Global News Post: Sahel Crisis

CLIMATE CHANGE: Fungi Offer Non-GM Way to Enhance Food Crops

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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 8pt;">Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/plantstoriesproject/6931910350/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">Plant Stories Project</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 8pt;">Race is on to find ways to be able to produce enough</span></div>
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<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">JOHANNESBURG</span></st1:city></st1:place><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> (IRIN) - As temperatures soar and droughts
increase in frequency, scientists around the world are working to create food
crops tolerant of extreme temperatures - often an expensive and laborious
process. But a cheaper and quicker alternative could be in sight, new research
suggests. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Fungi
and other microbes could enable food crops like maize, wheat and rice to grow
in high temperatures and salty soils, and even withstand erratic rainfall, say
microbiologists, who have begun to look at the relationship between plants and
micro-organisms for clues to their mutual survival through thousands of years
of climate change. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Making
food crops tolerant to climatic stresses could be as simple as coating seeds
with micro-organisms that can confer desired traits. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">A
matter of urgency<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Helping
food crops weather climate change is a matter of urgency, said experts from 15
research centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research’s (CGIAR) Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food
Security. The programme had been asked by the UN to summarize the effects of
climate change on 22 of the most important agriculture crops, from staple
cereals to potatoes, lentils and commercial fruit crops like bananas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Time
is of the essence, as droughts have already become more frequent and rainfall
more erratic in various parts of the world. By 2050, climate change could cause
irrigated wheat yields in developing countries to fall by 13 percent, says a
CGIAR review by senior scientist Philip Thornton. Irrigated rice yield could
fall by as much as 15 percent. In <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, many
farmers of maize could lose 10 to 20 percent of their yields. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">We
have always thought that plants had learned to adapt to climatic stresses like
high temperatures and drought, but now we find that microbiomes [communities of
microbes] within plants have conferred traits on them to be able to withstand
the stressSome temperature-tolerant new crops are already being grown in Asia, developed
by subjecting grain plants to stresses such as drought conditions, then
isolating genes from those that survive. But this kind of conventional breeding
is long-drawn process, often taking 10 to 15 years to develop a successful crop
variant. It is widely used because many Asian and African countries do not
accept genetically modified (GM) products. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Micro-organisms
could provide a faster option. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Microbiomes
aid survival <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"We
have always thought that plants had learned to adapt to climatic stresses like
high temperatures and drought, but now we find that microbiomes [communities of
microbes] within plants have conferred traits on them to be able to withstand
the stress," said Rusty Rodriguez, a microbiologist affiliated with the
University of Washington, who recently established his own non-profit
organization (Symbiogenics) to conduct more research into the plant-microbe
symbiosis.  <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Human
and plant life is intertwined with that of micro-organisms. A human body
contains more bacteria than human cells; in several studies published this year,
members of the Human Microbiome Project reported that microbes "contribute
more genes responsible for human survival" than humans themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The
new plant studies show that microbiomes are similarly crucial in the plant
world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Scientific
American reported in 2010 that Mary Lucero, a molecular biologist at the US
Department of Agriculture, had found fungi could help plants capture more
nitrogen from the atmosphere, reducing the need to apply chemical fertilizers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">More
recently, Rodriguez and his team have shown how a certain fungus, when
introduced to the seeds of maize, wheat, tomatoes, watermelons and other plants,
enabled those plants to withstand more than 50-degree Celsius temperatures. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">‘Results
within a year’ <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Rodriguez
