Coraf Action N.37

October-December 2005

No. 37 QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER

FOR

RESEARCH

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AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

IN

WEST

Biotechnology and Biosafety: Program With a New approach

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WHAT WE SEEK MATTERS, HOW WE obtain what we seek matters even more" seems to have drawn on CORAF/WECARD, while it elaborated the biotechnology and biosafety Program in West and Central Africa.

The approach it used is innovative: employing biotechnology as a complementary tool each time the other technologies-traditional and organicfail to provide timely answers to agricultural problems in the subregion, through the development of products, a system of competitive funds in biotechnology enabling the creation of inter- and intra-regional consortiums, and a biosecurity regulatory framework for harmonizing country-level procedures.

The first approach on capacity strengthening, aims at providing not only practical experience "in real time" to scientists, regulators, popularizers, and farmers, but also improving chances for the wider public to make choices based on the potential risks and benefits of each product, canceling any chance for the too general current debate. Whether the product is a new plant variety, a plant propagation method, a new kit for detecting animal and plant diseases, a new vaccine, a reproduction technology for improving animal production. The experience scientists and regulators, gained in developing and evaluating these products, will facilitate the process of introducing them in a strong, secure and controlled manner.

Incorporating Biotechnology in Agriculture In the second approach on the com-

petitive fund system, where support depends on grant beneficiaries and the plan for dissemination research products among users, the idea is to encourage researchers to practise a better and different brand of collaboration. The third approach is intended to elaborate the regional regulatory framework on biodiversity that harmonizes the national frameworks developed through the United Nations Environment Program's global environment Fund, to streamline the environmental concerns and health and phytosanitary measures, to enable safe use of products or genetically modified organisms (GMOs), all these things require an assessment and an anticipation of the eventual risks that could result from transgenic plant use.

Hence the need to set in place a risk assessment and management system and a reliable and transparent mechanism to decide on each survey for the introduction of GMOs into the market, which countries are slow to realize, given their low human, scientific, and technical resources.

This Program clearly shows, therefore, that the development of real products is an efficient way to incorporate the biotechnology in agriculture, while several researchers have been trained in this regard but, very few commercialized products exist. For as long as the current products remain undisseminated, the debates on the consequences of this state of things will go on endlessly and commitment of local political and private resources will get hypothetical or problematic.

This is why donor partner support is a

AND

CENTRAL AFRICA

RESEARCH ECHOES sine qua non for launching the Program, because governments seem reluctant to invest in unless they are sure to get a return on their investment. While this makes the situation more confused and task even more difficult, but the Program intends to prove, by all means, that the use of biotechnical tools has long term benefits for agricultural productivity, in particular. All the same, given the fact that research is the first step in the product creation chain, gigantic work has been made: the setting of priorities, identification of the major constraints on plant and animal production as well as potential

products being suit to the real agricultural needs of communities in the subregion (see previous issue).

Contact: Marcel C. Nwalozie CORAF/WECARD, BP 48 Dakar RP CP 18523, Dakar, Senegal TĂŠl. : +221 869 96 18 Fax : +221 869 96 31 E-mail : marcel.nwalozie@coraf.org

The next article is on the state of agriculture in the subregion an value added by biotechnology to agriculture.

Fracture Can Also Be Agricultural

L

IKE A LITANY, THE WORLD TRADE Organization serves the entire world, during the nights of the Doha negotiation cycles, this cold menu which places "the needs and interests of the countries in the South at the center of its preoccupations", at the same time that the agricultural breaking open the world amplifies.

Isn't this a lure? Everything lets believe it according to the quality of human resources, training and research institutions, technologies, plans of development and programs of these countries, and the importance of investments largely mortgaged. By who? By a certain number of developed countries, so-called the champions of free exchange, that protect mordicus and manu militari at all costs their agriculture and subsidize it, by the international institutions that reproduce their dominating policy and governance models, by the differencial of agricultural productivity that becomes larger between them and the developing countries, by the risks of the privatization of science and knowledge that look in, by the environment conducive to the blossoming of capacities of conception or technological transfer to the South that is going leggy day by day. This cannot remain without issue, one should react. This is what have done five hundred participants, Heads of States and governments, Ministers, Heads of organizations of coopera-

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tion, International Intergovernmental Organizations, of African intergovernmental Organisations, representatives of the scientific community, Professional Producer Organizations, Private Sector, Civil Society and agrifood companies of forty countries invited to the Dakar agricultural forum, the first of its kind.

The motif for the invitation was to fostering a collective reflection on resoluting this fracture, and opening therefore the perspectives of reversing these heavy trends for the developing agriculture spaces and disinherited areas.

In other words, it wants to contribute to the emergence of a new vision for the development of agriculture based on the consideration of political, economical, and institutional determinants and on the potential contributions of science and technology. It took place on the 4 and 5 February 2005, in Dakar, presided over by the President of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, initiator of the forum which will pursue within the framework of the future school of the Dakar Agriculture.

In addressing the agricultural policies, the double approach of agricultural diversification and specialization, technological innovations, dominant modes, food sovereignty, etc., the forty communications, presented by eminent intellectuals, go through the manner of conceiving the agricultural development models taking into consideration

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the assets and constraints of developing agricultural spaces, and manner of balancing the framework of international disciplines of encouraging simultaneously the development of these spaces, and of promoting international exchanges. From the discussions courteous but hard have resulted six key thrusts that the Permanent Secretariat of the Dakar Agriculture is in charge of implementing through its biennial work program. In the South, the development stakeholders for claiming ownership and mastering scientific and technological progress must be organized in practice, different forms of public support and bank services to funding agricultural development adapted, reflect on land tenure systems offering stable and fair terms in the long run to farmers in the South reflected. Likewise, the same goes to the seek of the balance between the supply of domestic markets and conquest of market shares in a balanced and controlled international exchange system, to the implementation of the objectives of the Doha cycle in favor of the countries in the South, to the applying of the international solidarity which must abandon the rhetoric area for the field of action.

