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Biotechnology, When You Hold Us in Your Grips! DENTIFYING GENES FROM A DONOR, TRANSferring them to a new host, and regenerating a whole living organism from a genetically modified cell, such are the prowess of this cloning technique, called modern biotechnology, that facilitates better genetic breeding and transformation that people are already doing. In 2003, eighteen countries have cultivated about sixtyeight million of hectares of genetically modified plants. Of this, fifty-five percent are soybean, twenty percent cotton, fifteen percent rapeseed, and ten percent maize. At least eighty current pharmaceutical products originate from genetically modified Organisms. In Argentina, the cultivation of transgenic soybean yielded two trillion seven hundred and fifty billion CFA francs in 2002. Some already then affirm that it appears as an indispensable tool for crop management and disease control systems and for the increase by seventy-five percent of agricultural production from now to 2020 so as to takle the high increasing rate of the African population, objective that classical methods, alone, can not attain. This is to ensure that at the end of 2004, the African Seed Trade Association (AFSAT), International Fertilizer Development Center, CORAF/WECARD cotton Network, and National Interprofessional Seeds Union of Senegal (UNIS) have met to exchange ideas on the possible utilization of biotechnology and biodiversity in seed pro-
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Pilot bakery making rich bread and pastries at the Institute of Food Technology.
Straight Forward Return to Cereals and Beans AVING FOR A LONG TIME ABANDON-
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ed the cultivation of cereals and beans for imported food products, Senegal is in an uncomfortable situation of food insecurity. Up to 2003, the national agricultural production could just satisfy half of all the food needs. Nearly thirty percent annual importations consisted of only rice and wheat, corresponding to nine hundred and ninety thousand tons of rice that cost taxpayers eighty-five billion CFA francs. Therefore, the “record� of the highest importing country in West Africa de facto goes to
Senegal. As such, the trade balance, payments balance as well as employment and income opportunities have been severely affected. It was, therefore, high time that research programs of the Institut de technologie alimentaire (Institute of Food Technology) (ITA) be geared towards surmounting the main consumer constraints, including difficulties in processing operations, loss of know-how, and weak diversity in food preparations particularly in the urban area. Continued on page 2
RESEARCH ECHOES duction and improvement of the cotton plant. Researchers, producers, extension workers, and representatives of the Union économique et monétaire Ouest africaine (West African Economic and Monetary Union) and Centre de cooperation internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (Center for International Cooperation in Agronomic Research for Development) have noted the reduction by twenty percent of the attacks of the lepidoptera larvae and phytosanitary treatment on Bt cotton, tested in South Africa by CIRAD, followed by a better evolution of the yield. They also noted that the safety of animal feed and human food, impact on the environment, economic and social impacts are of concern to people, which explained the need to have a harmonized legislation per ecological zone based on the Cartagena protocol on biosafety conceived to reduce the risks of biotechnology. As such, they propose that the labelling of products be comprehensible to illiterates similarly to what is being done elsewhere such as in United States, that African varieties be registered to avoid ownership being claimed by multinational societies transforming them, that information on the GMO market available in the Biosafety Clearing House be shared. They also proposed that qualitative and quantitative tests, that allow the distinction between GMOs and conventional varieties, be established and rigorously respected in order to preserve the genetic identity of seeds, the current work of the OECD on seed conditions leading in fact in that direction, that new skills be acquired in communication that, in the case, must be demonstrative and nonemotional. Concerning the cotton plant, the platform recommended NARS to start, first and above all, claiming ownership of the new technology in order to acquire a lot of knowledge, better informing the populations and decision-makers, then encouraging researchers to rapidly request the necessary authorizations from their governments to carry out their experiments alike those of Burkina Faso, finally making arrangements for the protection of the germplasm before CORAF ACTION
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any negotiation on the transformation of African products.
Contact: Marcel Chijioke Nwalozie CORAF/WECARD, BP 48 Dakar RP CP 18553, Senegal Tel: +221 869 96 18 Fax: +221 869 96 31 E-mail: marcel.nwalozie@coraf.org Internet: www.coraf.org
Continued from page one
Without fanfare, researchers and technicians, at the workshop on cereals and beans at ITA, quickly established appropriate technologies for the storage and conservation of these two products that reduce post-harvest yield losses and improve grain quality: metallic air-tight barrels of between 50 and 210 liters, in which grains are not infested, very little oxygen and lots of carbon dioxide killing insects by suffocation; simple and appropriate treatment techniques,such as the mixing of calcium oxide and wood ashes, and the grating of grains facilitate the control of the bruchids of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). The physico-chemical and technological features of three millet varieties— Thialak, Souna III, and Sosat C—have also been determined and their capacity in providing current consumable food products—couscous, araw (granulated) and bread—has been assessed and tested in laboratory and with consumers. Shelling and milling processes through drying have been developed, which can preserve the finished products for more than six months, whereas traditional methods can only preserve them for a day. The technical specifications of milled products—broken millet, sanxal (flour), rolling and baking flours—have also been determined and technical sheets established. Solar Energy and Gas Equipments Fermented cowpea flour, serving to make salted bean cakes (akara in Wolof), the traditional preparation of
