Q&A: ”We Are not Subversives, and We Demand Respect”

October 25, 2008 By

Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Saturday, October 25, 2008

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.

Judith Henríquez Acuña interviews indigenous leader DANIEL PIÑACUÉ

VILLA RICA, Colombia, Oct 24 (IPS) – Colombian President Álvaro Uribe admitted that the security forces opened fire on indigenous protesters in the southwestern province of Cauca, but denies that they were responsible for the deaths of three demonstrators, said Daniel Piñacué, a leader of the Nasa community.

Piñacué, head of the governing council of Calderas, an indigenous reservation in the mountains of Cauca, and a prominent member of the powerful Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), was interviewed by IPS in the small town of Villa Rica.

The CRIC organised the ”minga” (a traditional indigenous meeting for the collective good), the name given to the march that set out from the La María Indian reservation, declared a ”territory of peace and co-existence” in the midst of Colombia’s civil war.

The 35,000 indigenous marchers, who belong to a number of different ethnic groups and come from 20 of Colombia’s 32 provinces (known as departments), expect to reach the city of Cali, the capital of the southwestern province of Valle del Cauca, on Saturday.

Piñacué, one of the leading spokespersons for the indigenous protest, told the media that the security forces had used live ammunition against the demonstrators, before the U.S. cable news network CNN broadcast a video this week taped by participants in the march that showed a uniformed man wearing a mask shooting in the direction of the protesters.

On Wednesday, Uribe acknowledged that the police had fired at the demonstrators.

But previously, the rightwing president had publicly called for Piñacué’s arrest.

On Thursday, Uribe gave in to the indigenous demonstrators’ demands for talks, and personally called Piñacué’s cell-phone to announce that he would meet with the leaders of the march on Sunday in Cali.

The protesters are demanding fulfillment of agreements signed with various governments since 1971. ”We want the president to set deadlines and timeframes for compliance with these commitments, and we want national and international observers to be present,” Piñacué told IPS late Thursday in Villa Rica, a small town along the Pan-American highway on the way from the La María reservation to Cali.

IPS: Uribe admitted that firearms were used against the protest. What is the indigenous movement’s view?

DANIEL PIÑACUÉ: The president finally recognised — because of a video, not because he believed it when we publicly told him — that the security forces have used violence against the peaceful indigenous march.

What he should also acknowledge is that three Indians were killed and more than 100 injured in the clashes with the army in La María. The wounded are being treated in hospitals in the towns of Popayán and Santander.

IPS: Uribe also agreed to talks. What will you demand in the dialogue?

DP: In first place, since we have been accused of being criminals and of inciting violence, we want our names cleared. We also don’t want to be treated as second-class citizens, and we want respect for our languages and our ancestral customs.

In addition, we are asking for an expansion of our reservations, legal title to our lands, and enough land to keep our cultures alive, work them, and obtain the products needed for the survival of our communities, in order to keep indigenous people from having to move to the cities, which is leading to the gradual loss of our cultural identity.

We are asking not to be violently pushed off our lands — a phenomenon that is facilitated by the Colombian government so that transnational companies can exploit our land, leaving us without water, and without minerals like iron, nickel and gold.

Furthermore, we are seeking the repeal of a number of laws that were passed without consulting us (as required by the constitution) by the illegitimate Congress elected by the narco-paramilitaries, and which hurt our communities: the laws on forestry, water and land. (The far-right paramilitaries, many of whose leaders have been extradited to the United States on drug trafficking charges, have publicly claimed that they control at least 35 percent of the members of Congress.)

IPS: Have the guerrillas infiltrated the indigenous march?

DP: Whenever a protest or march is held, the political leaders in this country always tell the media that the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrillas are behind it, and that the subversives are manipulating and using the Indians or peasant farmers who are demonstrating for a just cause.

For us that’s an old story. But we have to make it clear to public opinion that we, who are standing up to demand respect for our rights and for the dignity and physical, cultural and political integrity of every one of our indigenous brothers and sisters, as well as the fulfillment of a number of agreements that have been ignored, are the only ‘subversives’ here.

Claiming the guerrillas have infiltrated the demonstration is false, and irresponsibly puts our lives at risk.