Organisational outlooks have been also traced in order to monitor and evaluate the application of these recommendations and share the present and future experiences with the rest of the world. This will consist of holding, every two years, in Dakar, a large forum, so that during the interim period, meetings could be held, here or elsewhere, for addressing in detail a precise theme treated during the first forum as well as a workshop of Ministers of Agriculture and civil servants of French speaking countries in the Sahelian zone on the scientific and political component of the Indian green revolution for the realization of a plan for the rainbow revolution of African agriculture, so that is being developed a woman's organization and settlement project inter-aid communities.

Finally, the Internet site of the Dakar Agriculture must become a " truly modern agora " and, to this end, it will transform itself progressively into a tool for collecting work, scientific consultations, place of exchange and

RESEARCH ECHOES Equity Main Word of Agricultural Fracture During the grand forum on the breaking open the agricultural world, the initiator, Me Abdoulaye Wade, the President of the Republic of Senegal, solemnal, addressed the participants and rest of the world in these words:

Is Me Abdoulaye Wade, the President of the Republic of Senegal, going to stop in this very good path of the treatment of the world agricultural fracture in plaster?

"The 'Dakar Agriculture' forum expresses a strong political will for suppressing the world agricultural fracture and in the name of equity, to eliminate the division in the agricultural world. It defines itself as a framework for the expression of new and common ideas, capable of printing efficiency and sustenance on the agricultural sector of the countries in the South.

It is time for the intelligent and shared redefinition of the objectives and strategies in the matter of rural development of the countries in the South and for the reflection, without any taboo on the reequilibration of international trade laws. This must

be translated through an improvement of the performances of agriculture and food chains to satisfy the exigencies of productivity, quality, sustainability, and access to markets.

I don't doubt that the exchange of experiences, linked to the diverse situations of the participating countries constitutes a wealth to be explored.

I am also convinced that a better sharing of research results and their ownership by the communities constitute a main challenge that will allow our farmers to respond to the present and future needs.

Such is the challenge that the Dakar Agriculture wishes to reveal so as to contribute to winning the sector of poverty and promoting a diversified and sustainable agriculture, an indispensable engine for economic growth."

debates on themes retained in the scientific program.

Contact: Armand Faye CORAF/WECARD, BP 48 Dakar RP CP 18523, Senegal Tel.: +221 869 96 18 Fax: +221 869 96 31 E-mail: armand.faye@coraf.org Internet: www.coraf.org Has the agriculture ever mobilized so many people concerned with stopping the injustice of the North which creates unhappiness and victims in the South?

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Making Drying Credo

F

ERMENTED MILLET FLOUR, INSTANT bisaap (Guinea sorrel), powder, and Touba coffee; these are already the first results of the Pole for the development and control of drying processes of bio-industrial products (Pôle de développement et de contrôle des procédés de séchage des porduits des bio-industries), which, however, has started its activities only in 2002. The ripened fruits of several years of partnership between the Institute of Food Technology (Institut de technologie alimentaire) (ITA) in Senegal, the advanced polytechnic School (Ecole supérieure polytechnique) (ESP) of the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, Wallone center of industrial biology (CWBI) of the Faculty of agronomical sciences of the University of Gembloux, and University of Liège in Belgium, this Pole, commonly known as the drying Pole, takes care of the restructuring and strengthening of the interface between research and the local economic operators. But, in fact, why worry so much about this?

As a technique for the conservation of food products, drying reduces their moisture content, such makes sure that their alteration, resulting from the actions of micro-organism, is quite stopped and their physico-chemical alteration highly also completely slowed down. The Pole does not intervene on the development of products, but on the supplying of technologies, such as the following cuttingedge materials: the pilot atomization drying unit, pilot freeze drying unit, solar energy and gas drying apparatus, fermentation reactor apparatus, centrifuges, filters, etc. The atomization is a technique used to dry several substances?coffee, milk, egg, fruits, minced meat or mashed vegetable, gum, algae, micro-organism, enzyme, protein, vitamin. It allows, for instance, to enrobe or add nutritive elements, such as the iodized- or ironenriched salt. The powder obtained renders easy the preservation, storage, and transport of products, and their incorporation in culinary prepa-

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RESEARCH ECHOES rations.

The other assets of the Pole are also in its team and technological training approach through participation, which makes it inapt right ready to respond to all demands, including the fundrising at national and international level. By the way, the training unit for economic operators and sensitization creation of agents of relay institutions, supported by the Association for the promotion of education and training abroad (APEFE), Belgium, facilitates the effective transfer of developed processes.

The strategy of the Drying Pole is to develop technologies in several countries, such as Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Morocco, Haiti, and Cuba, thereby contributing to the development of South-South relationships. This is already demonstrated by Senegal and

The drying by atomization unit at the Institute of Food Technology.

Burkina Faso which exchange appropriate and innovative technologies.

