Received: from ATHENA-AS-WELL.MIT.EDU by po7.MIT.EDU (5.61/4.7) id AA13523; Tue, 31 May 94 20:25:20 EDT Received: from auvm.american.edu by MIT.EDU with SMTP id AA02478; Tue, 31 May 94 20:25:15 EDT Message-Id: <9406010025.AA02478@MIT.EDU> Received: from AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU by AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 4057; Tue, 31 May 94 20:21:28 EDT Received: from AMERICAN.EDU (NJE origin LISTSERV@AUVM) by AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU (LMail V1.1d/1.7f) with BSMTP id 6858; Tue, 31 May 1994 20:21:21 -0400 Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 20:21:00 EST Reply-To: Volunteers in Technical Assistance Sender: Technology Transfer in International Development From: Volunteers in Technical Assistance Subject: Your DevelopNet News for June. To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @@@@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@ @@@@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@ @@ @@@ @@ @@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@ @@@@@@ @@@@@ @@ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @@ @@ @@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ On-Line News and Views on @@@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@@ @@@@@@@ @@ Technology Transfer in @@ @@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@@ @@ International Development %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @@@@@ @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@ @@ @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@ @@@@@@ @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% June 1994 Volume 4, No. 6 IN THIS ISSUE WORLD FOOD WATCH Crop Potentials Are Higher Than Expected LITERATURE REVIEWS Solution to Water Shortage in China Urbanization in Pacific Islands Tribal Implementation of GIS ORGANIZATIONS Interaction VITA PROJECTS VITASAT Goes Solar ANNOUNCEMENTS * * * DevelopNet News is published monthly by Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA) in Arlington, Virginia, USA. For additional information, please see the end of this newsletter. * * * W o r l d F o o d W a t c h CROP POTENTIALS ARE HIGHER THAN EXPECTED Can the world grow significantly more food to keep up with population growth? The results of a new study challenge recent reports that agri- cultural crop yields have reached their maximum biological potential and are now decreasing. The study claims that skyrocketing gains were made in crop yields over the past decade. According to its author, Donald L. Plucknett (Consul- tative Group on International Agricultural Research, Washington, D.C.), the gains show no sign of slowing in the future, as long as investments in international agricultural research are maintained as food needs go up. One might think that, according to the principle of diminishing returns, crop yields would begin to level off. However, although there has been some slowing at times, there is no indication that maximal yield poten- tials have been reached. And all crops except sorghum show a positive yield gain. Yield potential is a concept developed by Dutch scientists, based on the the upper limit of what can be grown on all suitable agricultural land. The resulting calculations are based on a scale of "grain equivalents," on which the croplands of the world are ranked by their potential. The range is from "extremely high" (more than 25,000 kg per ha per year) to "very low" (5,000 or less). Yield levels of 800 to 1,500 seem to repre- sent agriculture that has not yet enjoyed much gain from scientific improvements. The central point is that significant productivity gains are possible provided suitable technologies are available for farmers. Plucknett believes that yield improvements are the best hope for bettering the economic conditions of those living in the rural areas of the developing world. Farmers can increase their crop production whether by bringing more lands under cultivation or by increasing crop yields. Now that the world's new land frontiers are scarce, farmers must increase yields. Many nations of the developing world are experiencing yield gains that are equal to and sometimes surpass the yield gains in developed nations. This happens because these countries have been able to draw on the world's past investments in agricultural research. Each country, devel- oping or developed, should have its strategy to carry out research toward increasing its own potential. Africa's current grain production, measured in kilograms per capita, is truly alarming. Many people have said that the Green Revolution "never made it to Africa." However, several African nations, including Cameroon, are performing better than the United States. Plucknett attributes this to the fact that the rates of gain experienced by the Europe, Japan, and the United States in the 1960s were based on "home- grown grains." The scientific skills and improved plant varieties were based on the knowledge at hand -- limited within national borders. According to the scale of potential, Africa is second only to Latin America in the world. Africa has some difficult areas to manage, but "in no way is Africa inherently worse off than Australia, for example, which probvably has to contend with the most