IPS: What should the international community know about what Colombia’s indigenous movement is asking for?

DP: They should know what things are really like. That we live in a battleground created by the armed sectors that for years have displaced us from the best lands, and forced us farther and farther up into the mountains.

They should know we are peaceful, hard-working people who are justly demanding our right to our land and the freedom and the right to demand humane, decent conditions to live in peace.

Filed Under: Commentary, Human Rights, Interview, Politics

Q&A: ”EU Should Place Greater Importance on Latin America”

October 23, 2008 By

Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Thursday, October 23, 2008

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.

Mario de Queiroz interviews MARIO SOARES

LISBON, Oct 23 (IPS) – Mario Soares, two times president and three times prime minister of Portugal, says he is sorry that the European Union has not yet understood the importance of strengthening relations with Latin America.

The EU should make relations with that region a real priority, ”but from my point of view it has failed to do so sufficiently or concretely,” the longtime leader of Portugal’s Socialist Party says in this interview with IPS correspondent Mario de Queiroz.

Recognised even by his adversaries as the ”father” of Portuguese democracy since the end of the country’s decades-long dictatorship in 1974, Mario Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares first became politically active at the age of 17 when he joined the clandestine opposition to the dictatorship of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar (1889-1970).
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Commentary, Europe, Geopolitics, Interview, Latin America

MEDIA: Time for a Global Glasnost, Says Gorbachev

October 14, 2008 By

Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Tuesday, October 14, 2008

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.

Sabina Zaccaro

VENICE, Oct 14 (IPS) – Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has warned against the danger of letting the global financial crisis and other emergencies overshadow media attention on climate change.

”This financial turmoil, which will heavily affect the real economy, was absolutely predictable, and it is only one aspect of the wider crisis of all the current development systems,” Gorbachev, former president of the former Soviet Union and the 1990 Nobel Peace laureate told IPS in an interview. ”In fact, there are connected simultaneous crises that are rapidly emerging. These relate to energy, water, food, demography, climate change and the ecosystem devastation.”

The idea of unlimited growth has proven to be illusory because the resources of the earth are restricted, and they are running out, he says. ”There are two ways of addressing the issue: making no mention of the truth and postpone unpopular decisions, or start telling people the truth and work together for change, while we are still in time.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Economy, Interview, Politics, Report

Q&A: Zimbabwean Women Have Had ‘‘More” Trauma After Independence

September 13, 2008 By

Global Geopolitics – Global News Blog – Global Analyst Online – IPS
Saturday, September 13, 2008

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.

Interview with Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) National Coordinator Jenni Williams

CAPE TOWN, Sep 13 (IPS) – Zimbabwean women have experienced higher levels of trauma, including violence and lack of food, after the country’s independence from Britain in 1980 than before.

This is one of the findings of a study conducted by the civic movement Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) on trauma in the collapsing southern African state.

The study reveals the complexities of the emergency caused by the political and economic crisis. Trauma has not only been inflicted through direct violence (beatings, torture and rape) but by food deprivation and a lack of access to medical treatment and shelter.

State violence, economic decline and the destruction of social capital have had severe consequences for women.

According to the report, most women interviewed experienced more incidences of trauma after the country’s independence from Britain in 1980 than before independence.

Of the 1,983 WOZA members interviewed, 14 percent experienced a lack of food in 1979, compared to a staggering 66 percent between 1980 and 1999. While nine percent did not have access to medical treatment in 1979, this figure shot up to 24 percent between 1980 and 1999. Similarly, while six percent did not have access to shelter in 1979, 12 percent reported a lack of shelter between 1980 and 1999.

From 2000 the incidences of ‘‘experienced trauma” were annually higher than incidences of ‘‘witnessed trauma”. Children, who are often in the presence of their mothers during these incidents, are equally victimised. Stephanie Nieuwoudt spoke to Jenni Williams, national coordinator and one of the founders of WOZA. WOZA is the Ndebele word for ‘‘come forward”.

IPS: How do women survive financially in a country where the price of a loaf of bread is millions of Zimbabwean dollars?

Jenni Williams: That is the trillion dollar question. The answer is that we simply do not know how it is done. In Zimbabwe, it is a huge achievement if one manages to send your children to bed at night with one meal in their bellies.

