Farmer Associations, Decentralization and Development in Rwanda: Challenges Ahead

This paper summarizes the findings from FSRP/DSA surveys designed to identify some of the key institutional issues surrounding the role of farmer associations in the delivery of, and access to agricultural services. Specifically, the surveys focus on the capacity of four actors–MINAGRI Regional and District Agents, NGOs, District Governments (the Mayors) and farmer associations and intergroupements to provide farmers with agricultural services that might help in the transition from semi-subsistence to commercial agriculture. As this synthesis paper indicates, some of these services have been provided on an irregular basis for many years through a variety of government, NGO, donor agency and private business efforts. Moreover, this paper highlights the strengths and weaknesses of these four key actors; it also identifies areas for improvement, and recommends ways for enhancing the efficiency and equity of services available to farmers through farmer associations.food security, food policy, Rwanda, farmer associations, International Development, Q18,

THE REFORM OF RICE MILLING AND MARKETING IN THE OFFICE DU NIGER: CATALYST FOR AN AGRICULTURAL SUCCESS STORY IN MALI

This chapter focuses on how changes in the rules regarding who could compete in rice milling in the ON combined with technological change in rice production and new macro-economic policies (particularly the CFA franc devaluation) to lead to a transformation of rice production and marketing in the ON. The chapter also pays particular attention to the synergies between technological changes in rice production, the introduction of new marketing and macroeconomic policies, and the evolution of institutions governing rice production in the ON on the transformation of agriculture in this region of Mali.Crop Production/Industries, Marketing,

Contribution of Exogenous Genetic Elements to the Group A Streptococcus Metagenome

Variation in gene content among strains of a bacterial species contributes to biomedically relevant differences in phenotypes such as virulence and antimicrobial resistance. Group A Streptococcus (GAS) causes a diverse array of human infections and sequelae, and exhibits a complex pathogenic behavior. To enhance our understanding of genotype-phenotype relationships in this important pathogen, we determined the complete genome sequences of four GAS strains expressing M protein serotypes (M2, M4, and 2 M12) that commonly cause noninvasive and invasive infections. These sequences were compared with eight previously determined GAS genomes and regions of variably present gene content were assessed. Consistent with the previously determined genomes, each of the new genomes is ∼1.9 Mb in size, with ∼10% of the gene content of each encoded on variably present exogenous genetic elements. Like the other GAS genomes, these four genomes are polylysogenic and prophage encode the majority of the variably present gene content of each. In contrast to most of the previously determined genomes, multiple exogenous integrated conjugative elements (ICEs) with characteristics of conjugative transposons and plasmids are present in these new genomes. Cumulatively, 242 new GAS metagenome genes were identified that were not present in the previously sequenced genomes. Importantly, ICEs accounted for 41% of the new GAS metagenome gene content identified in these four genomes. Two large ICEs, designated 2096-RD.2 (63 kb) and 10750-RD.2 (49 kb), have multiple genes encoding resistance to antimicrobial agents, including tetracycline and erythromycin, respectively. Also resident on these ICEs are three genes encoding inferred extracellular proteins of unknown function, including a predicted cell surface protein that is only present in the genome of the serotype M12 strain cultured from a patient with acute poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis. The data provide new information about the GAS metagenome and will assist studies of pathogenesis, antimicrobial resistance, and population genomics

The Iceland Microcontinent and a continental Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge

The breakup of Laurasia to form the Northeast Atlantic Realm was the culmination of a long period of tectonic unrest extending back to the Late Palaeozoic. Breakup was prolonged and complex and disintegrated an inhomogeneous collage of cratons sutured by cross-cutting orogens. Volcanic rifted margins formed, which are blanketed by lavas and underlain variously by magma-inflated, extended continental crust and mafic high-velocity lower crust of ambiguous and probably partly continental provenance. New rifts formed by diachronous propagation along old zones of weakness. North of the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge the newly forming rift propagated south along the Caledonian suture. South of the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge it propagated north through the North Atlantic Craton along an axis displaced ~ 150 km to the west of the northern rift. Both propagators stalled where the confluence of the Nagssugtoqidian and Caledonian orogens formed a transverse barrier. Thereafter, the ~ 400-km-wide latitudinal zone between the stalled rift tips extended in a distributed, unstable manner along multiple axes of extension that frequently migrated or jumped laterally with shearing occurring between them in diffuse transfer zones. This style of deformation continues to the present day. It is the surface expression of underlying magma-assisted stretching of ductile mid- and lower continental crust which comprises the Icelandic-type lower crust that underlies the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge. This, and probably also one or more full-crustal-thickness microcontinents incorporated in the Ridge, are capped by surface lavas. The Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge thus has a similar structure to some zones of seaward-dipping reflectors. The contemporaneous melt layer corresponds to the 3–10 km thick Icelandic-type upper crust plus magma emplaced in the ~ 10–30-km-thick Icelandic-type lower crust. This model can account for seismic and gravity data that are inconsistent with a gabbroic composition for Icelandic-type lower crust, and petrological data that show no reasonable temperature or source composition could generate the full ~ 40-km thickness of Icelandic-type crust observed. Numerical modeling confirms that extension of the continental crust can continue for many tens of Myr by lower-crustal flow from beneath the adjacent continents. Petrological estimates of the maximum potential temperature of the source of Icelandic lavas are up to 1450 °C, no more than ~ 100 °C hotter than MORB source. The geochemistry is compatible with a source comprising hydrous peridotite/pyroxenite with a component of continental mid- and lower crust. The fusible petrology, high source volatile contents, and frequent formation of new rifts can account for the true ~ 15–20 km melt thickness at the moderate temperatures observed. A continuous swathe of magma-inflated continental material beneath the 1200-km-wide Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge implies that full continental breakup has not yet occurred at this latitude. Ongoing tectonic instability on the Ridge is manifest in long-term tectonic disequilibrium on the adjacent rifted margins and on the Reykjanes Ridge, where southerly migrating propagators that initiate at Iceland are associated with diachronous swathes of unusually thick oceanic crust. Magmatic volumes in the NE Atlantic Realm have likely been overestimated and the concept of a monogenetic North Atlantic Igneous Province needs to be reappraised. A model of complex, piecemeal breakup controlled by pre-existing structures that produces anomalous volcanism at barriers to rift propagation and distributes continental material in the growing oceans fits other oceanic regions including the Davis Strait and the South Atlantic and West Indian oceans

Non-Governmental Organizations in Agricultural Development: Preliminary Survey Results

The purpose of this report is twofold. First, the report provides the first overview of NGO agricultural activities in Rwanda. As such, the report offers new information to inform both governmental and NGO policy and program discussions. Second, the tables presented in this report and appendices help to illustrate the power of the database (Microsoft Access) to respond to a variety of queries or searches generated by different decision-making interests

Farmer Associations, Decentralization and Development in Rwanda: Challenges Ahead

This paper summarizes the findings from FSRP/DSA surveys designed to identify some of the key institutional issues surrounding the role of farmer associations in the delivery of, and access to agricultural services. Specifically, the surveys focus on the capacity of four actors–MINAGRI Regional and District Agents, NGOs, District Governments (the Mayors) and farmer associations and intergroupements to provide farmers with agricultural services that might help in the transition from semi-subsistence to commercial agriculture. As this synthesis paper indicates, some of these services have been provided on an irregular basis for many years through a variety of government, NGO, donor agency and private business efforts. Moreover, this paper highlights the strengths and weaknesses of these four key actors; it also identifies areas for improvement, and recommends ways for enhancing the efficiency and equity of services available to farmers through farmer associations