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which is particularly tedious has been invented. The fermentation process has the advantage of significantly reducing flatulence factors (gaseous release) and providing a product very easy to use. The acceptance tests, carried out with some households and hotels, proved to be very satisfactory. Grilled cowpea based products (flour and semolina) developed and the artisan and semi-industrial fabrication processes invented. These flours have mainly been used to prepare food complements and to serve as substitution products in the place of groundnut paste in certain culinary preparations. As if this is not enough, a cereal machine has been adopted for semi-industrial usage and disseminated in Senegal, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. It removes sand and stones that can be in finished products and can tarnish their quality as far as consumers are concerned. A granulator has also been developed that mechanically converts millet flour into couscous and granule. Made and tested with Techniques Industries, the private partner, this invention, already patented and actually disseminated, eliminate the constraint in millet of being deprived of gluten (a protein that confers the elastic nature on wheat flour) contrary to wheat. Solar energy and gas equipments, adopted and disseminated dry cereal products, such as the couscous and granule. Two prototypes of the dryers, of the type Attesta Fac 2000, have been transferred from Burkina Faso and Mali, where they are used with success on other products. The manufacture of another prototype rotating gas dryer, Serag, more specific for rolling products, is being finalized. In the same vein, a cereal machine, adapted for the mechanical calibration of milled products—flour and broken cereals—and rolled products— couscous and araw—, complete the assorted results of the Institute. Bread Flour Made in the Regional Capitals Motivated, the researchers and technicians have also developed some complementary foods such as flours made from local cereals as wells as some extruded products within the
RESEARCH ECHOES framework of the Projet petit-déjeuner scolaire (school breakfast Project) (PDS). They have improved the traditional recipes adapted to the current consumption mode and invent-ed new millet, maize and cowpea recipes in order to diversify the meals and to encourage city dwellers—about forty percent of the population—to consume more local cereals and beans. Once this huge scientific work has been achieved, the researchers and technicians are, finally, engaged in training of technicians in the area on the storage of cereals and beans and protection of stocks, of private operators on the primary processing activities, in the assistance of small and average Enterprises and small and average Industries, in the establishment of semi-industrial processing for the Private Sector, and in the technology transfer to countries in the subregion. Moreover, these have led to the creation of partnerships with research institutions, political institutions, and stakeholder organizations of the sector, that have encouraged the participative approach in the development and implementation of research programs and conditions for the transfer of results. These partnerships have contributed to promoting these products at the national and international levels: appearance of products of semi-industrial and industrial enterprises in corner shops, markets, supermarkets, gas stations, and kiosks in town, etc., development of restaurant services using local products, exportation of traditional products to Europe and America, emergence of semi-industrial processing units of the same products, bread-making using composed flour in some bakeries in the regional capitals.
Contact: NDèye T.T. Doumouya ITA, BP 2765, Dakar, Senegal Tel: +221 854 07 07 Fax: +221 832 82 95 E-mail: ita@sentoo.sn
African Knights When some Africans dishonor Africa through the power of war, others honor it through the power of knowledge. Steel now, more exactly on January 5, 2005, about twenty personalities from the University of Burkina Faso have been raised to the rank of Officers or of Knights of the international Order of the scientific palm of the African and Malagasy Higher Education Council (CAMES). Among the hap-
Doctor Paco Sérémé, Executive Secretary of CORAF/WECARD.
Doctor Michel P. Sédogo, Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Committee of CORAF/WECARD.
py recipients were Doctors Paco Sérémé, Michel Papaoba Sédogo, and Konaté Gnissa, emeritus researchers, raised to the rank of Knights. The scientific community, through CORAF/WECARD, is so much proud of Doctor Paco Sérémé, plant pathologist, that he is currently the Executive Secretary of this International Association, of Doctor Michel Papaoba Sedogo, soil scientist at the Institut de l’environnement et de recherches agricoles (Institute of Environmental and Agricultural Research) (INERA) of Burkina Faso, that he is currently the Chairman of its Scientific and Technical Committee, of Doctor Konaté Gnissa, virologist at the
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Doctor Konaté Gnissa, representative of the Scientific and Technical Committee of CORAF/WECARD in the working group on the biotechnology and biosafety Planning process.
Plant virology Laboratory of Kamboinse of INERA, that he has represented this Committee in the working group on the biotechnology and biosafety Planning process leading to the development of the West and Central African biotechnology and biosafety Program. They were all decorated on June 22, 2005, within the walls of the presidency of the University of Ouagadougou, in the presence of a floor of very important personalities.
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RESEARCH ECHOES Livestock
Ripened Fruits of Twenty-five Years of Research Fall IT THE CONSIDERABLE REsources and efforts invested during the 1970s to get rid of the tsetse fly vector of trypanosomiasis and to reduce its bad effects in Africa South of the Sahara frankly a surprise? No. Were not the clearing of forests, destruction of wild reservoirs, and terrestrial and ariel spraying finally considered as potentially harmful to the environment? Didn’t the chemical treatment of trypanosomes just like some other products have finally induced the resistance of the vector? Didn’t the probabilities of finding efficient vaccines to protect the millions of nonresistant animals have disappeared like a mirage? Heart breaking. Because the situation, which called for their utilization, has not changed, almost immovable. A West and Central African, lets us remind
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Voice of Ministers In the margin of the international/regional conference on the results of twenty-five years of livestock research in West and Central Africa, held in Banjul, at the end of 2004, the Ministers of Agriculture and Livestock of the Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, and Sierra Leone met. At the end of this meeting, they declared that: • the International Trypanotolerance Centre should develop a coordination system enabling to better responding to the needs of these countries and that its mandate be strengthened at the subregional level, • the ITC strengthens its links with member National Agricultural Research Systems, particularly those of the countries in situation of armed post-conflict,
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ourselves, consumes between seven and thirteen and a half kilograms of dairy products per year, whereas an Eastern African consumes sixty-five kilograms per year. In the 1980s, West Africa alone accounted for sixty percent of the annual importation of dairy products in sub-Saharan Africa, corresponding to two hundred and ten billion CFA francs. And the risk for this tendency to be sustained remained if the local production was not increased, nutrition and productivity were not improved, diseases not controlled, spiraling demographic growth and urbanization effrénée not mastereed, farmers’ income and market prices not increased, support of Financial Partners was not strengthened, impact of research-development not demonstrated, informational and communication gaps were not reduced, etc.
