The effect of Cichorium intybus and Lotus corniculatus on nematode burdens and production in grazed lambs

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. The study was designed to examine the hypothesis that chicory (Cichorium intybus) and Lotus sp. (Lotus corniculatus) have the potential to affect the naturally acquired nematode burden in grazed lambs. Organic male castrate lambs (48) with a naturally acquired parasite burden grazed replicate combination plots (0.6 ha) of chicory, Lotus corniculatus, perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and white clover (Trifolium repens). Lamb performance was determined by weekly weight gain and condition score assessments. Nematode burden was assessed by individual lamb faecal egg count (FEC) before and after drenching (levamisole). The range of parasitic helminths present was assessed by faecal culture and by total worm counts performed on a proportion of the lambs at slaughter. Weekly pasture larval counts (PLCs) were conducted on the trial plots. A concurrent small plot study (6 x 1m2 replicates) of each of the forages used in the grazing trial was run to assess the potential effect of forage type on the development and survival of Teladorsagia circumcincta assessed by weekly PLCs. Preliminary data suggest that lambs grazing chicory or a combination of lotus and chicory had lower FECs than those grazing PRG/WC, however there was no significant difference in the total worm counts

Challenges of Recruiting a Vulnerable Population in a Grounded Theory Study

Recruitment is a crucial and fundamental part of research and one that poses various degrees of difficulty. This is particularly so when the area of research is one that is either highly sensitive, or that involves participants who are deemed to be particularly vulnerable. This article explores the inherent tensions in matters of participant recruitment among meeting the demands of institutional ethics committees, satisfying the concerns of clinicians in the field and the need to maintain methodological rigor. A postgraduate research student’s experience of these tensions underpins the discussion. The article concludes with an outline of the student’s strategies and resolution of these issues.postprin

Research Quality at ICRISAT: Separating the grain from the chaff

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is one of the agriculture research centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which is an informal association of over 50 members that supports a network of 15 international research centers in agriculture, forestry and fisheries. The CGIAR aims, through its support to the Centers, to contribute to promoting sustainable agriculture for food security in developing countries. Because the Centers constitute the core of the CGIAR, the effectiveness of ICRISAT and other Centers is crucial to the continued success of the CGIAR as a system. The CGIAR has established a tradition of external reviews to provide a mechanism of transparency and accountability to the members and other stakeholders of the CGIAR. The monitoring of quality of science is important to ensure that the Centers are producing transparent and quality research outputs that align with the agenda of the CGIAR. External Program Reviews (EPR) provide a measure of central oversight and serve as an essential component of the CGIAR’s accountability system. It complements the Center Commissioned External Reviews (CCERs) by providing a CGIARcommissioned comprehensive external assessment of the Center’s program and management, especially its relevance and quality of research and future directions. These reviews assess the mission, priorities and strategies, relevance and quality of science, effectiveness and efficiency of research leadership and program management and accomplishments and impact

How future climatic uncertainty and biotic stressors might influence the sustainability of African vegetable production

The study was conducted to determine whether likely global climatic uncertainty in the future will pose substantive risk to small-scale vegetable producers in Africa, and to consider whether climate change threatens the development and sustainability of improved vegetable horticultural systems in Africa. Annual average air temperature and rainfall totals were assessed over the period 1975-2014 or, where possible, for rainfall for longer periods approaching 100 years; the trends in these data sets were determined through linear regression techniques. Predictions of the likely values of annual average air temperatures in the next 25, 50, 75 and 100 years were made. Considerable variability in trends is reported ranging from extremely fast warming in Tunis, Tunisia contrasting with slight cooling in Bamako, Mali. Annual variability in rainfall was substantive but there were no long-term trends of consequence, even when considered over the last 100 years. Consequently, the sustainability of vegetable production will be threatened mostly by changes in pest (e.g., weeds, insects, fungi, bacteria and viruses) damage to crops in small-scale production systems. A call is made for national governments to give these issues enhanced priority in the distribution of future research and capacity-building resources, as most of these production stressors are under-researched and evident solutions to such problems are not currently available

Blending hard and soft science: the Follow the Technology approach to analyzing and evaluating technology change

Published online: 20 Dec 2001The types of technology change catalyzed by research interventions in integrated natural resource management (INRM) are likely to require much more social negotiation and adaptation than are changes related to plant breeding, the dominant discipline within the system of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Conceptual models for developing and delivering high-yielding varieties have proven inadequate for delivering natural resource management (NRM) technologies that are adopted in farmers' fields. Successful INRM requires tools and approaches that can blend the technical with the social, so that people from different disciplines and social backgrounds can effectively work and communicate with each other. This paper develops the "follow-the-technology" (FTT) approach to catalyzing, managing, and evaluating rural technology change as a framework that both "hard" and "soft" scientists can work with. To deal with complexity, INRM needs ways of working that are adaptive and flexible. The FTT approach uses technology as the entry point into a complex situation to determine what is important. In this way, it narrows the research arena to achievable boundaries. The methodology can also be used to catalyze technology change, both within and outside agriculture. The FTT approach can make it possible to channel the innovative potential of local people that is necessary in INRM to "scale up" from the pilot site to the landscape. The FTT approach is built on an analogy between technology change and Darwinian evolution, specifically between "learning selection" and natural selection. In learning selection, stakeholders experiment with a new technology and carry out the evolutionary roles of novelty generation, selection, and promulgation. The motivation to participate is a "plausible promise" made by the R&D team to solve a real farming problem. Case studies are presented from a spectrum of technologies to show that repeated learning selection cycles can result in an improvement in the performance of the plausible promise through adaptation and a sense of ownership by the stakeholders

