professor Sir Colin Spedding ..........................4

The potential for biofuels from tropical plantations,both by-products, particularly oil palm, andmain products. B J Wood ................................6

Biofuels and Biomass experiences: overview from aninternational seminar in Salzburg, Austria.Roger Cozens ................................................9

Short rotation coppice as a promising woodfuel?David Lewis..................................................11

Discussion points compiled by Brian Wood ............13

London and South-East Region

Seminar on Biodiversity

Plant conservation in Bhutan. Jessica Beaghen ........14

Biodiversity and agriculture in a traditional Romanianlandscape. John Akeroyd ..............................17

Earthwatch Europe’s activities and the promotion andunderstanding necessary for a sustainableenvironment. Frank Vorhies ..........................19

Article

Genetic Engineering of tropical plantation crops.R H V Corley................................................22

Letters

Afghan farm production: Bin Laden’s harvest.Richard I Smith ..........................................26

The state of Africa. Tim Machen ............................26

GM Crops: the great debate. R Alan Yates ..............27

Obituaries

Paul Tuley MBE. Martin Brunt ................................28

Colin Trapnell OBE. Martin Brunt ..........................29

Peter Wilson CBE..................................................29

News

Try the CABI Database! Keith Virgo ........................30

Annual Subscriptions............................................32

TAA Subscription—Paying the Bill! Laurie Robertson,Hon. Treasurer ............................................32

At the Royal Show ................................................33

TAAF

Awardee UpdatesAnnalisa Lodato ..........................................35James Lomax ..............................................36Matt Cracknell ............................................36Claire Teeling ..............................................36Susan Azam Ali............................................36Richard Vokes..............................................36Janet Geddes ..............................................36Daniel Fitzpatrick ........................................36

Notes and Advertisements

Biennial Seminar 2004. Agribusiness—an Engine forDevelopment ..............................................16

Directory of CVs

Revamped Web Site—Directory of CVs! ..................5

On-Line Directory: get yourself known… ..............25

Email Addresses: plea from MemSec ......................21

International Conference, Thailand: “Integratinglivestock-crop systems to meet the challenges ofglobalisation ..............................................34

ProForest and Ecosecurities ..................................31

Tips of the Month ................................................27

tropicalagricultureassociation

taa Newsletter March 2004 1

Contents

Page Page

The Two Bio’s: Fuels andDiversity

Biofuels and biodiversity are two important subjects thatwere discussed in two separate seminars in Cirencesterand London, and in this issue of the Newsletter you havethe opportunity to read some of the papers presented.Although wide apart in the political, social and scientificways in which they are approached, the two subjects arestrongly interlinked.

Biofuels have been on the government and farmingagendas for a number of years, but have we, in thiscountry, made the progress that the biofuel industrywould have liked? The short answer is No. Virtually noenergy or fuel crops are grown in the UK becausefarmers cannot see any chance of making a profit. Butthere are around half a million hectares of set-aside thatcould be used, and one could probably add a further oneor two hundred thousand hectares without impingingon arable land for food production. Just extrapolate thisacross the EU and into Russia and think how muchbiofuel could be produced. If governments were reallyserious about reducing the CO2 emission by 20 percentby 2010, then the arrival of biofuels on the transportscene would be a great help. In the UK pressure has to bebrought on the government to make the politicaldecisions necessary to reduce tax on biofuels and givefarmers whatever help is necessary. In the end it is a caseof pounds and pence, or euros and cents.

As I stated earlier, biofuels and biodiversity areinterlinked. Biodiversity is the result of millions of yearsof complex interactions, but today it relies on ourinfluence on the natural environment. There is growingpublic concern, the flames of which are fanned by ardentconservationists, who are shouting for sustainabledevelopment, whatever that may be! Set-aside landprovides important benefits for biodiversity, especiallybirds and small mammals, and although it’s said thatthere is ecological evidence that oilseed rape is arelatively beneficial crop for biodiversity, the majority ofthese benefits might disappear if fuel crops were to takeover. It has to be a fine balancing act between the two.

One of the detrimental effects of biofuel production onbiodiversity can be found in the tropics. Palm oil is usedin biodiesal production and the increase in oil palmacreage may be a contributing factor to deforestation inIndonesia. It could well happen in other tropicalcountries if poor farmers find a way of making a littlemore income to lift themselves off the poverty line. Andin Great Britain we can see rural biodiversity under threatas the government allows our greenbelts to be eatenaway in their mad rush to build sufficient housing forour ever-increasing population.


2 taa Newsletter March 2004

Editorial/HOST

ED

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L Farewell,Paul—a realgentleman

Whenmost of

you open yourNewsletter,this will beyour first realization that wehave said farewell to ouresteemed GenSec, as Paul usedto refer to the job. Paul died asa result of a heart attack onFriday, 19th March, unexpectednot only to us in the TAA butalso to his many friends aroundthe world. As one of ourmembers put it, “One expectedhim to go on for ever.” He wasan enthusiastic TAA man, whobelieved strongly in theAssociation, and devoted a greatamount of time and effort,especially as General Secretaryduring the last ten years, toensure that the TAA continuedto survive and reach a wideraudience. He will be sorelymissed. His obituary appearson page 28.

Dr Elizabeth Warham hastaken on the mantle that hewore for the TAA and will beacting General Secretary untilour AGM in December.


taa Newsletter March 2004

Modern-day livestock enterprises face an enor-mous challenge from a wide range of pathogens.

These may be microparasites like virus, bacteria andprotozoa or macroparasites like helminths, flies andticks. Current measures to control these pathogensinclude medication, vaccination or other managementstrategies like housing, restriction of movement,culling, sanitation, disinfection, grazing and pasturemanagement. However those strategies may proveineffective in the long run because of development ofresistant strains, food safety hazards or economicalreasons. Evidence for host genetic variation to diseaseresistance has been documented for more than 50diseases, in all major domestic livestock species.Breeding for disease resistance may be a reliable andenvironment-friendly approach, which may com-plement or replace existing strategies. Our modellingapproaches aim to describe the transmission ofmicroparasite and macroparasite infection throughlivestock populations, and use these modellingtechniques to assess different disease controlstrategies including genetic management ofpopulation.

In case of microparasite infection, the transmission ofinfection is described by compartmental models. Wehave considered a stochastic modelling approachwhere random sampling determines the occurrence ofa biological event. The possible event types for thecompartmental model are: a susceptible animalbecomes latently infected, a latently infected animal

becomes infectious, an infected animal recoversor dies as a result of infection, and an animal that has recovered loses immunity and becomesimmunologically susceptible again. We have used thismodel to explore the consequences of selectionmethodologies, management strategies and geneticheterogeneity in the population to the overallepidemic severity.

The basic model framework for macroparasiteinfection takes into account the complete life cycle ofgastro-intestinal nematode infection, with both theintra-host and free-living stages of the life cycle. Tocapture the whole dynamics of the infection cyclebetween pasture and the host, we have consideredmodel input parameters like larval and matureparasite mortality, larval establishment and fecundityof female mature parasites. The parameters related tothe host depend on immunological and geneticmechanisms of individuals and medication, whileparameters related to pasture depend indirectly onweather conditions and other management measures.The outputs from our model closely reflectexperimental observations of gastro-intestinalnematode infection in sheep. We have also exploredthe impact of different selection and managementstrategies to control nematode infection in sheep.

Therefore we have developed models that describe thedynamics of microparasite and macroparasite in-fections considering genetics, epidemiology andmanagement scenarios, and where possible, validatedthose models with the observed phenomenon.Moreover, we have used those models to assess theconsequences of different genetic selection andmanagement strategies to control disease incidences.Hence the present group of models would be avaluable tool to a wide range of users like epi-demiologists, breeders and planners.

The authors thank the Biotechnology and BiologicalSciences Research Council for financial support.

3

S&BR: Animal Breeding

Scottish and Borders Region visit to Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, 10th February 2004

Investigating breeding for disease resistanceusing genetic-epidemiological models

M. Nath and S.C. BishopRoslin Institute, Roslin BioCentre, Midlothian EH25 9PS

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Nine TAA members and 12from the Centre for Tropical

Veterinary Medicine, University ofEdinburgh attended the meeting.Full details of the work at Roslin

Institute can be found at

www.roslin.ac.uk

U

1. Sustainability

It is commonly argued that the reason why we shouldproduce and use biofuels is that dependence on

fossil fuels is ‘unsustainable’. Unfortunately, the termhas become virtually meaningless or, worse still, isused by different people with different meanings.

By and large, ‘sustainable’ simply means that you cankeep on doing it (whatever it is) indefinitely but theidea that this is good and ‘unsustainable’ is bad isobvious nonsense. Cruelty, and a great many criminalacts, appear to be quite sustainable – as their trackrecord demonstrates. Is this good? Babies (and allother creatures – including me) are unsustainable. Sois running for a bus or, indeed, running any distance.All bad? On a longer time-scale, the sun –our majorsource of energy – is unsustainable. It is runningdown and, if it were not so, we would not benefit fromthe energy it loses.

Furthermore, sustainability has three quite differentkinds of meanings: physical, economic andgenerating acceptable outputs. Each of these alsobears different meanings. For example, economicsustainability could mean ‘profitable’; if it does it isclearer to say so but since profit depends upon costsand prices (neither predictable) it is hard to see whatmeaning this kind of sustainability has.

Any activity can be called unsustainable if any of itsoutputs are intolerable or unacceptable: butunacceptable (or acceptable) to whom? Ourdescendants? The variation between people now issufficient to render the idea untenable, never mindabout predicting the views of our descendants!

Physical sustainability is more useful, meaning that anactivity or process will not run out of the resources itrequires. But what if it does run out? Coal replacedwood and was in turn displaced by oil and nuclearpower. Indeed, it can be argued that any resourceshould be used, in part, to make possible the use of itssuccessor. As has been said, the Stone Age did notcome to an end because we ran out of stones.

2. It is important to be clear about why we needbioenergy.

It is not primarily because fossil fuels will run out.Every non-renewable resource will eventually run out:the task is to use each one to create the nexttechnology capable of using a new resource. Thus, inthis country, wood did not run out before coal couldbe used and coal was succeeded by oil and, somewould argue, then by nuclear energy. Currentlyreserves of oil, gas and coal are substantial (see Table1) and shale oil would add to the total.


4 taa Newsletter June 2004

SWR—Biofuels

South-West Region Seminar on Biofuels in the Developed and Developing Worldheld at the Royal College of Agriculture, Cirencester, 10th March 2004

The need for and production of biofuels: an overview

Professor Sir Colin Spedding

From left to right:Paul Davies, BrianWood, RogerCozens, Sir ColinSpedding, JohnRussell, PaulCarver, DavidLewis.

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taa Newsletter June 2004

Table 1. Fossil fuel reserves

enough oil for 40 yearsenough gas for 60 yearsenough coal for 230 yearsat current levels of consumption

3. More important reasons to reduce the use offossil fuels are to reduce pollution and avoiddependence on imports.

The pollution problems are well documented. A majorreason for reducing dependence on imports is the realpossibility of disasters (natural and man-made)destroying or immobilising the sources of imports.

4. So, what sorts of bioenergy are available?

Broadly speaking, they are either waste products orcrops (agricultural or forestry) and a wide range ofconversion processes is available. It is important toexplore the whole range: most new developments aredamned by premature economic assessment. Currenttechnologies are a poor guide to future possibilities.

5. However, there is a clear, particular need forrenewable liquid biofuels and both biodiesel andbioethanol show clear advantages (see Table 2).

Table 2. Biodiesel and Bioethanol Advantages

q biodegradable, renewableq usable blended or straightq less air pollutants than fossil fuelsq generate lower life-cycle emissions of greenhouse

gasesq reduce tail-pipe emissionsq lower toxicity and higher flash points

These fuels can be derived from crops and are thususers of land.

6. Food also needs land and all of it depends onsolar radiation (a non-renewable resource andthus not sustainable).

Some seem to think we could import all our foodneeds very cheaply but dependence on imports wouldnot be secure (a) because of disasters and (b) becauseof increasing needs elsewhere.

7. The area of land used for food has to vary withthe economic realities of production.

It may need to contract at times but may also need toexpand again. This is only possible if we preserve

q cultivated land,q expertise in using it, andq R&D for using it better.

This can be achieved by bioenergy crop production.

8. An integrated land use policy is thus neededthat balances the needs for food and bioenergyproduction.

Professor Sir Colin Spedding CBE was Dean of the Faculty ofAgriculture and Food, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor at ReadingUniversity until retiring in 1990. He is a past President of theInstitute of Biology. At the University, as Director of theCentre for Agricultural Strategy, he was responsible forinitiating their work on fuel crops, and more recently haswritten a report on Biofuels for BABFO.

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SWR—Biofuels

Revamped WebSite—Directory of

CVs!Visit www.taadirectory.org.uk to seeour new and more professional front

page, re-designed by Tina Bone.

Mike Barnard and I are awaitingyour CVs for loading on to the TAAsearchable database.

Only £25 for 12 months, includingtwo free updates. Downloadapplication forms from the aboveweb site and send by email to

[email protected]

with copy to

[email protected]

The registration form and chequeto be sent by post to the directoryeditor (address on the forms).

Keith Virgo

ON

-LINE

CV

s

Introduction

Biofuels come from the sun’s energy through recentplant photosynthesis, by fixing carbon dioxide andwater to give biomass. The wet tropics are conduciveto prolific plant growth, so should be very suitable forproducing biomass. This may be a by-product, withoil palm a prime example, or plants grown for thepurpose. Palm oil itself can substitute directly forfossil oil, whilst other crops might have advantages inlarge-scale production. There has been littledevelopment to date, but the prospects can be inferredfrom existing knowledge.

The aim of biofuel agriculture and technology is tomaximize biomass production, and its efficient use.To keep this in perspective, the sun’s incomingradiation has an energy value of about 60,000 gJ* perha.yr, but only a small fraction can be fixed, e.g., therelatively highly efficient oil palm produces only about400 gJ/ha.yr (Martin, 1981; Wood & Corley, 1993).

Oil palm by products

Malaysia is now approaching about 3.5 million ha ofoil palms (Chan, 1999), and there is extensive plantingin other parts of the wet tropics. Fresh fruit bunches(FFB) are harvested throughout the year. Yield varieswidely, but a broad average, in reasonable conditions,can be taken as 20 tonnes FFB/ha.yr, or 18 t overallwith about 2.5 years in the 25 year cycle immature.FFB is processed at a central mill to produce palm oil(about 16 to 25%) and kernels (1.7 to 3.4%). The by-products are the empty fruit bunch (EFB), residualfruit fibre, kernel shell, and a concentrated effluent(Figure 1 and Table 1).

The FFB is sterilized (steam cooked) to destroy the oil-breaking enzymes, and loosen the fruitlets, which goto presses to separate the oil. Mills are rated bycapacity, and a typical one of 40 t/h would processaround 110,000 to 145,000 t FFB per year from an areaof 6–8,000 ha.

Currently, the fibre and shell is burned in boilers toraise steam for mill operation. In earlier times, the

EFB was slow burned for a high potassium fertilizer,and the effluent discharged direct to rivers, but bothpractices were banned from the 1970s for pollutioncontrol. Now, EFB is generally returned to the field asfertilizer/mulch (Corley & Tinker, 2003), and theeffluent is digested anaerobically in ponds, afterwhich it too may be piped to the field. Table 2 showsthe potential energy values and nutrient content ofthese by-products, the latter expressed as a proportionof that typically applied to the producing field area.Currently, both EFB and effluent are applied at ahigher rate than direct recycling would imply, becauseit is still widely seen as a disposal exercise, althoughyields about 10% above normal fertilizer practice canbe demonstrated.

