Agricultural Technology: Modern, Appropriate, or Appropriately Modern?

June 21, 2013

Fast-forward to yesterday and today, which I spent with AVRDC – World Vegetable Center.  I take a daladala down the barabara (street) several kilometers.  All of my traveling has been down the Arusha-Moshi road/highway, which is the main road that connects many East African cities including Dar es Salam (Tanzania), Nairobi (Kenya), Kampala (Uganda), and Kigali (Rwanda).  Near Usa River, the barabara is lined with dukas (small shops), usually cell phone vendors, as well as an assortment of mini-marts, petrol stations, cafes, hardware stores, and stationary shops. 

At AVRDC, I met with a man named Victor Afari-Sefa, Ph.D. (scientist and socio-economist) for the Regional Center for Africa.  Victor explained that this past October, AVRDC (Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center) celebrated 40 years.  Their headquarters are located in Taiwan and they currently operate in six countries, mainly Asia, with the goal of promoting vegetable research and development.  They have four global research and development teams that operate across regions in the developing world.  The teams include Germplasm, which focuses on genetic material and gene banks (natural collections of seeds that are characterized and made available to seed companies). 

According to Victor, AVRDC has the world’s largest genebank for vegetables with 56,000 assetions/varieties and over 200 types of vegetables, and 2,360 assetions in the Arusha genebank alone (mainly indigenous/traditional vegetables, such as African eggplant, instead of “globally important” vegetables – e.g. tomato, cabbage).  The second team is “Breeding,” for which they take material from the germplasm and improve upon the genetic makeup (which Victor claims is cross breeding and not genetic modification as in GMO, though I am still not quite sure of the difference…).  In breeding, they have three objectives: biotic resistance (avoid pests, viruses, bacteria, fungi), abiotic resistance (to better tolerate heat, drought, flood, salt), and high nutrient content (e.g. beta kerotene tomatoes).  After breeding, good seeds must pass through each national system in order for the varieties to be released for sale to farmers.  Once AVRDC releases the seeds, they depend on the private sector to sell and commercialize them. 

The next team and step on the value chain is “Production,” which includes the time from when the seed is planted to when it is harvested.  According to Victor, AVRDC emphasizes good agricultural practices (i.e. those that increase productivity and protect against disease), which may include the use of starter solutions, grafting, integrated pest management, early planting/harvesting, biological control agents (e.g. pheromone traps for pests), and chemical treatments; with the toughest challenges being pest and disease control, as well as water availability/distribution.  The fourth and final team is “consumption,” which includes post-harvest handling and management; marketing; nutrition; monitoring and evaluating (e.g. research activities and impact assessment); policy issues; and training.

In addition to the Arusha office, AVRDC operates in Bangkok, Thailand, Hyderabad, India, Mali, Cameroon, Dubai, Uzbekistan, Solomon and Fiji Islands and Indonesia.  As a non-profit that essentially provides public goods, it is donor funded and to some degree, donor driven.  The major contributors include the United States Agency for International Development (USAID...shocker), the Bureau for Food Security in Washington D.C., Obama’s Feed the Future Program, and German, Australian and Swiss Development Corporations.  According to Victor, AVRDC always targets the small-holder farmer as the main recipient of their research.

I took a tour of the farm, fields, and demonstrations plots with Omary, the Farm Manager.  He noted that the crops are often enhanced for size and disease resistance.  Varieties in the demonstration plot garden include: Amaranth, Spiderplant, Cowpea, Lagos Spinach, Sunhemp, Jute Mallow, Okra, Rosella, Soybean, African Eggplant, Bitter gourd, Russian Comfrey, sweet potato, hot pepper, sweet pepper, pumpkin, and lemon grass to name a few.  During my private tour, I asked Omary some questions including those related to GMOs, meat consumption, irrigation techniques, and the use of organic versus synthetic fertilizers.  Apparently, Tanzanian law prohibits the use of GM seeds but the government could change their mind at any point, especially with neighboring Kenya and nearby South Africa promoting and shipping GM Maize.  According to Omary, GMOs are good because human population is increasing and productivity is low.  He explained furrow irrigation, which uses a canal and is the most basic and least expensive form of irrigation (especially when compared to drip irrigation).  This is the type of irrigation system that CESuD-T is building. 