difficult conditions." The developing world shows high rates of gain because these countries were able to draw on international pools of knowledge. The international agricultural institutions and mechanisms that began to emerge within the last two or three decades have made it possible for agricultural research to become a truly international enterprise. Plucknett asserts that higher yields are essential, because agriculture is destined to become even more intensive with regard to land use, requiring higher production levels, management skills, and knowledge. He says we can continue to see crop yield improvements in every country only if we increase our investment in agricultural research. The popula- tion will double over the next few decades and food production must keep up. Furthermore, as agriculture becomes more "environmentally safe," the agricultural enterprise becomes much more complex. Less use of fertili- zers and pesticides requires better research in the laboratory and in the field, and better tailoring of crops to climates and soils. "Investment in research toward realizing agricultural yield potentials falls into three categories: research to sustain past yields, research to close yield gaps, and research to raise yield ceilings," he says. "If we don't continue to support our investment in agriculture, we may not be able to feed our future generations; we may not even be able to sustain the gains we've already made." Plant genetics and biotechnology have already proved themselves and agricultural development should con- tinue to exploit these branches of knowledge. Plucknett's study is the first to systematically examine agricultural crop yields across countries from the Middle Ages to the present. As Per Pinstrup-Anderson (IFPRI) says, "We should not be concerned about the ability of the earth to feed future generations, but about our inability to make the right decisions to turn potential yield and productivity increases into actual increases, without doing damage to the environment." Source: Donald L. Plucknett, [1994]. Science and Agricultural Transform- ation; lecture presented 9 September 1993. IFPRI Lecture Series. Wash- ington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute. L i t e r a t u r e R e v i e w s SOLUTION TO WATER SHORTAGE IN CHINA Lu Dadao, 1993. "An Important Solution to the Problem of Water Shortage in North China." (K.C. Tan, tr.) Chinese Environment and Development, vol 4, no. 3 (fall), p. 25-37. Northern China contains one of the world's most important industrial development areas. Five provincial units in the Bohai Sea area are included; they have constituted a key construction area since 1949. According to Lu (Institute of Geography, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing), "by the early part of the next century, the region is expected to become the world's largest energy center, China's largest iron and steel base, oil and petrochemical, maritime petrochemical, and machine industries, and one of China's major centers for light and maritime aquatic indistries. A vital integrated transportation network will be formed around the Bohai Sea. If development is not interrupted, the region will be comparable to the Great Lakes region of the United States, the North Sea region of Western Europe, and the Inland Sea region of Japan. . . . But all this depends on the availability of water and an amicable solution to the problem of water resource conflicts." Already, ground water is being rapidly depleted and the shortage of water has already affected economic growth. How can the water problem be solved? Long-distance water transfer has been proposed but is probably not feasible. However, measures can be taken for conservation, reutiliz- ation, and pollution control. Lu believes that the main problem lies in traditional patterns of industrial development and agriculture. He urges that industrial processes that use much water be relocated to other parts of the country. The single, most important factor in the water shortage is the large-scale development of wet rice and extensive field irrigation. Wet rice alone uses as much water as all area industries and urban households combined, and has grown rapidly in recent decades. Even a reduction of five percent in the area under extensive irrigation would relieve the shortage of water for industry. Although this paper is a polemic in support of a particular development plan, it throws welcome light on technological development in the world's most populous country. URBANIZATION IN PACIFIC ISLANDS Jenny Bryant-Tokalau, 1994. "Pacific Urban Environments." The Courier -- - Africa-Caribbean-Pacific -- European Union, no. 144, p. 80-82. The populations of Pacific islands are small but growing fast. As Bryant-Tokalau states, "Pacific countries face similar problems to the majority of developing countries where around 35% of the population lacks access to adequate sanitation, and there is a lack of environmen- tal infrastructure and services." Urbanization also is on the rise; many Pacific islanders are no longer solely rural people. Often, government responses to worsening conditions emphasize improvement in rural servi- ces at the expense of urban programs and general social and environmen- tal programs. The