During effluent digestion, biogas is formed (about60% methane and 40% CO2) and this can be capturedfor use if it is done in stirred tanks. In successful pilotprojects, the biogas has been employed for heating(although slight variations in composition rule outprecision applications) and for power. A dual fuel 250kW engine was operated by biogas, without anyhitches, for several years (Quah et al., 1983; Wood &Lim, 1989). All the biogas from effluent couldgenerate 6.6 gJ (at 66% conversion). The energy value



SWR—Biofuels

The potential for biofuels from tropical plantations, bothby-products (particularly oil palm), and main products

B. J. Wood

* Parameters used here: 1J (Joule) = 0.187 kg.m 1 gJ = 109 J (≡ energy value of 25 litres diesel fuel) ≡ 370 kg steam ≡ 278 kWh electricity).

Table 1. Oil palm fresh fruit bunch (FFB) components and theirenergy values ( from Wood and Corley, 1993).

* total not necessarily 100% due to moisture changes in processing

Table 2. Current use of oil palm mill by-products for fertilizer andenergy ( from Wood and Corley, 1993).

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of fibre and shell is 49 gJ per input ha (Table 2). Inpresent equipment, this is all burned to producesteam, which actually requires only 24 gJ, whilst thenutrients (? 10% of the input area) are lost.

In ha.year terms, the by-products have a total energyvalue of 86 gJ (Table 2), or 57 gJ power at 66%conversion, and a nutrient content equivalent to 35%of the input area. These opportunities presently arenot fully developed, probably largely because mills arewell above self-sufficiency for steam, and, in Malaysia,natural gas for central power production is abundant.Some progress has been made in better exploiting oneor other use, but the effluent shows it is possible toexploit both the energy and the nutrients together.The question arises, could this be achieved for all theby-products? Organic solids do break down toproduce biogas, e.g., in landfill (Senior, 1984), whilstreducing the residue to a slurry that could be pumpedto the land. The logistics may seem daunting, but thepromise is sufficient to merit serious investigation,applying up-to-date technologies.

By efficient use of the energy potential alone, therecould be a balance of 33 gJ per input ha (57 less the 24needed for steam), or, on a 7,500 ha estate, about 3-4mW electricity. This is not huge, but is enough for allmill and estate needs with a significant balance to feedinto the grid—and Malaysia alone would have theequivalent of around 400 such mills.

Historically, low capital cost has been favoured overefficient use of “free” fuel, but design adjustmentscould produce more energy, if it became a mill“product”. Further, the energy need of the mill mightbe reduced, e.g., the bulk of sterilization steam is forseparating the fruitlets, but slicing bunches into two(any plane) would reduce steam need by 50% or more(Said et al., 1985).

Palm oil as a fuel

Oil from plants has an energy valuesimilar to fossil diesel oil, and theoil palm is probably the crop mostproductive of it, averaging around3.6 t/ha (18 t FFB x 20% extraction)plus 0.5 t kernel oil. Extensivestudy (Choo & Chia, 2000) hasshown that palm oil, with minormodification of the engine and/orthe oil itself, is equal to diesel inoperation. Palm oil could be used

for power for specific reasons (price manipulation,diesel oil supply problems, etc.), but productionpotential is too low for it to be a universal substitute.Total world production of all biological oils and fats isno more than 20% of the 600 million tonnes of dieselused annually in road transport alone (Fry, 2003).

The potential of fast growingtimbers for biofuel

I know of no report of any “industrial” growing ofplants specifically for biofuel in Malaysia, or the FarEast in general. Probably this is because of priority toother uses, and again the ready supply of fossil fuel,although there appears to be good potential.

Timber is a compact energy source easily converted bycombustion. “Fast growing tree” projects in Malaysiainclude Acacia mangium, Paraserianthes (Albizia)falcataria, Gmelina arborea, Eucalyptus deglupta andseveral others. They can be grown on terrainunsatisfactory or marginal for conventionalplantation crops, with a much lower labour need.Quality is often below optimum for timber, butproductivity can be high. A project in Sabah from themid-70s (Golokin & Cassells, 1989) had, by 1997,32,800 ha, by when it was concentrating on biomassfor pulp (Tan, 1997). A generalized yield is about 24t/ha.yr on a 10-year cycle, compared with around 15t/ha.yr in higher latitudes. Wood generally gives about14 gJ/tonne whilst 100 mW electricity output (suitablefor about 80,000 people) needs 3,154,000 gJ (or5,810,000 gJ allowing for 70% supply fluctuations,and 38% conversion efficiency) (Gates, 1985;Richards et al., 1988; Anon, 2004). This would require5,810,000/(14 gJ/t) x (24 t/ha.yr) = the wood from17,292 ha (?13.2 kilometre square) on a continuouscycle.

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SWR—Biofuels

Figure 1. A 12 kg oil palm fresh fruit bunch(FFB) halved to show (1) stalk, (2) spikelet (1+2= 35-40% of bunch, becomes EFB), (3) oilymesocarp, (4) shell, and (5) kernel.

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“Replacement forestry” could make a significantpower contribution. It is unlikely that it could everfully meet current levels of use, but considerableimprovements should be possible if energy were themain objective, by selection of cultivars, agronomy,length of cycle, etc. Completely different species ornon-tree crops might best suit this objective, andprocessing equipment could be designed formaximum efficiency in relation to the particular input.

Conclusion

The potential energy value of tropical crops, both by-products and specially grown, evidently is con-siderable. There are opportunities to apply anddevelop methodologies related to the particularmaterial: solids for combustion, biogas, or concen-trated liquid fuel. Alternative ways, at various levels ofdevelopment, include torrefaction (Arcate, in press),gasification (Gates, 1985), conversion to alcohols,and, a recent approach, catalytic release of hydrogen(Cortright et al., 2002). The most attractive currentoption seems to be biogas. All organic matter willproduce it on breakdown; it is versatile both in ways ofuse, and operational scale (e.g., Smith, 1996), from“low tech” house or village digesters, to thesophisticated stirred tank and dual fuel engineseffective in the long-term large-scale pilot project onoil palm effluent.

Presently there is no widely perceived world energycrisis, as fossil fuel still meets all requirement, but aseasy supplies start to fall below demand, there will bea crisis. This leaves out the question of globalwarming. Biofuel opportunities remain under-exploited, and there is need for pilot schemes toaccurately evaluate the specifics. The incentive for thiscan only lay with central institutions of one sort oranother, rather than commercial organizations. Thenet energy equation (energy value, offset by that ofinputs such as fertilizers, plant protection, landmaintenance, harvesting and processing (see e.g.,Gates, 1985; Wood & Corley, 1993) has to be positiveand large. The form of the biofuel can be theattraction, rather than net fixation, as experience inthe well-known Brazilian gasohol project mightsuggest (Cross, 1984; Smith, 1996).

It can be argued that the rapid increase in humanpopulation has largely been made possible by in-tensive exploitation of fossil fuel, and new renewablepower sources are essential if chaos is to be avoided inthe near future. Biofuel has the potential at least tohelp slow the exhaustion of fossil fuels, for example,palm oil by-products could represent 6% of Malaysian

demand, even at present levels of efficiency (Ma et al.,1999). If controlled fusion becomes reality, theproblem is solved, but that looks at best, a distantprospect. There are signs of a welcome if ratherbelated increase in attention to these issues, but it isimportant that this proceeds in a well-focusedmanner.

ReferencesAnon, 2004. Bioenergy conversion factors. Bioenergy Feedstock Development

Programs at ORNL. (www.bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers), 4pp.Arcate, J.R., (in press). Global markets and technologies for torrefied wood in

2002. Wood Energy Magazine. (www.techtp.com).Chan, K.W., 1999. Biomass production in the oil palm industry. In: S, Gurmit,

K. H. Lim, L. Teo & D. L Kow (Eds), Oil palm and the environment, aMalaysian perspective. Malaysian Oil Palm Growers’ Council, KualaLumpur, pp.41-53.

Choo, Y.M. & K.Y. Cheah, 2000. Biofuel. In: Y. Basiron, B. S. Jalani & K. W.Chan (Eds), Advances in Oil Palm Research, Vol. 2. Malaysian Palm OilBoard, Kuala Lumpur, pp.1293-1345.

Corley, R.H.V. & P.B. Tinker, 2003. The oil palm (4th Edition). Blackwell,Oxford, 562pp.

Cortright, R.D., R.R. Davda & J.A. Dumesic, 2002. Hydrogen from catalyticreforming of biomass-derived hydrocarbons in liquid water. Nature418(6901): 928-929.

Cross, M. (Ed.), 1984. Grow your own energy. New Scientist and Blackwell,Oxford, 236pp.

Fry, J., 2003. Biodiesel: how will it affect the fuel and oilseeds markets? Int. OilPalm Conference, 23-26 Sept 2003, Cartagena. Preprint 10pp.

Gates, D. M., 1985. Energy and Ecology. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland,Massachusetts, 377pp.

Golokin, S.L. & P.K. Cassels, 1989. An appraisal of Sabah Softwoods Sdn.Bhd.12 years after establishment. Planter 65(760): 301-320.

Ma, A.N., T.S. Toh & N.S. Chua, 1999. Renewable energy from oil palmindustry. In: S. Gurmit, K.H. Lim, L. Teo & D.L. Kow (Eds), Oil palm andthe environment, a Malaysian perspective. Malaysian Oil Palm Growers’Council, Kuala Lumpur, pp.253-259.

Martin, G., 1981. Le bilan énergétique de la culture du palmier a huile. Uneapproche. (with English translation). Oléagineux 36(6): 273-284.

Quah, S.K., K.H. Lim, D. Gillies, B.J. Wood & J. Kanagaratnam, 1983. SimeDarby POME treatment and land application systems. Proceedings ofRegional Workshop on Palm Oil Mill Technology and Effluent Treatment,17-18 August, 1982. Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur,pp.193-200.

Richards, E.G., J.R. Aaron, G. F.D’A. Savage & M.R.W. Williams, 1988. Trees asa farm crop. BSP Professional Books, Oxford, 210pp.

Said, I., B.J. Wood & S.K. Ng, 1985. The problem of stripping oil palm bunches,and some approaches to dealing with it. Proceedings of the symposium onimpact of the pollinating weevil on the Malaysian oil palm industry, 21-22February, 1984. Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur,pp235-254.

Senior, E., 1984. Will-o’-the-wisp goes to work. In: M. Cross (Ed.), Grow yourown energy. New Scientist and Blackwell, Oxford, pp.142-152.

Smith, J.E., 1996. Biotechnology, 3rd edition. Studies in Biology, Institute ofBiology and University of Cambridge, Cambridge, 236pp.

Tan, R.G.S., 1997. Commercial viability of timber as a plantation crop – SabahSoftwood experience. Plantation Management Seminar, 14-15 August 1997.TDM Berhad, Sabah. Mimeo 26pp.

Wood, B.J. & R.H.V. Corley, 1993. The energy balance of oil palm cultivation.In: Yusof Basiron, Jalani Sukaimi, K.C. Chang, S.C. Cheah, I.E. Henson,Norman Kamaruddin, K. Paranjothy, N. Rajanaidu, Hj Tayeb Dolmat &Ariffin Darus (Eds), Proceedings of the 1991 PORIM International palm oilconference - Progress, Prospects and Challenges towards the 21st Century,Module I, Agriculture. Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia, KualaLumpur, pp.130-143.

Wood, B.J. & K.H. Lim, 1989. Developments in the utilisation of palm oil andrubber factory effluents. Planter 65(756): 81-98.

Brian Wood spent over 25 years in the Malaysian plantationindustry, specializing in ecological aspects, and as Director ofResearch. He was closely involved in investigating theexploitation of biofuels, both by-products of oil palm milling,and alternative crops.

Merrivale, Exton Lane, Exeter EX3 0PP. Email: [email protected]



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Wood chips at Alpendorf tourist centre

This is a district heating system for hotels and chaletsin a predominately tourist area. The plant producesaround 800 Kw/hour of energy by burning local woodchips. These can be made from almost any wood orwood residue e.g., woodland thinnings, sawmillresidues, coppicing and rediverted waste wood fromlandfill. Woodchips can be very inexpensive if usednear to their point of production. The wood is chippedon arrival and it is estimated that around 500 m3 ofwoodchips per year will be needed to run the plant.The equipment also includes a buffer store (6 m3) anda wood-chip fuel bunker.

A supply contract has been signed with the townforest authority for the wood chips. There is a cur-rently unused annual potential of an estimated 2,000m3of piled wood chips, with an energy content ofabout 840 kWh/m3, from the forestry work of thetown, due in particular to numerous blowdowns. Inaddition, there is an unused potential from treepruning waste, which is currently made into compost;but medium-term plans are to incorporate this inwood-chip utilization. So there is an overall unusedannual potential of 2,200 m? of wood chips at present.

The chips are burnt at anything from 30–60%moisture content. High burn temperatures can dam-age the equipment and so it is recommended to burnat around 50% moisture with a relatively cool flame.Heat from the furnace heats water to around 80–90˚Cwhich is then circulated to central heating units in thechalets. The plant, which has just been installed, costaround £0.4million, which it is hoped will be amort-ised over 15 years after a 50% construction grant fromthe local council. The project enables the use ofresidues from normal forest activity and supports theforestry industry, which is under economic pressureglobally. It also leads to less CO2 being discharged intohe atmosphere compared with fossil fuel.

Wood pellets as central heating atPassivhaus, Salzburg

Wood pellets at Passivhaus, Salzburg are made fromsawdust or wood that has been specially dried andground. Pellets are generally manufactured from

wood-processing industry waste and have theadvantages (compared with wood chips) of very lowwater content and low bulk, easing the problems ofstorage and transport frequently associated withbiomass fuel. Although they are more expensive tobuy, they burn very efficiently and are easier to storeand handle. Ash from furnaces is a valuable source ofpotash and can be used in community compostingsystems.

Pellet heating technology is comparatively new andwas developed from wood chip boiler technology.Over 60 manufactures of pellet boilers are active in themarket in the European Union, and the boiler tech-nology is constantly being improved. Pellet use inAustria, Denmark and Sweden (currently the threecountries with the highest pellet consumption) isincreasing, and is summarised in the table below.Heating with pellets in central heating systems ispossible at costs comparable to heating with heatingoil. In Austria, for example, the price of pellets isslightly lower than that of oil. Taking into accountinvestment subsidies, the costs per kWh are 0.0096Euro for a pellet-heating system compared to 0.091Euro/kWh for a fuel oil system. The cost of instal-lations is expected to decrease due to technologicaldevelopment, making pellets competitive evenwithout public support.