Contact: Lat Souk Tounkara, Mathias Lardinois, Cheikh Bèye ITA, BP 2765, Dakar, Senegal Tel: +221 859 07 07 Fax: +221 832 82 95 E-mail: ita@sentoo.sn Internet: www.ita.sn

Traditional Knowledge Systems

Our Guiding Principles 2 The International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) having, just launched the Genetic Resource Management Policy Initiative in West and Central Africa (GRPI-WCA), based at the CORAF/WECARD headquarters, a series of articles is devoted to its constitution. Here is the second article.

I

N A GOOD NUMBER OF AREAS, IT NO

longer suffices to set for guiding objectives (see previous issue), but also for governing principles. Nine cardinal principles have been set in place by African member States, in collaboration with the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization, in their draft framework for a regional instrument dedicated to the protection of traditional knowledge.

Being responsive to the aspirations and expectations of traditional knowledge holders consists, notably to recognize their inseparable link with the cultural expressions of several communities, to use, as much as can be, traditional and customary pracCORAF ACTION NO. 37

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tices, laws, and protocols, to take account of the cultural and economic aspects of development, to combat acts of irreverence towards them, to encourage full and complete participation of these holders of decisionmaking power. To Recognize their rights, through the protection of their knowledge from abusive uses and illicit ownership, has to become "enshrined in standards of practice".

To render effective and accessible the right to protection is summed up in taking stern, comprehensible, cheaper, and measures free charges for beneficiaries, sufficiently protective against illicit ownership of their knowledge and the violation of their right to give prior consent advisedly. It also sums up in adopting measures enshrined in relevant national laws, fully embedded in an institutional legal framework so as to guarantee their efficiency.

The promoters of this draft legal framework want to get into protection, flexibility, and the exhaustiveness two things: first, the full acceptance of the diversity of traditional knowledge sys-

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tems, recognizing the intrinsic value of such knowledge-in technical development and the education system in particular-, taking account of the diversity of national situations and defining means of implementation in existing legal mechanisms as well as other specific means allowing to tailor protection mission to precise sector-based needs and objectives secondly, the association of exclusive measures and nonexclusive measures, improving access to and use of intellectual property rights, broadening or adapting these latter ones sus generis, adopting protective measures against illegitimate acquisition of intellectual property rights on the traditional knowledge or related genetic resources and positive measures for affirming the recognized legal rights of holders, and positive measures establishing the legal rights recognized to holders, custodians, and guarantors of traditional inventions and practices, not forgetting the promotion of the integrity of tangible and intangible native and traditional information. This is what has given rise to the now popular concept of "living human treasures " adopted at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Rather Respect Them and Reinforce Them Still according to them, to underpin the equity in and distribution of benefits shut up two concerns: on one hand, the taking for consideration of maintaining a just a right balance between the rights and interests of those who develop, preserve, and perpetuate the knowledge and those who use and get advantages from, reconciliation of multiple stakes; on the other hand, the right to fair and equitable distribution of the benefits resulting from the lucrative uses of traditional knowledge related to genetic resources in line with the convention on the biological diversity and international treaty on the plant genetic resources. The same goes to the fact of questing for compatibility with existing legal systems. Indeed, the competence of determining the access to genetic resources, whe-

RESEARCH ECHOES ther they are related or not to traditional knowledge come under national legislations, therefore, nothing should be interpreted as being able to limit the sovereign right of States to them or their competence to determine their access. Likewise, where existing intellectual property systems foster the protection of knowledge, it needs that it will be compatible and profitable to them.

As regards compliance with other international and regional instruments and processes for cooperation, they remain convinced that the modalities for protecting them should not override specific laws and obligations, and that nothing should be interpreted as influencing the interpretation of other instruments or the work of other bodies which cover the role of traditional knowledge in the preservation of biodiversity, control of the desertification or application of farmers' rights enshrined in international instruments and governed by national

legislations.

When it comes to respecting traditional ways of using and handing down knowledge, a sure way to do so is by ensuring protection does not contravene traditional ways of acquiring knowledge, but rather to complie with and reinforce them. Recognizing them the specific characteristics presupposes that protection should be suit to the environment-traditional, collective or community, and inter-generational-, to their development, their preservation, and their transmission, just like their relation with spirituality and the cultural and social values of each community, and their constant evolution within this later one.

Meat, Milk, and Research

multiple and varied. With the meat products, luncheon meat, ox liver pâté, poultry pâté, canneded ox tongue, beef ham, beef sausage, ox merguez, dried meat, pressed beef, minced meat, smoked chicken have been developed. With the diary products, fermented milk (cuddled) and yoghourt are also available. With the egg-based products, it is the same

W

HAT IS VALID FOR THE FISHING

produce is also surely valid for that of the livestock. Yet, despite the fact that livestock is one of the main sources of animal proteins, employments and revenue, it is also faced with the poor valorization of its meat-, diary-, and egg-based products. To remedy to this, researchers and technicians in the livestock products workshop of the Institute for Food Technology (Institut de technologie alimentaire) have rolled up their sleeves to provide food processing industries with quality products, train trade association agents in preservation and processing techniques of animal foods, and meet together in "incubation" the private promoters with processing unit projects.

Without counting, these "silent workers", the elbows tightened, have given their body and soul to it and have been rewarded. The results are

Contact: Cheikh Alassane Fall GRPI-WCA, BP 48 Dakar RP, CP 18523 Dakar, Senegal Tel. : +221 869 96 18 Fax : +221 869 96 31 E-mail : alassane.fall@coraf.org

with stabilised mayonnaise, beef and fish meat balls, and tuna sausages which are new mixed products.

These products are the visible part of the "iceberg", because researchers and technicians should ceate fabrication and preservation techniques.

