News brief
 Keeping secrets in the rice race |
Facing up to Foot and Mouth
A new outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) reported in Swaziland, in January, has led to the culling of all animals showing clinical signs of the disease in the northern Hhohho region, a zone traditionally free of the disease. This latest outbreak follows an earlier one in November 2000 (see News 01-1), which led to the nationwide slaughter of 2000 cattle. The current ban on beef exports will be lifted after three months providing no further cases of the disease are detected.
Border controls between Swaziland and Mozambique have been tightened after reports of smuggling of cattle into Mozambique from the Lubombo region of eastern Swaziland, where incidence of FMD has been particularly serious. Farmers in infected areas have been selling their cattle to smugglers for sale across the border, despite the ban in Mozambique on all beef imports from Swaziland and South Africa.
Restrictions in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa have now been lifted following a successful programme to control the outbreak of pan-Asian 'O' strain of FMD. However, a fresh outbreak of FMD SAT '2' strain was reported in Northern province, 250 km north of Johannesburg. This latest outbreak is suspected to have originated from FMD carrier buffalo which escaped from a local nature reserve. Meat exports from South Africa have now been suspended by all the leading markets, and the loss to southern African exporters has been estimated at around US$257.7 million.
From March 2001, Argentina has announced a change in FMD control strategy by ordering a 'border buffer zone' and a 'restriction zone' which will be categorised as FMD free zones where vaccination is practised whilst maintaining the great majority of the country's livestock as FMD free without vaccination. This approach will be continued until the risk of FMD is seen to be reduced. See OIE for further details.
For news of FMD in the UK see Think the worst first
Indian earthquake update
In the short term, the greatest dangers threatening the people of Gujarat state are dirty water and poor sanitation. In some areas water sources have become saline and undrinkable, and many wells collapsed or filled with debris when the earthquake and subsequent tremors struck. The thousands of corpses still to be recovered could pose a threat of spreading epidemics of typhoid or cholera, but for the 25,000 or more people living in emergency camps, dysentery from dirty water supplies and poor sanitation is the more immediate problem.
As part of its £10 million allocation for the emergency, the UK
Government's Department for International Development has offered £1
million to Oxfam for water and sanitation, helping to fund provision of
tanks, pumps, tap stands and latrines at over 40 locations identified
by the Gujarat State government. With an estimated 80,000 people injured
and 350,000 left with nothing, the relief agencies have the difficult
job of prioritising both the types of help most needed, and the areas
that should be targeted.
Email: enquiry@dfid.gov.uk
Taiwan's
grafters grow tomatoes
Grafting tomato plants to eggplant roots can extend fruit production into Taiwan's hot wet season and offer the plants greater resistance to disease. As a result of on-farm trials and training sessions run by the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC), grafting has now taken root in Taiwan, and seedling production is doubling annually.
Prospects are good for both grafters and growers. Grafted seedlings sell for more than six times the price of normal ones, and produce better, more expensive varieties into the off-season when prices are higher.
Fruit and Nut - the answer to Varroa?
Beekeepers on the Caribbean island of Tobago have been forced to tighten up their operations to cope with the devastating threat of Varroa mites, first observed on the island last August. They have since been trained to recognise and manage the pests, using both chemical strips and natural products such as grapefruit skins, bay leaves and nutmeg. So far controlling the mites using non-chemical means has worked well, but the coming dry months will pose a greater challenge, as bee numbers will be naturally lower, and the destructive potential of the mites correspondingly greater.
Zimbabwe's maize stocks drying up
Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers Union has warned that stocks of maize currently amount to around 200,000 tons, which could mean that by the end of June only about 25% of monthly consumption will be met. The CFU also predicted that the annual harvest from June is likely to reach 1.28 million tons, well below the annual consumption of 1.8 million tons.
Output has been hit in the last year by harassment and theft, as well as the failure of the Grain Marketing Board to pay farmers on time. The commercial sector planted less than 50% of that planted the previous year while smallholder farmers planted 18% less.
Cottoning on to a fungal cure
Researchers
developing disease-resistant cottons have discovered a way to protect
the plants from fungal attack. Scientists working for the US Agricultural
Research Service in New Orleans have inserted a synthesized protein (D4E1)
into the cells of cotton seedlings. As plants develop, it has been found
that the protein inhibits the germination of at least 25 different fungi
and bacteria. This is good news for the cottonseed industry which generates
between $500-$700 million a year from products like edible oil and high-protein
meal. The new discovery may help to limit the use of chemical fungicides
in protecting plants against
attackers such as Aspergillus flavus, a fungus which contaminates
cottonseeds with the aflatoxin poison, causing substantial losses in income
for farmers.
Chasing away hunger in KwaZulu Natal
A five-year 'Chase away hunger' programme will be launched this April in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Focussing on remote and unproductive districts, 200 million rand will be channelled by the KwaZulu Natal Agricultural Development Trust, into projects that promote small-scale farming and cash generation.
One part of the programme is the settling of new commercial farmers onto state land. Another major project is a flood irrigation scheme near Weenen, which will bring 600ha of land into arable production. Further proposals support cluster development of agribusiness around community gathering points, such as schools, clinics and stores. Over one thousand submissions have been made, for projects that include nurseries, community gardens, poultry production, and small piggeries.
In
India, production of pulses and Soya bean has stagnated, and coupled with
the increasing population, this has cut per capita availability by a third
in the last twenty years. The country would need to double its current
production levels to attain self-sufficiency, but recently the area under
Soya has been declining, despite the crop being an excellent source of
protein and oil. Better harvesting, threshing and storing could boost
production levels by 15%, and there is a lot of potential for value addition
through processing.
Pesticide
quality - a global survey
South
African lions fall prey to TB