Diversifying diets: using indigenous vegetables to improve profitability, nutrition and health in Africa

The picture of malnutrition in Africa is quite depressing: 20–25 per cent of the population’s nutrient intake falls below minimum dietary requirements, 25–30 per cent of children under five years of age are underweight, 33–45 per cent suffer from vitamin A deficiency (VAD), while a further 30–50 per cent are stunted. There is more than 25 per cent goitre prevalence among 6–11 year olds, 13–20 per cent have low birth weights, and infant mortality rates stand at an unacceptable 5.5–13.5 per cent (Kean et al., 1999). Even more alarming is an 18 per cent rise in the number of malnourished children projected by 2020 (IFPRI, 2001). Imbalanced diets lead to nutrient deficiencies. Efforts to combat micronutrient deficiencies through biofortification of staple crops or by diet supplementation with vitamins or minerals are relatively expensive and can target only a few nutritional factors. Indigenous vegetables are rich in provitamin A and vitamin C, several mineral micronutrients, other micronutrients and nutraceuticals (Yang and Keding, 2009). Diversifying diets with indigenous vegetables is a sustainable way to supply a range of nutrients to the body and combat malnutrition and associated health problems, particularly for poor households. The relative increased costs of crop diversification would be one-off and minor in relation to the ongoing costs of supplementation through drug treatment or through artificial food additives

Dealing with diversity in scientific outputs: implications for international research evaluation

This paper examines the changing role and broadening goals of international agricultural research centers (lARCs), focusing on their evaluation mechanisms and priority setting processes. The case of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is used to identify the relative importance of outputs. It was found that, for lARCs, a wider range of credit items should be used in evaluating the institutional and individual performance. A decentralized process using nested institutional and project logframes would powerfully help to identify milestones for institutional and individual evaluatio

Does crop diversity contribute to dietary diversity? Evidence from integration of vegetables into maize-based farming systems

Background: Maize is the most important staple crop for food security and livelihood of smallholder farmers in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, but it alone cannot ensure food security. Cropping patterns must be diversified to ensure an adequate supply and economic access to greater variety of foods for smallholder farm households. This study measured the effect of crop diversification on household dietary diversity in a selected study locale using a survey of 300 randomly stratified farm households in 10 villages located in the Babati, Kongwa and Kiteto districts of Tanzania. Results: Based on multiple regression analysis, the study found that simply increasing Simpson’s Index does not influence dietary diversity of farm households due to the presence of interaction effect between Simpson’s Index and crop income. It is much more critical and significant to increase the revenue generated from diversified crops along with other socioeconomic endowment and behavioral characteristics of farm households. This is particularly applicable to poorer smallholder farmers who receive crop income less than US$85 per sales transaction and per season. Particularly, marginal and smallholders might be exposed to the effects of crop diversification and crop income toward increasing in their household dietary diversity score. Conclusion: Under average crop income scenarios, households that diversify their crop production tend to increase their dietary diversity from their existing dietary diversity score at a decreasing rate. However, under below average crop income threshold scenarios, farmers tend to increase their dietary diversity score from their existing score at an increasing rate when they diversify into high-value crops that attract relatively high farm gate values and accrue higher net revenues from the market. Monthly food expenditure also tends to positively influence household dietary diversity, indicating that farm households that spend more on market-purchased food have consistent increases in their dietary diversity scores at the household level. This study concludes that improving economic access to variety of foods at the smallholder household level by diversifying diets through increased crop diversification should be encouraged within maize-based farming systems of the study locale, through integration of micronutrient-rich foods such as vegetables

Assessment and prevention of acute health effects of weather conditions in Europe, the PHEWE project: background, objectives, design

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The project "Assessment and prevention of acute health effects of weather conditions in Europe" (PHEWE) had the aim of assessing the association between weather conditions and acute health effects, during both warm and cold seasons in 16 European cities with widely differing climatic conditions and to provide information for public health policies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The PHEWE project was a three-year pan-European collaboration between epidemiologists, meteorologists and experts in public health. Meteorological, air pollution and mortality data from 16 cities and hospital admission data from 12 cities were available from 1990 to 2000. The short-term effect on mortality/morbidity was evaluated through city-specific and pooled time series analysis. The interaction between weather and air pollutants was evaluated and health impact assessments were performed to quantify the effect on the different populations. A heat/health watch warning system to predict oppressive weather conditions and alert the population was developed in a subgroup of cities and information on existing prevention policies and of adaptive strategies was gathered.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Main results were presented in a symposium at the conference of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology in Paris on September 6^th2006 and will be published as scientific articles. The present article introduces the project and includes a description of the database and the framework of the applied methodology.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The PHEWE project offers the opportunity to investigate the relationship between temperature and mortality in 16 European cities, representing a wide range of climatic, socio-demographic and cultural characteristics; the use of a standardized methodology allows for direct comparison between cities.</p