And the truth would not be completely said, if one did not add to these the techniques of slaughtering of animals, cutting up of the carcasses, and the valorization of the ofal which are the entrails.

Finally, several technical studies have been carried out by this workshop on behalf of specialized companies in the meat and diary products sector.

Contact: Ousmane Gaye, Latyr Diouf ITA, BP 2765, Dakar, Senegal Tel.: +221 859 07 07 Fax: +221 832 82 95 E-mail: ita@sentoo.sn Internet: www.ita.sn

That milk is not drinkable, and it is without no comments!.

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C ORAF /WECARD

LIFE

Partners: Special Support to Executive Secretariat

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S IS THE CUSTOM, THE SCIENTIFIC and Technical Partners and Financial Partners have responded present to the invitation to participate in the sixth General Assembly meeting of the West and Central African Council for Agricultural research and Development which took place, from 18 to 21 May, 2005, in Dakar. At the end of their respective conclaves, they have, this time around more than any other, so strongly expressed their increased commitment to give it their support to the point of recommending that each funding that will be attributed to it, including those through projects, will contain a rubric "support to the funding of the Executive secretariat". So the Financial Partners say!

In addressing the reconstruction of the activities of the International Centers in sub-Saharan Africa, the work of this Assembly and strengthening of the partnership with the Council, the Scientific and Technical Partners would first of all like to know its position with regards to the first issue. Indeed, strengthening the recommendation of their working group, that divided the region into two major poles, West and Central Africa and East and Southern Africa, these CGIAR centers have decided, on the 2nd of May, 2005, at Ibadan, to develop a mid term Program in West

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and Central Africa. All the more because it will be based on priorities defined by the Council in its strategic Plan for agricultural cooperation. The Advanced Research Institutes will continue to support the implementation of the activities of the Council, more particularly facilitate their collaboration, although they do not have any project in the horizon for the subregion, but having participated in the process of definition of its priorities. The Partners, then, noted that the report has not revealed the scientific results obtained, the work program for 2005 has concentrated too much on the budget to the detriment of the activities, etc. Finally, they have expressed their total satisfaction on the way in which they are involved in the development and implementation of activities, such as the Challenge Programme for sub-Saharan Africa, the Inter-States Program for agricultural productivity, and biotechnology and biosafety Program in West and Central Africa, and also on the results of leadership of the regional research Program and transfer of technology of the comprehensive African agricultural development Program of NEPAD obtained from the ECOWAS and UEMOA. They, thus, recommend that the General Assembly renders visible the scientific results and make these dis-

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cussion themes, as was done in the past. Otherwise, the Council should establish a strategy for mobilizing resources in short and average term a strategy for strengthening the Public Sector-Private Sector partnership, develop a strategy for improving the quality of the existing databases rendering them more reliable for scientific studies, notably those having facilitated the selection of pilot sites for the Challenge Programme. They committed themselves in developing a strong partnership with the Council during the implementation of the biotechnology and biosafety Program in West and Central Africa.

Following in their path, the Financial Partners also noted, with great satisfaction, the significant progress realized by the Council, and particularly by the Executive Secretariat, before saying they were informed of the decision by the European Union to end this year the Program support to agricultural research in West.

This is why, they ask the Council to pursue these efforts that improve the transparency in management and facilitate the dialogue between the involved Parties, and recognize the necessity of a greater consultation and a better harmonization of their diverse support activities. In their intentions of pursuing this partnership, the French Cooperation intends to associate it to the future support Project to the cotton sector which comprises a component on biotechnology and to participate in the Challenge Programme Sahara South of Africa.

Contact: Armand Faye CORAF/WECARD, BP 48 Dakar RP CP 18523, Senegal Tel.: +221 869 96 18 Fax: +221 869 96 31 E-mail: armand.faye@coraf.org Internet: www.coraf.org

C ORAF /WECARD

LIFE

CORAF/WECARD

Adresses Which Reach Their Targets As it is the custom with Coraf Action, when the Heads of CORAF/WECARD meet during the General Assembly, like the sixth one of the kin, which is held from the 18 to the 21 May, 2005, in Dakar, the speeches made there are here brought to you in the form of some excerpts.

Gisèle Lopez D'Almeida: member of the new Governing Board of CORAF/WECARD, representative of the Private Sector: "It is with a heavy heart that during two days, we took part in the funeral ceremonies of a big chief.

Dr. Sié Koffi was not an ordinary man. We discovered a man, mourned by a great number of scholars … . We have discovered a politician, decorated posthumous … . And we have discovered a prince nominated just two months ago. Women, men, children in all situations of life are come from every where, with the sounds of drums and tam-tams, to pay their last respect to a child of the village, died on that Easter Monday and buried during the weekend of that Pentecost.

They are come to mourn the hope of a whole family, of a whole village, of a whole country, of a region, of Africa. […] He has led and won the good fight for the defence of his work and interests of his country and Africa.

Unfortunately, he has been prematurely stopped by death, leaving behind him orphans of which the youngest is only five years of age and the bitter taste of an unfinished work.

If it is true that the sudden death of our dear Chairman represents a heavy loss for the scientific community of our subregion, it is also a cruel loss for the Private Sector, in so much as the privatization model of his institution the CNRA commanded everybody's admiration and incarnated the man … in his fight for agricultural development and African leadership. For us, he was more than the scientist, but the colleague of the Private Sector".

Emmanuel OwusuBennoah, the Chairman of the new Governing Board of CORAF/WECARD: "The institutional and strategic reforms that he [Dr. Sié] initiated has started to bear fruits for our Association: a better recognition of its position as an institution toreckon with, its role as an subregional umbrella, and its position as a legitimate and credible intermediary with regards to agricultural scientific cooperation.

