News brief
Foot-and-mouth in AfghanistanFoot-and-mouth in Afghanistan
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| Credit: M Griffin, FAO | ||
FAO has confirmed that foot-and-mouth disease is killing one in three
new-born lambs in northern Afghanistan. A joint team from FAO
and the Afghan ministry of agriculture is currently carrying out investigations
in the affected province of Baghlan where the infection first broke out
and from where it then spread to Konduz, Takhar, Samangan and Balkh. There
are also cases of Peste des Petits Ruminants, a rinderpest-like disease
of goats and sheep with a mortality rate of up to 85%. However, with Pakistan
able to declare Provisional Freedom from rinderpest earlier this year,
GREP - the Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme - is confident that
the whole of Asia, including Afghanistan, is now free from this potentially
devastating disease of cattle.
WTO 'disagreement' on agriculture
The deadline agreed at Doha, by which time WTO members were to table
offers to 'substantially' free agricultural trade, has been missed and
efforts are now being made to find an acceptable route out of the impasse.
Under the Agreement on Agriculture, offers for reducing tariffs, reducing/phasing
out export subsidies and reducing trade-distorting domestic support should
have been made by 31 March. It seems that those countries that most heavily
subsidize their agricultural industries, notably in Europe but also Japan,
Switzerland and South Korea, are the most reluctant to move towards substantial
reform and it proved impossible to agree on targets. This has disappointed
developing countries who were led to expect greater market access following
the Doha development agenda. Agriculture talks are scheduled to end by
1 January 2005 and the WTO has said that
progress can still be achieved provided governments work towards bridging
their differences.
Tomatoes under attack
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| Credit: University of the West Indies | ||
A tomato-infecting virus has reached epidemic status in most commercial
holdings in Trinidad. This is the Trinidad isolate of the Potato yellow
mosaic virus, PYMV-TT (Genus: Begomovirus, Family: Geminiviridae).
Since its detection in Venezuela in the late 1980's, strains of PYMV have
been identified in several other Caribbean countries including Guadeloupe,
Martinique and Puerto Rico. Infection by this single stranded DNA virus
is characterised by a yellow mosaic of the leaf with leaf distortion and
whole plant stunting in severe cases. The disease has taken a hold in
Trinidad because of poor cropping practices, the high reproductive rates
and voracious feeding habits of the insect vector (the sweet potato whitefly,
Bemisia tabaci) and because resistant cultivars are unavailable.
The absence of legislative or other regulatory mechanisms has compounded
the problem of disease control. Current management strategies include
insecticide use and removing infected plants individually. Recently, The
University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, has been instrumental in
charting disease epidemiology with the objective of establishing an integrated
and sustainable disease management system.
The
Netherlands has culled millions of chickens and other poultry in an attempt
to halt the spread of Avian 'flu. The outbreak, which began near Barneveld
at the beginning of March, has already crossed the border into Belgium
where the authorities have ordered preventative culling and banned the
movement of poultry and eggs. By mid April, 18.3 millions birds on 1,001
farms had been culled in the Netherlands and a ban imposed on eggs and
poultry exports, costing the country an estimated two million euros a
day. There is also a standstill order on the transport of pigs and pig
manure. This is because pigs are known to be carriers of several viruses
at the same time, which increases the risk of virus mutation including
that of Avian 'flu, and the danger that presents to humans. (See New Agriculturist
03-2 
Wild
coffee, which is similar in physical appearance to cultivated coffee but
has greater resistance to pests and diseases and, often, a higher caffeine
content, has been identified in many major forests and forest reserves
in Uganda. Professor John Kasenene of the Department of Botany at Makerere
University in Kampala, says that nearly 17,000 acres of wild coffee has
been identified in Kibaale forest in south west Uganda. He suggests that
wild coffee deserves more attention not least because it could find a
profitable niche market. Meanwhile, the national Coffee Research Institute
at Kituza in Mukono District is crossbreeeding wild coffee with domestic
varieties in an attempt to develop resistance to coffee wilt.
A
new rose developed in the Netherlands may help small-scale farmers to
become part of the growing export industry within Uganda. The hot and
humid climate of Uganda is ideal for producing very high yields of sweetheart
roses, which account for 65% of the European market demand but the industry
has been limited to large commercial growers who can afford the investment
in large glasshouses for rose production. The new rose, "Bellinda
Base", has been developed for growing outdoors and will be more suitable
for smaller growers, particularly women. Initial trials have proved promising
with flowers retaining a good colour and high yields. 