says he took fungi from plants near the <st1:city w:st="on">hot springs</st1:city>
in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region>’s <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Yellowstone</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">National Park</st1:placetype></st1:place>. The stress tolerance
traits are only found in microbes found in those conditions; the same fungus
isolated from a non-stressed condition do not have those traits. His teams have
also undertaken missions to collect fungi from extreme conditions in the
Antarctic, Mount Everest in the Himalayas and the <st1:placename w:st="on">Great
 Basin</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Desert</st1:placetype> in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Rodriguez
said he and his team could likely find similar microbes in any part of the
world - for instance, in the <st1:place w:st="on">Sahel</st1:place> - and
conduct trials within the region to isolate the useful microbes. "We could
have results within a year," he said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">He
has already conducted trials in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> with maize and rice, and found
that yields can grow up to 10 percent in the case of rice in cold temperatures,
and up to 80 percent in the case of maize in high temperatures. The team is
awaiting the results of a trial in which maize was grown during the worst
drought to hit the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>
in decades. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">He
has also isolated a virus in the fungus that makes plants even more resilient
to heat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The
plan is to keep the costs of providing the technology to farmers very low.
"Corn in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>
is sold in 42lbs [about 20 kg] bags. We want to keep the cost of coating the
seeds with microbes to under US$20 [per bag]," said Rodriguez <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Another
peer-reviewed study has shown that certain fungi can make rice plants more
tolerant to drought, salt and even cold while reducing water consumption by 20
to 30 percent. Salt tolerance is a sought-after trait in regions affected by
rising sea-levels and storm surges that cause saltwater intrusion, such as the
rice-growing regions of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:country-region>
and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Rodriguez
said he and others are looking for opportunities and funding to conduct trials
in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, where this technology is
desperately needed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">This
point was also made by CGIAR’s <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Thornton</st1:place></st1:city>
in his paper Recalibrating Food Production in the Developing World: Global
Warming Will Change More Than Just the Climate, which explores the complexities
of climate change’s impact on crops. Some crops might be able to withstand high
temperature but could be sensitive to changes in rainfall. "Other crops
can tolerate seasonal flooding but are susceptible to new or increased levels
of pests and diseases brought on by high temperatures." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">A
variety of changes must take place, including changes to the mix of crops being
grown, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Thornton</st1:place></st1:city>
said in an email to IRIN. Research can help by "showing farmers not only
how to grow new crops but also how to utilize them in different ways (e.g., different
ways of preparing and cooking cassava). The socio-cultural aspects may be
difficult to deal with, but through a combination of market forces (changes in
relative prices of staples) and time, diets may change slowly,” he said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><b>Circumventing
controversy? </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Meanwhile,
other researchers are exploring the use of GM to increase crop resilience. But
the safety of GM has been heatedly debated, with many activist groups, governments
and regulatory bodies calling for products containing GM ingredients to carry
special labels. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The
American Association for the Advancement of Science has recently come out
against labelling requirements. “These efforts are not driven by evidence that
GM foods are actually dangerous. Indeed, the science is quite clear: crop
improvement by the modern molecular techniques of biotechnology is safe.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The
microbiome studies might offer a way to circumvent these controversies, offering
faster and cheaper solutions without the patina of “mad science” often
attributed to GM products. The journal New Scientist reported this year that, unlike
genetic engineering, which takes years to induce plants to switch various
metabolic pathways to become more drought-tolerant, fungi can activate "them
all in one go." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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CLIMATE CHANGE: Fungi Offer Non-GM Way to Enhance Food Crops