I saw the dryer room for the slow drying of seeds for improved storage and also took a post-harvest facilities tour with Radegunda, Agriculture Economist at AVRDC.  With this step, the objective is to train farmers on post-harvest handling methods in order to reduce crop loss, which in Tanzania, can be 30-80%.  AVRDC insists that farmers shade their products immediately after it is harvested to help retain moisture, and there are different methods of shading and also drying methods for preservation (indirect and direct solar dryers, which can extend shelf life up to six months).  She showed me the different cooling methods including the cold room and the zero energy cooling container, which uses bricks on the outside, lined them with wet sand, which lowers the temperature through evaporative cooling.  Farmers are also being trained on how to make jams and marmalades as a form of food preservation and income generation.  The aspects of packaging, transport, and marketing are also critical.

The next day, I attended a “Demand Creation Activity” called Farmers’ Field Day, which was a platform that brings together farmers, seed companies, researchers, and other key stakeholders.  The theme was “Traditional African Vegetables for Nutrition Diversity, Income Generation and Food Security.”  It was an interesting day, with scheduling being futile (which I should expect in most of the world).  I searched for the opening ceremony for an hour, and no one seemed to know where it was or when it was to occur (why make a schedule if you are going to be 1.5-2 hours behind?).  In my frenetic quest, one of the security guards on the compound befriended me: “Konechiwa” (Japanese greeting).  His name is James and he “wants to be my best friend” and teach me Swahili.  I also met someone named Gideon who graduated last year from Sokoine Agricultural University in Morogoro and now works for the East African Seed Company in Arusha (which I now hope to visit). 

The day was a great opportunity for photos, but at first, I could hardly understand a thing because the tour was in Swahili.  Eventually, however, there was an English translator present.  Much of the day was focused on promoting dietary diversity, food security, and income diversification for risk aversion; and moreover, to emphasize that indigenous vegetables are often climate resilient crops that can be planted to avoid weather-related failure.  Other examples of technologies that I was exposed to, especially at the post-harvest level, included: harvesting aids (e.g. bags to more carefully harvest in the field), fruit pickers (e.g. baskets to catch fruit from the trees as to not damage them on the way down), pruning shears, crates for transport (wooden versus plastic), and metal/wire ring for sizing produce (can DIY).  Something that the Post-Harvest specialist, Ngoni, mentioned to me, was the idea of “appropriate technology” and how more often than not, the newest and most advanced technologies are not made available or accessible to farmers, so what we might conventionally conceive of as “technology” is actually irrelevant.  I thought this was an excellent point to consider as I continue to pursue my project, again, that technology falls on a broad spectrum and I will probably see more “appropriate technology” (i.e. “basic”) than cutting edge developments. 

During the final discussion/Q+A, individuals asked about: preparing soybeans, marketing products, applying chemical treatments, and alternatives and organic fertilizers.  In closing, the speaker noted that vegetable production should be regarded as an income generating activity.  Each person was fed a huge lunch (photo can be found on FB) and sent away with a “Healthy Diet Gardening Kit,” which has a few seed samples and pamphlets in Swahili, which I gave to my homestay mother.  Overall, it was a really long and exhausting day.  It was interesting to be on site with local farmers, but the language barrier made it difficult, as I was only able to communicate with a few individuals.  I think that overall, my experience the prior day was more beneficial: I learned so much in the course of three hours that I thought my head was going to explode.  It was exciting, especially because of how relevant it felt to my Watson project (“Modern Technology and Traditional Agriculture”).  Fortunately, I have plans to go to AVRDC Monday-Thursday next week to work in depth with each of the four teams.

Following my time at AVRDC and the grueling daladala ride home, I was greeted by a few small children (neighbors) playing near the compound.  They must have been 4-6 years old and were absolutely adorable.  On a photo-taking spree and practicing my Swahili, I asked if I could photograph them.  They were eager to pose for the camera.  Though I couldn’t help but be simultaneously saddened by their impoverished and dirty state and also moved by their genuine smiles; they were both filthy and innocent.  I only hope they can finish primary school, secondary school, and maybe even make it to university.