• their commitment be realized through the establishment of an Advisory Council of Ministers of members countries of ITC responsible for defining policy trends and helping it in the search for funds, • their commitment be realized more through financial contributions coming from national budgets of their countries so as to facilitate the implementation of research programs of the Centre, • a strong commitment will be made to the initiative of the ITC, such as the regional integration Project currently proposed to the European Union for funding by the ITC and CIRDES under the aegis of the Union économique et monétaire Ouest africaine (West African Economic and Monetary Union), as well as the Programme de conservation endogène des races locales (Program of the endogenous preservation of local races) already submitted for funding to the GEF and African Development Bank.
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These stakes and challenges have amply justified the creation of the African trypanotolerance livestock Network (ATLN) by the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA), International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD), International Trypanotolerance Centre (ITC), all preoccupied with the nonsustainable nature of the imported products industry compared to the potentialities of the local races of small ruminants. The same reasons gave rise to the necessity of creating the Centre international de recherchedéveloppement en zone sub-humide (International Research-Development Center on Livestock in Sub-humid Zone) (CIRDES) concerned with the molecular characterization of the trypanotolerance of the Ndaama, WAD goat, and Djallonké sheep. Just to cite only their examples, ITC and the CIRDES have allowed the research to make great paths on the determination of the socioeconomic breeding context of these animals. Recent initiatives, the Programme concerté de recherche-développement en élevage (consultative livestock research-development Program) (PROCORDEL) and initiative regional Program (regional initiative Program) supported by the European Union, Global Initiative-Livestock and the Poor (GI-LSP) supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Partnership for livestock development of the World Bank, and global poverty mapping Study of the Department for International Development (DFID) have further demonstrated the existence of the links between the enterprises of the sector, economic activities, and improvement of living conditions in Third World countries. Twenty-five years after, the ITC and CIRDES, base-centers of CORAF/ WECARD, have made it their duty with the support of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), to report on research results through their international regional/conference, held at the end of 2004, in Banjul. The numerous invitees debated on the contribution of livestock in the improvement of the standard of living, poverty reduction, to food security, preservation of the
RESEARCH ECHOES environment, but also in the recent history of funding and mechanisms for the support of research, constraints and opportunities in farms, development strategies (see box), contribution of the sector to the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals and future stakes.
Contact: Dady Demby CORAF/WECARD, BP 48 Dakar RP CP 18523, Senegal Tel: +221 896 96 18 Fax: +221 869 96 31 E-mail: dady.demby@coraf.org Internet: www.coraf.org
The next article will address the conclusions.
Agricultural Productivity: Vast Program CORAF/WECARD, THE INITIAtives are not lacking. One more has been created to allow the adoption of priority areas defined in the strategic Plan for agricultural cooperation (SPAC) and to choose some of the few products and key technologies for implementing it. The inter-States Program for agricultural productivity in West and Central Africa (MAPP), this is its name, is adopted after the organization of a workshop, at the end of November 2004, in Abuja. This meeting involved leaders of the Economic Community of West African States, Economic Community of Central Africa, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, and CORAF/WECARD. Considering the reform proposals for the financial mechanisms of the Systems for the generation and adoption of agricultural technologies in Africa, those proposed by CORAF/WECARD require that these mechanisms be appropriate and flexible, competitive, sustainable and innovative, integrator of the priorities. This Program expects NEPAD to strengthen national
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agricultural technology Systems, their links and integration with external markets and the technological development systems. It is agreed, at the national level, that support should be provided by each State to establish a national focal point for the Program in consultation with all agriculture stakeholders, a national steering committee responsible for finalizing the work program and annual budget, to monitor and evaluate the activities conducted within each State, to approve reports submitted to great institutions and agencies, and to nominate its national coordinator. Once nominated, the latter must try especially to give account to the national steering committee and to prepare the reports of the host country. At the subregional level, the monitoring and evaluation of the MAPP, nomination of the subregional coordinator, summoning of the national coordinators and other partners, establishment and functioning of the subregional steering committee, are the responsibility of CORAF/ WECARD. The workshop instantly admits the necessary political and institutional support of the ECOWAS – including Mauritania which is not a member – and of the CEMAC each endowed with a focal point of the Program. At the regional level, the coordination with NEPAD for implementation is entrusted to FARA, in addition to the monitoring and evaluation of MAPP, establishment of a regional steering committee responsible for approving the West and Central Africa biotechnology and biosafety Planning process, different reports, and minutes of the FARA General Assembly. The Double Swinging Doors This big Program is endowed with contributive relevance to livelihood and food security that are being deteriorating day by day in sub-Saharan Africa. One will never stop to recall – as long as it exists – that most Africans live below the poverty threshold and still depend disproportionally on food aid: the human development report of the United Nations Development Programme already indicated that the human development index stagnated between 0.275 and 0.499,
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for the last 26 years; West and Central Africans have the shortest life expectancy, lowest education level and gross national product per inhabitant, and highest population growth rate. And the irony of unknowing which fate would want East Asia to already come out of extreme poverty, Arab world, Latin America, and Caribbean to succeed in 2015, on the contrary, Africa to succeed only in 2147 (!), and the journey is long and hard. Has NEPAD not recognized what every body knows already: the urgent vital need of the improving of the productivity and competitiveness of agriculture being the double swinging doors that is the opening to economic growth?