Austria Denmark Sweden Pellet productionper year (tons) 29,000 150,000 500,000 Pellet centralheating systems 1 000 4 000 4 000

The biomass tank distribution system is based on thetraditional system for distributing oil to privatehouseholds, whereby an oil tanker comes to fill thehousehold tank once or twice per year. The samesystem is now applied to wood pellets, making themas user-friendly and convenient as oil. One of the mainbarriers for extension of wood pellet production islack of appropriate technology. Several types ofpelleting machines are used at present:

q Rolling extruding machineq Horizontal pelleting machines with rolls and rolls

matrix

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Biofuels and Biomass experiences: overview from aninternational seminar in Salzburg, Austria

Roger Cozens

This report is the result of work in the Salzburg region of Austria in November 2000

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q Horizontal pelleting machines with roll matrix andpressing rotor

q Horizontal pelleting machines with gear-wheelsq Vertical pelleting machine with cylindrical rollers

and round surface matrixq Vertical pelleting machine with conic rollers and

round surface matrix

Bio-diesel using waste cooking oilat St Johan

Each household is provided with a bucket to savewaste cooking oil, which is then recycled and stored inheated steel barrels placed centrally in eachcommunity. The oil goes through an esterificationprocess to separate the glycerine, which is in turnused to heat local schools. The remaining oil is mixedwith alcohol to produce methylene-ester (eco-Diesel).This fuel is carbon neutral, burns with a clear smoke,burns completely with little particle emission butsmells a little like frying chips! It reduces emissions,recycles unwanted waste, and requires no alterationsto any diesel-engined vehicles built after 1986. Dieselfuel is known to be particularly smelly and polluting,so the introduction of such an alternative is all themore welcome. The new yellow fuel gives off lessthick, pungent fumes, and although it doesn’t reducenitrogen oxides, it does substantially reduce carbonemissions.

‘Biogas’ from gasification at St Koloman

Animal manure supply for biogas production is erraticas the livestock in the Alps are only housed for part ofthe year and in the summer dung is returned directlyto the pastures. They have therefore devised a gas-ification method using wood, which is plentiful in thisarea. Gasification involves heating biomass in aspecial gasifier under controlled conditions to ensurethat the amount of oxygen is less than that needed forcomplete combustion. As a result, a fuel gas con-sisting of a mixture of carbon monoxide, carbondioxide, methane and hydrogen is produced. Thegasifier is designed and operated according to thenature and form of the biomass and whether pureoxygen or air is incorporated in the gasificationprocess. This latter consideration determines thecalorific value of the resulting fuel gas that can be usedto provide heat by direct combustion, motive power orelectricity from internal combustion engines or fromgas turbines. The wood is heated in the absence ofoxygen to 600ºC, and the gas produced is then cooledand pressurised. This gas, when burnt to produceelectricity, doesn’t produce sulphur or nitrogen andengine efficiency rises by around 20%.

Gasification is a proven technology on homogenousfeedstocks such as plastics, tyres and sewage sludge.It has the potential for municipal solid wastecomponents such as paper and plastics. Althoughgasification plants are now available on a smallerscale it remains to be seen if the process will stand-upcommercially. A small-scale gasification plant has thebenefit of requiring low capital outlay and theelectricity can be generated for peak demand, thusmaximising income. However, routine enginemaintenance work reduces the total hours of annualoutput and increases the costs substantially. The costof a gasification plant is around £100,000 for 150 KWheat/power but costs vary, the key variable being thecost of gas scrubbers to remove elements such as tarand acids from the gas.

Research and Development is presently under way toimprove the efficiency of combustion. By powering aflue-gas turbine directly from the combustion unit,instead of using a boiler to produce steam to drive aturbine, electrical efficiency can be substantiallyraised. The income to be gained from the increasedsales of electricity would be much greater than thatfrom selling the spare heat for other purposes.Although the capital cost is high this should be morethan adequately compensated for by the increasedreturn over the lifetime of the equipment.

Please note:

Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy ofthe information provided in this document at the date ofpublication, you are advised to check that the informationsupplied has not changed since that date. You are responsiblefor contacting any relevant organisation (e.g. DEFRA) toensure that it’s individual situation in respect of points of lawor procedure is ascertained and it is advisable that writtenreplies are obtained to all queries, as there have been cases ofinconsistent interpretation by some bodies. The client acceptsthat this report has been provided on the basis that it is not adefinitive specification or plan and that Greenacres shall not beunder any liability whatsoever to the client for anyinaccuracies or errors in this report. Professional advice shouldbe sought where appropriate.

For more information please contact Roger Cozens ofGreenacres Consultancy. He has been involved for over 20years in advisory work in restructuring, marketing,agricultural economics, and agronomy, in Europe, Africa, andAsia. His recent studies include biofuel crops in UK andAustria.

Email: [email protected]: 01404 815829 or 07811285832.



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Introduction

Purpose-grown crops can be used as a source ofwoodfuel for the energy markets. Such crops wouldutilise the whole plant, in contrast to other sources ofwoodfuel such as forest and timber processingresidues, offcuts and waste wood that are by-productsof other industries. Crops grown with the main aim ofsupplying the energy markets should allow the supplyof biomass fuel to be more easily planned andguaranteed and the main interest in the UK hasfocussed on short rotation coppice (SRC).

This interest in SRC was stimulated by theintroduction of two main policies. The first was theNon-Fossil Fuels Obligation (NFFO), which started in1989 and was a guaranteed premium marketenablement mechanism for the supply of electricityfrom non-fossil fuel energy sources. As a result ofthis, there have been several proposals to developwood-fired power stations in the UK. The secondpolicy, and key reason for the interest in SRC as asource of woodfuel, was the introduction of the CAPset-aside policy in 1994. This requires farmers to set-aside a percentage of their arable land from foodproduction in order to be eligible for the Arable AreaPayments Scheme (AAPS). A set-aside payment is alsopayable. However, as part of the government’seconomic and environmental objectives, certain non-food crops including SRC can be grown on this set-aside land. The farmer is still be able to claim bothAAPS and set-aside payments so growing crops suchas SRC on set-aside land gives farmers the opportunityto derive additional income. SRC can be grownelsewhere but without the above-mentionedcompensation payments the returns are notcomparable with conventional enterprises under thecurrent CAP support and market conditions, and as aresult the main interest to date has been focussed ongrowing SRC on set-aside land (Nix, 2002).

The proposal to ‘decouple’ support payments(including the current AAPS) from production underthe review of the CAP could make it financially feasibleto grow crops such as SRC on land other than set-aside. However, there is to be compulsory cross-compliance for farmers in receipt of the new supportpayments. Initial indications suggest using land otherthan set-aside will not comply so that SRC would stillbe limited in the main to set-aside land.

Species used for short rotationcoppice and yield

Trials show that willow (Salix spp.) and poplar (Populusspp.) are the two main species with potential for SRCin the UK, performing better than alder, eucalyptusand nothofagus. Poplars tend to do better than willowon more fertile silts, while willows are more suitablefor poorer land (ETSU, 1990). Yields achievable fromgrowing SRC vary from 8-20 o.d.t./ha/year (dry weightbasis). At harvest, moisture content tends to bearound 50% so this is equivalent to a yield in the fieldof approximately 16-40 g.t./ha/year. Assuming aplanting density of 10,000 cuttings per hectare,appropriate choice of species and prudent subsequentmanagement, yields of 10-15 o.d.t./ha/year areexpected from arable sites (Maryan, 1993), anestimation verified by the work undertaken by ProjectArbre.

Estimating the potential quantities ofshort rotation coppice available

The quantities of short rotation coppice (SRC)produced are dependent upon area grown and yieldsachievable. Reliable estimates of areas currentlyplanted with SRC are not easily obtainable but in June2002, 1500 ha of SRC had been planted on contract toProject Arbre, a biomass electricity power station thatis currently in receivership (Nix, 2002). Other areasare either trial plots or for own consumption. Thereare, however, other biomass electricity power stationsat the planning stage that have the potential to utilise20,000 ha of SRC (ABC, 2002).

The cost of SRC as a wood fuel

Returns from growing SRC must be at least equal tothose from other enterprises if farmers are to beinterested. The costs of using SRC as a source ofwoodfuel comprise the costs of production includingestablishment, harvest and transportation. Then thereis the price that would need to be paid to farmers toencourage them to grow SRC, a crop with which theyhave no experience. Estimates of costs and potentialreturns have been largely derived from trial work andshow a wide variation in work rates and overallestablishment costs. SRC planting and harvesting

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Short rotation coppice as a promising woodfuel?

David Lewis

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machinery is still being developed in the UK so it willbe some time before truly commercial systems areavailable and true costs are known. Notwithstandingthe above, data has been reviewed from a range ofsources to estimate “typical” production costs shownin Table 1.

Table 1. The production costs of SRC.

1) Costs per ha are based on a yield of 10 o.d.t./ha/year2) Annuity costs based on an establishment cost of £600 and a lifespan of

30 years.3) Transport costs are based on the SRC being transported in a 90m3

articulated tipper trailer.Source: Lewis (2001)

This shows that the total costs of production, basedon a catchment radius of 10 miles, are £256/ha(£25.6/o.d.t.) for a cut and chip harvesting methodand £436/ha (£43.6/o.d.t.) for a whole stickharvesting method. The harvesting costs are a keyfactor in the overall costs of production. Whilst the cutand chip harvester results in lower harvesting costs,the moisture content of chip material (approximately50%) may need reduction by using covered storageand/or drying. Whereas the moisture content of sticksproduced by the whole stick harvester can be reducedto 30% by leaving the bundles on site. The costs of thelikely need for covered storage/drying for the chippedmaterial could be considerable. As a result ProjectArbre planned to harvest SRC with whole stickharvesters.

Having established the costs of production it isnecessary to assess the prices that will need to be paidto growers, which in turn will determine the costs ofpurchase. The farmer has several options for set-asideland; firstly to keep the land in arable/set-aside rotation(i.e., no change); secondly to grow industrial or non-food crops on set-aside land, such as linseed or oilseedrape; thirdly to put the land into permanent (non-rotational) set-aside land and to grow trees or SRC.

To compare performance between different farmenterprises, gross margins have become establishedin farm management accounting (calculated using thelikely output of the enterprise less the likely variable

costs) (Nix, 2002; ABC, 2002). For SRC, variable costs(sometimes known as direct or enterprise costs) willinclude the annualised establishment costs,harvesting, fertilizer, sprays and haulage costs (ABC,2002). Gross margins for 2002/2003 for set-aside,industrial linseed, oilseed rape (based on averageperformance) are shown in Table 2. The resultsillustrate the financial viability of set-aside landcompared to non-food crops grown on set-aside. Iffarmers are to be persuaded to grow SRC it will needto appear more attractive than the other non-foodcrops.

Table 2. Gross margins for non-food crops on set-aside land.

Source: Nix (2002) based on average performance.

Other factors also need to be considered whenevaluating SRC as a potential crop. Firstly, unlikearable crops, SRC incurs establishment costs in thefirst two years with no output until year four and thishas cash-flow implications that may discourage anumber of farmers. SRC also has a triennial ratherthan an annual harvesting pattern, Furthermore thecosts of removing SRC and reverting the land back toagricultural production are considerable.

The results in Table 3 show what price the SRC mustachieve to compete with these non-food crops using‘break-even budgets’.

Table 3. Price required to compete with set-aside andnon-food crops.

* Set-aside income excluded.** Break-even price based on an establishment cost annuity of £50/ha.

Source: Lewis (2001)

For SRC to compete with arable enterprises such aswinter wheat, winter barley and winter oilseed rape,the break-even price for SRC will increase. The break-even price has been calculated with and without AAPSpayments as shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Price required to compete with winter cereals

* The AAPS is £225/ha (Nix 2002). Source: Lewis (2001)



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However these figures exclude the set-aside paymentreceivable for growing SRC on set-aside land. If theset-aside income of £225/ha is included this has theeffect of reducing the break-even price by£22.50/o.d.t. Thus the break-even price to competewith winter wheat would be reduced to £48.50/o.d.t.(without AAPS) and £71.00/o.d.t. if AAPS paymentsare included.

Fixed costs such as labour, machinery, and generaloverheads exist irrespective of the size or combinationof individual enterprises and are unaffected by smallchanges in enterprise size (ABC, 2002). Growing SRCon set-aside is not expected to significantly alter thefixed costs over and above those that would beincurred if the land was just in set-aside. Operationssuch as harvesting and planting are likely to be carriedout by contractors and these costs have beenaccounted for in the gross margin budgets togetherwith the fixed costs for cultivations, applying spraysand fertilisers.

The outlook for short rotation coppiceConsiderable interest has been shown in purpose-grown energy crops such as SRC. The potentialquantities available are dependent on the area of SRCgrown and the yield achievable from that area. Atpresent there is little commercially grown SRC in theUK and therefore future supplies will be dependent onlandowners making the commitment to plant thecrop.

While conventional agricultural enterprises remainrelatively profitable, it is unlikely that SRC will begrown on land other than that required to be set-asideannually. Therefore providing that the overall incomereceived exceeds the cost of production, the crop willprovide an attractive opportunity. The costs ofproduction have been estimated to be at least£40/o.d.t. Farmers are also likely to require anadditional payment over and above the costs ofproduction as an inducement to encourage them todiversify into what for most will be a new enterprise.This additional amount will be dependent on therelative profitability of other land uses.

ReferencesAgro Business Consultants Ltd. 2002. Agricultural Budgeting and

Costing Book (No. 55). Agro Business Consultants Ltd. ETSU. 1990. Coppiced Trees as Energy Crops. Energy Technology Support

Unit Report B 1078. Harwell.Lewis, D.B. 2001. The Use of Wood Fuel for Energy Generation in

Shropshire. A Thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Philosophyat the University of Wales, Bangor.

Maryan P. 1993. The Production of Woodfuel. ETSU, Harwell.Nix J. 2002. Farm Management Pocketbook (33rd Edition). The Anderson

Centre.

David Lewis is a Senior Lecturer at RAC. As both a CharteredSurveyor and Forester, he has done easibility studies inforestry/land management, including different sources of wood asbiofuel. Recently appointed as a Director of the Marches WoodEnergy Network. Royal Agricultural College, Stroud Road,Cirencester, Glos GL7 6JS.Tel: 01285 652531; Email: [email protected]

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n Much of the discussion was on clarification of specifics inthe papers, made evident in the written versions.

n The size of power station for given population depends onhow power is used. The 100mW for 80,000 people is ageneralised figure from North American literature.

n Biogas should not be seen as “backyard technology”. It ishighly flexible for any scale or use, including surfacetransport, and can be moved around easily. Production ishampered in cold conditions, but process can bemaintained by burning part of the gas produced.

n Miscanthus sinensis—notwithstanding the stunting virusaffecting long-life grasses (forage), this plant has neededonly minor pest and disease attention. A planting life of 20years can be postulated. It is a C4 plant and leaves arerecycled, so N requirement is not excessive. Ash might bereturned to the land, but it has high silicon content so isuseful in the construction industry. Production cost is about£25–30/tonne (oven-dried).

n One delegate with personal experience pointed out thatenergy from burning timber on a small scale is very hardwork!

n Vegetable oil can easily be used in engines, but waste oilwould need more processing.

n A serious debate concerned the support for research. Atpresent, the impression is that only current knowledge isbeing applied in setting up projects, which happen to lookinteresting. There is neither coordinated research nor anydevelopment project comparing a range of alternatives. Atone time, an institute for Biofuels might have been set up,quite possibly in succession to one that is running down.There was discussion of the very deleterious effect that theswitch to the customer/contractor principle had had on thiskind or research. Professor Sir Colin Spedding felt thatinstitutes, including university departments, had beenobliged to over-emphasize raising money, where thereought to be some freedom to pursue ideas. It resulted intheir being tied by the need to compete for funding withschemes perceived to have immediate economic or practicalpotential. This has undermined the basis of agriculturaldevelopment and practice in the UK. Others observedsimilar tendencies elsewhere, with the associated lack of“authorities” who could provide helpful services thatenhanced the standing and viability of institutions.

