[asia-apec 1016] no new grain without first burning the stubble

[Aslam Parwaiz]

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                                       SLAP 
(Sustainable Livestock & Agriculture Production)
         Newsletter   March & April  1999 
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/3770/
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Articles:
1. Corruption a major obstacle in agricultural development: A case study of Pakistan.
2. New Century To Be Marked By ..........
3. Sustainable goat farming
4. Poor rural women, and the role of livestock in their life
5. Book Review:
6 New Conferences
7. Finer things of life!
8. Address & SLAP's Team
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Corruption a major obstacle in agricultural development of Developing countries : A case study of Pakistan
 
By Dr Aslam Pervez Umrani, Ghulam Hussain Mallah and Rashid Ahmed Nizamani 
 
Corruption occurs in many forms, including grand corruption in which large payments made in procurement process or for favourable import and export policies to high-ranking bureaucrats and in certain cases to ruling parliamentarians. In petty corruption, small payments are made for approval of projects and release of funds. Plainly, corruption damages economy and efforts for any reforms. It makes hindrance in sustainable growth and working of government and non-government (Banks, Businesses and NGOs) sectors. Corruption impedes the ability of Pakistan to attract scarce foreign investment and its distribution in needy sectors of our society. Although concerns about corruption have been on rise in recent years in many segments of our society, there has been little attempts made on government level to address this issue seriously. The main problem is that, now we see the corruption, but do not feel it, and our society does not show any strong response against this evil. This current article is only limited to grand corruption or mismanagement in agricultural sector.
Recently, Food and Commerce Ministries claimed that in 1998, Pakistan earned Rs395 millions by exporting onions, potatoes, dry chillies, chilly powder and gram split. However, in the same year, Rs340 million were paid on the same items at same time to import them. The import of chillies were done at the time when chillies bumper crop was ready in Sindh, which suppressed the price of locally produced chillies; on other hand, some of exported chillies were damaged in stores thus never sold in open market. It happened to onions as well. They were imported when the crop was reaped in southern Pakistan, resulting in down turn of prices even below the break-even level. These abrupt down ward trends of prices of agricultural commodities resulted in fluctuations in cropping pattern. Now the market is not regularised by local demand and supply. Farmers, consumers and government all are loosing money, that surprises many people, but not to those who earned lot of commissions from this business. 
    Despite enormous natural resources and more than 50 per cent population is involved in agriculture sector, the country is precariously dependent on food imports and is third largest US wheat customer. The food imports are likely to grow due to lack of incentives to our farmers. The trend is already clear and country imported more than four million tones of wheat in 1997-98.
   Continuous import of dry milk, soybean meal, edible oils and wheat is suppressing the prices of locally produced items, thus farmers are less interested in increasing the production of these items. If we had given incentives to our farmers to achieve higher production, they would have mad our country self-sufficient in wheat and edible oils. However, that will reduce the amount of kickbacks for policy makers of our society. 
Wheat: For example, Pakistan will have to pay the premium price for import of wheat with each passing year. So far, Pakistan had paid 175, 357, 440, 451 and 713 million US Dollars in 193-94, 1994-95, 1995-96, 1996-97 and 1997-98 respectively. This rising trend does indicate the cost of future payments to be made to settle down wheat export bills only.
Sugarcane: At present 20 sugar mills are working in Sindh Province. But this year, due to compromise between decision-makers and sugar mill-owners the sugar cane farmers have suffered enormous financial losses. This year, farmers are crying due to low prices and delayed payments compared to last two years. One of the reasons that sugarcane growers have come under pressure was delayed start of sugar mills, which increased the competition among growers to get indents. Although there is legal protection to farmers under Sugarcane Act, for timely start of factories and payments for their commodities. Therefore separate sugarcane commissioner offices were established in each province, but so far no efforts have been taken to rescue sugarcane farmers and take necessary action against sugarcane industry's kings. 
Edible Oils: The cost paid last year for import of edible oil was 760 million US Dollars, which is likely to touch the level of 800 million Dollars at the end of current fiscal year. Pakistan could save much-needed dollars by using home resources, such as, cottonseed, soybeans, canola, maize and sunflower. According to cotton experts, the country is capable of producing at least 1.4 million tonnes of edible oil through available cottonseeds.
Cotton: Cotton is key crop of Pakistan, and our country is fourth largest cotton growing country in the world. Cotton crop not only earns foreign exchange as a raw material, but it also supports other industries, such as ginning, oil expellers, textile and ready-made garment factories. Thus directly or indirectly millions of people are involved in this crop. Nevertheless, production figures for 1998 indicates that cotton production have declined in Punjab province due to out breaks of Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCV). Now CLCV is spreading in Sindh, because of sowing of NIAB 78 variety, which is vulnerable to attack of white fly vector. There are central and provincial cotton research and extension institutes in Punjab and Sindh, but no serious efforts are put to inform about this incurable virus disease.