Contact: Marcel C. Nwalozie CORAF/WECARD, BP 48 Dakar RP CP 18523, Senegal Tel: +221 869 96 18 Fax: +221 869 96 31 E-mail: marcel.nwalozie@coraf.org Internet: www.coraf.org
CORAF/WECARD
Forestry Network Reestablished
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HE GLARING LACK OF FUNDING AND
demonstrated rarity of human resources, are not these the reasons that have caused the lethargy and confined inside the associative forestry and agroforestry research Network of the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development? This question sounded both as a reminder and an alarm in the heads of about thirty participants at its third General Assembly meeting held in Kribi, in the Cameroonian Littoral province, from 19 to 22 of January, 2005. They represented the ten-member National Agricultural Research Systems, Scientific and Technical Partners, and Financial Partners who came to “rekindle from its ashes” their Network, but also to exchange ideas on its position in the current subregional initiatives. Yet, the members of the CORAFforestry Network, as it is now called, CORAF ACTION
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Network in Its Current Organization The Executive Secretariat, that has been elected for three years to lead the destiny of the Network, is composed of: the Coordinator of the Network: Dr. Mathurin Tchatat of Cameroon the Coordinator of the Sahel zone: Dr. Ibrahima Ndiaye of Mali the Coordinator of Central Africa: Dr. Bernard Foahom of Cameroon the Coordinator of Coastal West Africa: Pr. Joseph J. Owonubi of Nigeria has stated the existence of financing opportunities and possibilities for collaboration or international partnerships. These are the reasons why, in the issue of this important meeting, suggestions are made to strengthen the capacity of researchers in writting bankable projects, to retain for examination concrete collaborative projects proposed by international organizations and development partners, to validate the new organs and
directorates of the Network (see box), to envisage the use of experts of the Network in the case of consultations and request for services in its partial funding, to solicit the unfailing support of the Executive Secretary of the Subregional Organization. Two priority projects on the forestry research for food security and better management of natural resources and on the monitoring of ecosystems and support in decision-making are retained for the dry zones of West and Central Africa; for the humid dense forest zone, the five research projects focus on the forestry and good governance, forests and production of wealth, development and rehabilitation of the forests and poverty, population and environment.
Contact: Dady Demby CORAF/WECARD, BP 48 Dakar RP 18523, Senegal Tel: +221 869 96 18 Fax: +221 869 96 31 E-mail: dady.demby@coraf.org Internet: www.coraf.org
Does this compact picture of union prefigure the rebirth of the forest and agroforestry Network of CORAF/WECARD, baptized on the quiet banks of the Kribi beach (south-western Littoral province of Cameroon).
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Lake Chad Is More Than Lake BASIN OF THE LAKE CHAD IS still making news, but good news. It is almost in turmoil to attain food security: reduce losses due to catastrophes which are the insect pests, weeds, and plant diseases—millet and sorghum—using new integrated farming techniques to control these constraints respectful of the environment. The framework chosen, since 2000, by the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD) of Cameroon and Commission of the Lake Chad Basin (CBLT) is the Project supporting research-development on integrated control of constraints to subsistence agriculture in the Lake Chad Basin, hosted by the IRAD regional Center for agricultural research in Maroua, in the Cameroonian Extreme-Northern province. The control methods in question are biological, phytosanitary nonchemical with the utilization of extracts from neem against insects, satellites with the use of pictures for predicting and anticipating. The Project will put them in use within the framework of a managed technology transfer system with farmers trained and monitored by extension workers and also with the National Institutes of Agricultural Research in Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria, and Chad, the countries constituting the Commission. Twenty villages— 5 per country—will be covered during the pilot phase, concerning 1,000 farms of a size of 2 hectares each. The Central African Republic, which just joins the Commission, will not benefit from this pilot phase of the Project.