Discussion PointsCompiled by Brian Wood

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I first travelled to Bhutan on a 4-week travelscholarship in May 2001 while a Horticulture

Diploma student at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,and then returned following graduation in 2002, withthe help of an Ernest Thornton-Smith Travel Award.After raising the further funding needed I set out atthe end of October for 3 months, aiming to continuethe development work in the Royal Botanic Garden inSerbithang and to train staff in plant propagation andtransplantation. I was also to travel extensively withinthe country to visit as many plant-based projects aspossible, and observe and record flora ofdifferent altitude ranges and ecologicalclimates.

The landlocked Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutanis about 300km long and 150km wide, coveringapproximately 47,000 square km. One of themost rugged and mountainous countries of theworld it ranges in altitude from 100m to7,554m. Monsoon influences promote thedense forestation in the region, and alpinegrowth at higher altitudes. The sparselypopulated Greater Himalayas, bounded to thenorth by the Tibetan plateau extend southwardlosing height to form the fertile valleys of theLesser Himalayas. The cultivated centraluplands and Himalayan foothills support themajority of the population (estimated at700,000) through agriculture. In the south, theDaurs Plain drops sharply away from theHimalayas into large tracts of semi-tropicalforest, savannah grassland and bamboo jungle.On the east of the country, in India, is the stateof Arunachal Pradesh, on the south, Assam andwest Bengal, and on the west is Sikkim.

The country is divided up into 20 Dzongkhags(administrative districts), each with their ownlanguage, some with different dialects,although the language of education is English.Each Dzongkhag has a Dzong that is the centre ofadministration, focus of religion, and formerlyacted as fortress and a Dzongda (districtadministrator) responsible to the homeminister. Before there was a road connecting theeast to the west, all paths passed through the

Dzong, which acted as a point of control. Districts aredivided up into Geogs, and the head of each Geog iselected by the villagers, and known as the Gup (orMandal in the south).

Bhutan is a Mahayana Buddhist state where power isshared by the king and government, depicted by thetwo colours of the flag, yellow and orange respect-ively. The country’s name in the local dialect (Drukyul)means ‘Land of the Thunder Dragon’, and the flag hasa white dragon across the middle, white representingthe purity, the snarling mouth expresses the stern



L&SE—Biodiversity

London and South-East Region Seminar on Biodiversity held at theLinnean Society, Piccadilly, London, 28th January 2004

Plant Conservation in Bhutan

Jessica Beaghen

Jessica with her driver Dechen’s sister’scousin’s family at Lhuntse. (© J Beaghen)

Herbarium in the National Biodiversity Centre, Serbithang. (© J Beaghen)

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strength of the male and female deities protectingBhutan. In the dragon’s claws are jewels representingthe country’s wealth and perfection. The country hasnever had a rigid class system, although there is ahierarchy of respect. Social and educational oppor-tunities are not affected by rank or by birth. Bhutanesewomen enjoy equal rights with men in every respect,and money passes down through families frommother to daughter. Habitats vary immensely, fromthe tropical (up to 1,000m) and sub-tropical (900m to1,800m) in the south, through the temperate (1,800mto 3,500m), to sub-alpine (3,500m to 4,500m) andalpine tundra (4,500m to 5,500m) in the Himalayanregions in the north. There are over 5,000 plantspecies, including 300 species of medicinal plants,and over 50 species of rhododendron. There are morethan 600 species of orchid, the majority of which arefound up to 2,100m, while the more hardy speciesthrive even above 3,700m. Many of the plant species

are unknown in cultivation and some are in the IUCNred list of threatened plants. The national flower ofBhutan is the Himalayan blue poppy, Mecanopsisgrandis. There are also165 species of mammals and675 species of bird have been recorded. The nationalbird of Bhutan is the crow, and Bhutan plays host tothe rare and endangered black-necked crane.

Three quarters of the country is covered in forestsfrom chir pine (Pinus roxburghii), cool broad-leavedforest, evergreen oak (Quercus semicarpifolia), blue pine(Pinus wallichiana), spruce (Picea spinulosa), hemlock(Tsuga dumosa), fir (Abies densa), juniper and rhodo-dendron scrub, to dry alpine scrub. There are fourNational Parks, which are connected by wildlifecorridors, covering 26% of the country. These areasare protected to preserve the biodiversity of thecountry, and important ecosystems.

The country was opened to the outside world in 1974,and tourism is supervised and limited to controland protect the culture, economy andenvironment from excessive outside influences.In 1991 the Conservation Trust Fund wasestablished to help Bhutan finance itsconservation activities. In 1995 the NationalAssembly decided that at least 60% of thecountry must be maintained as forest forever.The Biodiversity Action Plan compiled in 1997states that Bhutan is the only country in theregion that has been able to increase the areaunder forest cover from 64% in the early 1960’s,to 72.5%. Bhutan has adopted the RioDeclaration on Environment and Developmentand is signatory to both the Rio Convention onBiological Diversity and the United NationsFramework Convention on Climate Change.

The 1995 Forest and Nature Conservation Actdefines several species of mammals and birdsas totally protected. These are the Asianelephant, clouded leopard, golden langur,musk deer, pangolin, pygmy hog, snowleopard, takin (Bhutan’s national animal), tiger,wild buffalo, black-necked crane, monalpheasant, peacock pheasant, raven, rufous-necked hornbill, golden mahseer, spotted deer,gaur, leopard, leopard cat, Himalayan blackbear, red panda and serow.

Thimphu, the capital with a population of about40,000, lies in a wooded valley at an elevation of2320m. Some15km from the city is the 26-acreRoyal Botanical Garden that is part of the PlantGenetic Resources Programme, coming underthe National Biodiversity Centre, and within the

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Building a house overlookinga valley of farm fields.(© J Beaghen)

Royal Society for the Protection ofNature stand at the ParoTsechufestival. (© J Beaghen)

Ministry of Agriculture. The Plant Genetic ResourcesProgramme also includes the Agro-biodiversitySection with the National Genebank (underconstruction), and the Herbarium Section, includingthe library. It is situated on a steep windswept hillside,and is still being developed having been opened in2000.The Botanic Garden is intended as a recreationalsite for the people of Thimphu to enjoy.

I was very pleased to return to Bhutan to see friends Ihad remained in contact with, and to catch up with thework in the Garden. I was overjoyed to see that theyhad been putting some of the skills I had sent by emailinto practice and were getting a far higher success ratewith the transplanted trees (from around 10% to aremarkable 80%). We began to outline work that Iwould be involved with, and a schedule to include mytravelling elsewhere in the country.

Work in the Garden became my routine and includedplanning the arboretum and other areas of the garden,setting up systems to locate plants from all over thecountry, and an action plan for their collection. Workwas also in progress for building paths and roads,recovering the orchid house roof and polytunnels aswell as endless weeding. Slowly and steadily it cametogether, we all learned much in the training sessionsand most of the propagated plants survived. Thesessions in the field interested me most as the localplant knowledge of the labourers was astounding. Iwas invited to extend my stay to see the maincollection period through, and offered furthertraining in the formative pruning of trees. Thearboretum was finished, trees collected and planted,with paths to be put in later. The polytunnels wererestored, a windbreak constructed to protect theorchid house roof, seeds sown and cuttings taken,and systems in place for selecting their plants at a laterdate.

My first big adventure outside the capital wasaccompanying visiting delegates from the UK BhutanSociety on a trek through the Gangte Valley, and afterthat I spent most of December on the road. This wasthe first of many journeys to several of the RegionalNatural Resource Research Centres (RNRRCs), to anin-situ rhododendron conservation project, and to theBomdeling Wildlife Sanctuary in the east of thecountry, where I found another Botanic Garden in themaking. There are 4 Botanic Gardens in Bhutan,including a mini one in Trongsa, an area renowned forits orchids and snakes, and one in the sub-tropics ofLingmenthang. During this trip to the east I learnedabout the lemon grass industry. Cymbopogon flexuosusgrows wild in the east and is harvested by cutting the

foliage. The extraction of essential oil used to beperformed in the factory at Kurizampa, but is nowcarried out by local people, who collect the grass, thencarry out the oil extraction at the side of the road inbasic distillation units that are there for everyone touse. Containers of oil are collected from the roadside,taken to the disused factory and sold on from there.

The RNRRCs are impressive and being in differentareas at different altitudes they cover a wide and variedrange of research that is then shared amongst farmersthroughout the country. The research carried out is ledby the farmer’s requirements, and directed by thedistrict leader. The RNRRC at Yusupang has agovernment mandate to grow apples and temperatefruits although forestry is their main concern. Thereare other sites that also work in horticulture. The mainconcern is with evaluating crop performance,including selection, and disease and pest man-agement. Cultural methods of pest and diseasecontrol, e.g., the use of raised beds, are beinginvestigated. Improved crops are evaluated in theRNRRC trials, then given out to farmers to evaluateand monitor for a five-year period, with informationbeing fed back to the RNRRC. It is hoped that this wayany problems can be overcome before widerdistribution.

Dr Ugyen Tshewang, Director of the NationalBiodiversity Centre, and his staff were fantastic, and itwas with great sadness that I lit the bonfire at thefarewell party hosted for me in the Garden, anddanced with my friends in Bhutanese tradition. Thereis not enough room to acknowledge everyone whomade my trip possible, but I thank them all.

Jessica Beaghen, Dip. Hort. (Kew), is a Horticultural andEcological Consultant, available for work, and happy to talk toanyone who is planning a visit to the country.She can be contacted on 020 8840 0829, [email protected]



L&SE—Biodiversity

18th–19th September

To be held at Reading University. An ApplicationForm to attend this seminar is in the Yellow Pages.The programme is being put together by JimTurnbull, who can be contacted on 01844 352385or [email protected]. Details whenavailable will be posted on our web site. Hope tosee you there.

Biennial Seminar 2004

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taa Newsletter June 2004 17

L&SE—Biodiversity

Southern Transylvania has remained relativelyuntouched by the modern world. A remote region ofgently rolling hills within the southern bend of theCarpathians, it remains a remarkable living fragmentof an older Central Europe (Akeroyd 2002 and 2003).It is an agricultural landscape of traditionalsettlements, arable plots, unimproved grassland andancient woods of hornbeam and oak that still sheltersubstantial numbers of Europe’s last lowland wolvesand bears. Medieval churches dominate sleepy red-tiled villages; summer wildflowers colour road-

verges, hay-meadows, pastures and open scrubbyhillsides. Horses work the land and provide motorisedtransport, the cutting bar has yet to replace the scythe,herbicides and modern pesticides are almostunknown, and country lanes often unsurfaced. Thisspecial place is a tantalizing glimpse of how England(and much of Europe) and its biodiversity-richagrarian landscape may have looked to John Clare,even Shakespeare or Chaucer.

Saxon Transylvania extends south and southeast ofSigisoara, a Unesco World Heritage city of towers,bastions and merchants’ houses. In the 12th century,German (‘Saxon’) immigrants, invited by Hungariankings to hold their eastern marches in exchange forland, founded this and six other cities (Siebenburgen)and a network of Hufen or planned villages. From 1241until the late 18th century these hardy settlers fought

off incursions by Tartars and later Turks, whilebuilding a prosperous rural economy based onfarming, crafts and trade. The characteristic Saxonarchitecture dates from the 18th century, when thethreat from steppic raiders had decreased. Travelwriter Patrick Leigh Fermor noted the “flattened cartentrances, shingled lynch-gates, hipped roofs androws of gables … here and there with a rather daringfrill of baroque”. The Saxons embraced the Lutheranfaith in the 16th century and remain a distinctiveethnic and cultural entity in Romania, but theirnumbers today are few. Most have left for Germany,many during the 1980s and 90s on financial packagesfrom the German government, and Romanians andgypsies have taken over their houses and farms(Blacker 1996).

The frontier existence nurtured courage, inde-pendence and self-sufficiency, and it is not surprisingthat Saxon Transylvania remains a place apart, onewhere traditional European village life has survivedsubstantially intact. The villages, medieval models ofcommunity organization and efficiency, are laid outaccording to a regular plan. At the heart of each is afortified church—often with gatehouse, curtain wallsand towers. In time of war villagers, livestock andstress were assembled within the walls. The typicalvillage house is a farm with a yard, outbuildings, abarn and garden plots, backed by an orchard andsometimes a vineyard. Communal pastures andmeadows surround the villages, and animals are ledout each morning and back again at dusk in atraditional rhythm of country life.

A sustainable future

Farming is traditional, without intensive land-use andemploying few modern machines or agro-chemicals.The Saxon settlers brought with them an enduringtradition of good husbandry—stemming directlyfrom a medieval agrarian revolution that gave Europethe scythe, the windmill and 3-field crop rotation—and they have farmed here skillfully and sustainablyfor eight centuries. Mixed farming, with low input andrecycling of nutrients, has proved beneficial to thesurvival of both wildflowers and wildlife. In particular,species-rich grasslands have not suffered over-enrichment as in many other parts of Europe. Mowingis by scythe or small machines. The main field crops

Biodiversity and agriculture in a traditional Romanianlandscape

John Akeroyd

Wildflower-rich meadow-steppe, Viscri(Amanda Patton)

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are maize (corn), wheat, oats, two-rowed barley andpotatoes, with still a few patches of hemp. Maize isintercropped in the native American manner withclimbing beans and squashes. Hops are replantedafter a decline, although vineyards (many grubbed outin communist times) are few. Much woodland sur-vives, partly due to the low population density andbecause it is a sustainable resource integral to therural economy.

This whole fragile ecosystem and itsrich biodiversity needs to be protec-ted for the benefit of future gen-erations of Romanians and Euro-peans, retaining at least a part oftraditional farming practice and self-sufficiency within the context ofsustainable development. The key toconserving this living landscape maybe organic farming, employing themost modern techniques but con-tinuing the tradition of careful andprosperous husbandry that nurturedthe woodlands and grasslands, aswell as creating the fortified churchesand traditional village architecture ofSaxon Transylvania. Not only are the wildflower-richmeadows—probably the best that survive in lowlandEurope—a living link with the medieval world, butthey also yield hay and honey, and are a treasure-troveof forage crop genes. A feature of Transylvaniangrasslands is the presence of 20–30 clovers, medicks,sainfoin and other leguminous plants, all ‘native’variants or land-races. This grassland is a mix ofwestern and central European species, withsignificant steppic and Mediterranean floristicelements. Such ‘meadow-steppe’ has retreatedthroughout Central Europe, even in Poland and theCzech Republic. This precious resource, its brilliant

floral carpet and associated wildlife such as corn-crakes, quails and massed crickets are a singlefertilizer application away from degradation.

A consortium of conservation NGOs from Romania,the UK and other European countries, in conjunctionwith the Government of Romania, is now bringingtogether a range of expertise to establish a NaturePark or Protected Landscape to conserve villages,countryside and biodiversity. Partners include ADEPT(Agricultural Development and EnvironmentalProtection in Transylvania), which is integratingorganic farming and biodiversity conservation, andthe Mihai Eminescu Trust, which is restoringbuildings and promoting traditional crafts andproducts. Organic or at least low intensity farming,with the emphasis on raising livestock for dairyproduce and meat, offers a way forward and a meansof providing a living for villagers. Sustainableagriculture, ‘green’ tourism and village crafts andskills are vital components of the complex jigsaw ofsustainable development, if local people are to beensured a decent living in the future—and this uniqueregion is to be protected.

