The New Nation - Internet Edition

Community watersheds combat drought

The monsoons came late over the semi-arid regions of central India this year. While several farming villages suffered from drought, Kothapally village in Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh had water in their wells for drinking and irrigating crops.

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and a consortium of partners including international, national, governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) empowered the people of Kothapally to cope with drought for more than nine years through community watersheds.

"Thanks to ICRISAT, water shortage in our village belongs to the past," says Mohammed Azam, farmer in Kothapally. "We have enough water, but the villages that did not pick up the innovations are suffering."

Adds Azam: "The productivity in Kothapally has increased immensely due to the water saving systems but also because of ICRISAT's improved crop varieties, integrated pest management and the judicious application of fertilizers. I was one of the first farmers to adopt these ideas and today I can send my five grandchildren to good schools in town."

T Janaiah, another Kothapally farmer, emphasizes: "I have benefited incredibly. Ten years ago our groundwater level was about 300 feet deep and today we are at about 60 feet thanks to the water saving facilities that we built together with our partners from ICRISAT. Even with a late monsoon we have sufficient drinking and irrigation water."

The community watershed at Kothapally has become a model replicated in many other sites in India, China, Thailand and Vietnam, and now in East and Central Africa.

According to Dr William Dar, Director General of ICRISAT, the use of community watersheds as an entry point for agricultural and rural development, has converged many interventions to improve agricultural productivity and livelihoods of poor farmers.

Dr SP Wani, ICRISAT's principal scientist on watersheds, said, "Once we found solutions for immediate problems, the farmers became our ambassadors for implementing these interventions."

The people of Kothapally have embraced many new technologies. The construction of check dams were based on the community needs and executed by the villagers themselves. The introduction of improved varieties and hybrid crops, integrated pest management, the restoration of wastelands together with a continuously growing groundwater level resulted in significant higher yields and greater income for the poor.

Women farmers play a key role in utilizing new technologies. Several women's self-help groups were trained in vermicomposting. They in turn trained others in neighboring villages. B Lakshmi, 47, from Kothapally, received the Jamsetji Tata National Virtual Academy fellowship for Rural Prosperity in 2007 for training peers in vermicomposting.

Scaling out in Asia: The consortium's success in Kothapally led to its replication in other Indian states. The state government took the lead in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, while in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand, the Sir Dorabjee Tata Trust and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust funded the spread of the program. In select watersheds in Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, the Confederation of Indian Industry supported the projects. The idea also spread to other parts of Asia - China, Thailand and Vietnam. The Asian Development Bank supported watershed projects in these countries, which included introduction of improved crop varieties, rainwater harvesting, rehabilitation of farm ponds, introduction of legumes, vegetables and fruit in the cropping systems, innovative integrated pest management techniques and diversifying cultivation with horticultural crops, and increasing incomes with the rearing of pigs and rabbits. Into sub-Saharan Africa: A team of researchers from East and Central Africa (ECA) visited India in March 2004 and identified ICRISAT's watershed experience as a potential solution to many of the challenges being faced in their region. Rwanda took the lead through its agricultural research institute and initiated implementation of pilot sites for the adaptation and demonstration of Indian experiences. A pilot integrated watershed management project was initiated at Lake Kivu learning sites in Rwanda, Uganda and Congo in 2006 as part of the Challenge Program of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research for sub-Saharan Africa.

Measuring success: An ICRISAT-led consortium undertook a comprehensive assessment of impact of watershed programs in India. The assessment shows that community watershed is a growth engine for development of dryland areas. Watersheds recorded an average benefit to cost ratio of 2 with an internal rate of return of 27%. Only 1% of the watersheds studied showed less than 1 benefit to cost ratio in the country.

In 2007-08, 500 farmers' participatory action research trials for enhancing water use efficiency were conducted in the states of AP, Rajasthan, MP and Chattisgarh. They demonstrated that crop yields could be doubled with balanced nutrient management along with the use of improved cultivars and suitable landform treatments.

For further information, contact Dr Suhas P Wani at s.wani@cgiar.org.

(Source: The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)

Free-ranging dogs unfavourable to wildlife

Abi Tamim Vanak

The word carnivore often conjures up images of large, dangerous predators such as lions and tigers. Few, however, realize that they spend most of their lives in the presence of the world's most common carnivore-the domestic dog. Man's so-called best friend is indeed the most numerous and widespread of the world's carnivores. It has followed in the footsteps of humans colonizing every continent on Earth and even outer space.

Remember Laika, the dog who created history as the first earthling to go into space?