Fertiliser: It is surprising that the agriculture extension services had never emphasised the importance of organic manure, just because chemical fertiliser companies are offering some benefits to extension workers. Thus organic matter is declining in our soils and soils are becoming more alkaline due to use of Urea and other alkaline fertilisers. Recently, at the time of wheat sowing, shortage of DAP was created by not importing phosphorus based fertilisers in time, which increased the black marketing of DAP and those who had the stock, made large profits. This shortage not only increased the price of DAP, but it also first time encouraged the adulteration. The end result is farmers either used little DAP at right time or they used adulterated DAP, and due to both reasons, we will be getting lower wheat yield, thus more money will be spend on wheat imports. Who is mastermind behind this fertiliser game, no one knows that, but we can say that some one is going to make lot of money from this game. 
Livestock Sector: Pakistan is the seventh largest milk producing country in the world and yet it imports a substantial quantity of powder milk to meet the demand of our urban centres particularly Karachi City. At present Pakistan produces about 20 billion litres of raw milk every year, but it still imports about 17000 tonnes of powder milk. Only last year, we paid 27 million US Dollars for importing the dry milk powder. Milk production figure shows that Pakistan produces enough milk to meet the demand of entire country, but the lack of milk processing facilities and commercial dairy operations are causing huge wastage. Asian development Bank did issue loans for milk processing plants and large dairy farms and under that scheme loans were obtained by private sector, but only 30 per cent were actually utilised in dairy industry and rest of money either flown abroad or used in other more profitable sectors. 
Corruption in procurement: The main reason that our policy makers are not providing enough incentives to our agricultural farmers is that high level corruption occurs in procurement process. The reason is simple, the overall amount an individual can get as kickback is some time greater than his legitimate lifetime salary. Thus temptation is enormous and the risk of punishment is too little. In procurement process, bribes are paid at much earlier stage; to get a firm included on a restricted list of bidders and some times bidder or contractor writes the specifications in such a way that no one else can compete with him. Some times bidders are given second chance to resubmit their bids and get contracts at much lower prices. What are the real costs of corruption in procurement? One way to judge this is to compare actual prices of similar goods or services with open market prices. Some times price differentials on the order is 20 to 30 per cent higher than open market prices. Thus less goods or services are bought for development.
Not only our farmers and research worker are not happy with the existing level of corruption in agricultural sector, but our donor agencies are also worried about it. For example, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Bank have criticised the role of Federal Agriculture Ministry and Provincial once in Agricultural Research Project II (ARPII). In this project 57.3 million US Dollars were made available to government of Pakistan in response to its request. In one case, in NWFP Province a contractor was paid for 8 vehicles, but he only supplied one vehicle and then disappeared. Similarly ARPII Sindh Component also made same mistakes and most development and procurement were done on papers, rather improving the existing research facilities of province. Now World Bank has been suggested that it should terminate projects or its components, when there is persistent unsatisfactory performance.
Suggestions:
1. Pakistan may face serious problems if present level of corruption is not curbed. In agriculture sector it will take many years of hard work to bring the economy back on track to set it on the course towards a high level of sustainable growth.  
2. Agricultural research and extension organisations need co-ordination with NGOs and farmers and they have to put forward farmer's point of view to policy makers, so that they can get right policies for higher production.  3. Improved, free from corruption, loaning system may be introduced for small farmers to increase their current production level. 
4. Enhanced use of organic manure and reduced but timely use of appropriate chemical fertilisers 
5. Paying higher wages to decision-makers and officials is one way to reduce the level of corruption. But to stop the corruption we need effective monitoring and audit systems and agencies that have desire and ability to take action against corrupt people. Perhaps it requires separate judicial system that is not corruptible and willing to enforce convictions. Higher the ranking of corrupt person, greater the punishment should be given, that will definitely discourage other policy makers to get involved in corruption. 
6. This is time for concerned citizens and intellectuals to make serious efforts against the corruption, such as to think, write and take necessary actions. There will be no development, if this cancer is not eradicated from our society. 
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New Century To Be Marked By Growing Threats, Opportunities
Special Report by Worldwatch