ReferencesAkeroyd, J.R. 2002. Protecting Romania’s Lost World. Plant Talk,

30: 19–24.

Akeroyd, J. R.2003. A Transylvanian wood-pasture. Plant Talk, 34: 34–37.

Blacker, W. 1997. The plight of the Saxons of Transylvania and theirfortified churches. Mihai Eminescu Trust, London.

Dr John Akeroyd is a botanical consultant and writer, with aspecial interest in the conservation of the flora of easternEurope and the Mediterranean region.Lawn Cottage, West Tisbury, Salisbury, Wilts SP3 6SG.Tel/Fax: 01747 871507Email: [email protected]



L&SE—Biodiversity

Farm buildings in the village street,Crit (Mihai Kazan)

Malâncrav, a medieval planned village(Amanda Patton)

AgAgrribibusinessusiness—an Engine for Development


taa Newsletter June 2004 (i)

Newsletter Extra

Biennial Residential SeminarReading 18th/19th September 2004

Arrangements have been made for this event to be held at the Engineering Lecture Theatre, UNIVERSITY OF

READING with a seating capacity of 100.

VOLUNTEERS to assist/contribute to the seminar, offer exhibits etc. should contact Elizabeth Warham as soonas possible.

Members wishing to attend should COMPLETE AND RETURN THE ATTACHED FORM indicating their intentions, andrequirements at the earliest convenience. This will help planning of the event.

The TOTAL COST OF THE MEETING including meals, accommodation and conference fee will be in the region of£90. This will be made up of the conference fee of £45 and room costs of £30, plus the cost of the dinner onthe Saturday evening. 50 standard single rooms with hand basin have been reserved at Windsor Hall.

JOINING INSTRUCTIONS will be placed on the TAA website and sent to individuals who have indicated that theywill be attending. Registration will commence at 9.00 a.m. on Saturday. Lunch will be available at 12.30 pm.and the Main Session will commence at 14.00 p.m. The Conference will end mid-afternoon on Sunday.

Agribusiness - an Engine for Development

Biennial Residential Seminar, Reading 18th /19th September, 2004

Booking Form:To: Dr E.J. Warham, 144 Mostyn Road, Merton Park, London. SW19 3LRe-mail: [email protected]

Name Membership No.

Contact Address

Tel: Fax: E-mail:

I intend/do not intend to attend accompanied by ______ guest(s) named ____________________________________________

I will/will not attend the conference on Saturday 18th September

I would/would not require dinner on the Saturday evening.

I would/would not require bed and breakfast accommodation at Windsor Hall

for Saturday18th September (single room)

I will/will not attend the conference on Sunday 19th September

I would like to present a short paper/exhibit, titled _______________________________________________________________

$ $


(ii) taa Newsletter June 2004

Newsletter Extra

TAA India Branch

Inaugural Meeting: Friday, 18th June 2004,2.00pm, Centre for Environmental Education,

B-73 2nd Flr Soami Nagar (N), New Delhi110017, India. Tel: 011 2649 7049; Email:

[email protected]

The first meeting of the TAA India Branch will be held at2.00pm at the CEE Offices in New Delhi. So far 15 peoplehave advised that they will be attending, including twoexisting TAA members. Keith Virgo will chair this firstmeeting but the aim will be to elect a local committee thatcan set up a branch that meets the needs of the Indianrural development world. Any TAA members who happento be in India at the time will be welcome to join us.


taa Newsletter June 2004 (iii)

Newsletter Extra

EAST ANGLIA REGION

See www.taa.org.uk for up-to-date information

June 22nd 2004: Processors & Growers Research Organisation, Peterborough

The Processors & Growers Research Organisation (PGRO) is the UK centre for applied researchon temperate peas and beans. The visit is booked for 22nd June. It will commence around 11.30 to12 noon to meet the Staff. This will be followed by a light buffet lunch, then a tour of thelaboratories and the field trials. There will be time for questions afterwards. Members will beexpected to pay for lunch; all other costs will be covered by PGRO. (If anyone is interested in SteamRailways, the Nene Valley Company is only a couple of miles away!).

[Address: PGRO, The Research Station, Great North Road, Thornhaugh, Peterborough PE8 6HJ.Tel: 01780 782585. Web Site www.pgro.co.uk. Location map below].

Members wishing to attend please contact Douglas Whyte, who is organising the visit, as soon aspossible ([email protected]. Tel: 01449 677683).

Future events being planned for 2005 include:

January 5th: New Year’s Dinner. Venue and speaker yet to be decided.

February/March. World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge. We are hoping to organisea visit to the WCMC in February or March 2005.


(iv) taa Newsletter June 2004

Newsletter Extra

SOUTH-WEST REGION

Recent Development Initiatives in Tanzania Seminar at Coombe Lodge, near Chewton Mendip, Somerset

on Wednesday, 30th June

Programme

10.00am Tea/coffee and Registration

10.20 Welcome by spokesman for Tanzania High Commission (to be confirmed)

10.30 TAA notices and Introduction by the Chairman, George Taylor-Hunt

10.40 “Tanzania’s Agricultural Development Strategy Programme, with special referenceto Zanzibar” by John Russell, IFAD consultant

11.20 “Agricultural service provision in Tanzania: issues and opportunities” C. R. Richesand R.I. Lamboll of NRI

12.00 “Breaking the plant breeders’ monopoly; team building and reaching the poorthrough agricultural research, with special reference to Tanzania” by MalcolmBlackie, IFAD/WB Consultant

12.40pm Discussion on morning papers

1. 00 Buffet Lunch

2.00 “Training issues and the value of business planning in strengthening the autonomyand output of Tengeru Agricultural and Livestock Development College, Arusha” byEdrick Kapinga, Principal, Tengeru and Professor Fred Harper, Former Dean of Agriculture,Plymouth University

2.40 A paper to be announced

3.20 Final discussion

4.00 Tea and depart

Please register in advance with John Russell, 01392-493870 or [email protected]. Cost to includemorning coffee, buffet lunch and tea will be £15.00 for members (and one guest each) and £18 forothers. See website for map.

Autumn 2004 programme will be announced in the September Newsletter. George Taylor-Hunt is organizing aseminar on Fair and Ethical Trade and Marketing, probably at Bath University. Offers of speakers to George please.A seminar will also be organized in the autumn in collaboration with the Bicton Overseas Agricultural Trust,BOAT, at Bicton College, on NGOs in Development and twinning arrangements related to rural development andNRM. Both dates have still to be decided.

Thursday 6th January 2005. AGM and New Year Luncheon at Exeter Golf and Country Club at 10.00am forcoffee/tea and 10.30 start. Volunteers needed to speak for 10-15 minutes on work done in 2004; and proposals forseminars, field days or other activities for 2005/6 programme. £16 a head for luncheon; please book and sendcheques before December 15th to Haggis Evans at 22, Sanson Close, Stoke Cannon, Exeter, Devon EX5 4AQ (Tel01392 841485). Email: [email protected]

Spring/Summer 2005. A seminar on Wetlands jointly with the ABLH group to be organized by Bill Reed, andpossibly held at Slimbridge, Gloucestershire. Offers of speakers to Bill Reed please. This seminar could be delayedto the summer, as a seminar on supporting Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, SMEs, in the context of RuralDevelopment may be held in the spring at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.



The threats to ourenvironment are welldocumented but areoften seen as so complex,so vast that individualsfeel powerless to help.However, if significantsteps are to be takentowards tackling theseissues, it will require achange in global attitudes,engaging as many people aspossible in the process.

The Earthwatch Institute is an internationalenvironmental organisation that specialises in doingjust that—bringing conservation challenges directlyto the people. Working alongside renownedscientists, Earthwatch brings people together from allwalks of life in to assist in the work of research teamsaround the globe. Directly involving the public inenvironmental conservation has enormous potentialbenefits. Not only does it provide a willing andenthusiastic labour force to very time-consumingresearch projects, it also ensures that conservationmessages spread beyond their normal boundaries,with many returning home to participate in or initiatelocal community conservation projects.

Since 1971, Earthwatch has supported 2,800projects—channelling more than 10 million hours ofvolunteer labour into vital field research projects.These volunteers come from a wide range ofbackgrounds. Some are paying volunteers whocommit their own time and money to theirexpeditions. Others come from various sponsored‘fellowships’ offered by Earthwatch. The fellowshipprogrammes provide opportunities for many whowould otherwise never have the chance to participate

in conservation activities. These may be students,teachers, company employees or young developingcountry scientists. The developing country fellowshipprogrammes have played a vital role in buildingconservation capacity in a number of tropical countries,so far placing more than 600 conservation professionalsand scientists from across Asia and Africa on researchprojects around the world. These fellowships haveprovided valuable opportunities for participants to gainpractical knowledge and build networks with othersimilar organisations in their region.

Beyond engaging individuals, Earthwatch has alsotaken the vital step of engaging the corporate sector inconservation. This process has been through a varietyof avenues. A number of companies are involved in thefellowship scheme. This not only provides labour andfinancial support for the research projects themselvesbut also ensures that knowledge of conservation andthe impact of business on the environment permeatesinto the workplace. In fact, many of the companiesinvolved also require that participants begin their owncommunity-based project on their return from theexpedition—often in or around their place of work—and provide grants to help them on their way. In

19

L&SE—Earthwatch

Earthwatch Europe’s activities and the promotion andunderstanding necessary for a sustainable environment

Frank Vorhies

Earthwatch promotes broad participation in hands-on conservation. (Jeremy Holden)

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addition, Earthwatch also provides guidance andsupport on corporate responsibility, working with 40companies to help them assess and reduce theirenvironmental impacts through the corporateenvironmental sustainability group (CERG).

In its research programme, Earthwatch Europe iscurrently working to expand its portfolio of projects—a policy which has highlighted a need for greateremphasis on agriculture. In fact, in line with theTropical Agriculture Association’s mission statement(‘…To encourage the efficient and sustainable use of localresources.’), sustainable resource management is nowone of Earthwatch’s core research themes.

With a large proportion of the world’s biodiversityfound in tropical areas, it is essential that agriculture,as the predominant industry in these regions, iscarefully guided to ensure good, sustainablepractices. Most of the regions in question are found indeveloping countries and as such there exists animportant opportunity for the environmentalcommunity.

“In tropical regions there is a real opportunity to influenceagricultural policy and practice before the industry trulydevelops. If we can provide models of sustainable agriculturefrom the beginning we will surely have a much better chance ofensuring the preservation of biological diversity in the long-run.” Roger Mitchell, Chief Scientist, EarthwatchInstitute (Europe).

In order to formulate recommendations on howsustainable agriculture might be achieved, it isessential that there exist sufficient data documentingthe relationships between biodiversity and currentand proposed practices. Earthwatch’s projectportfolio reflects that need and contains a number ofresearch projects that tackle tropical agriculture,forestry and fisheries. In addition, Earthwatch arecurrently actively looking for potential new researchprojects relating to this field.

One existing project is found in Puerto Rico (‘PuertoRico’s Rainforests’), where lead scientist Sally Silverstone(Tropic Ventures Education and Research Foundation) is

comparing novel forestry planting methods to assesswhich might minimise the effect of commerciallogging on local biodiversity. This ongoingexperiment has now been running for 16 years and ishelping local foresters to formulate more sustainablelogging practices.

The ‘Lakes of the Rift Valley’ project also demon-strates the importance of incorporating biodiversityconsiderations into agricultural practices. In the RiftValley, the shores of the lakes provide an importantwater resource for local flower growing operations aswell as being home to a wide range of flora andfauna—including the near-threatened lesser fla-mingo. One of the local growing ventures has verycarefully adopted practices that minimise the impact



L&SE—Earthwatch

Tropical agriculturecan have enormousimplications forbiodiversity.(Jo ZarembaEarthwatch.)



on the lake’s biodiversity, maintaining the importantreed filter beds that provide a natural buffer betweenthe lakes and the cultivation sites. Other companieshave been less careful, with potentially disastrousconsequences for the lake’s ecosystems.

Knowledge of the tropical agriculture sector has alsobeen enormously beneficial to Earthwatch’s work onbusiness and biodiversity. A number of members ofEarthwatch’s Corporate Environmental Responsi-bility Group (CERG) are involved in business activityin tropical regions, often sourcing local agriculturalproducts. Earthwatch, in its role as both a facilitatorof research and an advisor to business, can provideessential guidance to businesses wishing to reducethe impact of their business operations on localbiodiversity and ensure that ecological considerationstake a key role in future business strategy.

The Earthwatch funding model has also played animportant part in the organisation’s success. Acommon feature of environmental research is that itoften requires long-term studies that span a numberof years. This kind of long-term funding can beextremely hard to find but has become a central part ofEarthwatch’s funding policy. Currently over one-thirdof all Earthwatch research projects have been fundedfor more than five years.

“Earthwatch makes the difference between my researchcontinuing or ending. The funding is invaluable, but the keyto Earthwatch is also the volunteers. They have increased thescale of my research and their work is always of high quality.”Dr. Gabor Lovei, Institute of Agricultural Sciences,Denmark. Project: Bird Migration studies in Kenya andCentral Europe.

There is still a great deal of research that needs to bedone, especially in tropical regions, to ensure thatbiodiversity is used sustainably. Earthwatch hasprovided a participatory model that involves a widerange of people and invests in local capacity to makesure that conservation includes those who can reallymake a difference. If you are interested in finding outmore about our work or initiating your own researchproject or if you would like to participate in one of ourexisting expeditions, please contact a member of ourteam or visit our website at:

www.earthwatch.org/europe.

To speak to our chief scientist, Dr. Roger Mitchell,please contact:

[email protected]

21

L&SE—Earthwatch

Much of the agriculture in tropicalregions still relies on methods passeddown through the generations.(Philip Johannson)

Dr Frank Vorhies is Chief Executiveof Earthwatch Institute (Europe).267 Banbury Road, Oxford OX27HT. Tel: 01865 318875;Fax: 01865 318863

Email:[email protected]

U

It’s a Jungle out there…,as Tony Smith, our MemSec, knows only toowell. It’s so much easier, quicker and cheaper tocommunicate by email, so please help us. Hehas 580 of 1005 TAA members (includingsuspended members) on the TAA database, butnot all of these are correct and emails aresometimes returned. If you have an emailaddress, or, more importantly, if you haverecently changed your server, make sure thatTony Smith has your correct address. Also,please take a minute to check our MembershipList to ensure that your email address is speltcorrectly.

EMAIL ADDRESSES: a pleafrom our Membership Secretary

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Techniques of geneticengineering

There are a number of steps involved in the production of a

transgenic crop (‘genetically modi-fied’ could be applied to any productsof plant breeding). These are:

q Identifying and cloning the genesrequired.

q Combining the gene with a suit-able promoter, so that it isswitched on only in the desiredparts of the plant (e.g., fruit, butnot leaf ).

q Inserting the gene-promotercombination into tissue-culturedcells of the plant.

q Stage 3 has a very low success rate,so a gene for antibiotic or herbi-cide tolerance is also included;transformed cells can then beselected by growing the cultureson a medium containing theantibiotic or herbicide.

q Regeneration of plants from theselected transformed cells.

q Checking that the gene is func-tioning, and that transformation isstable.

q Crossing the transformed plantswith other varieties, to combinethe new character with acceptableyield, etc.

