Official Newsletter of the WANA Seed Network
No. 29,
July 2005
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Literature, books and journal articles of interest to readers are presented here. Please send lists of seed publications on policy, regulation and technology to the Editor for inclusion in Seed Info.
Louwaars, N.P., R. Tripp, D. Eaton, V. Henson-Apollonio, R. Hu, M. Mendoza, F. Muhhuku, S. Pal and J. Wekundah. 2005. Impacts of Strengthened Intellectual Property Rights Regimes on the Plant Breeding Industry in Developing Countries: A Synthesis of Five Case Studies. Report Commissioned by the World Bank. Wageningen UR, Wageningen, The Netherlands. 177 pp.
The study commissioned by the World Bank explores the Intellectual Property Rights experiences of developing countries: China, Colombia, India, Kenya and Uganda. The study found that the most common mechanism in five countries to protect varieties in the plant breeding industry is hybridization where other mechanisms include seed laws, contract law, brands and trademarks.
The study assessed initial experiences with strengthened IPRs in developing country agriculture. It analyzed the design, management and impacts of various IPR instruments applied to plant breeding in five developing countries. Various issues were covered such as the implementation of IPR regimes, changes in public and private plant breeding, and changes for farmers. For more details, please visit the website: http://www.cgn.wageningen-ur.nl/pgr/images/IPR%20in%20breeding%20industry.pdf
Sperling, L., T. Osborn and D. Cooper (ed). 2004. Towards Effective and Sustainable Seed Relief Activities. FAO Plant Production and Protection Paper 181.
This is a proceeding of the workshop on effective and sustainable seed relief activities held from 26-28 May 2003at FAO headquarters, Rome, Italy. The aim of the workshop was to improve the effectiveness of seed relief interventions and the contribution they can make to sustainable improvements in seed, food and livelihood security. The workshop brought together over 70 stakeholders from FAO, relief agencies, donors, technical organizations and emergency-prone countries to exchange lessons learned in the area of seed relief, to identify gaps and needs in the development of tools and guidance and methodologies and to agree on recommendations for further collaborative work. FAO, Rome Italy 94 pp.
Sperling, L., T. Remington, J. M Haugen, and S. Nagoda (eds.) 2004. Addressing Seed Security in Disaster Response: Linking Relief with Development.
The book contains eight case studies managed by CIAT, CRS, and CARE Norway in a project entitled, Assisting disaster-affected and chronically stressed communities in East, Central and Southern Africa: Focus on small farmer systems. The case studies were undertaken to evaluate various forms of emergency seed aid and to couple these with analyses of the broader seed and crop systems. The objectives were to understand if and how vulnerable farmers are being helped by the kinds of assistance they receive-and how to move forward on improving the practice. Also available on-line at http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/africa/seeds.htm. CIAT, Cali, Colombia. 178 pp.
Sachs, J. 2005. The End of Poverty: How We Can Make it Happen in Our Lifetime.
It is nearly five years since The Millennium Development Goals were set out, to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, yet the progress has been disappointing. This book by Jeffrey Sachs the Director of the Millennium Project and a passionate advocate of ending world poverty tries to put the rich countries back on track. He is very successfully transmits his passion through these pages where practical solutions do exist, if implemented in the right places and on the right scale. The end of poverty is a powerful combination of motivating prose and practical strategies for rising to this most important of all challenges. Penguin Books Ltd; Price £8.99; ISBN 0141018666; 416 pp; Website: http://www.penguin.com
Lipton, M. 2005. The Family Farm in a Globalizing World: The Role of Crop Science in Alleviating Poverty. 2020 Discussion Paper 40. IFPRI, Washington DC, USA.
Family farms are operated units that derive most labor and enterprise from the farm family. They have proved resilient, even in the rich world, and small family farms dominate agriculture in East and South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet these are areas of concentrated poverty: in 2004, they contained over 92 percent of the world's 1.1 billion "dollarpoor" (households consuming less than one U.S. dollar's worth of a world average consumption bundle, per person per day, at 1993 purchasing-power-parity values). Kick starting the reduction of mass dollar poverty normally requires accelerated growth of staples output on family farms. Whether this is feasible and sufficient depends on national political and economic incentives and institutions to create and apply appropriate crop science, land and water access, and open markets in the context of appropriate state-led provision of public and merit goods. Many Asian and Latin American countries have gone a long way on this path, but they still have far to go. Much of Africa has hardly started. Progress is made possible by new science and by a crucial demographic shift-but is handicapped by rich-world policies towards agriculture, trade, and science. IFPRI, Washington, USA. 44 pp. Also available at http://www.ifpri.org/2020/dp/vp40.pdf
Useful Internet Websites
African Journals Online (AJOL).
You can access or order full text articles in 197 scientific journals through the African Journals Online website, http://www.ajol.org. AJOL is a database of African-published journals that gives greater visibility to the participating journals, and to the research they convey. Funded by UNESCO, the National Academy of Sciences (USA), the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), the Swedish International Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), AJOL has grown from 10 science and 4 medical titles to hosting over 195 journals from 21 countries. There are currently more than 13,000 article abstracts available on the website.