Today, the strategic Plan for agricultural cooperation is

translated into an action plan; CORAF/WECARD is more and more used by the subregional Economic Integration Organizations as their technical arm.

Convinced of the importance of agricultural biotechnology for agricultural development in our subregion, they had not hesitated to engage our Association in the development of an ambitious Program on biotechnology and biosafety in West and Central Africa (BBP-CORAF) […].

The cooperation has experienced in 2004 a real renewal of vitality, thanks especially to the trust of our development partners, convinced certainly by the growing transparency of our management of human, financial, and material resources and, cannot forgetting our image.

This has allowed our Association to involve itself in several initiatives, ie the most revealing is the elaboration of the BBP-CORAF, result of a planning process having mobilized, all the year round, all the National Agricultural Research Systems and their different partners.

In this respect, it is pleasant to me to signal the important role played by the Executive Secretariat … in this new dynamism of our Subregional Organization, but also by the governing bodies … that have functioned regularly and efficiently, eg the Scientific and Technical Committee, the members of which have deployed all efforts to respond to the different solicitations of the Executive Secretariat. They have represented the Association at various fora, evaluated several research project proposals, participated in the elaboration of the guidelines having served in the evaluation of the Operational Units, and Godness knows what else. They find, through my voice, all the warmth of our congratulations for the quality of work furnished and for this beautiful example of devotion to our cause, that of serving the brave populations of our respective countries.

This important funding Program the PARAO , that still makes the European Union the main Financial Partner of CORAF/WECARD, has facilitated the conduction of activities, for the strengthening of the organizational capacity of CORAF/WECARD, functioning of the information and communication system, extension and strengthening of the scientific cooperation, mobilization of other financial resources. Thus, the funding by the RCF of the seven research projects, retained and approved in 2003, by the General Assembly of Brazzaville, became a reality.

This is the reason why, we are expressing you all our profound gratitude and do affirm our commitment to well use these resources to carry out till the end all the planned activities. Convinced that all these activities, carried out til the end, would bring impact, we dear expect from the Delegation of the European Commission that all dispositions will be taken to allow us to carry out this Program to the end, of which the initial closing date is the 31 December

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LIFE which has been established at the end of the forum. You are invited to make your contributions to this exchange forum, which is the Dakar agriculture School, because, as you all know, the wind of globalization hits our economies mainly dependent on agriculture and fragile by a multitude of

2005.

Other partners have accorded us funds in 2004 for institutional support and for the Operational Units. They include, beside others, the African Development Bank, United States Agency for International Development, International Development Research Centre, and German Technical Cooperation Agency.

As for the Scientific and Technical Partners, their inestimable collaboration has led to the functioning of the Operational Units, which has facilitated evaluation of some of our Operational Units.

Given the report presented by the Executive Secretary, I remain convinced that most of the participants agree that CORAF/WECARD has reached the beach as well. The wind of change, which blows on the continent, is being felt, by it and our Association is gradually gaining recognition and respect in the eyes of our development partners and Heads of member NARS. I wish to say to participants that, under my regime, the Constitution will be scrupulously respected and applied.

We commit ourselves to be transparent and to bring the good governance into the operation of the Executive Secretariat.

I am also happy to note the approval of our biotechnology and biosafety Program. In the coming months, we will be making solicitations to our development partners for its implementation by the NARS. The development of a common biosafety regulation … has become more urgent now than before, thanks to the porous borders of our countries.

I am happy to note that this Assembly has also brought its support to the regional competitive Fund. Our hope is that the European Union continues to support it through the PARAO, thereby encouraging the generation of technologies which will help for a while to improve the living standards of our people. Otherwise, it will put the Fund in great difficulties and will demoralize our scientists … .

Today, very few Africans are capable of respecting this commitment [to dedicate at least 1% of the national gross produce to research]. A lot of governments in our subregion give just only 0.6%. In effect, I find very troublesome.

Consequently, we call on our governments to invest in research, science, and technology for the creation of wealth and employment.

In most countries the Private Sector is considered as the engine of the economy, but we consider it as the spokes which turn the machine. … .

May I, in concluding this speech, express my sincere thanks to my colleagues … who have elected me as a Chairman … for the next three years. I would like to reassure you that I do merit your trust. Your indefectible support will greatly appreciated."

Oumy Khaïry Guèye Seck, Minister of Livestock: "Just a few months ago, an international forum called 'the Dakar Agriculture' was held in Dakar, on the initiative of the President of the Republic of Senegal. The main objective was to reflect on the ways and means of reducing the agricultural fracture between the countries in the North and those in South, notably those in sub-Saharan Africa. This reflection continues through the Dakar agriculture School CORAF ACTION NO. 37

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hazards.

It is, therefore, absolutely necessary to stop now and engage resolutely in an audacious agricultural policy articulated to a pertinent and adapted technological research, to overcome the many constraints. To this effect, Senegal has just developed a law on the orientation of agrosylvopastoral practice. […] The main thing is for us to project, within a reasonable timeframe, on way forward food security and the modernization of our agriculture.

Such a law, I precise, does not go against the interests of family agriculture or traditional tenure systems. It should rather revitalize them, render viable them, and integrate them into the economic tissue beside the stakeholders of the Private Sector.

Papa Abdoulaye Seck, host of the meeting, member of the new Governing Board, President of FARA: "It has been […] clearly revealed from our work our common will to intensify the scientific cooperation and to strengthen our complicity with the direct and indirect users of research results.