Risks

Critics of genetic engineeringpostulate three types of risk: tohuman health, to the environment,and what one may call ‘social’ risks.It is not possible to state that alltransgenic crops are safe as itdepends on the character that hasbeen engineered, and on where and

how the crop is grown and used.Generally, however, there is no goodreason to regard transgenic varietiesas any different from new varietiesproduced in more traditional ways.

In Europe, one particular viewpointtends to predominate, but elsewhere,the benefits are considered to out-weigh any risks, and development israpid. More than half the world’ssoya bean area was transgenic in2003, 20% of cotton and 11% ofmaize (James, 2003).

Risks to human health

q Critics state that more testing isneeded, but over 40 millionhectares of transgenic crops havebeen grown per year for the last 5years, rising to 68M ha in 2003(James, 2003), and no unexpectedside effects have been found.

q There is a theoretical risk that theantibiotic resistance gene used forselection of transformed plantsmight be acquired by bacteria.However, bacteria are constantlyevolving resistance because of ourindiscriminate use of antibioticsand any additional risk is verysmall.

q The example of Star-link Biomaize is sometimes quoted. Thiscontained a protein that can causean allergic reaction and the varietyhad been classified as unfit forhuman consumption. Some grainaccidentally entered the humanfood chain and the seed companythat developed it had to paycompensation to affected people.This could happen with anyinedible crop product—e.g., higherucic rapeseed—and had nothingto do with the transgenic nature ofthe variety.



Article—Genetic Engineering

Talk given to the Tropical Growers’ Association, London, 18th February 2004

Genetic engineering of tropical plantation crops

R.H.V. Corley

INTRODUCTION

My talk will bedivided intothree parts:• techniquesof geneticengineering,• possiblebenefits andperceived risks,• and progresswith plantationcrops.

Despite the title,the last part ofthe talk will bequite brief,because theamount of workbeing done onplantation cropsis quite limited.

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q We are not good at evaluating relative risk. Theinsertion of a single gene, whose function isknown, with the slight risk that the insertion mightdamage another single gene (genetic engineering)is seen as risky. By contrast, treating the plant witha mutagen, which will damage thousands of genes,and then releasing anything interesting that arisesas a new variety (mutation breeding) is consideredperfectly acceptable and has been used for decades.

Risks to environment

“GM crops have the power to aggravate or alleviate impact ofagriculture on the environment. The challenge is in how wemanage their application” (Dale, 2002).

Risks include:

q Escape of genes to wild relatives. Where a crop haswild relatives, cross-pollination is always happen-ing anyway. Whether it matters depends on whatgenes escape; e.g., insect pest resistance wouldonly benefit a weed if insects were an importantfactor in controlling the population of that weed.Gene escape could be controlled by ‘terminator’technology, which causes transgenic plants to setinfertile seed.

q Effects on ‘non-target’ species. The main examplequoted is the spurious results with Monarchbutterfly caterpillars that suffered high mortalitywhen they were fed on leaves of milkweed dustedwith pollen of Bt-maize, transformed to produce aninsecticidal toxin in a laboratory feeding study.(Shelton & Sears, 2001). However, the authors, andothers, have now shown that under naturalconditions in and around maize fields there are nodetectable damaging effects (Jesse & Obrycki,2003).

q Recent extensive UK trials showed changes inarthropod populations resulting from the methodsof cultivation (10 papers in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. LondonB, Vol. 358, 2003). The use of post-emergentinstead of pre-emergent herbicides on transgenicherbicide-tolerant crops results in more dead plantmaterial so that detritivores increase, but there arefewer live weeds late on in the crop cycle, soherbivores decrease. These are indirect effects, notdirect effects of transgenic crops per se. Any changein cultivation methods is likely to have sucheffects—e.g., the change from spring to wintercereals in Britain is widely believed to have caused adecline in populations of several bird species.

Social risksThere is a worry that in future all agriculture will be inthe hands of big agribusiness companies. There issome validity in this view, at least in developedcountries—but note that governments have delib-erately cut back their support for agriculturalresearch, expecting the private sector to take over. It iscertainly true that Monsanto has been very aggressivein trying to protect its technology.

q In developing countries many projects are inuniversities and government institutes, and someproducts from these have already been released—e.g., cotton, tobacco and tomato in China. The listof countries in which public institutes areconducting field trials includes Brazil, China,India, Kenya, Mexico, Philippines and Thailand(Toennissen et al., 2003). However, it is also truethat some products are not being released becauseof licensing problems.

q The terminator gene will allow seed companies toforce farmers to buy fresh seed every year. However,F1 hybrids already allow seed companies to do this,and the farmer need not buy a terminator variety inthe first place—there will always be a choice.

q Damage to organic farming. The organic farmingmovement decided, quite arbitrarily, that trangeniccrops were incompatible with organic farming andis now demanding that restrictions be placed onconventional farmers to prevent contamination,although pesticide contamination from neigh-bouring farms is acceptable under the organicrules.

Summary

There are no serious risks.

Potential benefits

Herbicide resistance.

Lower costs occur through reduced herbicide use.There have been claims that yields are lower, but somedata show increased yields. Anyway, if profits aregreater, it does not matter to the farmer that yields arelower. Transgenic varieties are usually chosen initiallyfor ease of culture and genetic engineering, and theymay not be the latest and highest yielding varieties.

Insect pest resistance.

This should lead to large reductions in insecticide use.

q Transgenic cotton. In China, the use of Bt-transgenic cotton has resulted in a 60% reductionin pesticide use and 10% higher yields. Product

23


prices have dropped so consumers are benefiting,but despite lower product prices and higher seedcosts, farmers are making greater profits.Furthermore, farmers’ health has improved due tolower pesticide use; therefore everyone hasbenefited. Transgenic cotton has been produced byChinese universities and institutes (Pray et al.,2002).

q Transgenic cotton in South African smallholdings.Although seed cost has more than doubled,insecticide use is 40% lower, yields 80% higher,and gross margins 75% higher (Toennissen et al.,2003).

q Transgenic cotton in Mexico solved a majorproblem with bollworm, while reducing insecticideuse by 80%. This generated a US$6 million surplusin 1997-98 in two districts, that was shared 86% tofarmers and 14% to seed companies (Toennissen etal., 2003).

q International Service for Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications reports that Bt-maize raisedyields by up to 23% in China, 24% in Brazil, and41% in the Philippines (Economist, 8th Nov 2003).

q Transgenic Bt-rice being tested in China, India andPakistan allows control of caterpillars, withoutpesticide-induced brown plant hopper outbreaks(Toennissen et al., 2003).

q Note, however, that resistance is likely to breakdown fairly quickly, unless it is based on more thanone gene.

Other benefitsq Disease resistance. Projects in progress include the

development of bacterial blight resistance in riceand of resistance to several virus diseases indifferent crops.

q Stress tolerance. Rice with increased tolerance tosalinity and drought has already been tested.

q Improved nutritional value. Most work is concentratedon rice, which contributes over 20% of mankind’sdiet. Golden rice has a gene inserted that producesβ-carotene. This will benefit some 120 millionchildren with vitamin-A deficiency, which maycause blindness and early death. Other work is inprogress on increased iron content to counter irondeficiency; increased zinc content is also beingconsidered.

Crops in current public sector trials include cotton,Eucalyptus, melons, papaya, pepper, rice, sugar cane,sweet potato, tobacco, tomato, wheat, and variousvegetables (Toennissen et al., 2003).

Tropical perennial crops

The first step with most crops is to insert a ‘markergene’, as a test of the transformation methods. Anexample is GFP, which codes for a ‘green fluorescentprotein’—transformed cells fluoresce under UV light,so success is easily observed.

Oil palm. Transformation with marker genes has beenachieved (Parveez et al., 1998) and a mesocarp-specificpromoter has been identified. The Malaysian Palm OilBoard’s main objective is to change oil compositionand another project is on production of a bio-degradable plastic, PHB. Plants with the genes forboth these objectives have been produced, but are notyet fruiting. There is also a joint Indonesian-Japaneseproject to modify oil composition (Tanaka et al.,2002).

Rubber. Transformation with marker genes has beenachieved, and gene expression in the latex has beenobserved (Arokiaraj, 2000). Possible objectives in-clude increased activity of rate-limiting enzyme inrubber synthesis, increase resistance to dryness byover expression of super-oxide dismutase (Jayashree etal., 2003) and protein production in latex.

Cocoa. Successful transformation has been done witha marker gene (Maximova et al, 2003).

Coffee. Transformation was achieved 10 years ago,and the main target appears to be low caffeine content(Ogita et al., 2003). Insect resistance using the Bt toxingene is also being studied (Leroy et al., 2000).

Tea. Transformation has already been achieved(Mondal et al., 2001) and transformed shoots havebeen grafted onto rootstocks.

Summary

Transgenic crops have the potential to:

q Increase crop yields.

q Thereby help to conserve biodiversity, as less landarea will be required for the same production.

q Make more efficient use of external inputs, thusimproving sustainability.

q Increase stability of production by improving stresstolerance, thus reducing the risk of famine.

q Contribute to poverty alleviation in developingcountries.

Of course, transgenic crops are not the only way ofdoing any of these things, but we should not rejectwhat is now a proven technology simply because it isnot the only way of tackling a problem. Ideally,






Article—Genetic Engineering/On-Line Directory of CVs

For less than 50p a week a CV of your expertise and experience can be accessed by firmsand organisations anywhere in the world. They may have assignments for you!Are you missing out on this proactive opportunity?

The TAA no longer publishes a hard-copy directory of consultants. But the brilliant newOn-Line Directory enables potential employers to search a database of skills and countryexperience.

Any consultant who matches their search criteria will be listed, and the firm ororganisation can immediately download a CV giving a detailed resumé of the member’swork and contact information. Members can then be contacted directly by anyoneinterested in employing them or getting further information.

If you are not already using this valuable TAA facility, download a registration form atwww.taadirectory.org.uk and complete the comprehensive CV proforma which is in Wordformat. Full instructions are included about where to send it, and how to pay the annual£25 registration fee.

This fee covers:

• uploading the CV to the Internet,

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With other major improvements being made to theTAA website, being in the On-Line Directory is abusiness move you really should take. Check it outnow at www.taadirectory.org.uk,or contact [email protected] further information.

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transgenic methods will be integrated intoconventional breeding programmes, together withother biotech methods such as marker-assistedselection.

References

Arokiaraj, P., 2000. Genetic transformation of Hevea brasiliensis (Rubbertree) and its applications towards crop improvement and production ofrecombinant proteins of commercial value. In: S.M. Jain and S.C.Minocha (Eds), Molecular Biology of Woody Plants, Vol. 2, KluwerAcademic Publ, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp.305-325.

Dale, P.J., 2002. The environmental impact of genetically modified (GM)crops: a review. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 138: 245-248.

James, C., 2003. Global status of commercialized transgenic crops: 2003.International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications,Manila.

Jayashree, R. et al., 2003. Genetic transformation and regeneration ofrubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg) transgenic plants with aconstitutive version of an anti-oxidative stress superoxide dismutasegene. Plant Cell Rep. 22(3): 201-209.

Jesse, L.C.H. and J.J. Obrycki, 2003. Occurrence of Danaus plexippus L.(Lepidoptera: Danaidae) on milkweeds (Asclepias syriaca) in transgenicBt corn agroecosystems. Agric. Ecosystems & Environ. 97: 225-233.

Leroy, T., A.M. Henry, M. Royer, I. Altosaar, R. Frutos, D. Duris and R.Philippe, 2000. Genetically modified coffee plants expressing theBacillus thuringiensis cry1Ac gene for resistance to leaf miner. Pl. CellRep. 19: 382-389.

Maximova, S., C. Miller, G.A. de Mayolo, S. Pishak, A. Young and M.J.Guiltinan, 2003. Stable transformation of Theobroma cacao L. and

influence of matrix attachment regions on GFP expression. Plant CellRep. 21: 872-883.

Mondal, T.K., A. Bhattacharya, P.S. Ahuja and P.K. Chang, 2001.Transgenic tea (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze cv. Kangra Jat) plantsobtained by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of somatic embryos. Pl.Cell Rep. 20: 712-720.

Ogita, S., H. Uefuji, Y. Yamaguchi, N. Koizumi and H. Sano, 2003.Producing decaffeinated coffee plants. Nature 423: 823.

Parveez, G.K.A., F. Tahir, K. Harikrishna, S. Napis, S.C. Cheah and P.Christou, 1998. Production of transgenic oil palm (Elaeis guineensisJacq.) via microprojectile bombardment. Congress on In Vitro Biology,June 1998, Las Vegas.

Pray, C.E., J.K. Huang, R.F. Hu and S. Rozelle, 2002. Five years of Btcotton in China - the benefits continue. Pl. J. 31: 423-430.

Shelton, A.M. and M.K. Sears, 2001. The monarch butterfly controversy:scientific interpretations of a phenomenon. Pl. J. 27: 483-488.

Tanaka, A., M. Murase, H. Sano, A. Sakamoto, A. Masduki, N. Haska,Koesnandar, E. Refi and S.W. Ramelan, 2002. Genetic engineering ofoil palm and its application to future palm business. 2002 Int. Oil PalmConf., 8-12 July, Indonesian Oil Palm Res. Inst., Bali, pp.1-6.

Toennissen, G.H., J.C. O’Toole and J. DeVries, 2003. Advances in plantbiotechnology and its adoption in developing countries. Curr. OpinionPl. Biol. 6: 191-198.

After working in Malaysia on oil palm physiology and tissueculture, Hereward Corley was research director for UnileverPlantations until his retirement in 1998; he is now an independentconsultant, working mainly on tea and oil palm.

Highlands, New Road, Great Barford, Beds MK44 3LQ.

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Afghan farmproduction:Bin Laden’s

harvestMr Ben Macintyre’s article inThe Times (27th March)makes uncomfortable readingas he cites that opium poppyareas will exceed 120,000

ha this season or double that oflast year and encompass 28 of

the country’s 32 provincescompared with just four in

1990 under Taliban rule.More importantly, hecalculates that between

40–60% of the national GDPis derived from this crop that

supplies 75% of the world’sdemand. As someone who has been

involved in the application of

herbicides to marijuana crops in Latin America in the1970s, the weakness in the structure of the Afghan ruraleconomy and the viability of traditional cropping systemsis apparent. Much has been made of the activities ofextension services in your columns in neighbouringcountries both in the past and in current times, but thecontinued absence of a dedicated field service inAfghanistan must make Iraq watchers very concerned andcompound mounting urban worries.The urbanisation of Latin America and Africa in the lastfew decades and a history, not always effective, of cropmarketing organisations has reduced drug crop productionalong with massive US aid. Sadly, it is the UK’sresponsibility of institute an anti-narcotic programme inKabul according to Macintyre with a mere £70 million.The stemming of this very lucrative export crop andestablishment of an alternative cropping system hasprobably not come to the attention of many TAAmembers and retraining farmers is not a healthyoccupation for either visitors or coalition troops.ANSWERS WILL NOT FIT ON A POSTCARD BUT SOME THOUGHT

APPEARS SORELY NEEDED FROM KNOWLEDGEABLE PERSONNEL AS

A ‘NARCO-ECONOMY’ IN AFGHANISTAN WILL SOON BE

ENJOYING THE LARGEST DRUG HARVEST PROCEEDS THAT THE

WORLD HAS EVER SEEN.