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Contact: Woin Noé IRAD, BP: 33, Maroua, Cameroon Tel and fax: +237 229 24 15 E-mail: iradmaroua@yahoo.fr
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Executive Committee: Display of Biotechnology Option
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HE MENU WAS WELL GARNISHED ON
the meeting table: activity report for 2004 of the Executive Secretariat, draft program of activities and the budget for 2005, draft West and Central Africa biotechnology and biosafety Program, Statutes and rules of the Subregional Organization, preparation of the General Assembly meeting for 2005, request for the creation of a research Network of cacao producing countries, evaluation of the results of the proposal call for research projects for 2004 of the regional competitive Fund, strengthening of some NARS, etc. So many documents, which have been though, one by one, carefully scrutinized by members of the Executive Committee of the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development, during its ordinary session held, from 2 to 3 February, 2005, in Dakar, presided by the Chairman, Dr. Sié Koffi, and in the presence of important personalities, such as the Chairman of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, Dr. Papa Abdoulaye Seck, also a member of the Committee, Mrs. Amparo Gonzalès-Diez, Program Head at the developmental section of the Delegation of the European Commission in Senegal, Dr Aminou Babandi, Assistant Director of the agricultural sciences Department of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nigeria, Dr. Dogo Seck, the new Director of the Regional Center for Drought Adaptation Studies based in Thiès, Senegal. With respect to the 2004 activity report, Paco Sérémé, the Executive Secretary, Marcel Nwalozie, Scientific Coordinator, and Jean-Rostand Jiadias Kamga, new Administrative and Financial Manager, presented the achievements of the programmed activities, financial situation, and preparation for the sixth General Assembly meeting for the year 2005. After having congratulated them and the entire Executive Secretariat team for the
work realized, and notably the effort deployed having mobilized other funding sources, the leaders of the institution and their invitees raised questions and expressed their concerns on essential points related to the nonrealization of certain activities, situation of the reimbursement of debts, closing date of the account of the management budget for 2004, deadline of the current European Union Program for the support to research in West Africa, and contribution of members NARS to the functioning of the Subregional Organization. Exploit All the Communication Opportunities This contribution of NARS, according to the response provided by the Executive Secretary, his team, and Dr. Sié Koffi, can be pursued through the Intergovernmental Organizations of the subregion, that have been, moreover, “lobbied” to bring them claim proper ownership of CORAF/ WECARD, which, after all, corresponds to the diversification of funding sources in the way effectiveness. Some activities have not been achieved mainly due to the late mobilization of this PARAO funds. In the same vein, taking into consideration the delays accumulated in the realization of the financial audits of 2001, 2002, and 2003 and the need to respect the financial procedures of the Treaty of OHADA (Organization for the Harmonization of African Business Rights), the 2004 account can not be closed before the end of April 2005, nevertheless the requests made by the Delegation of the European Commission to have them ready on time will be taken into consideration. Concerning the programmed activities and financial resources effectively available for their implementation, Jean-Rotand J. Kamga particularly said that those activities, resulting from the triennial plan of the period 2004-2006, have been more carefully planned with the aim of strictly adhe-
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ring to the recommendations formulated during the last General Assembly; the budgetary execution should be carried out with the same rigor so as to take into consideration the deadline of the PARAO on the December 31, 2005; the effort for the mobilization of financial resources must be pursued so as to better achieve this end; the budget is balanced and reveals an excess. After this clear and precise presentation, the members of the Executive Committee have reacted by asking the following questions: what use has been made of the funds for the support to the Civil Society? Here is the response: these funds have led to the specification of the support to be made, if they participate in current subregional initiatives. The participants have also reacted by recognizing that their sessions must henceforth be held between March and April in order to adopt the certified financial statements of the last financial year and between November and December to adopt the Program of activities and budget of the coming year. As for the draft West and Central African biotechnology and biosafety Program, the leaders of the Council requested that it should be strongly presented to the NARS and some partners in order to affirm the commitment of CORAF/WECARD in this direction as well as, otherwise, the intensification of information and communication actions to encourage its activities and initiatives throughout the subregion, not only in improving the information system but also by exploiting all the opportunities in the area. Authorized to Establish a Cacao Network The Statutes and drafts internal regulations have been amended. First of all, according to the recognition of the Council by the government authorities of the countries in the subregion, it is judicious to add clauses highlighting CORAF ACTION
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the promoting role of the Council that the NARS should play, its need for increased support by these authorities, the clear identification of strategic partners that are the regional economic integration organizations and their admission as observers to the Council based on agreement protocols, proposal of holding the General Assembly no longer every year but every other three years from the seventh meeting scheduled in 2006, proposal of extending the duration of the mandate of the members of the Executive Committee from two to three years. With respect to the draft internal regulation of the Scientific and Technical Committee, the modifications made specify more its consultative function and have led to its immediate adoption. In the case of the drafts internal regulations of the General Assembly, Executive Committee, and Executive Secretariat, it is recommended that they be fused to form a single and unique internal regulation of the Council, taking into consideration the modifications introduced in the Statutes and requesting a legal expertise; the treatment of stumbling points that are the required quorum and representation of NARS in the General Assembly are postponed because of nonconsensus, on the contrary it is recognized that the
NARS have a full membership of the Subregional Organization rather than the national institutions that represented them. As for the draft administrative and social Statutes of the staff members of the Executive Secretariat, the Executive Secretary first of all made a reminder of its reason for being linked to functioning and treasury difficulties, to the insufficiency and inappropriateness of texts, before signalling that some proposals for modification have been formulated by the new Administrative and Financial Manager before the next examination by a factory inspector. The sixth annual General Assembly meeting, which should be held in March 2005, will finally be held from 3 to 6 May, as has been decided upon by the Executive Committee in agreement with the Nigerian federal government authorities. It must be said that this postponement, independent of the will of the two parties, is due to the fact that its organization of the meeting in March is prevented by the voting of the budget of the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and in April by the organization of the meeting Nigerian national agricultural advisory Council. This not signifying a sufficiency in time for ensuring the proper organization of this “high masse" and for
achieving the expected success, an arsenal of strict measures has been taken: the normal national organization committee will be established and assisted by the Executive Secretariat based in Dakar which will then send, according to the following events, a monitoring mission on the work being carried out. The latter will be assisted by an ad hoc committee responsible for preparing all the documents to be presented to the General Assembly. The Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Sao Tomé and Principé, Brazil, Malaysia, and Dominican Republic, forming the Alliance of cocoa producing countries, are authorized by the Executive Committee to set up, under the protective wing of CORAF/WECARD, the associative research Network on cacao, which will be its seventeenth network (see Booklet of the presentation of CORAF/WECARD published in October, 2004). Dr. Sié Koffi stresses that this request, formulated by the General Assembly, is of importance to the Alliance that recently sent an intergovernmental delegation to Côte d’Ivoire within the framework of developing collaborative relationships among its members. With regards to the results of the evaluation of call for research project proposals for 2004 funded by the regional competitive
Participants at the first annual meeting of the Executive Committee of CORAF/WECARD: A.M. Bobandi (from your left), Jean-Rostand Jiadiais Kamga, Grégoire Bani, Agbobli Comlan Atsu, Mohammed Ibrahim Magaji, Papa Abdoulaye Seck, Gisèle Lopez d’Almeida, Sié Koffi (Chairman), Halima Tousso Sanda, Paco Sérémé, Marcel C. Nwalozie, and Dady Demby.
