Two new integrated programmes awarded
14 juni 2006
As a result of the call for 2006, the Integrated Programmes committee received 28 pre-proposals. Five applicants were invited to elaborate their pre-proposal into a full proposal. As recommended by the committee, the WOTRO board decided to award two programmes.
Coördinators: Prof. dr. Th. Piersma, Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut voor Onderzoek der Zee; Prof. dr. S.M. Ould Moïne, University of Nouakchott, Mauritania
This programme will study the ecological functioning of the 500 km² of tropical intertidal flats of Banc d´Arguin, most of which are covered by dense stands of seagrass, with a focus on the multitrophic interplay between different ecological groups. The studies are timely and relevant in view of the rapidly increasing human pressures on, and risks to, this worldwide unique and fragile tropical coastal ecosystem.
Local knowledge of crop plants in poverty alleviation: case studies in Ghana, Sierra Leone and The Gambia on the anthropology and biology of African Rice (Oryza glaberrima Steud.)
Coördinators: Prof. dr. P. Richards, Wageningen University; J. Vincent, Integrated Community and Rural Development Services, Sierra Leone.
This programme advocates a comparative case-study approach to understanding why African Rice, the product of local forces due to the lack of scientific releases, remains significant to impoverished West African farmers, for both food security and cultural reasons, and how African Rice seed systems retain dynamism under farmer management. The overall aim is to provide a baseline for debates about local capacity for crop improvement and seed system management free of nagging worry that many farmer innovations are locally repackaged versions of earlier scientific interventions.
