Review 2007
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Participation in the World
Bank’s BioCarbon Fund will open up new channels for carbon
finance to flow into developing countries.
The Kyoto Protocol aims to reduce the release
of gases which advance climate change.
169 countries are required to reduce their
greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 per cent
before 2012. Through a carbon trading
system, countries unable to meet these
demands themselves can pay for activities
elsewhere in the world that will reduce
carbon emissions.
In March 2007, The World
Bank launched Tranche Two of its BioCarbon
Fund, which supports sustainable land use and forestry development
and conservation programmes in the developing world. Jointly
with the Syngenta group, SFSA will invest US $2.5 million in
the Fund over the next five years. |
Currently about 30 per cent
of the BioCarbon Fund’s investments are in Africa, many in semi-arid
areas where the land is difficult to farm. This will provide
an alternative ‘carbon crop’ as a source of income for smallholders
whose livelihoods otherwise depend solely on agriculture.
Crop
research funded by SFSA aims to develop new technologies
to improve yield and reduce the risk of crop failure.
SFSA supports research and breeding
programmes in locally important crops
such as millet, sorghum
and tef. The goal is to develop higher yielding varieties with
enhanced resistance to pests and diseases.
A team of researchers at the University of
Sheffield, UK, headed by Dr. Julie Scholes,
is establishing the genetic basis of resistance |
to one of sub-saharan
Africa’s most devastating weeds – Striga hermonthica. Responsible
for losses of up to 40 per cent in cereal producing regions,
Striga is extremely difficult to control. It attaches to the
roots of crops, sapping their nutrients
and causing visibly stunted growth. Because seeds can remain
viable for up to 20 years, traditional control methods such
as weeding are ineffective.
Dr. Scholes’ team has this year identified five regions of the
rice genome that seem to be associated with resistance to Striga.
This discovery can be used to develop molecular markers
for use in breeding crops that are resistant to the parasite.
Dr. Zerihun Tadele with Prof. Dr. Cris Kuhlemeier in the Institute
of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, is developing dwarf tef
capable of resisting wind and rain damage. A nutritionally rich,
but low-yielding staple food crop grown in Ethiopia, tef’s long
stems make it highly susceptible to lodging. |
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