The bright promise of a new century is clouded by unprecedented threats to the stability of the natural world, according to a special millennial edition of the State of the World report, released by the Worldwatch Institute recently. "In a globally interconnected economy, rapid deforestation, falling water tables, and accelerating climate change could undermine economies around the world in the decades ahead," said Lester Brown and Christopher Flavin, lead authors of the new report. 
During the past century, world population grew by more than 4 billion-three times the number of people when the century began. At the same time, the use of energy and raw materials grew more than ten times. "These trends cannot continue for many more years," said the authors. "As the 21st century approaches, the big question is whether we can muster the ingenuity to change-and do so rapidly enough to stave off environmentally-based economic decline. The one thing we can say for sure is that the 21st century will be as different from the 20th as that one was from the 19th." 
The 20th century began with extraordinary optimism. Major advances such as widespread electric lighting and the emancipation of women were widely predicted, but many other developments, such as air travel and the birth-control pill, were not. The darkest developments of the 20th century, including two world wars and more than a billion people living in poverty, were completely unexpected.
Today, at the dawn of a new century, faith in technology and human progress are as common as they were a century ago. In their fascination with information technologies, many of today's economic thinkers seem to have forgotten that our modern civilization, like its forerunners, is entirely dependent on its ecological foundations-foundations that the economy is now eroding. 
Since our emergence as a species, human societies have continually run up against local environmental limits that have caused them to collapse, as local forests and cropland were over-stressed. But the advances in technology that have allowed us to surmount these local limits have transferred the problem of environmental limits to the global level, where human activities now threaten planetary systems. Among the problems we now face: 
1.. World energy needs are projected to double in the next several decades, but no credible geologist foresees a doubling of world oil production, which is projected to peak within the next few decades. 
    2.. While protein demands are projected to also double in the century ahead, no respected marine biologist expects the oceanic fish catch, which has plateaued over the last decade, to double. The world's oceans are being pushed beyond the breaking point, due to a lethal combination of pollution and over-exploitation. Eleven of the 15 most important oceanic fisheries and 70 percent of the major fish species are now fully or over-exploited, according to experts. And more than half the world's coral reefs are now sick or dying. 
    3.. Growing stress can also be seen in the world's woodlands, where the clearing of tropical forests has contributed recently to unprecedented fires across large areas of Southeast Asia, the Amazon, and Central America. In Indonesia alone, 1,100 airline flights were canceled, and billions of dollars of income were lost. 
    4.. Environmental deterioration is taking a growing toll on a wide range of living organisms. Of the 242,000 plant species surveyed by the World Conservation Union in 1997, some 33,000, or 14 percent, are threatened with extinction-mainly as a result of massive land clearing for housing, roads, and industries. This mass extinction is projected to disrupt nature's ability to provide essential ecosystem services, ranging from pollination to flood control. 
    5.. The atmosphere is also under assault. The billions of tons of carbon that have been released since the Industrial Revolution have pushed atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to their highest level in 160,000 years-a level that continues to rise each year. As scientists predicted, temperatures are rising along with the concentration of carbon dioxide. The latest jump in 1998 left the global temperature at its highest level since record-keeping began in the mid-19th century. Higher temperatures are projected to threaten food supplies in the next century, while more severe storms cause economic damage, and rising seas inundate coastal cities. 
    6.. The early costs of climate change may already be evident: weather-related economic damages of $89 billion in 1998 exceeded losses for the decade of the 1980s. In Central America, 11,000 people were killed by Hurricane Mitch, and Honduras suffered losses equivalent to one-third of its annual GDP. 
    7.. Human societies may also face growing stress in the new century. In Africa, for example, where populations have doubled in the last three decades, economic growth is already failing to keep up with human needs. Several African countries, including Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, where 20-25 percent of the adult population is now HIV-positive, are expected to lose one-fifth or more of their people within the next few decades. This could undermine their societies in the same way the plague did those of Europe in the Middle Ages. 
    "Our analysis shows that we are entering a new century with an economy that cannot take us where we want to go," said Worldwatch President Lester Brown. "Satisfying the projected needs of 8 billion or more people with the economy we now have is simply not possible. The western industrial model-the fossil-fuel-based, automobile-centered, throwaway economy that so dramatically raised living standards in this century-is in trouble." 
The shift to an environmentally sustainable economy may be as profound a transition as the Industrial Revolution. But just as our great-grandparents were able to change a century ago, so must we be ready to change again. In fact, the broad outlines of a sustainable economic system that can meet the human needs of the next century are beginning to emerge. 
