Chapter 14 Science and Technology for Development Organization of USAID for Science and Technology Since 1981 the overall organization of the Agency for International Development (AID) has been restructured to strengthen the scientific and technical component in its policy and programs. The new organization has been described in previous Title V reports. That structure remains valid. Collaboration with the U.S. Scientific Community The Agency continues to collaborate closely with the U.S. scientific community. An important mechanism for this collaboration is the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), a long-term agreement between AID and one or more universities for cooperation in areas of high priority to AID within the major sectors of agriculture and health. In return for a commitment by AID to provide resources, the university guarantees to make available for long-term assignments a specified number of faculty in certain fields. To date, five agriculture MOUS have been signed with single universities (Colorado State, University of Florida, Purdue, Utah State University, and Washington State University). In addition, there are six joint MOUS where the university signatory is a partnership of an 1862 land-grant institution or a university with substantial AID programs and a historically black college or university. Two joint MOUS have been signed in agriculture (Oregon State and Tuskegee Institute and Michigan State and North Carolina A&T) and four in health (Tulane University and Morehouse School of Medicine; North Carolina University and Howard University; Columbia University and Meharry Medical College; Johns Hopkins University and Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School). Discussions are underway with other universities that are expected to result in ten additional joint MOUS in agriculture. AID continues its efforts to strengthen science and technology capability in USAID missions abroad. In 1985, under the Joint Career Corps (JCC), 17 faculty members from 16 U.S. universities held positions of responsibility in 10 missions. Two of those assigned to Cairo and Bangkok are concerned entirely with science and technology. As science advisors to the missions, these individuals play a catalytic role in the development of overall science and technology strategies for AID in the host countries. A similar assignment is being arranged for New Delhi. In addition to these three assignments, many other JCC positions provide expertise to requesting missions in such sectors as health, population, and agriculture. As part of an effort to keep the technical expertise of the Agency's full time direct-hire staff up-to-date, AID has developed a program of "reverse JCCS." This mechanism allows AID staff members to spend approximately a year of teaching and research in an area of high priority for development at a U.S. land grant university. This experience will stimulate greater interest at the host university in development issues, as well as provide the AID staff member with new insights for future assignments. To date, five "reverse JCCs" have been placed. AID A study completed this year identifies areas where NSF-funded, U.S.-based research relates to AID or other donor-funded research work in LDCs or by LDC scientists. will try to bring about "linkages" between these U.S. and LDC researchers. Such cooperation between agencies should broaden the framework of U.S. scientific effort and accelerate the pace of technology development and transfer for LDC needs. Significant Program Initiatives and Achievements in FY 1985 Agriculture Agricultural Research to Help Africa Increase Food AID's agricultural research program emphasizes the needs of the poorer segments of the population in developing countries. Topics for research and technology transfer include improved genetic materials for food crops and livestock, methods to reduce pre- and post-harvest losses, management techniques to maximize sustainable yields with affordable inputs, and economic analysis of policy factors affecting agricultural productivity. Recurrent food crises in Africa underscore the urgent need for special attention to the commodities, conditions and constraints typical of that continent. In order to bring about a Green Revolution in Africa, more resources need to be channeled into agricultural research. A positive step in this direction is the Africa Bureau's Strategic Plan for Supporting Agricultural Research which was developed and approved in FY 1985. AID has focused much of its agricultural research on Africa over the years. Summarized below are some exciting breakthroughs of the past year which may help major portions of Africa become self-reliant in food within two or three decades. Improved Cowpeas The cowpea or black-eyed pea, Vigna unguiculata, is one of the most commonly grown food grain legumes, particularly in Africa and Latin America. It is a dietary staple of both the urban and rural poor. Frequently, cowpeas are relegated to the hotter and drier parts of a country, since it is one of the few crops that will tolerate such conditions. Yields, however, are then correspondingly lower. AID is supporting several programs conducting research leading to improved varieties of this important crop. Recently, the Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP) on Beans and Cowpeas has developed