In much of the developed world, dogs are generally confined to certain areas, but in most developing countries these animals roam freely, without any restriction. While free-ranging dogs-often referred to as strays-in urban areas receive a lot of attention and publicity, it is in the vast rural areas that they might cause more severe problems. This is because much wildlife exists in rural areas throughout the world. And, in India and other countries wildlife reserves are surrounded by human habitation. In such areas free-ranging dogs have numerous opportunities to interact with wildlife at multiple levels-as predators, prey, competitors, and disease reservoirs or vectors.

The ecology of free-ranging domestic dogs has, however, rarely been studied. Only a handful of studies-mostly in Africa and North America-have even attempted to answer a very basic question: what do free-ranging domestic dogs eat? These studies have shown that dogs kill and eat wildlife-but apart from that we know little else.

We also know that no dog population is completely dependent on wildlife. Now this might seem to be a good thing, but it is in fact the opposite. Most dog populations are highly dependent on human-provided food, in other words, they are subsidized by humans. The World Health Organization estimates that India alone is home to 25-30 million domestic dogs. When such high numbers of dogs include even a small amount of wildlife in their diet, collectively they can have a serious impact. For example if a domestic dog were to eat just one egg or chick of an Indian bustard in the Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary in Maharashtra, it can have serious impact on the breeding success of this critically endangered bird.

Dogs harbour several diseases that can be deadly not only to humans (such as rabies) but to wild carnivore species as well. Dogs also transmit diseases such as canine distemper virus (CDV) and canine parvovirus (CPV). A large number of African lions in the Serengeti National Park were wiped out by a CDV outbreak transmitted by domestic dogs. Endangered species such as the African wild dog and the Ethiopian wolf have suffered significant population losses because of diseases contracted from domestic dogs. In India, we have very little information on the diseases affecting domestic dogs and wildlife. Imagine what would happen if a CDV outbreak started killing tigers in Kanha or Ranthambhore? Worse still, we would not link the symptom to its cause even if it was happening already.

A recently concluded study of the Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary, Nannaj, Maharashtra by a team of scientists (including Aniruddha Belsare from Pune, Matthew Gompper from the University of Missouri and I) illustrates the huge problem we have on our hands. From 2005 to 2007 we studied how domestic dogs compete with a little known but common canid, the Indian fox. Using portable diagnostic assay kits we tested 80 dogs from three villages around the wildlife sanctuary for exposure to two main viruses: CDV and CPV.

The results were astounding, but not unexpected. More than 95 per cent had very high levels of exposure to both CDV and CPV. Since both these diseases affect dogs at an early stage of their lives, this meant that they had survived the first exposure, and were now immune to the disease. Significantly, since the disease keeps circulating in the population, they were now carriers. We also found that none of the sampled dogs died from any of the diseases even one month after initial observations.

Similar tests on the most common canid in the study area, the Indian fox, revealed that that 34 per cent were positive for recent exposure to CDV and 36 per cent for CPV. Of these, one sample had been taken from a freshly dead fox that had shown acute and severe symptoms of disease. Because the sampled animals were radio-collared, we were able to track them regularly and follow their fate. We discovered that three other animals that tested positive for CDV died within a month, indicating high mortality due to the disease.

On being presented with our initial findings the Maharashtra forest department, and the chief wildlife warden of the state organized a meeting with the state Animal Husbandry Department to discuss the potential for vaccination and population control of dogs surrounding the Protected Area. We recommended that dogs owned by farmers and villagers be given preference, and that the number of dogs to be vaccinated free of charge per household be limited to two and that these vaccinations be done over a period of 2-3 months.

The Maharashtra Forest Department took this matter seriously, and organized vaccination camps in villages surrounding the Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary. However, as we pointed out in our recommendations, vaccination alone is not a solution. This is because of the incredibly high population density of dogs here-as much as 134 dogs per sq.km. If vaccinated dogs live longer and beget more this may ultimately result in a larger dog population. Some measures should also be taken to reduce the population. A large proportion of dogs are strays, they are essentially free-loaders on the wildlife. While earlier, these animals were considered benign, we now know that they are a significant threat to both human and animal health.

There was so much furore recently over the possible outbreak of bird flu, and crores of rupees were spent and lost in fighting this "problem", one in which not a single human death was reported from India, and even the worldwide toll is under a thousand. Compare this to rabies, which is spread primarily by domestic dogs in India and which takes a heavy toll of a reported 30,000 people yearly. Yet only a meagre amount is spent in tackling the problem.

The Animal Welfare Board of India has reportedly spent Rs 22.5 crore on animal birth control programmes over the last decade which is the only legal method of controlling dog populations in the country. These have not worked effectively anywhere in the world, and are not working in India either. The problem is not that sterilization programmes don't work per se, but that they have to be conducted in a sustained manner and on a large scale to have significant impact.