The foundation of such a system is a new design principle-one that shifts from the one-time depletion of natural resources to an economy that is based on renewable energy and that continually reuses and recycles materials. A sustainable economy will be a solar-powered, bicycle/rail-based, reuse/recycle economy, one that uses energy, water, land, and materials much more efficiently and wisely than we do today. 
Defenders of today's industries point to the costs of environmental protection. But reversing the environmental deterioration that has marked the 20th century is hardly a luxury. Archaeologists study the remains of civilisations that undermined their ecological support systems. The Fertile Crescent, where agriculture emerged over ten millennia ago, was turned into a virtual desert by ancient farmers and herders-and even today, supports only a small population. 
These societies found themselves on a growth path that was environmentally unsustainable-and were not able to make the economic adjustments needed to avoid a collapse. Unfortunately, the records do not tell us whether these civilisations did not understand the need for change, or whether they saw the problem but could not agree on the steps needed to stave off economic decline. Today, the adjustments we must make are clear. The question is whether we can make them in time. 
Building an environmentally sustainable world economy depends on a co-operative global effort. No country acting alone can protect the diversity of life on Earth or the health of oceanic fisheries. So far, national governments have largely failed to effectively implement the last decade's landmark environmental treaties-on climate change and biodiversity. One of the big challenges of the early 21st century will be to fulfil their ambitious promises to stabilise the climate and slow the destruction of species. 
In the absence of a concerted effort by the wealthy to address the problems of poverty and deprivation, building a sustainable future may not be possible. Growing poverty, and the political and economic chaos that can be provoked by it, reverberate around the world, as was seen in 1998 with the Asian economic meltdown, which pushed tens of millions of people below the poverty line in just a few months. Meeting the needs of the more than 1 billion people now in poverty is essential to making the transition to an environmentally sustainable world economy. "One question facing humanity as the new century approaches is whether we can find a new understanding and values that will support a restructuring of the global economy," said author Christopher Flavin. "Although such a transformation may seem farfetched, the end-of-the-century perspective offers hope. Just as the 19th century was marked by the abolition of slavery and the 20th century by a new international principle of human rights (adopted by the United Nations in 1948), the 21st century will require a new ethic of sustainability that includes the need to live within our ecological means. We will need a new set of human responsibilities-to the natural world and to future generations-to go with our new found human rights." 
One key to reversing environmental degradation is to tax the activities that cause it, according to the report. By putting a price on these activities, the market can be harnessed to spur progress. If coal burning is taxed, solar energy becomes more economically competitive. If auto emissions are taxed, cleaner forms of transportation become more affordable. The new German government, elected in October 1998, has embarked on the world's most ambitious environmental tax reform-reducing taxes on wages by 2.4 percent, while raising energy taxes by an identical amount. This is a landmark step that will push Europe's largest economy in an environmentally sustainable direction. In the last decade of the 20th century, Europe is also leading the way in some of the industries that are the foundations of a solar economy. Europe has added 5,000 megawatts of wind power in the last 5 years, for example, half of it in Germany, where the northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein gets 15 percent of its electricity from the wind. Wind power, now one of Europe's fastest growing manufacturing industries, employs thousands of workers. Sales of other new energy technologies are emerging.
The production of solar photovoltaic cells has doubled in the last five years, propelled in part by the Japanese government's efforts to promote solar rooftops as a standard option for new suburban homes. Fuel cells, which turn hydrogen into electricity with water the only by-product, are meanwhile being spurred by billions of dollars of investment capital, as companies pursue them as a replacement for everything from the coal-fired power plant to the internal combustion engine. The effort to replace today's unsustainable economy with one that is suited to the demands of the 21st century will create some of the new century's largest investment opportunities. Bill Ford, the incoming Chairman of the Ford Motor Company, has plans to increase his company's profits by replacing the internal combustion engine that was at the centre of his great-grandfather's success. "Smart companies will get ahead of the wave," says Ford. "Those that don't will be wiped out." 
The challenge now is to mobilise public support for a fundamental economic transformation a shift to a 21st century economy that is far less resource intensive and polluting, yet even more productive than today's. "No challenge is greater, or more satisfying, than building an environmentally sustainable global economy, one where economic and social progress can continue, not only in the 21st century, but for many centuries.
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                     Sustainable of goat farming
By Dr Aslam Pervez Umrani., Ghulam Hussain Dawach1 and Nasrullah Panhwer
 