You write…

Letters

LARGESTEVER DRUGHARVEST!!!!

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The state of AfricaI refer to the contributions of Andrew MacDonald andDavid Gollifer in recent newsletters in which they addresssome of the non-technical problems of Africa today. Since my first arrival in Africa 30 years ago, theproblems have, in the main, become greater in spite of allthat has been expended as aid, investment and support.Food production per capita continues to fall; HIV/aids isa destructive force in many countries socially andeconomically; and the gulf between the rich and the poorcontinues to widen – both within nations and betweenrich and poor countries.What has gone wrong? Was the strategy of aidmisconceived? As an association we have necessarilyfocused on technical solutions and innovations. In myview technical solutions alone are not enough totransform impoverished communities. They need to beunderpinned by structural changes; primarily, a globalsystem that regulates international trade fairly, and backedup by effective legal provisions so that offenders can bepenalized and compensation paid.World Trade OrganisationDavid Gollifer (TAA Newsletter, Dec 03) refers to thecollapse of the WTO talks at Cancun in September. Whileit was a setback to the reform of agricultural tradepolicies in the short term, I have a more positive view ofthe collapse. It marked a change in the balance of power

within the WTO. At Cancun, the developing countrylobby spearheaded by China, Brazil and India effectivelyended the conference by refusing to agree to the termslaid down by the developed countries. This rejection wasunprecedented and points the way to more balancednegotiations in the future.In addition, the collapse at Cancun has prevented anychance of renewing the Peace Clause, which haseffectively preserved the subsidy structures that haveprotected the farm industries of the rich members frombeing challenged through the full application of the WTOregulations over the past 9 years. The process will belengthy but it is likely that the existing subsidy protectionof EU and US cotton, dairy, rice and sugar industries willbe challenged before the year is out. Global Environmental CourtIf the principle of global regulation through legalstructures could be extended to litigation and restitutionarising from environmental damage, this could open up anew opportunity to curb the effects of global warmingand to compensate those that suffer the consequences.These trends would see the rise of a class of internationallawyers (and perhaps a decline in the consulting industrythat services aid programmes). But it could contribute toa better-regulated and fairer world, and a more fertile onein which technical innovations could be nurtured.

Tim MachenHelland Farm, North Curry, Taunton

Richard I. Smith, Midhurst, West Sussex

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GM crops: the greatdebate

SO: THE ANTI-GM PROTESTERS HAVE WON A COMPLETE

VICTORY IN THE UK! The company developing GM crops has withdrawn fromthis market. As a consumer, I am mildly disappointedbecause I welcome any move to reduce the excessive useof chemicals in the production of my food; and I believethat GM technology provides one tool to that end. But,much more important, I am horrified that a few activistsin this country, most of whom know nothing of third-world agriculture, can have such influence over thepeoples of those countries. And I am shocked by theapparent lack of concern, to judge by the columns of theNewsletter, amongst TAA members, people who havedevoted much of their working lives to the improvementof the poorest farmers.

I find myself largely indifferent to the problems—theplight—of British farmers. They do have CAP subsidies tofall back on; Third World farmers have no such support.Many were willing to join in irrelevancies such asdemonstrations to support fox-hunting, but most fail toeducate themselves about GM technology. For example,the chairman of a public meeting that I attended on GMcrops—the Principal of our local Agricultural College—described how he had only just started, on the day of themeeting, to glean information on the subject from theinternet. And the representative at that meeting of theNational Farmers Union of Wales was concerned onlyabout marketing produce under “Organic” labels. Inother words, in complying with rules imposed by UKpressure groups.

Indeed, the whole of the debate on GM crops has beendominated by the failure to understand the issues, and bythe dogmatic repetition of slogans. Slogans which allowedMugabe to refuse food-aid for his starving population;and failure of understanding that is causing Ugandanfarmers, today, to oppose GM technology. If Iunderstood correctly a recent BBC World Serviceprogramme, the Ugandan farmers are objecting becausethey cannot save their own seed of GM varieties, andbecause these varieties have different flavours. Do I detecta repetition of the objections of Malawian farmers tohybrid maize varieties? That seed saved from F1 hybridscannot breed true, and that the imported varieties did nothave the traditional “flint” characteristics? Does any

reader remember the first of the short-strawed “greenrevolution” rice varieties (IRRI 5 and 8), which stank sobadly during cooking that they could be sold only to theurban poor? The BBC programme interviewed a Ugandanscientist who was applying GM technology: ademonstration of the inevitable, that others will do it,even though we don’t. Again, I find it difficult tosympathise with UK scientists: they were not exactlystrident in their support for the technology.

Is there anything that we (TAA members) can do now?About GM technology, I think not. However, in otherdirections, there are things that we should do. First, Irepeat that I welcome any move to reduce the excessiveuse of chemicals in agriculture. But the organic movementdemands limitations, which—and this is my mainconcern—they attempt to impose on Third World peasantfarmers. Yes, let us encourage the maximum recycling ofnutrients through the use of compost, and let us try tominimise fertiliser use in, say, East Anglia. But let us notpretend that compost alone will resolve the problems onthe low fertility soils of Africa—or, for that matter, thepoor hill soils of North Wales. The number of examples isfar too numerous to list in a short letter. But can I askTAA members to be vigilant? Can they in particular pointout to their neighbours that the elimination of GM cropsor pesticides will not take us back to nature. That theyexplain that there is virtually nothing that is “natural”about agriculture. Nothing natural about a field of wheat,a crop whose origins are lost in the mists of time, whoseparents cannot be traced. Nothing natural about a cowgiving 1,000 gallons of milk per lactation. And perhapsespecially that there is nothing natural about bringingmaize from warm central America to be grown as a silagecrop in cool Britain where it provides attractive cover forwild-life in early winter until it is suddenly and brutallyremoved by a forage harvester in November/ December.Yet there is detailed research on whether Roundup orAtrazine is marginally better for wildlife!

R Alan YatesMold, Denbighshire



You write…

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If you wish to read the changes made tothe TAA over the past three years, click

on - for news of changes in the TAA -which you will find at the top of theGeneral Information Page.Use the information on the CABinternational database which is acces-

sible through the TAA web page. Username and password available [email protected] of moving home? Try thefollowing web site for properties

nationwidehttp://www.rightmove.co.uk/rm/

Tony Smith

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Paul graduated from Bristol University in 1952where he studied botany and played a prominent

part in student affairs. He then went up to Cambridgeon a Colonial Office scholarship and the followingyear to ICTA in Trinidad. At both he was an activemember of this group, always the centre of some livelyactivity and always a welcoming figure. In Trinidad heenjoyed a range of sports with characteristic enthus-iasm and played in the College teams, encouragingthe participation even of those with only a passingknowledge of the sports. In Trinidad also, with somelike-minded colleagues, he started theNatural History Society, organisingcollecting expeditions and mixingscience with pleasure by collectingmarine specimens at some of thecountry’s lovely beaches.

Following his studies at ICTA Paulwas posted to Eastern Nigeria and itwas there that I first met him in 1959when he was the Principal ResearchOfficer in charge of the agriculturalresearch station at Umudike. He wasan impressive person, tall, with asomewhat ruddy complexion and ahandsome RAF handlebar moustache.The visit was memorable, in that Paulbelieved that work should not interrupt his urbanehabits, as evidenced by the presence of his cook, whofollowed him around the research station with a traybearing a teapot, milk and cups and saucers. One wasable, therefore to discuss this or that experiment whileenjoying a “cuppa”.

Our paths next crossed when Paul joined the LandResources Division (LRD) of the Ministry of OverseasDevelopment. LRD was directed by Philip ChambersCBE, and he welcomed Paul for his experience inexperimental agriculture and his knowledge ofNigeria for which he had been awarded an MBE. Thiswas put to good use when Paul and Michael Bawdenwere assigned the task of undertaking a massive landresource survey of the eastern part of NorthernNigeria, working in collaboration with the Institute ofAgricultural Research, Samaru. Fieldwork wasarranged to occupy the worst of the winter monthswhile report writing at LRD took place during the

summer. A stream of reports, which together withLRD work in other parts of Nigeria, provided essentialinformation on Nigerian land resources that remainsvalid to this day.

Paul worked on Nigeria until 1972 when he success-fully applied for a post as Agricultural Adviser in theOverseas Development Administration. He worked inODA headquarters dealing with agricultural issues inWest Africa and Latin America before being posted tothe Development Divisions in Bangkok and Barbados.

In Barbados he renewed his workingrelationship with Michael Bawdenwho was then Head of the Division.

Paul retired from the public service in1990 but did not retire from work. Hewas a Vice-President of the NigerianField Society, and Chairman of the UKbranch, and in 1994 he became secre-tary of the Tropical AgriculturalAssociation, an activity to which hegave a great deal of advice and time. Atthat time he worked at Kew andproduced a substantial monograph onWest African palms.

Paul Tuley was a warm-hearted, gen-erous person for whom life was for

living but with a serious intent. Whatever he did, itwas with great enthusiasm and his colleagues recallwith glee his winning the fancy dress competition, onthe ship returning from Trinidad, as the baby with alarge rum and soda! He cultivated a country gentpersona, but this exterior concealed a sharp analyticalmind, reflected in the penetrating questions tospeakers at TAA meetings. He also had a great senseof fun and would mystify junior colleagues on firstpostings by asking if they had their “tsetse-belt” andadequate supplies of the essential Collis Brown’spatent medicine.

Paul will be greatly missed not only as Secretary of theTAA but also as a warm friend. His wife, Lindsay, whowas a constant support, pre-deceased him. He issurvived by two daughters.

I am grateful to several of Paul’s colleagues for theircontributions to his obituary.

Martin Brunt



Obituaries

OBITUARIES

Paul Tuley MBE1929–2004

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Colin Trapnell was one of the earliest architects ofecology in the African continent and became thepaterfamilias to subsequent generations of conserva-tion ecologists.

After a career of surveying the lands of Africa, many ofthem for the first time, he turned in his retirement tothe conservation of environments at home in England.He continued to work and publish until he was over 90.

Colin Graham Trapnell was born in 1907 and readclassics at Trinity College, Oxford. His real interests layin science, and he had been a keen botanist since hisschooldays. Whilst at Oxford he was one of thefounders of the Oxford University Exploration Club andorganised its first expedition to Greenland in 1928. Hepublished his Greenland work five years later.

He applied to the Colonial Office for a post as ecolo-gist and in 1931 was posted to Northern Rhodesia(now Zambia) as Government Ecologist to recon-noitre and map the soils, vegetation types and theindigenous agriculture, a task that took him ten years.The surveys, the first of their kind in Africa to cover awhole country, were published after the Second WorldWar. The two volumes of The Soils, Vegetation andTraditional Agriculture of Zambia are still the basic sourceof essential natural resource data for the country.

The Colonial Office saw Trapnell’s ecological work inRhodesia as a rational foundation for a wide field ofdevelopment, particularly for African agriculture. In1950 he was invited to train ecologists for work inAfrica ranging from large-scale vegetation and soil

surveys to investigations into tsetse and desert locustinfestation. In the early 1960s the Kenya Departmentof Agriculture asked him to prepare a vegetation mapcovering the southwest part of the country, a majorundertaking that was not completed until well afterhis retirement.

In England he joined the small group of peopleengaged in founding the Somerset Trust for NatureConservation, now the Somerset Wildlife Trust. Heorganised land-use surveys for conservation purposesof the Mendip Hills and the Somerset peat moors. Forthirteen years he was chairman of the Leigh Woodscommittee of management for the National Trust andnegotiated the lease of the woods to the NatureConservancy to form the Avon Gorge National NatureReserve. He continued to work on the vegetation andclimatic maps of southwest Kenya until 1986, and theKenya survey work was Trapnell’s last piece of majorfieldwork. At 90 he published a paper on conservationof forestland in Kenya. During the past three years hecollaborated with Paul Smith at Kew to produce athree-volume ecological survey of Zambia.

In 1994 he started the Trapnell Fund for Environ-mental Field Research in Africa at Oxford Universityto support research into the African environment, andthe first Trapnell Fellow was appointed in 1999.

He was appointed OBE in 1957. His wife Jeanne diedin 1999 and he is survived by two daughters and a son.

Martin BruntBased on an obituary written by MB for The Times (Editor)

29

Obituaries

Colin Trapnell OBE, 1907–2004

Professor Peter Wilson took his BSc and MSc at WyeCollege, and then a diploma in Animal Genetics underProfessor C.H. Waddington at Edinburgh before hisPhD in Agriculture at London University. From1951–57 he studied the improvement in cattlebreeding at Makerere College in Uganda.

In 1957 he was appointed senior lecturer in animalproduction at the ICTA, Trinidad, and after four yearsbecame Professor of Agriculture at the UniversityCollege of the West Indies where he carried outvaluable research on sugar and bananas. Returning toBritain, he was appointed Head of Biometrics at theUnilever Research Laboratory at Bedford, going on tobe Chief Agricultural Adviser of BOCM Silcock.

He moved north to Scotland in 1983 and had aprofound effect on the work of the East of ScotlandCollege and the Edinburgh School of Agriculture

through his hands-on leadership. Any qualms thatthere had been about a man whose books wereAgriculture in the Tropics (1965) and Improved Feeding ofCattle and Sheep (1981) were dispelled by hisdetermination to be approachable to all farmers,however small. A great communicator, he publishedwell over 150 scientific papers. He was Principal, Eastof Scotland College of Agriculture, and Professor ofAgriculture and Rural Economy, Edinburgh Universityfrom 1984 to 1990. He then became Scientific Directorof the Edinburgh Centre for Rural Research, 1990–97.

On two occasions he was Vice-President of theInstitute of Biology and in the 1990s was its honorarysecretary. He was appointed CBE in 1987 for hiscontribution to agricultural education, and FRSE inthe same year. He was General Secretary of the RoyalSociety of Edinburgh from 1996–2001.

Peter Wilson CBE, 1928–2004

U



CABI News

TRY THE CABI DATABASE!One of the advantages of being a member of TAA isthat you have access to the CABI searchable databaseof technical papers from all major internationaljournals since 1973. Seek references for a publicationthat you are writing, obtain a list of all the papers thatyou have had published, or just browse topics thatinterest you. It is really very easy!

You can access the site via the TAA web site(www.taa.org.uk) under the “general information”page, second line. The full CABI address is:

http://www.cabdirectsearch.org/username

Enter the User Name and Password (see below), click to accept the Conditions. This will take you to the search page. On the left margin, click on“Guidelines”, to obtain a three page explanation ofhow to use the site (best to select the “download inWORD” option and then click “print” (Warning: usingthe email option takes up a lot of bytes in your inbox).

Click on “Easy” Search, add a topic that interests you,that will be found in a paper’s Title, Keywords orAbstract (Figure 1). Note that if you enter topics in the“Keywords” box, they need to conform to words in thethesaurus (click on left margin to find suitablewords). You can also search by author’s name but ifusing initials, enter as follows: “Virgo_KJ”. Select the

dates for your search and how you wish to have theresults presented. Click on search and a list of allpublications will be displayed. Those that interest youcan be expanded to show the abstract (Figure 2) andcan be selected by clicking “mark”: marked titles canlater displayed as a complete list. The list can beprinted or emailed direct to other people (Figure 3).Many recent papers include a pdf copy of the completepaper, which can be downloaded.