Photo: Plant Stories Project Race is on to find ways to be able to produce enough JOHANNESBURG (IRIN) - As temperatures soar ...

MALI: Beyond the drought - “Families will disappear”

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo: Chris Simpson/IRIN<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Chronic drought means some families in Kayes have nothing left to share<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">KAYES (IRIN) - “It was the drought that made people move away from here,” Ousmane Touré said in Kayes, 450km northwest of Bamako, the capital of Mali, and a 10-hour bus ride across the scorched scrubland of the western Sahel. “There had been a tradition of emigration, but it was when the harvests failed in the 1970s that we saw a real surge in emigration. There was simply not enough to eat, so people took off for France, Germany and the United States. They knew it was only the way of feeding their families back home in Kayes. The same thing is happening this year.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Touré heads the Association of Returning Migrants of Kayes (AMRK), a welfare organization that tries to provide short-term shelter and counselling to people coming back to this part of the country. The returnees, particularly those from the ethnic Soninké community, which spreads across Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau, have played a major role in developing western Mali through their remittances and other cash transfers, giving it a stronger identity and economic base. Many of them are now deportees who have fallen foul of immigration restrictions in France and other countries. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“The emigrants have been well-organized and have always ensured money gets channelled back, building health centres, schools, even roads,” said Touré, but the economic crisis in Europe and tighter immigration controls are having a serious knock-on effect, and impoverished villages can no longer count on the same level of support. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In Mali the three-month rainy season starts in June, with the heaviest falls in July and August. This is the time when everyone participates in the intense agricultural activity of the main cropping season, which provides most of the food for the rest of the year. The lean period occurs in the driest months, just before the next rains come. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">For Kayes, the capital of Mali’s First Region, which borders Mauritania, Senegal and Guinea, 2012 is a particularly tough year. Besides the effects of political turbulence elsewhere in the country and a rebellion in the north, serious food security problems appeared months ago, after sparse rains. Surveys by the government and international agencies identified Kayes and the surrounding areas as particularly vulnerable, and likely to be exposed to severe food shortages as an already impoverished population experienced the impact of failed harvests. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo: Chris Simpson/IRIN<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Mariam Cissoko, President of a Farmers Association in Kayes </span></span></div></span></td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">By February, market prices for sorghum, millet, groundnuts and other basic foodstuffs were grossly inflated; food reserves were depleted well ahead of the usual lean season, with alarming shortages of seeds. There were complaints that the government’s emergency food rations had given temporary respite to some villages but had ignored dozens more, as well as serious nutritional concerns, particularly for children. The UN estimated that 1.6 million Malians would be food insecure in 2012.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The events in the capital and the north have overshadowed the food crisis in the west. “A lot of things have been put on standby,” said Abdoulaye Samoura, advocacy officer for NGO Oxfam. “There have been serious delays in getting food distributed.” The dramatic price hikes at local markets in January and February have eased off, but there is no reason for complacency. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“What do you do when there is no food and you have to take care of five, 10, 20 people?” Touré asked. The answer is an exodus of men to Bamako, or across the border into Senegal, or to the gold-mining areas 75km to the south. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Mariam Cissoko, who heads the women’s section of the Association des Organisations Professionnelles Paysannes - Association of Professional Peasant Farmers (AOPP) - in Kayes, confirms that 2012 has been markedly worse. “It rained for only month of the usual three (in 2011) and that has meant drought and everything that comes with it,” she said. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“For us, the Bambara people, we don’t have the same tradition of emigration as the Soninké. We are agro-pastoralists. If you work the land, you will also have some livestock. But there is a strong spirit of solidarity here. In normal times, if you have something in reserve, you will give to those who don’t. But times like these, people just don’t have anything to spare.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The priorities are stark. “Feed us and feed our animals,” stressed Cissoko. “If NGOs come and talk to us about education, that is all well and good, but we need food first. Without that, everything falls to pieces. People will get sick. Children won’t go to school. Men may be able to take off and look for opportunities elsewhere, but women and children are stuck where they are.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3pSssYUTrh5AwhvPiLyAHaRms_ErqVFEVTvBdOB7hM7HJgnD4GGsYcYhcZ3ngWT7I0-Cu38I8xx8kQ3kjhc9ud02pb9COFbk201nky3AL54c793qGYXXsmxSblojeG7bKCyJ7P5BvPcY/s1600/201204121310520793.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3pSssYUTrh5AwhvPiLyAHaRms_ErqVFEVTvBdOB7hM7HJgnD4GGsYcYhcZ3ngWT7I0-Cu38I8xx8kQ3kjhc9ud02pb9COFbk201nky3AL54c793qGYXXsmxSblojeG7bKCyJ7P5BvPcY/s1600/201204121310520793.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo: Chris Simpson/IRIN<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Market gardening is increasingly important to boost food security</span></span></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">Kayes has been described as the second hottest place in Africa after Djibouti. “I grew up here and I remember an abundance of corn. We didn’t have droughts like we get now,” Cissoko told IRIN. “In the hottest months, the temperature normally goes to 42 or 43 degrees Celsius, but last year it was 47 or 48 at times, in the shade. The desert is advancing and the climatic changes are here for everyone to see. It has all come progressively.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Food aid from the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and others may ease the problem, but Cissoko says rural communities in the Kayes region are exhausted by the cycle of drought and dependency. They need long-term practical help as they confront shrinking pasture and ongoing food deficits. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“We need proper cereal banks in villages; we need irrigation systems that protect agriculture; we need a credit system that can work, where people can afford the interest rates,” she told IRIN. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Kayes town lies on the banks of the Senegal River. In stark contrast to the dominating barrenness of the western Sahel, the riverbanks are studded with neatly tended plots yielding tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and other crops. This is all part of the maraîchage, or market gardening that provides women in particular with a livelihood. “When I was a child, people said: ‘You will never get to plant fruit and vegetables here,’” but they were wrong. That was forty years ago. It began timidly, but the gardening has really picked up.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">But Cissoko acknowledges that cereal production is critical, and Ousmane Touré is equally blunt in demanding that the state and its international partners step up their efforts to help Kayes cope with the food deficits and the devastating drought. “What do you do when there is no food?” he asked. “People will not stay here. Families will disappear.” <o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

MALI: Beyond the drought - “Families will disappear”

Photo: Chris Simpson/IRIN Chronic drought means some families in Kayes have nothing left to share KAYES (IRIN) - “It was the drought t...