In Pakistan she goat is known as poor man’s cow and it is considered an important animal in all rural areas. Pakistan has more than 20 recognised breeds of goat. Goat meat is preferred on other meats, thus it commands higher prices than cattle, buffalo and sheep meat in Punjab and Sindh provinces. Goats mostly breed twice a year, and kidding rate per year ranges between 100 to 150 per cent. According to 1976, 1986 and 1996 National Livestock Census, goat’s population was 21.1, 29.9 and 41.2 million heads respectively. The breeds of goats in Pakistan are summarised in Table 1.
Table 1 Prominent goat breeds of Pakistan
The adaptability of goats to harsh environment makes them ideal as food producing animal in marginal areas. However, increasing goat population has often been blamed for accelerating the destruction of forests and grazing lands by environmentalists. But they forget the multiple role that goat plays in our rural economy. In deed, in exploring future option for environmentally sound and sustainable livestock and agriculture production systems, it may be important to consider innovative mixes of animal and plant species, which can conserve or rebuild the village ecosystem.
In rangeland’s ecosystem the concept of increasing contribution of palatable trees and shrubs enhances the overall yield of the land and makes best use of resources, while protecting against environmental degradation.
Goats are different from cattle and sheep in their grazing behaviour. Selectivity, browsing, long distance travelling and adaptability are amongst the most important differences between grazer and browser species. Browsing horizon up to 2 metres of height by goats commonly occur during the dry period. Diet selection by goats by goats is primarily determined by the variety of plant species and their relative abundance. It has been observed that goats spent approximately one-third of feeding time on grazing grasses and forbes during summer and rainy season. During that period Cenchrus ciliaris was dominant component in goat’s diet. In same research goats exhibited a high degree of flexibility in diet selection when confronted with seasonal changes. In winter period they spent most of their time browsing on trees, particularly on Acacia nilotica. Goats readily switch from browse to grazing, if there is any grass growth during winter. Even within same species, goats
vary their choices. At spring time it selects buds, leaves and tender branches, whereas at dry period it prefers high protein components, such as twigs and fruits of leguminous trees and shrubs. The well developed lips and tongue give them greater flexibility to harvest forages from short grasses and forbs to thorniest shrub, which exist in rangeland’s ecosystem.
It has been observed that tree/shrub and grass systems support very high growth rates compared to natural pastures during growing age of goats. There appears be a sufficient opportunity to exploit full potential of kids growth under extensive grazing system with little supplementation, provided rangelands have reconstituted multi-layer nutritious plant-biomass. In some cases, trees/shrubs and grass based rangelands can support five time higher grazing pressure than only grass bases rangelands, provided trees and shrubs are palatable and leguminous species.
Some management practices for goats farming:
1. Stocking levels should be low enough to allow sufficient plant growth after each grazing period. 
2. Encourage rotational grazing by wires or herding to give plants a chance to regenerate. 
3. Avoid exposure of the soil surface by over grazing  
4. Periodic introduction of multi purpose trees and shrubs in rangelands, that grow well in local environment, have forage with high nutritive value, resist pest attack and acceptable to local communities. 
5. Some breeding practices for goats farming (1): 
6. Males and females should be kept separately before on set of puberty 
7. Females can be mated at 9 months 
8. The best for mating is 12-18 hours after appearance of first sign of the heat ((genitals wet, red and warm) 
9. Do not mate those animals, which are closely related 
10. Use young and strong males, with good body confirmations, and having higher body weight than same age males 
11. Rotate the male breeding stock or borrow or exchange with other farmers to avoid inbreeding depression  
12. Cull females after two unsuccessful mating with different males. 
13. Do not rebreed twin bearing goats until their kids are weaned 
 