major areas of concern are population and urban densities, waste disposal and water supply, solid and industrial waste disposal, and human settlements, congestion, and environmental problems. Birth control technologies are needed, but they will not help to solve the issue of urban growth unless economic, environmental, and social conditions are also improved. Land reclamation has a high priority in such countries as the Marshall Islands and Kiribati, where population densities are higher than almost anywhere in the world. Finally, according to the author, inhabitants themselves must participate directly in dealing with urban problems, with the help of regional international organizations and community- based organizations. Bryant-Tokalau provides a clear and concise view of the problems faced by island populations and the technologies that are needed to address them. TRIBAL IMPLEMENTATION OF GIS Michael E. Marchand and Richard Winchell, 1994. "Tribal Implementation of GIS; a Case Study of Planning Applications with the Colville Confed- erated Tribes." Cultural Survival Quarterly, vol. 17, no. 4 (winter), p. 49-51. Geographic information systems (GISs) link large, computer-based data sets with map information. Marchand (Colville Confederated Tribes, Nespelem, Washington) and Winchell (Eastern Washington University, Cheney) say: "The application of GIS within [Native American] tribal governments is an important process that can help empower tribes, par- ticularly with regard to natural resources management and water rights litigation." In 1983, the U.S. government established a GIS for tribal lands that eventually included a training program and a ten-tribe dem- onstration project to create applications of GISs. Although the U.S. project's national center has successfully developed databases and limited applications with the tribes, implementation by the tribes has proved to be difficult because an overreliance on U.S. government staff has slowed development of tribal staff capability. For the Colville confederation, whose tribes manage timber resources in a northwestern area of the United States with "state-of-the-art" tech- nology, the number of tribal employees has increased dramatically in recent years. However, there has been no tribal infrastructure for tech- nical, as contrasted with business, management. Now, however, the tribes have started to acquire their own GIS technical staff. The U.S. government regards Native American tribal governments as sover- eign, but management of relations with those governments has often drawn criticism. O r g a n i z a t i o n s INTERACTION InterAction is a coalition of over 150 U.S.-based private voluntary organizations working to promote human dignity and development in 165 countries around the world. The diverse member organizations operate programs to ease human suffering and to strengthen people's abilities to help themselves. In the area of disaster relief, members are often the first to respond to a crisis, whether the cause is natural or man-made. In the area of sustainable development, members promote solutions to the interlinked problems of poverty, environmental degradation and popula- tion growth. InterAction coordinates and promotes these activities and helps to ensure that goals are met in an ethical and cost-efficient manner. InterAction and its members also lobby to reform foreign assistance so that U.S. programs reach those most in need, and do so in a manner that empowers the poor and discourages future dependence. InterAction staff can provide up-to-the-minute information on humani- tarian conditions in a given country, telling you which member agencies are working there and what programs they sponsor. Information: InterAction, 1717 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC 20036. Tel. +1 (202) 667-8227; fax +1 (202) 667-8236. V I T A P r o j e c t s VITASAT GOES SOLAR In August 1993 a VITASAT ground station located at a remote development project in Tanzania became the first satellite ground station in the world powered exclusively by solar energy. The 2,000-hectare Kibidula Farm Institute provides Tanzanian farmers with training in health, agriculture, and farm management. It also con- ducts demonstration projects on making roof tiles for homes, building and using water wheels, and making more effective use of animal power on the farms. It operates a health clinic and provides many other services targeted to the needs of the surrounding area. The institute is situated in the southern highlands of Tanzania, 35 km from the district center (Mafinga), 132 km from the regional center (Iringa), and 12 km from the main Tanzania-Zambia highway. The nearest telephone is two hours away and not always functioning. Because of this isolation, a reliable means of communications had to be found for med- ical emergencies and to stay in touch with the sponsoring organization's home office in the United States, with donors elsewhere in the world, and with development projects in Lesotho, Malawi, and Zambia that are managed or coordinated from Kibidula. The needs have been met through the use of a ground station that communicates with VITA's low earth- orbiting satellite. Since 19 August 1993, when a new inverter was installed to convert 12- volt direct