Despite the advances noted in terms of reflection, the inner fund for research still remains a central problem; it is our responsibility to render more visible and clearer our area of actions and to make advocacy based on objectively verifiable indicators. The contribution of all is necessary to achieve this and responses exist if our conviction is established.

FARA, as far as it is concerned, will claim ownership of the elements coming from this Assembly and will involve itself in the implementation at the opportune time.

Without any doubt, Africa, our continent, will develop, thanks to a research full of profound and significant changes.

Fabacary Bodian, the Chambers Director to the Minister of Scientific Research and Technology: "[…] Your meeting magnifies the way to progress and solidarity. It also encourages a new era to overcome the challenges and put science and technology to the service, of a sustainable rural development. They have posed … the problem of reduction in the technological gap between developed countries and countries in the South.

Your conclusions and recommendations indicate the right

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C ORAF /WECARD

never be able to catch up on."

place that you have reserved to genetic resources, improvement of agricultural productivity in West and Central Africa, and to biotechnology that should be considered as a priority in all rural development policies, in general, and agricultural development, in particular. [...] The need to cooperate comes from the fact that, despite the universal character of science and technology, Africa still faces a big delay, which our countries, taken individually, will

Biotechnology: African Ministers Involve Themselves

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AFRICA REDUCE HUNGER poverty by half from now to 2015? When the efforts deployed up to now do not prevent ninety-five million people, living especially in developing countries, to suffer from chronic hunger, there are all reasons to be worried. Since the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations recognizes that genetic modifications have the potential of increasing the agricultural production and productivity, forestry, and fishery and that some of them present potential risks to human health and the environment, people are using more and more, all over the world, the modern biotechnology. Its crops have reached the record number of occupying eighty million of hectares in 2004, what is say twenty percent more than in 2003. Developing countries grow them up, against all odds, to seven million hectares and the developed countries six million hectares. China, India, Argentina, Brazil, and South Africa lead the group of developing countries, given the surface areas cultivated and number of farmers involved or beneficiaries.

Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Senegal dispose of functional national biotechnology laboratories. The International Institute for Tropical Agriculture carries out important biotechnological research on cassava.

These examples could be multiplied.

OULD AND

Conscious of all this, the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) organized a ministerial conference on biotechnology member countries of its era, in Bamako, on the 24 June, 2005, at the aim of defining the institutional framework for the implementation of the recommendations of the international ministerial conference of Ouagadougou in June 2004 (see thirty-third issue of Coraf Action). This was in the presence of two hundred participants, including Ministers of Agriculture, research scientists, administrative cadres, developments members of the Civil Society including consumers, journalists.

In order to achieve the objective of strengthening national capacities, obtaining appropriate equipment, of creating seed production capacities and other genetically modified products, of establishing appropriate legal instruments, of sensitizing and informing stakeholders, the conference has reviewed the agenda proposed by the experts meeting: the development and utilization of biotechnology, regional approach to biosafety, information and communication strategy and policy on biotechnology, and establishment of a biotechnology ministerial conference. In agricultural biotechnology, the development of a short-, medium-, and longterm action plan has been recommended. Within two years, It is necessary to strengthen, through a quantitative economic analysis, the priority products and their constraints identified by CORAF/WECARD and to increase investments, thanks to Public Sector-Private Sector partnership, with the aim of reducing production constraint in the matter of tissue cul-

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ture, utilization of molecular markers, diagnostic tools, and development of vaccines. It is also necessary to establish a commission responsible for defining the terms of reference and identifying the centers of excellence on a competitive basis, a mechanism for networking these centers with the West African Biosciences Center that NEPAD envisages to create. It is necessary, finally, to constitute a group of experts comprising all stakeholders, including the partners, responsible for validating the activities of the CORAF/WECARD biotechnology and biosafety Program in West and Central Africa, to networking the specialized national laboratories, to identify, mobilize, and encourage the African diaspora to support this large Program. In five years, it is necessary to implement the strategy developed by CORAF/WECARD, to establish a common biosafety legislation for ECOWAS member States, to strengthen the national legislations, to establish a regional regulatory framework for national seed systems facilitating the distribution of improved seeds, to encourage the establishment of a regional policy and development of national systems for managing intellectual property facilitating acquisition, the development, diffusion of knowledge and innovations.

Public Sensitization And Advocacy Mission Concerning the regional approach on biosafety, within two years, it is expected to invite the countries, having not ratified the Cartagena protocol, to do so, before the 1st of July, 2005, to elaborate and adopt national legislative and regulatory framework harmonized the ECOWAS era. Likewise, it is expected to create the conditions for observing the precautionary principle with regards to the adoption of biotechnology and utilization of its products, to implement the strategic Plan on biosafety, to launch a regional initiative consisting of a back-up structure for the implementation of the scheduled activities, and to establish a national

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regulatory framework in each country, before June 2006. Within five years, it is expected the harmonization of the national regulations, availability of a regional framework, and settlement of an autonomous fund for the evaluation of socioeconomic impacts of the use of GMOs. With respect to the communication strategy and policy, within two years, it is expected to invite the countries to finalize an action plan for implementing the regional strategy, to create a regional information and communication facility on biotechnology benefiting from the regional information and communication system of CORAF/WECARD to support the countries to develop national units responsible for political sensitization and serving as focal points to the regional facility. Within five years, it is expected the importance of the ECOWAS allowing it to succeed in its mission of advocacy and coordination in the implementation of this strategy and its encouragement to establish a cooperation with the regional and international organizations experienced in this matter.

