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In this month's New Agriculturist...

One year on from the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Oxfam reports that debt cancellation has made a notable impact. Freed resources are being used to help poor people in countries where poverty plans are being drawn up. In Zambia, for example, additional health workers and teachers are being recruited, and in Tanzania the government is importing food supplies for those affected by drought. But, there are concerns over the lack of progress for many of the promises made in 2005, particularly on the pledges to provide more aid. Russia, known for its ambivalence on climate change, is to host the forthcoming G8 summit in mid July and the issue is unlikely to be high on the agenda of discussions.

The latest meeting of trade talks on reorganising the global trading system to benefit developing countries has ended without a breakthrough and WTO chief, Pascal Lamy is seriously concerned that five years of discussions for the Doha round could end in failure (see News). An emergency summit is to be held before the end of July. Hopes for a fairer trading system are also the subject of the lead book Fair Trade for All, whilst aspects of local and export trade are featured in Developments, in articles on millet, passion fruit and cocoa. Opinions on the impact of trade or migration on the spread of avian flu are presented in our Points of View along with varying standpoints on methods of control and compensation. Control of another zoonotic disease, sleeping sickness, is covered in our Perspective.

Political insecurity continues to plague Afghanistan, the subject of our Country Profile. In Zimbabwe, a potential u-turn in land policy for white farmers is covered in News. Land tenure and its impact on land degradation and desertification is covered in our Focus On along with other methodologies employed in various regions for reversing land degradation - a problem, which affects over two billion people living in the world's dryland areas.

With the diversity of articles present in this latest edition of New Agriculturist, we hope you find much to interest and inform you. If you have any comments or ideas for future editions, we look forward to hearing from you.

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