The CGIAR and Biotechnology: Can the Renewal Keep the Promise of a Research Agenda for the Rural Poor?

Personal views of CGIAR NGO Committee Chair Miguel Altieri on the potential of agricultural biotechnology for sustainable development and poverty reduction in the developing world, and the role and strategies that should be adopted by the CGIAR in creating and mobilizing technologies to address the needs of the rural poor. Altieri said that the present CGIAR approach to biotechnology risked alienation of NGOs and farmers organizations, as what he called a sort of Green Revolution replay. He saw NGO collaboration with the CGIAR as a potential means of challenging the direction of current privately-led research. This would require the IARCs to improve their performance on participation with farmers and NGOs. He provided examples of the kinds of biotechnology research that might be appropriate to the needs of resource-poor farmers.The paper was considered at a stakeholder consultation on the role of biotechnology in the CGIAR, and was a background document for the CGIAR Mid Term Meeting, May 1997

Towards Defining a Pro-Poor Natural Resources Management Strategy in the CGIAR

Report of a consultation convened by the CGIAR NGO Committee with representatives of NGOs, national agricultural research systems, universities, CGIAR Centers, and TAC on the development and implementation of a pro-poor natural resource management (NRM) strategy.The consultation took place on October 22-23, 1998, prior to CGIAR International Centers Week. A summary report (not in the collection) was circulated at ICW 98, and this fuller report was distributed at MTM 99 for background.Discussion among the 45 participants focused on the need for an ecological paradigm and natural resource management knowledge base that encompasses biodiversity, resource flows, productivity, and the resilience of ecosystems. The consultation was divided into three working groups (the scientific basis of a pro-poor NRM strategy; a methodological framework for NRM; and linking NRM to rural development). Effective management of natural resources required methodologies such as participatory research, partnerships and dialogue with farmers' organizations, as well as the development of indicators of sustainability. Participants pointed to the need for natural resource management to be linked to the larger policy, economic, and social aspects of rural development generally

DIMENSIONES ÉTICAS DE LA CRÍTICA AGROECOLÓGICA A LA BIOTECNOLOGÍA AGRÍCOLA

El objetivo del presente trabajo es cuestionar las falsas promesas hechas por la industria de la ingeniería genética agrícola, al prometer que los cultivos producidos mediante esta tecnología generarían una agricultura menos dependendiente en insumos químicos, aumentarían la productividad y ayudarían a reducir los problemas ambientales. Este artículo también analiza las críticas ambientalistas a la biotecnología, expresadas en la preocupación por sus efectos sobre las condiciones sociales y económicas, y los valores culturales, religiosos y morales de las diferentes culturas, que han sido ignorados reiteradamente en el desarrollo tecnológico de los OvGM. El autor concluye afirmando que ha llegado el momento de enfrentar socialmente el reto y la realidad de la ingeniería genética. Las compañías de biotecnología deben sentir el impacto de los movimientos ambientalistas, laborales y campesinos, de modo que reorienten su trabajo para el beneficio de toda la sociedad y de la naturalez

Los impactos ecológicos de los sistemas de producción de biocombustibles a base de monocultivos a gran escala en América

The paper examines the expansion of biofuels in the American continent and the ecological impacts of the agrochemical technologies linked to soybean and maize monocultures. In addition to deforestation and displacement of lands devoted to food production, the massive use of transgenic crops and agrochemicals (fertilizers and pesticides) used in the production of biofuels represent grave environmental risks.Este artículo examina la expansión de los agrocombustibles en América y los impactos ecológicos asociados a las tecnologías usadas en la producción de monocultivos a gran escala de maíz y soya. Además de la deforestación y el desplazamiento de tierras dedicadas a alimentos debido a la expansión de los agrocombustibles, el uso masivo de cultivos transgénicas y la entrada de agroquímicos, principalmente de fertilizantes y herbicidas que se usan en la producción de los agrocombustibles, plantean graves problemas medioambientales

Regulación ecológica de plagas en agroecosistemas tropicales (un ejemplo: mono y policultivos de maíz y fríjol, diversificados con malezas).

Maíz-Zea maysMaestría en CienciasMaestrí

Landscape effects on wild Bombus terrestris (Hymenoptera: Apidae) queens visiting highbush blueberry fields in south-central Chile

International audienceAbstractIn this study pollinators visiting highbush blueberry fields set in landscapes with differing land use pattern in south-central Chile were investigated. Effects of spatial buffers from 0.5 to 8 km around each blueberry field on the abundance of the main wild pollinator, Bombus terrestris queens, were tested. Wild B. terrestris abundances were positively affected by natural forest area and negatively affected by high-food resource area, and these effects were strongest at a buffer radius of 1 and 3.5 km, respectively. Possibly, continuous food resources provided by natural forest areas favor colony establishment and growth, and/or increase overwintering survival of bumblebee queens. Also, pollinator dependent crop area can generate a “transient dilution effect” by decreasing the density of bumblebees in simultaneously flowering crops. Management strategies might increase crop pollination services by considering the importance of nesting and overwintering habitat quality/amount and area of simultaneously flowering crops requiring insect pollination

The Herschel PACS photometer calibration - A time dependent flux calibration for the PACS chopped point-source photometry AOT mode

We present a flux calibration scheme for the PACS chopped point-source photometry observing mode based on the photometry of five stellar standard sources. This mode was used for science observations only early in the mission. Later, it was only used for pointing and flux calibration measurements. Its calibration turns this type of observation into fully validated data products in the Herschel Science Archive. Systematic differences in calibration with regard to the principal photometer observation mode, the scan map, are derived and amount to 5-6%. An empirical method to calibrate out an apparent response drift during the first 300 Operational Days is presented. The relative photometric calibration accuracy (repeatability) is as good as 1% in the blue and green band and up to 5% in the red band. Like for the scan map mode, inconsistencies among the stellar calibration models become visible and amount to 2% for the five standard stars used. The absolute calibration accuracy is therefore mainly limited by the model uncertainty, which is 5% for all three bands.Comment: 20 pages, 7 pages of appendix, 11 figures, accepted to appear in Experimental Astronomy, Special Issue for Herschel Calibrations based on the "Herschel Calibration Workshop: Only the Best Data Products for the Legacy Archive", held at ESAC, 25 - 27 March 2013, http://herschel.esac.esa.int/CalibrationWorkshop5.shtm

The reversal of the SF-density relation in a massive, X-ray selected galaxy cluster at z=1.58: results from Herschel

Dusty, star-forming galaxies have a critical role in the formation and evolution of massive galaxies in the Universe. Using deep far-infrared imaging in the range 100-500um obtained with the Herschel telescope, we investigate the dust-obscured star formation in the galaxy cluster XDCP J0044.0-2033 at z=1.58, the most massive cluster at z >1.5, with a measured mass M200= 4.7x10$^{14}$ Msun. We perform an analysis of the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of 12 cluster members (5 spectroscopically confirmed) detected with >3$\sigma$ significance in the PACS maps, all ULIRGs. The individual star formation rates (SFRs) lie in the range 155-824 Ms/yr, with dust temperatures of 24$\pm$35 K. We measure a strikingly high amount of star formation (SF) in the cluster core, SFR ( 1875$\pm$158 Ms/yr, 4x higher than the amount of star formation in the cluster outskirts. This scenario is unprecedented in a galaxy cluster, showing for the first time a reversal of the SF-density relation at z~1.6 in a massive cluster.Comment: Letter accepted for publication in MNRAS, ESA Press Release on 18 December 201