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C ORAF ⁄WECARD Fund, the Executive Committee has noted that more projects have been accepted than during the first call for research project proposals from looking at the results published in 2003, consequently the instruction manual of this fund should be widely disseminated at the level of NARS for them to claim ownership of it. The Executive Secretariat is requested to engage in more profound negotiations with the African Development Bank in order to obtain from it more support to this fund and to coordinate these research projects by the NARS. The Executive Committee Has a New Member With regards to the NARS, the Committee considers that they must redouble their efforts to strengthen themselves, notably through specific cooperative research actions and information exchange, supported by CORAF/WECARD playing a facilitator role. In the same way, they must claim ownership and improve on the draft biotechnology and biosafety Program, which will begin, even this year, with the indispensable support of interested partners. These different reports have been approved by the Executive Committee, which, let us stress on this, counts new member in the person of Doctor Mohammed Ibrahim Magaji, Director of the Department of agricultural sciences of the Federal Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development of Nigeria, coopted to replace Doctor R.A.D. Jones who retired from active service in his country, Sierra Leone, in June, 2004.
Contact: Paco Sérémé CORAF/WECARD, BP 48 Dakar RP CP 18523, Senegal Tel: +221 869 96 18 Fax: +221 869 96 31 E-mail: paco.sereme@coraf.org Internet: www.coraf.org
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Headquarters Strengthen Itself With Staff Members OR NEARLY OVER A YEAR, THERE IS A
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commotion of changes and activities at CORAF/WECARD. And it is normal when one is responsible for the implementation of the strategic Plan for agricultural cooperation (SPAC) that traces the future of West and Central Africa for a decade and half, this is to say 1999-2014. Yet, this requires a lot, including new blood, and this is what the Executive Secretariat, based in Dakar, continues to do in complete transparency (call for candidatures, selection, and interview) by the recruitment of a fifth senior staff member (see thirtysecond and thirty-third issues of Coraf Action).
He is named Cheikh Alassane Fall, recruited as the Program Administrator on behalf of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI). Based in CORAF/WECARD, Dakar, he will be responsible for the IPGRI Initiative on Genetic Resources Management Policy in West and Central Africa. Doctor Fall has the academic profile and professional experience. Indeed, after his Masters in Botanical Sciences obtained in 1985 from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium and his Doctorate in Agronomy, Genetic resources, and Plant Culture delivered in 1992 by the National Institute of Agronomy of Paris-Grignon in France, he worked at the Senegalese Institute of Agricultural Research, for sixteen years. Coming right from the national Laboratory for plant production research as Coordinator of the national Program on genetic resources and biotechnology, he had before worked as breeder in the Programs on groundnut and rice at the Regional Centre for the Improvement of Plant Adaptation to Drought and at ISRA and as a trainer in breeding programs on variety selection, seed production and the rice at the National School of Rural Agricultural Managers, international training Program on rice of the joint project ISRA-SODAGRI (Société de développement agricole et indus-
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Doctor Cheikh Alassane Fall, Program Administrator of the Genetic Resources Policy Initiative in West and Central Africa of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) at CORAF/WECARD headquarters.
triel) (Society for the Agricultural and Industrial Development), etc. Thus, immediately after having taken up duty, he started his task by presiding the scientific Committee of the African Organization for Intellectual Property (AOIP) meeting to contribute to the document on the protection of traditional knowledge and folklore expressions of the Global Organization for Intellectual Property (GOIP) and to finalize its project on regional instruments, in view of the eighth Session of the GOIP which will take place in Geneva, in June, 2005.
The next article will start a series on genetic resources, including the Convention on biodiversity, international Treaty on genetic resources for food and agriculture, Treaty on the sharing monetary and nonmonetary benefits. CORAF ACTION
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IN THE FIELDS Advices Are Never Free in Agriculture
“
ONE DAY IN THE YEAR 2000, ON VISIting a friend also [mad] about agriculture, I found a small booklet on his table entitled ‘yam: production and conservation techniques’. It is [inside] that I found the solution to my problem of the small seeds of yam.” It is in a favor of a survey on the rate of adoption of the technique of multiplication of yam tubers by mini-fragmentation, that a team form the Institut togolais de recherche agronomique (Togolese Institute of Agronomic Research) (ITRA) founds out the author of these words, Mister Duobo Nowgon, farmer at Nohsé, nearby Lomé. His problem, he explains, is to have available, within a short space of time, plenty of tuber seeds of a new variety, through planting three or four yam suckers from only one full tuber. Literally applying the advices given in the famous booklet, D. Novigon has not only succeeded in producing, in a short space of time, a large amount of tubers of the introduced varieties, but has also encouraged his wives, children, and friends to start cultivating yam fields each. Apart from yam, he cultivates in rotation with cereals, leguminous plants, and tubers and uses mucuna to control imperata. This farmer, keen on seeds, demonstrates that the future of African agriculture depends also on the importance given to agricultural information and on interest that farmers express in new technologies.
