Science and Technology Mailing List Archive

["GIBSON RICHARD W" <<address removed>>]

Dr Alan Cork has just highlighted how development issues are very  much in the news right now. I would also like to add that the May  8th issue of the Economist also highlighted 'Feeding the hungry'.  This article can be accessed by going to:
www.economist.com/copenhagenconsensus
along with a series of other articles on development issues which I  generally recommend to you all. However, I would like to attract  your attention specifically to the May 8th article because the 'The  authors see investments in technology as the most effective means  of increasing the incomes of hungry people. Teaching a man to  farm better, it seems, can yield far more than simply giving food or  medicines away.' I think this is a key message that we have to  keep reiterating.
Inevitably, the development chain is as dependent on its weakest  link as is any other chain. Agricultural technology is a link in a  chain which also includes a host of divergent elements such as the  rule of law, trade issues, education, health etc. For development to  proceed efficiently, all these links have to be addressed but the  Economist article, like, I believe others, has identified that  addressing the agricultural technology link can often give one of the  better returns on investment. Also, since agriculture is a base  activity, benefits can be achieved from an improved agricultural  technology to an extent independent of links further up the chain  (though not to gainsay the benefits of an integrated approach). 
My own experiences in Africa are very much consistent with this. A  pandemic of cassava mosaic disease has been/is sweeping  through East and Central Africa, literally wiping out production.  Distribution of a relatively few new resistant varieties is proving a  very effective solution to the problem, bring yields back to - and  often exceeding - those before the epidemic in countries with a  wide range of different infrastructures and for farmers operating at a  range of scales. To give a scale to potential savings, annual yield  losses due to CMD have been estimated at being worth US$1,200  to 2,300 million. On a much smaller scale, I have seen a similar  benefits from introducing high-yielding and virus resistant sweet  potato varieties in Uganda and Tanzania. The crop has become  more widely grown in areas where the disease was prevalent with  yields of the new varieties up to twice that of the previous local  varieties and the superior varieties are proving valuable both to  farmers growing food for their household and for those selling the  crop. The introduction of weevils to eat up the water hyacinth  clogging the Lake Victoria basin, though perhaps not exactly  agricultural, is another dramatic achievement of a cheap bio- technology that I have witnessed bringing a broad range of benefits  to the communities.
We need to keep reminding both ourselves and, more importantly,  others of these major advantages of new agricultural technologies,
sincerely,
Richard Gibson


Dr Richard W Gibson, NRI
Central Ave., Chatham Maritime, Kent, ME4 4TB, UK
Email: <addressremoved>
Tel: +44 (0)1634 883254
Fax: +44 (0)1634 880066/77
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