Conclusion:
Improved rangelands with having palatable trees and shrubs offers great potential for improvement in goats production. However, good stockmanship is also an important factor higher production of animals and ecological stability of rangelands.
(1) Source: Merkel and Subandriyo. 1997. Sheep and Goat Production Handbook for Small Ruminant. 
Published by: GL-CRSP (Global-Livestock Collaborative Research Support Programme).
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Poor rural women, and the role of livestock in their life
Dr Noor-un-Nisa Mari and Dr Rukhsana Vighio1 (1 = Treasurer PVMA Sindh)
 
In rural communities of Sindh, woman starts collecting wealth by keeping chickens; then few goats for milk or fattening and to slaughter for a day of sacrifice; next a milch cow or buffalo. Because small animals traditionally are in the care of the women in the household, Which means when they are sold, even if a male actually takes them to the market, the proceeds come back into her hand and she decides on the use of that cash. 
 
Large animals need large spaces, shelter in the form of cowsheds, security from theft and large amounts of fodder. A poor woman, particularly a landless one, cannot provide these things. The demands of small livestock are more manageable for her. Returns on small animals may be smaller, but they are more frequent, which fits in with the needs of the poor for small amounts of cash to handle an emergency, feed a visiting relative, travel to her father’s house or make her repayment when no other income is available. We have seen that a woman can manage a flock of small animals in such a way that they give her small bursts of income for emergencies, repayment, meeting her social obligations or smoothening out shortages during a lean season. It is like money on fixed deposit rather than a regular salary. 
 
Can a woman bring her family out of poverty through investment in livestock alone? We do not see this happening in Sindh at present. But in long-term, it may become possible.
 
It also seems desirable to bring credit, savings organisations and NGOs into closer touch with poor women of the rural society, which will help them to improve the living standard of their family.
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Book Review: "Sheep & Goat Production Handbook for Southeast Asia" edited by R.C. Merkal & Subandriyo.
  
[If you want to get your book reviewed in SLAP (books about livestock, agriculture, rangeland & grassland's production, management, health and marketing only), then please send one copy of your book to EDITOR OF SLAP. Address is given in the end of this newsletter.]
 
Small Ruminant Research Support Program and other organisations have published this handbook. This book is deigned for farmers and extensionist, it also outlines basic information for research workers in livestock industry. However, those who are raising sheep and goats first time, will be more benefited from this handbook. Few Abstracts from this book is given below:
 
