Exploring Possibilities to Enhance Food Sovereignty within the Cowpea Production-Consumption Network in Northern Ghana

Over the last years an important focus in the combat of hunger and malnutrition,particularly in Africa has been food security. This article explores possibilities for enhancing food sovereignty, as an alternative concept to food security and an alternative strategy for reversing hunger and malnutrition trends in developing countries. A combination of literature review, participatory appraisal and conventional survey methodologies are used to investigate the relevance of local cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) network regarding its importance vis-à-vis other crops, varietal choice, and consumption patterns in Northern Ghana from food sovereignty perspective. Findings reveal how people in poverty-stricken and hunger- hot- spot communities strive to conserve their biodiversity and production-consumption networks for posterity. Local cowpea varietal preferences are investigated for participatory breeding considerations to improve on seed access for sustainable production. Promotion of origin-based foods in the current fast growing globalised markets is recommended as a possibility to enhance food sovereignty for sustainable development in Afric

Articulating alternatives: Biotechnology and genomics development within crititcal constructivist framework

This paper explores critical and constructivist theories of technology, and discusses the political and ideological nature of (bio)technology development. The importance of a conceptualization of technologies as value-laden `socio-technical ensembles¿ is discussed, rather than as value-neutral objects, or tools. These conceptualizations are then used to sketch a continuum of development approaches which extends from their relation to a `transfer of technology approach¿, to an `endogenous technology development approach¿. This continuum inspires a rethinking of the possibilities to reconstruct biotechnologies and to tailor them to processes of endogenous development. In doing so, the value of participatory methodologies in coming to a contextualized biotechnology development is re-evaluated

Seeds and survival: Crop genetic resources in war and reconstruction in Africa

This book considers the impact of war, civil strife and low-intensity conflict on the management of plant genetic resources, in regions where crop plant genetic resources are still partly (or mainly) conserved in situ by small-scale agriculturalists. The book deals with: war, low-intensity conflict and erosion of plant genetic resources; policy and practical options to link effectively the fields of relief, rehabilitation and plant genetic resource management. This book was commissioned by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute and the Joint Working Group on Technology and Agrarian Development, Agricultural University, Wageningen. The text draws upon the research and personal experiences of the various authors and is intended to stimulate debate and further research on the linked issues of seed supply and genetic resources management in rural communities recovering from war, civil strife and disasters

Over visies en nieuwe wegen: Casestudies van organisatievormen in de biologische veredeling en zaadproductie

Onderscheid tussen het biologisch dynamisch circuit en het biologisch klassieke circuit. Het begrip circuit is gebruikt om de samenhang van de initiatieven te verduidelijken. We komen tot de conclusie dat de sociale organisatie van veredelingsactiviteiten, de toegepaste en afgewezen technologieën, en de financiële en juridische constructies samenhang vertonen. De samenhang is voor de twee circuits verschillend. Dit verschil hangt samen met verschil in visies van veredelaars, zaaizaadproducenten en financiers binnen de initiatieven en de daaruitvolgende keuzes ten aanzien van de financiering en toe te passen technologieën

Mobilizing social capital to deal with child labour in cocoa production: The case of community child labour monitoring system in Ghana

The Government of Ghana is leading the implementation of Community Child Labour Monitoring (CCLM) System as remediation and monitoring tool to free cocoa production from the worst forms of child labour and trafficking. Through a mixed-method approach which combines exploratory qualitative and quantitative methods, this paper sought to understand how CCLM operates and its ability to mobilize or generate social capital to deal with worst forms of child labour. It also ascertained the emerging household labour re-arrangement to facilitate a more sustainable change in cocoa production systems. The results indicate that the CCLM as a voluntary social auditing system is working in the community where members hold themselves accountable for the welfare of children. Task distribution was developmentally determined and tasks considered appropriate for children are based on their body and psychosomatic maturity and not only on the age of the child. Again the study asserts that the willingness of children to support parents even at the expense of school suggests that child labour is family embedded and that children should not only be targeted for separation from work but should be offered appropriate avenue to nurture their skills through cultural-legally acceptable work frame

Entanglement of Imaging and Imagining of Nanotechnology

Images, ranging from visualizations of the nanoscale to future visions, abound within and beyond the world of nanotechnology. Rather than the contrast between imaging, i.e. creating images that are understood as offering a view on what is out there, and imagining, i.e. creating images offering impressions of how the nanoscale could look like and images presenting visions of worlds that might be realized, it is the entanglement between imaging and imagining which is the key to understanding what images do. Three main arenas of entanglement of imag(in)ing and the tensions involved are discussed: production practices and use of visualizations of the nanoscale; imag(in)ing the future and the present; and entanglements of nanoscience and art. In these three arenas one sees struggles about which images might stand for nanotechnology, but also some stabilization of the entanglement of imag(in)ing, for example in established rules in the practices of visualizing the nanoscale. Three images have become iconic, through the combination of their wide reception and further circulation. All three, the IBM logo, the Foresight Institute’s Nanogear image, and the so-called Nanolouse, depict actual or imagined technoscientific objects and are thus seen as representing technoscientific achievements – while marking out territory

Promise and ontological ambiguity in the In Vitro Meat imagescape: From laboratory myotubes to the cultured burger

In vitro meat, also known as cultured meat, involves growing cells into muscle tissue to be eaten as food. The technology had its most high profile moment in 2013 when a cultured burger was cooked and tasted in a press conference. Images of the burger featured in the international media and were circulated across the internet. These images – literally marks on a two-dimension surface - do important work in establishing what in vitro meat is and what it can do. A combination of visual semiotics and narrative analysis shows that images of in vitro meat afford readings of their story that are co-created by the viewer. Before the cultured burger, during 2011, images of in vitro meat fell into four distinct categories: cell images, tissue images, flowcharts, and meat in a dish images. The narrative infrastructure of each image type affords different interpretations of what in vitro meat can accomplish and what it is. The 2013 cultured burger images both draw upon and depart from these images types in an attempt to present in vitro meat as a normal food stuff, and as ‘matter in place’ when placed on the plate. The analysis of individual images and the collection of images about a certain object or subject – known as the imagescape – is a productive approach to understanding the ontology and promise of in vitro meat and is applicable to other areas of social life