Partners Invited to Contribute More In the case of the urgent application of the retained actions, within two years, it is expected the settlement of the ministerial meeting on biotechnology, given the possibilities offered by the revised treaty of the Economic Community; by the way, for this to occur, its Executive Secretariat must make the necessary dispositions to the annual organization of this meeting and to get in consultation with the Africa Union Commission for the organization of an African conference on biotechnology. It is also envisaged the strengthening of the capacities and competences for the support of which the United States Department of Agriculture has been congratulated, at the same time being kindly asked to increase their training scholarships, and for which the Economic Community is invited to diversify its partnership with countries, in the North and in the South. It is, finally, expected the funding of the actions for promoting biotechnology through countries allocating at least ten percent of their

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budget to agriculture in conformity with their commitment made in Maputo, supported forward by the development partners invited, in their turn, to contribute more, as well as the urgent finalization of the detailed action plan by the Economic Community, CORAF/WECARD, and CILSS, before the end of December, 2005.

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

In agriculture Also, End Justifies Means 5 In the thirty-first issue, started the series of articles on the ten-year Strategy for agricultural research for development in Africa (2002-2012) of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA). Here is the fifth and last article.

W

HEN

THE

STRATEGY

IS

WELL

crafted, funds found out, and competent human resources acquired, what remains to be done should be to go forward. The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, that wants to strengthen its position as the continental melting pot for knowledge, is getting down to establish an efficient system for the exchange of technology and agricultural knowledge open up to "useful tips" of the external world, to coordinate the efforts of financial partners, to identify them, to determine their programs as well as their conditions for subsidy. That is not enough to advocate the causes, aspirations, and needs of Africans on the international chessboard, to build strong coalitions with powerful African agricultural stakeholders, to establish a system for predicting agricultural risks and catastrophes, and to control their effects.

The accumulation of scientific knowledge enables to ensure the evaluation of technical solutions applied to the problems which are posed. With the

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important growth of research for advanced agricultural technologies, such as the genomic map of rice, the Forum will exploit the vast and secular experience of the grassroots community organizations, ensuring at the same time that the research results developed are accessible to them. It will negotiate agreements for agricultural products originating from Africa to have easy access to the global markets, that necessitates immediately the strengthening through training of national and subregional capacities, notably of the Private Sector, in the matter of trade negotiations, the implementation of procedures and regulations of the World Trade Organizations, identification and exploitation of new trade opportunities of the multilateral trade system in constant evolution. It will make available its nonneglectable capacities in information and communication technology to the services of its three sister foundation Subregional Organizations for catch up training, for the access to huge information sources, and for the diffusion of common information in the subregion. It will well exploit the collaborations, sharing of tasks and pooling of resources with the other institutions intervening in Africa, with priority being given to the development of exchange mechanisms for fundamental resources in the support to the training and research management, analysis, understanding and improving agricultural production systems.

Sustainable Funding Initiative of the World Bank And… The Forum will extend its partnership out of Africa to research and training institutions, with the objective of mobilizing complementary expertise necessary for its member Subregional Organizations and for the National Agricultural Research Systems in the matter of strategic research. It does not exclude playing the role of facilitator in political dialogues, from the African perspectives, on important international agricultural debates.

In doing this, the Forum intends to exploit the sustainable funding initiative of the World Bank, African Development Bank, European Union,

IN THE FIELDS and United States Agency for International Development, but also the possibilities of subsidies from foundations, research insurance contracts, increase in the participation of countries in the South, Private Sector, joint project funding with private enterprises, producer groups, Non-Governmental organizations, etc.

This strategy must spread over ten good years and a five-year plan has been developed to facilitate its implementation.

Contact: Armand Faye CORAF/WECARD, BP 48 Dakar RP CP 18523, Senegal Tel.: +221 869 96 18 Fax: +221 869 96 31 E-mail: armand.faye@coraf.org Internet: www.coraf.org

Ruminants: Urea for Their Food The researchers and technicians of the center for agronomic research in Bareng, based at Timbi Madina, in the region of Pita, in Mid Guinea, and dependent on the Institute of Agronomic Research in Guinea proposed solutions, that improved ruminants feed in the dry season. The first article, which appeared in the precedent edition, propose mixture in bag, a mixture of sick oranges, the leaves of acacia, and poultry droppings in a bag, and also multinutritional urea blocks.

W

HEREAS SEVERAL SOLUTIONS,

leading to the improvement of the quality of ruminants feed during the dry season exist, most are difficult to diffuse in rural areas, due to their high cost-cotton grains and cake-, technical difficulties of realization, environmental problems. An ideal way would be to turn to locally available material, easy to collect and use, according to simple and cheaper techniques. The multinutritional urea blocks, completing the ration of fodder and water, are part of this last category of food, which are prepared by

the researchers and technicians of the center for agronomic research in Bareng, based at Timbi Madina, in the region of Pita, in Mid Guinea, and dependent on the Institute of Agronomic Research in Guinea (Institut de recherche agronomique de Guinée).

To fabricate them, cereal bran is compacted on a well-hardened soil on which are poured the burnt bone powder, clay, and chopped hay, all of these is carefully constituted of a mixture on which the urea and salt solution is poured, with, sometimes, one or two liters of water, to have a mixture ready for moulding by compression with the hand forming a block which does not crack and leak water.

The mould, which could be a small basin, is cleaned with water or a dry cloth, before receiving the mixture to the top and squeezed with the palm of the hand, the mould is turn out on paper which can be the cement wrapping paper or on a large leaf of banana, the block is left to dry in an aerated area and, from time to time; turned over; within 2 to 3 minutes, the block, generally dried and hard, can now be distributed to the ruminants to leak.