drought-resistant, high-yielding lines by crossing lines of cowpeas from California and Senegal. Tests over a three-year period in unusually dry conditions in the semi-arid zone of Senegal proved that the new lines could produce two to four times the average yield of the traditional lines even under these extremely adverse conditions. Senegalese scientists are now testing these cowpeas on farmers' fields. The beans-cowpeas CRSP began in 1980. AID provided $3.0 million in FY 1985 for this program. Participating U.S. universities contribute an amount equivalent to at least 25 percent of the AID funds each year. The development of an early-maturing cowpea by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) may have far-reaching impact in a variety of farming systems. In areas with longer rainy seasons, it may make possible two or three crops per year where before only one or two crops were grown. Since it matures in only 60 days, this new cowpea can be grown as an additional crop after the harvest of a primary crop, e.g. maize. In the very short season areas of the Sahel, the early maturing cowpeas may provide farmers with an alternative crop where very few alternatives exist. In addition, the nutritional impact of introducing or increasing the availability of a grain legume may well be substantial. Already, seed for the 60-day cowpea is being eagerly sought by farmers in Nigeria, and it is expected to be picked up in other countries soon. The U.S., through AID, contributed $6.4 million or 31 percent of IITA's estimated $20 million budget in FY 1985. Cooperative linkages between the CRSP and international agricultural research centers will extend the outputs of these projects to Latin America and other parts of Africa. Not only do these programs increase agricultural production and strengthen scientific institutions in developing countries, they also benefit the U.S. directly through the interchange of genetic materials which enriches the germplasm base available to U.S. researchers. Improved Sorghums - A new sorghum hybrid promises to help increase supplies of this important grain, a staple in the diet of much of drought-prone Africa. Collaborative research by the AID-supported International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Sudan Agricultural Research Corporation that began in 1977 led to the release in January 1983 of the first commercial sorghum hybrid in the Sudan. Texas A&M and Purdue Universities were instrumental in developing parental lines for this hybrid. The new hybrid, Hageen Dura-1 (Arabic for Hybrid Sorghum #1), is high-yielding, early maturing, adapted to both irrigated and rainfed locations, and producable by conventional hybridization techniques. It also possesses acceptable milling and local food quality characteristics. To ensure that this new hybrid will be utilized by Sudanese farmers, the AID-funded Sorghum/Millet CRSP and the USAID Mission in Khartoum have cooperated in a pilot project to multiply and distribute good quality seed of the new hybrid. This project will help ensure adequate supplies of seed during the transition period from government production and distribution to private production and marketing. If, as is now projected, 25% of Sudan's current sorghum acreage is planted with the new hybrid by the end of the decade, total sorghum production could double and help reduce future food deficits in the Sudan. If further tests show that this new cultivar and similar hybrids can perform well in other African countries, the impact on nutrition and human welfare in Africa will be dramatic. In FY 1985 more than $4.0 million was budgeted for the sorghum/millet CRSP worldwide. An Parallel efforts to develop dryland sorghums derived entirely from African materials are also making progress. AID bilaterally-funded project in Mali with ICRISAT has developed drought-tolerant sorghums that outyield local lines by a ratio of 2:1. AID, together with the Canadian International Development Agency, is supporting an African sorghum research network based in Zimbabwe. This network will accelerate progress in developing new materials and in adapting improved materials to each participating country's conditions. Potatoes - Although not a traditional African food, the potato has become common in a few African countries and has the potential to become an important crop in the highland regions of the continent. The national research program in Rwanda selected five potato clones developed by the International Potato Center (CIP) for multiplication and release. In on-farm trials across many locations, these clones yielded more than two times the farmers' traditional varieties. Because of progress of this kind, combined with a strong extension and research effort on the part of the national program, potato production in Rwanda has greatly increased in recent years, and advances there are now being picked up by national programs and farmers in Burundi and Zaire. In India, the cost of tubers produced locally from seed was estimated to be one-tenth the cost of imported tubers from Europe. And in Rwanda, the yield of seed-derived tubers doubled yields over farmer varieties using tuber materials saved from the previous year. The total cost of the CIP core research program in FY 1985 was $10.0 million of which AID provided $2.2 million. Vaccine Against Contagious Disease in Goats The high mortality