current to 120-volt alternating current, the four solar pan- els mounted on the roof of the ground station / headquarters building have been producing more than enough electricity to run the ground sta- tion's radio, computer, and printer. There is also enough current to charge the batteries that operate fluorescent lights and video cameras, as well as electric drills and other power tools. Shifting to solar power has meant substantial savings in both the man- power and money that had been needed to run the gasoline generators formerly used to power the station. A liter of gasoline currently costs the equivalent of only US$0.52 in Tanzania, but at the prevailing wage rate of $0.44 per day, it used to take several man-days of work every day to pay for the fuel needed to keep the old generators running. The experience at Kibidula Farm Institute demonstrates the feasibility of using solar energy to power ground stations in remote areas not reached by conventional suppliers of electricity. It also opens up exciting new possibilities in the field of remote monitoring. With the help of VITASAT, inexpensive, miniature solar-powered ground stations could be set up in hard-to-reach areas to relay data automatically from sensors monitoring wind, rainfall, or other conditions. Kibidula is a project of the Seventh Day Adventist Church (Silver Spring, Maryland). Information: Gary Garriott, VITA A n n o u n c e m e n t s TELECOMMUNICATIONS TRAINING From 3 to 7 October 1994 VITA will be hosting a training course on Low- cost Groundstation Operation and Maintenance for Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) Digital Communication Satellites. The course will consist of ini- tial lectures and discussions describing the digital communication niches for LEO stallites operating in both VHF and UHF bands, with an emphasis on disaster relief and economic development, using store-and- forward methods of message delivery and file transfer. The course intends to provide participants with (1) a technical overview of digital ground stations operating with LEO satellites; and (2) an intensive hands-on experience in ground-station operation that will allow partici- pants to troubleshoot and maintain these systems. It is open to persons who wish to achieve these goals and will be given in conjunction with the U.S. Telecommunications Training Institute. The course will be the third in a series, the first two being courses on "Low-Cost PC-Based Electronic Mail and File Transfer" and "Low-Cost Digital and Packet Radio Techniques: Operation and Applications," to be held at VITA 31 May to 3 June and 6 to 10 June 1994. VITA has been participating in USTTI training courses since 1988, and has provided instruction to nearly 100 people from 30 countries. Information: Gary Garriott, VITA. HOW TO JOIN VITA'S ELECTRONIC FORUM VITA's free, public, online discussion forum, DEVEL-L, provides for the exchange of ideas and information on a wide range of issues and topics related to technology transfer in international development; for exam- ple, technologies, communications in development, sustainable agricul- ture, women in development, the environment, small enterprise develop- ment, meetings, and book reviews. Subscribers to DEVEL-L automatically receive this newsletter and can download documents free from a special archive by using FTP requests or e-mail messages. To join the forum, send this command or message that reads: SUB DEVEL-L your_real_name to this address: or . You can receive the same benefits by joining the newsgroup bit.listserv.devel-l. You can subscribe to DevelopNet News without joining the discussion forum by sending the following message to the same address: SUB DNN-L your_real_name . Please do not send these messages to VITA. * * * DevelopNet News is an electronic newsletter published monthly by Volun- teers in Technical Assistance (VITA), a private, nonprofit, interna- tional development organization located in Arlington, Virginia. The newsletter needs your stories: you are invited to send them to the edi- tor in electronic form. Your redistribution of DevelopNet News is encouraged. Kindly send us a message on the approximate size of your mailing list; it will be helpful in our planning. President: Henry R. Norman Acting Editor: Vicki Tsiliopoulos Editorial Assistant: Rafe Ronkin, VITA Volunteer VITA specializes in information dissemination and communications tech- nology. It offers services related to sustainable agriculture, food processing, renewable energy applications, water sanitation and supply, small enterprise development, and information management. It has long- and short-term projects in 10 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. VITA's publications, on a variety of practical subjects, are designed to assist persons and organizations in developing countries. You can request a descriptive publications list by postal mail, phone, or fax. Be sure to include your postal address. Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA), 1600 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 500, Arlington, Virginia 22209. Tel. +1 (703) 276-1800, 24-hr BBS: +1 (703) 527-1086 [up to 9600, N,8,1], fax +1 (703) 243-1865, telex 440192 VITAUI, cable VITAINC, e-mail: Internet , FidoNet 1:109/165 .