News brief

Mitch adds a twist to the banana wrangle

International aid is now flooding into the central American countries affected by Hurricane Mitch. ACP countries may benefit indirectly from the hurricane damage to banana plantations because producers in central America may be unable to fulfil their banana quota to the European Union, a subject of continuing controversy between the USA and the EU.

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Bangladesh

This year's flooding in Bangladesh destroyed two million tonnes of rice, some 10% of production. The Department of Agricultural Extension has been supplying cash grants to farmers affected by the flood to enable those who have no savings to buy seeds, seedlings and fertilizer. Farmers are also being provided with vegetable seeds, fruit saplings, mustard, pulse, rice and wheat seeds. And, for the first time, agricultural credit is being granted to help the landless. Help has not reached all who need it and many, who lost everything, are still suffering.

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Fair trade tea

Tea growers from small holdings on the uplands of western Uganda are hoping that a new fair trade deal will to help safeguard their incomes. They are particularly vulnerable to seasonally fluctuating prices on the Mombassa market where they compete with Kenyan tea that has a more direct supply route. Teadirect, marketed by Cafedirect, the organisation which produces fair trade coffee, will be offering a premium above the market price. This will go towards growers' co-operatives rather than to individual farmers and is intended to be used for improving local health and education services.

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First catch your chameleon

A new design of fly trap was on show at the Mubende agricultural show in Uganda. A wire cage contains a piece of ageing fish and a chameleon. The smell of the fish attracts unwary flies and mosquitoes, which rapidly form a meal for the chameleon. The trap's inventor claims that a chameleon can easily consume 200 flies per day and the design is proving so successful that the idea is spreading fast.

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Ladybirds that walk to work

French researchers have found a way of breeding ladybirds that can't fly, which ensures that they stay around to eat pests. Ladybirds make ideal on-farm predators since both larvae and adults feed on other insects. The problem comes, however, when the insects grow wings and fly away. But now scientists at the National Institute of Agronomic Research in Antibes have produced mutant, multicoloured Asian ladybirds that are unable to fly. In tests the flightless ladybirds have already proved successful in keeping pests off cucumbers and melons.

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British beef ban

European agriculture ministers have voted for the ban on British beef exports to be lifted. The agriculture ministers' recommendation has to go to the European Commission for implementation but there are hopes in Britain that the ban could be lifted early in the New Year.

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Weather hits India's potato and onion production

Unseasonal rain damaged over half the potato crop in India's principal potato-growing state, Uttar Pradesh. In some parts of the Punjab almost 80% of the crop was lost. Domestic prices have risen and the government has banned exports. Onions have suffered a similar fate with prices up to eight times normal.

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Pests are kind to Pakistan's rice

Pakistan is expecting a bumper rice harvest thanks to favourable weather conditions and fewer pest problems. Prices on the domestic market are currently high but this may damage export prospects as Pakistan's rice farmers compete with growers in other countries.

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Methyl bromide breathes again?

The ozone-depleting soil fumigant, methyl bromide, is due to be phased out of use despite farmers' claims that there is no realistic alternative. Now researchers at the US Department of Agriculture claim that if, before injecting the methyl bromide gas, soil is covered with composted manure and a highly impermeable plastic sheeting, emissions to the atmosphere can be reduced to practically zero.

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Dead end to terminator technology?

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research has agreed that plant breeders in its Centres will not use any genetic system designed to prevent germination, the so-called 'terminator technology'.

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Cucumber growers find cure for a headache

Dutch scientists have discovered that feeding aspirin to young cucumber plants helps to prevent thickening of the root walls. Plants with thick root walls absorb water and minerals less easily, causing slower growth. A Dutch farmers' organisation is investigating whether the active ingredient in aspirin can be registered for use to protect their cucumbers. Until it is, farmers will not be allowed to prescribe it to their plants.

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UK agricultural research collaboration

Agricultural economists at the UK's Wye College in Kent are working with scientists at London University's Imperial College to assess the economic impact of pesticide use in developing country agriculture. This is one of several collaborative research projects which will be strengthened following the formal announcement that the two colleges will merge by the year 2000.

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Full steam ahead as one network tracks another

A major problem faced by traders in East Africa is trying to keep track of their goods (See Focus On). A new computer system should allow computers at ports, railway stations and road checkpoints to inform customers of where their cargo is and find the best route to help it on its way. The full system, which has been designed by the UN Conference on Trade and Development and funded by the EU, is still some way off, but the rail tracking network is already chugging full steam ahead in Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

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The Farming World Wide Web

The BBC World Service is to make The Farming World more easily available to users of the Internet. From the New Year, the current programme will be available at any time that the user wishes to hear it from the The Farming World web page. This is in direct response to listeners' disappointment at the inconvenient broadcast times for The Farming World and brings the programme into line with other BBC World Service programmes. The address is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/farmingworld/.

The number of radio transmissions of The Farming World will be increased with effect from the middle of January. You can check the current broadcast times and those for the new schedule changes for your region.

(Do these moves reflect, at last, a recognition that agriculture is of direct concern to all, whether as producers or consumers of food? Editor)