If the work force is free, as it is often the case, the urea, sold on wholesale, is at 350 CFA francs a kilo and salt is at 100 CFA francs a kilo, this supplement works out at 4.5 CFA francs per day, per sheep and per goat, and 20 CFA francs per day and per draft cow.

Contact: Amadou Saïmou Bah, Saw Camara, Mamadou Diouldé Diallo CRAB, BP 41, Timbi Madina, Pita, Guinea Tel.: +224 45 42 65 Fax: +224 41 57 58 E-mail: saïmoubah@hotmail.com

A multinutritional urea block leaked by the ruminants for improved food complement.

Coraf Action Quarterly Information Newsletter of the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development Director of Publication

If the Work Force Is Free…

Paco Sérémé

The use of multinutritional urea blocks is so very important. From the quality obtained, one chooses the distribution period the preferred one is the last months of the dry season, and the privileged animals who are the lactating or gestating females, draft cows, and animals to put on good state. For getting them used to urea, during the first week, the blocks are given to them for one hour during the day, during the second week, for three hours per day, and beyond, this time all over the night. But bad done blocks, with holey or broken, should not be distributed!

Easy to transport, to store, and to distribute, the blocks improve the general wellbeing of the animals, rendering them more resistant to diseases, increase their fertility, their capacity of milk production, the strength and endurance of cows, their appetite to eat fodder, improve the quality of their dung that allows the growth of three times less weeds than the animals not leaking them, etc.

Editor-in-Chief

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Armand Faye Contributions to this issue from National Coordonators: Odile Tahouo, CNRA, Côte d’Ivoire Documentation Kassalo Bamazi Editing and Distribution CORAF/WECARD French language version available CORAF/WECARD, BP BP 48 Dakar RP CP 18623, Senegal Tel.: +221 859 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 Ingredients for a Block of Ten Kilos 1 kilo of urea and 1 kilo of salt well dissolved in 4 liters of water 5 kilos of rice bran well sieved to remove the external husks 2 kilos of ground and sieved clay Up to 259 grams of hand chopped hay 1 kilo of burnt bone powder And that is all!

Cotons d'Afrique face aux subventions mondiales = African Cottons and Global Subsidies. By the Network of agricultural policy expertise (Réseau d'expertise des politiques agricoles) (REPA).

The subsidizes of cotton farmers in some developed countries, such as United States and China, have as harmful effects the rough collapse of the economic stakeholders revenues, the producers at the top, the drop of the production and of export of cotton, and deterioration of poverty indicators in the countries such as Benin, Burkina Faso, and Mali. This publication walks the reader through the issues at stakes in North-South negotiations on this sector and puts forward a support strategy for the countries affected.

Published by the Réseau d'expertise des politiques agricoles 7, avenue Bourguiba, BP 45713, Fann-Dakar, CP 12524, Dakar, Senegal, tel. (221) 869 01 31, fax (221) 824 39 21, e-mail repa@sentoo.sn 2004, 108 pages, ISBN 29521917-0-0. Price 15 000 CFA francs.

CORAF ACTION N° 37 AVRIL-JUIN 2005

Un guide pour la recherche agricole régie par la demande. Approche gestion, de la recherche orientée client = A guide to Demand-driven Agricultural Research. Client-Oriented Research Management Approach. By the Royal Tropic Institute, Department of research and development of the Rural Economy Institute (Institut d'économie rurale).

The environment in which agricultural research operates in sub-Saharian Africa is profoundly changing and facing several pressures and constraints from its key stakeholders. With its ultimate goal of reducing poverty in a context of economic liberalization and globalization, the organizations or agricultural research centers must challenge to meet the social demand. What remains difficult, even impossible, unless deep organizational changes occur: thus the client-oriented research management approach also destinated to the assessments of the level of the client-oriented agricultural research by the concerning parties.

Published by the Royal Tropical Institute, BP 95001 1090 HA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, e-mail publishers@kit.nl, web site http://www.kit.nl.

2003, 184 pages, ISBN 906832-156-0.

Appuyer les innovations paysannes = Support the Farmers' Innovations. By Barbara Bentz.

The methods and tools used for supporting innovation techniques have also strongly evolved during the last thirty years. This guide explores those used by farmers in their farms. They are based on concrete

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86844-125-4. euros.

Price

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examples in Asia, Africa and Latin America to propose a method and present different modes of contemporary actions, their interests, and their weaknesses. It is mainly destined to agents in the field involved in the conception and implementation of basic agricultural development actions: researchers, technicians, developers, extension workers, etc.

Edited by the Research and Technology Exchanges Group (Groupe de recherche et d'échanges technologiques, 211-213, rue La Fayette, 75010 Paris, France, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris, France.

2002, 88 pages, ISBN 2-

EVENTS Joint meetings

q The African Union, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, and CORAF/WECARD have, in communion with the rest of the international community, heeded the government of Niger's urgent call for help, after the country was hard-hit by drought and the famine in the wake of locust invasion in 2004. The visit by their joint delegation, intended as a token of support, is planned, on 7-11 November 2005, especially in the affected zones. qCORAF/WECARD and the ECOWAS sign a cooperation agreement to foster the implementation of innovative agricultural and food processing research and to contribute to meet the satisfaction of people's food needs, to achieve the economic and social development and reduction of the poverty. The signing ceremony will take place, on 21 December 2005, in Abuja.