Bisaap Jam: Let You Enjoy It The consumption of products such as ginger, tamarind, mango, pawpaw, and red sorrel (bisaap in Wolof) is a serious problem in Senegal. What must we do then? One of the solutions proposed by the Institute of food Technology consists of processing them into drinks, syrups, jams, and marmalades. Here is the third recipe Nothing is simpler than preparing red sorrel or bisaap jam. For you, to prove it yourself, take: young fresh flowers (calyxes) 1.6 to 1.7 kilogram of sugar for 1 kilogram of mashed calyxes or precooked calyxes 2 tablespoonfuls of lime 1 masher jars If you have everything: first of all take the calyxes off the plant, remove the fruits (seeds), and rapidly wash the calyxes to get them rid of dust and impurities. Then, cook the calyxes in a little amount of water to soften them—the young one are mashed—, put the old ones in the masher to marsh them up and remove the fibres. then pour 1.6 to 1.7 kilogram of sugar on each kilogram of mashed or precooked calyxes, heat over low fire until the liquid starts boiling slowly, add 2 tablespoonfuls of lime to each kilogram of mashed or precooked calyxes, the acidity must be lower than 4. now fill the jars with the hot jam more than 90° C, close them immediately, turn them over for about 3 to 5 minutes maximum in order to pasteurize the covers, beyond this time the jam will loose mass. Finally, wash and dry the jars before labelling them, cool them in cold water only, if the jam is still very hot.
Platform for Inflecting Rural Policies
T
O ACT TOGETHER ON AGRICULTURAL
policies in West and Central Africa countries in the sense of directing them towards the main interests of farmers in the rural area crippled by poverty, a Plateform support au développement rural en Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre (Platform Support of Rural Development in West and Central Africa) has been created. It arises within a context where the absence of clearly
Contact: Kodjo Tétévi ITRA BP 1163, Lomé, Togo Tel: +228 225 21 48 Fax: +228 225 15 59 E-mail: itra@cafe.tg Internet: www.itra.tg
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defined policies is the most current thing. Why then fake the surprise to see the actions carried out in this direction in disarray! Hasn’t “entered into the tradition” that entities do the same thing at the same time for the same problems? With misinformation and miscommunication, could it be otherwise that success is poorly knew and the failures reproduced or distributed? To remedy this dispersion of means and energy, the Platform is making the different programs coherent for their more positive impact on agricultural stakeholders of the rural area. Its vocation is to assist governments, regional
MY HUMBLE OPINION Cameroon
Forest: Chronicle of Imminent Disappearance :Announced in the twenty-third and twenty-fourth issues of Coraf Action, this new column of thought, debate, and proposal has started in the CAMEROONIAN FOREST survive after 2004? The response resonates like a glass (see previous issue of Coraf Action). Facing the cataclysm already at its doors, the countrie recalls its troops and launches a general mobilization: the launching of several forestry development projects, development of training and research, management of forestry operations, protection of the environment, and community development. Some forestry development projects work unendingly to ensure natural
twenty-fifth edition. The ninth guest, Ngono Grégoire, launches a strident complaint in “ My Humble Opinion”. Response.
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Dr. Ngono Grégoire, forestry and environmental specialist, works in the forest and wood Program of the Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD) at Nkolbisson, in Yaounde, Cameroon.
ILL THE
international organizations, donors, development partners, producers organizations, and institutes or research centers in the area of procedures for defining rural development strategies, strengthening the capacity of producers in preparing international trade negotiations, taking gender into consideration in rural development, developing and strengthening regional professional competences, and information and communication management. To come of trying so many areas without clapping in one’s arms, the Platform consists of representatives of Intergovernmental Organizations, the main Civil Society organizations, and external partners supporting the initiative.