Those who wish can proceed to the “Advanced” searchmethod.

Before you can access the CABI site, you will need toobtain a User Name and Password from theMembership Secretary, Tony Smith:

[email protected].

He will also ask if you are willing to make a voluntaryfinancial contribution for use of the site, to help tooffset the annual membership fee that TAA currentlypays to CABI (about £3000). To sign up to CABI as anindividual costs £500 a year and so TAA members whouse the site are getting a good deal.Mark Holderness (TAA Member) has offered to give apresentation at a future TAA meeting on how theDatabase is compiled. Meantime, members should goahead and try the CABI database—it really is anamazing facility and very easy to use!

Keith Virgo

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ProForest andEcosecurities

ProForest and Ecosecuritiesare pleased to release furtherinformation on the 2004Training Programme which willbe held in Oxford on 12–16July 2004.

The programme provides arange of up-to-date coursesdealing with current issues forthose involved in forestmanagement, certification andsustainable natural resourcemanagement.

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TAA Subscription—Paying the Bill!

Recently there has been some concern over the somewhat easy use ofcredit cards and the prominence given to credit card fraud, currentlyexceeding some £600 million annually in the United Kingdom. Thishas led to some reticence in their use. It appears that difficulty hasalso been experienced with the use of our Work-With-Us entry on ourwebsite where members can log in their own details and at the sametime authorise a Gift-Aid donation. An easier way, especially for thoseoverseas or for those who may not have access to sterling would be touse our SWIFT/BIC and IBAN Codes for a direct transfer frompersonal bank account direct to the Association’s account in Sutton.The codes are as follows:

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Annual Subscriptions

Members are reminded that their annualsubscriptions ARE DUE ON 1ST AUGUST. Ifpayment is made automatically, please checkthat the method is still active and that youare paying the correct amount.

On-Line £20, Full £30, Journal £50,Corporate £80, Student £5640 members have filled in Bankers’ Orders (although not all seemto be active). Would the remaining 355 be willing to complete one?Bankers’ orders are available on the TAA web page. It is also possibleto pay on line by clicking on the pay button. Payments are madethrough Workwithus who provide a secure web page.

SUBS ARE DUE!SUBS ARE DUE!

££££

Paying yourBill!&:&:

At the Royal ShowAgain this year there will be a TAAstand at the Royal Show, which will beheld at Stoneleigh from Sunday 4th

July to Wednesday 7th July. (Note

that the Show now runs fromSunday to Wednesday; nolonger from Monday toThursday.)

Our stand will be based in asmall marquee, similar to theone we had last year, andour site will be close to theInternational Village. Thisyear we will use a‘Networking’ theme, whichwill indicate how the TAAencourages communicationacross the world of ‘tropicalagriculture’ and will bereflected in displays andmaterial for distribution.

The Farmers Club will hold itsusual barbecue on the Mondayevening.For tickets (price not yetknown) please contact MikeLong.

We need volunteers to helprun the stand, and supplies ofmaterial for display anddistribution (e.g. posters & fliers).This material should relate toagricultural enterprises and NGOs withwhich TAA members are involved.

If you can help running the stand, please contact:

Mike and Mollie Long,49 Bewdley Road North, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcs DY13 8PT.Tel: 01299 826016; Email: [email protected]

If you have material that you would like displayed or distributed, please contact:Henry Gunston, 6 Clement Close, Wantage, Oxon OX12 7EDTel: 01235 223474; Email: [email protected] look forward to seeing you at the Show.



The Royal Show

RRSS

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED PLEASE

If you can help, please contact

Mike, Mollie or Henry

ASKING THEQUESTIONS…

GLOBALISATIONCHALLENGES



Thai Conference

ANNOUNCEMENT

Integrating Livestock-Crop Systems to meet the Challengesof Globalisation

BSAS/AHAT International Conference15–18, November 2005

Khon Kaen, Thailand

Further information can be sought from: Mike Steele, British Society of Animal Science (BSAS), PO

Box 3, Penicuik, Midlothian EH 26 ORZ, UKTel: + 44 (0) 131 445 4508

http://www.bsas.org.uk or via E-mail: [email protected]

GLO

BA

LIS

ATI

ON

CH

AL

LE

NG

ES

The British Society of Animal Science and the Animal HusbandryAssociation of Thailand announce this jointly organised conference.

The overall theme is Integrating Livestock-Crop systems to meet the challenges of globalisation. All domestic animal species(non-ruminant, ruminant) and all production systems (commercial and village) will be addressed. It isanticipated that specific sessions will address a number of important topical issues, including the following:

1 Crop-Livestock systems. 2 Organic Livestock production

3 Food Safety and traceability 4 GATT, world trade and marketing

5 Medicinal plants 6 Animal Welfare

7 Environmental aspects of Animal Wastes 8 Nutrient Balances

The conference will include invited keynote papers, offered papers (both linked to the above sessions and relatedfree communications), posters, field visits, trade stands and a full social programme. The meeting will last fourdays, the first two days will be made up of formal presentations, the third day discussion groups and the final dayvisits of a technical nature. Cultural/social visits will be arranged both before and after the conference

The organisers have requested the TAA to assist in the conference and the Executive Committee have delegatedTony Smith and Keith Virgo to take responsibility for the TAA’s contribution. It has been agreed with BSAS &AHAT that the TAA will be responsible for Session No 8, with thenew title of Nutrient Transfers—Impacts andManagement: local, national and internationalimplications. This will focus on the impacts ofglobalisation on the transfers of nutrients in animalproducts and feed/fodder crops from field to farm,farm to town and country to country. We are alsoassisting in identifying contributors to the othersessions.

TAA members who are interested in attending, presentinga paper, contributing a poster or who can offer the names ofsuitable contributors, are invited to contact either TonySmith

[email protected]

or myself [email protected]

Initial details are being posted on the TAA web site, which will belinked to the AHAT site, and a call for papers will be issuedsoon by the organisers.

Keith Virgo



FARM-Africa is currently running twoprojects in South Africa, in the Eastern

Cape and Northern Cape provinces. Theproject in the Northern Cape is named“Capacity Building in Community-basedNatural Resources Management”. The aim ofthe project, which has been running since1999 and will close in March 2004, is tosupport the post-allocation of thebeneficiaries of the Land Reform. The role ofFARM-Africa is to provide eight associationsof emerging farmers (consisting of differentnumbers of households) with the necessarytraining to enable them to improve theirlivelihoods through farming. The majority ofagricultural land is under grazing due to thenatural resources of the Northern Cape, butthere are also some arable and horticulturalcrops where the vicinity of a watercourseallows irrigation. The process of assistancestarts with an assessment of the resources ofthe property, and is followed by land-useplanning and subsequent training in all theareas, from agricultural and horticulturaloperations to grazing and financialmanagement. Progress is then checked bymonitoring and evaluation procedures carriedout by the communities with initialsupervision by FARM-Africa staff. FARM-Africa also provides assistance for theformation of management committees, theproduction of reports and minutes, legalaspects of management and more. Thetraining is supplied through workshops ormeetings and discussions. The day-to-dayroutine also involves fieldwork, especiallywhen a new operation is taking place, and inthe fortnightly Monitoring and Evaluationtour of the projects.

I have been involved in most of the activitiescarried out by FARM-Africa staff. My firsttask was to assist in the production of abusiness plan for a community that was

applying for a loan. This experience gave mea good insight into both the technical andfinancial aspects of an agricultural operation.I then had to assess, evaluate, and makesuggestions on the potential of twocommunities to use the natural resources oftheir properties to start an eco-tourismenterprise. The work was interesting becauseI could use my past experience in hotelmanagement, and I also had the opportunityto work side by side with the communities,brainstorm together on what their enterprisecould be like, and look into all theorganisational aspects of starting a newenterprise, including the design of apersonalised hospitality operations trainingscheme.

I am currently writing a grazing managementmanual to support the training of emerginggraziers. The manual is not to teach farmershow to design a grazing plan for theirproperty but to create an awareness of theissues behind grazing; and to highlight thatgrazing is a practice that incorporates culturaland traditional factors, but that the rulesmust be observed strictly in order to avoidresource degradation. The communal form inwhich the land is allocated to beneficiariesoften creates the problem of a poor sense ofownership and responsibility.

When I am not involved in specific tasks, Iparticipate in routine activities, such as thedesign of workshops, fieldwork, monitoringand evaluation, monthly managementcommittee meetings, crop post-mortemmeetings, and identification of new land use.I had opportunities to work with thecommunities, get to know them andunderstand them. This experience provides aremarkable learning ground throughexposure to all aspects of development, fromthe agricultural to the social and political.

35

TAAF Updates

TAAF AWARDEE UPDATES

Annalisa Lodato

(RSA 2003)

New

s from

TAA

F Aw

ard

ees

After 3 years working with Indu Farm inKenya, the job is as challenging as ever. Themarket regulations and restrictions are be-coming more and more important with thevery real intervention of the EU and theretailers. Recently I have introduced directmarketing between the farmers’ groups andBayer East Africa, the agro-chemical comp-any. This is for two reasons:

q To ensure the farmers use the correct (andapproved) chemicals on their crops.

q To ensure the farmers have access to thebest chemicals on the market at a pricethey can afford.

This means that there will be no excuse forthe farmer not to apply the correct chemical

at the right time. We will have better controlof the farmer and the husbandry of the crops,and also the quality of the product will im-prove meaning better prices for the farmersand higher volumes of export qualityvegetables for us. From an agriculturalperspective, pests and diseases are always thebiggest problem faced by small-scale farmers.It is imperative that the farmers receive thecorrect training and have access to chemicalsfor the proper control measures. IPMtechniques are also encouraged.

Despite the daily struggles with all of thefarmers, the mutually beneficial relationshipbetween the company and the farmersremains strong and lasting.



TAAF Updates

James Lomax

(Kenya)

Matt Cracknell

Matt Cracknell is completing his six-monthperiod as an awardee in Malawi with theSUNESMA programme, with which PeterStedman, Nick Evans and Justin Wardpreviously worked. Matt hopes to stay untilOctober and has received additional fundingfrom the SAFAD organisation at Silsoe. He iscurrently focused on a reafforestation pro-gramme but is also involved in various otheraspects of this project.

Claire Teeling

Claire Teeling returned from her project inthe Terai area of Nepal in March where shewas involved with an ethnobotanical pro-gramme. She has now started the second partof her sandwich year at Writtle College and isworking with the plant breeding departmentof a local organisation.

Susan Azam Ali

Susan Azam Ali (Bangladesh, 1991) has leftthe Intermediate Technology Group (ITDG)and is now working as a freelance consultantcovering similar activities.

Richard VokesRichard Vokes (Uganda, 2000) has beenawarded his doctorate at Wolfson College,Oxford.

Janet GeddesJanet Geddes (India, 2002) left the London-based company ERM in December 2003 andis now working in India as a freelance de-velopment consultant based in Mumbai. Herwork has taken her to the island of Sumatrain Indonesia and she is also involved with achildren’s NGO in Mumbai. She says, “It is acombination of both rural and urban worldswhich I’m finding refreshing. At this part-icular moment in time, I would relish aconsultancy somewhere cold, as the mercuryis rising fast in Bombay.”

Daniel FitzpatrickDaniel Fitzpatrick (Cuba, 2002) has beenworking with IFAD in Rome and, morerecently, with the Ecologist magazine inLondon.

Dr Mikael Grut is secretary of the TAAF committee.He can be contacted by email:[email protected]

U

Editorial Guidelines

1. The Newsletter issues quarterly in early March (green), June (yellow), September (brown) and December (blue).2. The Editor is primarily responsible for the production aspects of the Newsletter.3. Regarding the professional content, unless falling within the Editor’s area of expertise, the copy is referred to an

appropriate Member of ExCo, who de facto act as an Editorial Board.4. All copy should be with the Editor by the first week of the month preceding the month of the next issue—at the latest—

the earlier, the better.5. Whenever possible, reports and papers from meetings and seminars should be presented in summary or as concisely as

the material permits. References should be kept to the minimum (these are printed in a very small sized point) and theauthor should be prepared to accept enquiries from Members seeking further detail. In general, submissions to theNewsletter should not exceed 1,200 to 1,500 words in length.

6. Submissions by email and/or disc are encouraged. Such material should always be supported by a confirming hard copyposted separately to the Editor.

7. All email submissions to the Editor should be repeated to the General Secretary.8. To ensure accurate scanning, hard copy submissions should be of good quality, double spaced and with wide margins.9. Drawings, diagrams, maps, etc., should be good quality line art, and the original artwork (on disk or at least 600 dpi

black and white hard copy) made available to the Editor. Photographs: good quality black and white or colourphotographs to be sent to the Editor (s.a.e. for return). Do not send photographs in digital format.

10. Exceptionally, short notes in clear and legible handwriting may be accepted.11. The following House Style has been adopted for production of the TAA Newsletter, and contributors are asked to present

contributions, as far as possible, in this format:q References to the Newsletter and other journals and books/publications to appear in italicsq Titles of papers to appear in italics rather than parenthesesq Caps to be used in titles for all words, apart from words like ‘a’ ‘the’ etc. Caps in general to be kept to a minimum.q Companies always to be referred to in the singular , i.e. ‘its’ and ‘has’ rather than ‘their’ and ‘have’q Organisations to be identified by full name the first time they are mentioned with acronym (if it exists) in brackets.

Thereafter use acronym q Latin phrases and names in italicsq Authors of papers to be referred to by full name, and affiliation includedq Papers might include short biography of author, so please include this, if possibleq Contributors of letters to have names in full, plus place of origin, to permit cross referencing with the Membership

List.

Disclaimer: While we make every effort to protect the interests of our members, we are unable to check the accuracy or integrity of any advertisements in

the Newsletter. We cannot accept responsibility for any misfortune resulting from an advertisement in the TAA Newsletter.

Design, Layout and Camera-Ready CopyTina Bone, DeskTop Publishing, Illustration & Web Design, 18 Harbour Avenue, Comberton,

Cambridge CB3 7DD. Tel: (01223) 262962; Fax: (01223) 262877; Mobile 07802 708 028;email: [email protected] web: www.tinabonedtp.co.uk

PrintingAcorn Press, 3 London Road Industrial Estate, Pampisford, Cambridge CB2 4EE

Tel: (01223) 834301; Fax: (01223) 837685; email: [email protected]

Packing/labellingCastle Project Workshop (Cambridge), Steven Chivers

Unit H, The Paddocks, 347 Cherry Hinton Road, Cambridge CBI 3HGTel: (01223) 413203; email: [email protected]

Subscriptions

Subscriptions are due annually on 1st August and, with theexception of members having no bank account in the UK, arepayable by banker’s order. Members joining after 30 April inany year will not be charged a subscription for the balance ofthat year.

Current subscription rates are:

q Individual membership (printed Newsletter) £30 p.a.

q Individual membership (online Newsletter) £20 p.a.

q ‘Journal’ membership (with J. Exptl Agric.) £50 p.a.

q Student Member £5 p.a.

q Corporate Membership £80 p.a.

Advertising Rates

q Full page £200

q Half page £110

q Quarter page £60

q A4 inserts £300 per sheet

Personal advertisements from

q members—10p per word.q Minimum £2.50—cash with advertisement please.

Extra copies of the TAA Newsletter if available £2 per copy postfree in EC, £2.50 outside EC. Contact General Secretary.

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