caused by contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) is a major constraint on goat production in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Under AID's Small Ruminants CRSP, scientists from Kenya and the U.S. have developed a new experimental, potent, heat-stable vaccine and a rapid field diagnostic test for CCPP. The research is jointly sponsored by AID, the Kenya Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, and U.S. universities. The new vaccine has a shelf life of at least three months and has proven effective when animals are vaccinated with two doses. Once scientists determine the duration of immunity, they will begin large field trials with the vaccine. Observations on the maximum shelf life of the new vaccine are also continuing. As soon as current studies are completed, the diagnostic tests and vaccine can be used in other countries plagued by CCPP. Plans are under way to cooperate with private industry to develop the vaccine in quantity for widespread future use. The Small Ruminants CRSP supports research among U.S. and LDC scientists to increase yields of milk, meat, and fiber of sheep and goats which are the mainstay of the poor in LDCs. Although goats are not a major livestock animal in the U.S., there are, nonetheless, over 3 million goats in this country with an estimated value of over $600 million. The control of any livestock diseases is in the U.S. interest to protect domestic producers. The CCPP vaccine research, employing rather sophisticated biotechnology techniques which could be carried out only in an LDC to avoid introduction of the disease into the U.S., illustrates the achievements possible through collaborative efforts. The same procedures developed in this research could potentially make possible control of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, which is economically an even more devastating disease. Its control currently costs U.S. cattle producers millions of dollars annually. AID provided $4.0 million for the Small Ruminants CRSP in FY 1985. An additional $1 million was contributed by participating U.S. universities. Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Initiative (STI) The agriculture portion of the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Initiative comprises three research areas. They are biological nitrogen fixation, nitrogen fertilizer efficiency, and biomass production for fuel, fodder, and soil improvement. AID has the lead responsibility for U.S. participation in the agricultural portion of this initiative. The Forest Service of the USDA is overseeing the biomass component. During Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's visit to the United States in June 1985, an agreement was signed by India's Minister for Science, Dr. Patil, and the U.S. Presidential Science Advisor, Dr. George Keyworth, extending the STI to October 1988. The past year has seen considerable progress in the three research areas: 1) Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) research includes work on three systems: Rhizobia-legume interactions, symbiosis with blue-green algae and azolla, and molecular genetics. - In the Rhizobia-legume systems research, rhizobium improvement and symbiotic root fungi (mycorrhiza) are the major thrusts, with the focus on three crops pigeon peas, chick peas and leucaena (a tree forage legume). Research on freeze drying rhizobia cultures and on improved carrier materials for field inoculation is planned. Indian scientists cooperating in this project area are affiliated with Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, and the Mysore Agricultural University at Bangalore. The U.S. scientists are located at the University of Hawaii, USDA/ARS in Beltsville, Maryland, Batelle-Kettering Research Laboratory in Albany, California, and the U.S. Forest Service Laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon. Research on the cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) and Azolla system focuses on phosphorus and sodium utilization, sporulation inducement, managing the system to provide nitrogen for rice, and salt tolerance and nitrogenase mechanisms. Germplasm collections for cyanobacteria have been established at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute and for Azolla at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. Scientists at IARI: Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) in Orissa; TNAU and Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC), Bombay are collaborating with scientists at University of California, Davis; Batelle-Kettering, and the University of Chicago. Scientists from IARI; Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and the Bhabha Atomic Research Center are collaborating with scientists from USDA-Beltsville, Harvard University (Massachusetts General Hospital), and University of California, San Diego on the studies concerning the molecular genetics of nitrogen fixation. These focus on nitrogen fixing capacity, competitive ability of the organism in natural systems, and genetic control of nodulation. Both rhizobia and free-living forms are being studied. 2) For nitrogen fertilizer efficiency research, the Indian program is concentrating on a limited number of cropping systems. Continuous rice is the most important. For north India, rice-wheat, maize-wheat and pulse-wheat rotations are |