One can also say that by vaccinating dogs, one is in fact removing an important measure of natural population control: disease. This in turn results in increased population of dogs and increased disease reservoir. Knowing the costs to both humans and wildlife, is it advisable to let well-meaning but misdirected animal rights activists-most of them city dwellers-determine the fate of our precious and endangered wildlife?

The need of the hour is to have a sustained and scientifically based domestic dog control programme. Not just because wild animals are threatened, but because man's best friend also poses a real and serious threat to human life.

(CSE/Down To Earth Feature Service)

6.7 billion elephants in the room

World population growth-a trend intrinsically linked to issues of poverty, development, equity, and the environment-remains a taboo subject in many circles and is conspicuously absent from the public discourse. A special issue of World Watch magazine focused on population reveals that empowering women to make their own family size choices through education, economic opportunity, and family planning services is the best strategy to tackle population growth and the many problems connected to it.

"The planet faces a range of grave and interlinked challenges. None of these problems becomes more tractable if population is ignored," says World Watch Editor Tom Prugh. "Fortunately, a goal that is valid on its moral merits-fairness to women-also turns out to be pragmatic."

According to recent United Nations figures, over 1 billion people worldwide live on less than US$1 per day. Such grinding poverty is associated with higher rates of fertility, and the vast majority of the world's near-term population growth is anticipated in the most disadvantaged regions, writes Lori Hunter, author of "Population, Health, and Environment Through a 'Gendered Lens.'"

Growing populations also contribute to deteriorating environmental conditions, such as water and food shortages and human-induced climate change. As the effects of climate change begin to take hold, the number of environmental refugees is expected to grow. One estimate cited by Elizabeth Leahy and Sean Peoples in "Population and Security" estimates that 200 million people will be displaced by the impacts of climate change by 2050.

Recent data have shown that women with at least a secondary level of education eventually give birth to one-third to one-half as many children as women with no formal education. Hunter points to countries like Ethiopia where women with no education have an average of 6.1 children while women with secondary or higher education average just 2.0 children, a figure slightly below replacement-level fertility.

Despite these and similar studies, attitudes on population remain mixed at best. Although 60 percent of Americans aged 18-24 understand that there is a strong link between a growing global population and climate change, only 35 percent believe that having fewer children themselves would help protect the environment. Public opinion is further confused by countries that are concerned with their own populations' aging and decline. Some governments in Europe and East Asia have recently offered prospective parents incentives such as financial bonuses and subsidized daycare to encourage childbearing.

Currently estimated at 6.7 billion, the global population is expected to grow to over 9 billion by 2050. In an excerpt from his new book More:

Population, Nature, and What Women Want, Robert Engelman discusses what lies ahead for an expanding human race:

"Unless governments focus on creating the conditions by which births result from the conscious decisions of women and their partners to parent a child, there's no reason to be confident that global family size will fall to a two-child average. Even if it does, the grand, one-time-only experiment-how many of us can the Earth and we ourselves sustain?-will continue, for a few decades at least, in the only available laboratory, the only available home."

(Source: Worldwarch Magazine)

Peru mountain glaciers 'receding rapidly'

Zoraida Portillo

[LIMA] Climate change-induced glacier melts have cost northern Peru's mountains 26 per cent of their surface area in the last 33 years, satellite images have confirmed.

The reduction is equivalent to 188 square kilometres of the Cordillera Blanca, the highest tropical mountain chain in the world. The mountain range is home to more than seven hundreds glaciers, with the glacier Huascaran declared a world heritage site by UNESCO.

Marcos Zapata, head of the glaciology unit at the National Institute of Natural Resources (INRENA), says that the glaciers are melting by around 20 metres per year - compared to a rate of nine metres per year recorded until 1977.

Zapata was a speaker at the Cycle of Conferences on Glaciological Research in Peru, organised by INRENA in Lima earlier this month (18 July).

"At present, there are more melting glaciers and therefore there is a relative increase in flows in rivers and streams", Nelson Santillán, a researcher at the INRENA glaciology unit, told SciDev.Net.

Santillán says that, while this currently does not have any significant negative effects, people must be warned about the correlation of this with the increased glacier melting and the future halt in water flow. INRENA estimates this could be as soon as 2020.

This could have severe consequences since the population and number of agricultural areas near the glaciers is growing at higher rates than three or four decades ago, Santillán says.

Andean scientists have suggested the Paramos ecosystem in the northern Andes as an alternative source of water for communities when the glaciers disappear. The ecosystem retains and absorbs water in wetland areas.

"The Paramos can act like a big sponge to contain [excess water from] the melting of the glaciers," says Jorge Recharte, director of the Andes programme at the Mountain Institute in Peru. "If they are conveniently managed they could provide an alternative [source of water]."

A 2002 study by Recharte indicated that the Paramos is a source of drinking water for thirteen million Peruvians who live on the coast.