"1. Sheep and goats are one of the most appropriate commodities in a farming system based on small piece of land. The risk of investment loss in the death of an animal is smaller for sheep and goats than for larger animals.
2. Sheep and goat can adapt to various environments and easy to raise, can be sold at anytime. They are faster in reproducing, can utilise almost any forage and agricultural residues and the cost for maintenance is usually lower.
3. Try to find alternatives for combinations of feed resources for various ages of animals so that the feed costs can be minimised. 
.
4. Try to keep records on simple methods of animal care with maximum output. The most important records are 
.(date of mating, birth date and production record of each animal) records remove any doubt in making decisions.
5. Careful planning for regular sales is one way of increasing income from raising sheep and goats. Planning the production cycle can help plan the buying and selling animals. 
6. Production can be arranged by taking into account the gestation period, weight at weaning, age at marketing, age for replacing dams and bucks
.
7. Planning the production and marketing may increase family income because the selling rate depends on production level, age at selling and market demand.
8. Animals can be sold when body weight does not increase any more, which is about 1-1 1/2 years of age. Selling animals can be postponed if a festival is approaching (Haj Season). Postponing the sale of animal to long will result in a loss, because there is no more increase in body weight to cover the extra cost."
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EMPOWERING FARMERS THROUGH ANIMAL TRACTION
INTO THE 21st CENTURY
ATNESA (the Animal Traction Network of Eastern and Southern
Africa) invites all those interested in the use of animal
traction in sustainable agriculture to its 3rd International
Workshop, to be held in South Africa 18 - 25 September 1999.
The theme "Empowering Farmers Through Animal Traction" has been
chosen in order to encourage and enable the exchange of
information and ideas by animal traction promoters and
practitioners from all over the world, and to facilitate the
development of strategies which will ensure the full and proper
employment of animal traction in agriculture in the 21st century.
Further information from 
Richard Fowler
East Coast Co-ordinator
Farming Systems Research & Technology Transfer
Grain Crops Institute : Agricultural Research Council
P/bag X 9059 PIETERMARITZBURG 3200 SOUTH AFRICA
E-mail: rfowler at cedara1.agric.za
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Burning the Stubble
By Jon Stallworhty
 
Another harvest gathered in
worst than the last, only a bin
of rotten grain for all our trouble.
But there is a time for the plough
a time for harvesting, and now
a time for burning the stubble.
 
Flames snap at the wind, and it
etches the eye with a bitter
mirage of summer. Returning
I looked for the dip in the ground,
the nest, the unfurled poppy; found
nothing but stubble burning
 
And charred ground hardening towards frost.
Fire before ice; and the ground must
be ploughed after burning the stubble,
the ground must be broken again.
There can be no new grain 
without, first, burning the stubble.
--------------------------------------------------
RELICS
By Zulfiqar Ali Umrani
 
They serve as symbol for courage hope and dream,
While explaining mans love for hero’s.
A breathing droplet of life still is present it seam,
In those old, decayed withering stones.
Surely for Macbeth, Othelo, its not prescribed;
Pride is inscribed in writer’s art.
>From writer’s hands living creation is derived,
Bring gratitude to him to bring them alive!
Although after the deed these bodies decease
But their achievement shine wide and far.
 
Could a man lured in ubiquitous thoughts share?
A place elevated to their extent.
Might not I serve a noble deed to come near?
With ranks of idols I humbly observe,
They forcefully transfix my eyes to their galore
Making my heart feel giddy with desire
It conjures force unknown to physics before.
I beg; fulfil my craving motive
.
So as to work my way to eternity!
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PAPA (Progressive Agriculturist & Pastoralist Association).
                  WE BELIEVE
Information technology (IT) is going to play an important role in development of global society In developing countries, IT has particular value as a powerful tool to help them getting information about recent advancement in science, as well as distributing the information at much faster rates then mankind ever though about.
We are publishing a SLAP Newsletter regularly, which published in three formats:
1. Printed
2. Email newsletter
3. As a web page
The aim of this newsletter is to collect information about recent advancement in agricultural science from all around the world and distribute it among policy makers, extension workers, NGOs and progressive farmers. Recently we have increased the size of the newsletter. However, due to financial constraints, we are not able to send printed copies to our those friends, who live abroad.  
 
Address: Editor SLAP, 
60/ Al Abass housing society, New Wehdat colony, 
Hyderabad, Pakistan.
Phone: 00-92-221-653348
Email: agr726 at hyd.zoooom.net.pk
SLAP’s Team
Honorary Editor:
Dr Aslam P. Umrani
PhD in "Sustainable Agriculture"
Assistant Editors:
Ghulam Hussain Mallah
Rashid Ahmed Nizamani
Printing and Distribution:
Syed Munawar Ali Shah
Tariq Ali Baloch
Arts and Design: 
Zulfiqar Ali
Publisher: Shahnaz.Palijo 
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Dr Aslam Pervez Umrani,
PhD in Sustainable Agriculture,
Address: House No. 60, Al-Abbas Housing Society,
New Wehdat Colony, Hyderabad, Pakistan.
Email: agr726 at hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/3770/