Contact: Platform Support of Rural Development in West and Central Africa UNOPS, BP 15702, CP 12524, Dakar-Fann Senegal Tel: +221 869 38 38 Fax: +221 869 38 15 E-mail: hubrural@unops.org Internet : www.hubrural.org
regeneration. The So’o Lala Project at Akonolinga gets on invention of tree techniques, Sikop/Ndom Project on the protection of dense forestry beds and the reconstitution of degraded areas in dense forests, Bakundu/Kumba Project on the application of techniques for improving by devitalization of natural populations, ODA-Mbalmayo Project on the preservation of the ombrophile forest. Other projects, consisting of forestry and (or) agroforestry sections, also get on the restoration and improvement of soil fertility. One can site the Alternative slash and burn in Kribi in the south-west, community forest Project of the National Office for Forestry in the east, the Project on Faidherbia albida in Maroua in the north, Kilun Project of the German Technical Cooperation Agency in Bamenda in the north-west, Africa 2000 Project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), reforestation Project of the prairies of highlands Bamenda, of Adamaoua in the north, etc. With regards to development in training and research, the University of Dschang trains water, forestry, and game engineers and Water and Forestry School of Mbalmayon trains senior forestry technicians; research is carried out within the framework of the forestry and wood Program of the Institute of Agricultural Research for Devel-
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opment and Forestry Department of this University; dissemination is ensured by the administration through some projects, such the SOS Loti Project in the north. Thus, to seven million cubic meters of plantation that increased naturally are added four hundred and eighty-six thousand cubic meters of new plantation. Wood processing industries have been established everywhere in the forest area and the wood reserves at the port of Douala are permanently filled with logs ready for export. Wood production, that would be close to 4 million cubic meters in 2000, could attain 5 million cubic meters in 2010, the income of which would compensate the losses due at the same time to the reduction in oil resources and prices of cacao and coffee, the main export products of Cameroon. Quite as much as deforestation, soil degra-
Coraf Action Quarterly Information Newsletter of the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development Director of Publication Paco Sérémé Editor-in-Chief Armand Faye Contributions in this issue from National Coordinators: Odile Tahouo, CNRA, Côte d’Ivoire Ekindi-Mbonga Rose, IRAD, Cameroon Bah Seiti Rabiou, ITRA, Togo Page Make-up Ngor Sarr Edition and Distribution CORAF/WECARD The French version is available CORAF/WECARD, BP BP 48 Dakar RP CP 18523, Senegal Tel.: +221 869 96 18 Fax: +221 869 96.31 E-mail: paco.sereme@coraf.org E-mail Coraf Action: coraf.action@coraf.org Internet: www.coraf.org ISSN: 0850 5810 Printers: Imprimerie Saint-Paul, Dakar
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READING NOTES dation, pollution, etc., exist, the poverty being without any contestation is one of the main causes of environmental degradation, consequently of the progressive loss of biodiversity. The State, international organizations, and research institutions encourage the development of plantations, not yet supported by the Private Sector, since government initiatives of afforestation and regeneration have produced mitigated results compared to the high financial resources invested. Commitment of the Private Sector to Manage During these last years, the degradation of the environment and deterioration of the environment standard of living of populations increased. The degradation of the environment being revealed particularly by the filthiness of urban centers, rarity and (or) poor quality of water, climatic perturbations, advanced erosion of water basins, and extinction of animal and plant species, sustainable environmental management proposed is based on assiduous quality research, on the management of forestry areas aware of the preservation of the environment, on the preservation of the main functions of forestry developments, including the ecological function, for the livelihood of populations and their generations. It also has as its base the environmental assessments—notably impact studies to be conducted for all development, work, equipment or installation projects capable to affect the environment—, management of forestry and faunal activities according to the conventions,
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environmental rules and regulations and conditions applied to area, since one must do it in such a way that these latter complete the forestry and faunal conditions, control of forestry exploitation already in practice in some natural reserves, identification of different institutions involved in management. Adopted in 1995, the forestry policy promotes the protection, preservation, and valorization of biodiversity, the establishment of an efficient, dynamic, and participative institutional basis, and a sectoral Program on forestry-environment, that aims to restructure the Ministry of Forest and Fauna, the implementation of the strategy for reducing poverty based on the participation of the community up to sharing the economic and social benefits and urgent action plan of 2006, creation of work opportunities and new income sources, encouragement of the Private Sector in developing five hundred thousand hectares of plantations by 2020, rendering profitable the plantation according to the desiderata of the Private Sector, rural communities, and State.
Thiendou Niang, REPA, tel. +221 869 01 31 and 644 47 47, e-mail repa@sentoo.sn
tions for a Legitimate Governance. By Thiendou Niang. Through this book, the author bridges a methodological gap by narrating the fascinating ups and downs of the process of the socioeconomic development planning of Kebemer, located in the center of the Country, at 144 kilometers from Dakar. The importance of a consensus as modality for decision-making, opening up of the possibilities for public deliberation, adoption of participative communication, and application of double planning are the main thrusts. Edited by Editions Interbuse, BP1880 Dakar RP, tel. (221) 547 16 91, e-mail interbuse@aljust.net, Internetwww.aljust.net/interbuse, and preface by Maitre Abdoulaye Wade, President of the Republic of Senegal. 2004, 134 pages, ISBN 2-9522696-0-2.Price 15 000 CFA francs. Contact
SCHEDULE
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Food, know-how, and agrifood innovations in West Africa. By J. Muchnik. This small box, containing eleven documents, is the fruits of research carried out within the framework of the ALISA Project of the European Commission bearing on the relationship between the evolution of consumption and the evolution of know-how in the processing of agricultural products. He deals with products, such as the afitin, attiéké, palm oil, smoked fish, culinary behaviors in Benin, Senegal, and Burkina Faso, and research methods used. Edited by the Centre de cooperation internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (Center of International Cooperation in Agronomic Research for Development, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. 2003, 926 pages, ISBN 2-87614-410-7, 287614-447-6, 2-87614-4581, 2-87614-475-1, 2-87614476-X, 2-87614-445-X, 287614-517-0, 2-87614-5111, 2-87614-540-5, 2-87614553-7. Price 60 euros.
EVENTS
Meeting of the Council
Contact: Ngono Grégoire IRAD, BP 2067, Yaounde Cameroon Tel: +237 223 31 05 E-mail: ngono@yahoo.cm
q The sixth General Assembly meeting of the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Rsearch and Development helds in Dakar, form the 18 to 21 May, 2005. In order to prepare this General assembly, the Executive Committee meets, on the 17 May, 2005.
Destin des collectivités locales. Kébémer et ses initiatives pour une gouvernance locale = Destiny of the Local Communities. Kebemer and Its Innova-
q The Economic Community of West African States organizes the Conference of its Ministers of Agriculture in view of developing a policy on biotechnology in Bamako, in June, 2005
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Other Meetings