I was at a conference in South Africa where I ate three meals a day at the hotel where I was staying. I felt sick. My system could not handle three meals a day. Zimbabweans do not eat that much any more. The meals we have are substandard.

Yet women survive. They are scavenging all the time. The informal trade is still very much alive. A woman will, from somewhere, find a few vegetables to sell at the side of the road and when they are gone she will look everywhere to find more to sell.

Some people go shopping in neighbouring countries and bring back goods to sell in Zimbabwe or they look for piece work. They survive from day to day.

The efforts by (Zimbabwean president) Robert Mugabe to criminalise informal trade have to stop because it is an important part of the economy. For thousands of people in Zimbabwe it is the only way they can survive.

It is mostly women who are involved in informal trade. They are the ones who support their families financially. The irony is that many of the top brass in Zimbabwe who support the actions against illegal traders probably come from homes where their mothers were informal traders.

Women are still the backbone of rural agriculture, but they are mostly forced to hand over their crops to the army.

Zimbabwe has great agricultural potential. It was one of the most important agricultural countries in Africa. It is an agricultural giant which has been forced into unconsciousness. If women and other farmers can be supported with inputs — seeds, fertiliser and so forth — there can be a quick recovery.

The people in Zimbabwe are ill. Their health is jeopardised by eating irregularly and when they do eat, it is substandard produce. Many are HIV positive and suffer from opportunistic HIV-related illnesses. But there are too few people to care for the sick.

Many doctors and other healthcare workers have left the country. There is no medicine. It is even difficult to find a headache tablet. The hospitals are like ghost towns.

Zimbabwe was one of the most educated nations in Africa. Robert Mugabe promised free primary education but the education system is in shambles.

Stress, trauma and illness are killing people. The life expectancy of a woman is 34 and that of a man 37. I am 46 and there are not many people of my age around.

IPS: What has been the most surprising finding of the research WOZA did on the trauma suffered by Zimbabwean women?

Jenni Williams: On average we found that violence increased more than three times since 2000. People suffered an average of more than 16 events of trauma since 2000, compared to 2.9 in 1979 and 5.8 from 1980 to 1999.

The increase seems improbable when one remembers that the 1970s was a time of open struggle. Yet the figures prove that the increase since 2000 was dramatic. This is under the rule of a man who was once regarded as a liberation war hero. History will judge Robert Mugabe harshly for this.

It is also surprising that when women do get counselling, they prefer to discuss issues of displacement rather than their experiences of violence and torture.

IPS: The report focused to a large extent on trauma suffered by women in Matabeleland, in the south of the country. Why?

Jenni Williams: My generation suffered under ‘‘Gukurahundi” û the 1980s conflict between government forces and opposition movements in Matabeleland. Over 10,000 Ndebeles in this region were executed by government forces. In one case 55 men and women were shot and killed in one day.

People were burnt alive in their huts or executed publicly. They were suspected of being members of the opposition party Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU). These people suffered a lot of trauma.

There is huge support for the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, in Matabeleland. The people are ready to be mobilised.

IPS: The members of WOZA are often beaten and thrown into jail. You were arrested in March this year and a court case is still ongoing. In August you were arrested again but released after being severely beaten.

Jenni Williams: WOZA has more than 60,000 members. It is a mass-based organisation. But members know when they sign up that they run a risk of being arrested and beaten.

We have workshops training people on how to cope with reprisals. The members are totally committed even though they know of the high risk.

Nine of our members were arrested in August on the charge of malicious damage to property after they wrote our WOZA slogan, ‘‘Woza Moya” (come healing spirit) on a road in Bulawayo.

I was arrested along with 13 others in May when we protested against the election violence in Zimbabwe. I was kept in prison for six weeks on the charge that I would mobilise a Kenya-style uprising against the government during the run-off election.

I was freed after (Movement for Democratic Change leader) Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the run-offs. This case is still pending.

Ironically we view police stations as the final place to get a particular message across. When we are imprisoned and it becomes news, we know the message has hit home û people from around the world take notice of what is happening in Zimbabwe.

We often do not get arrested because the police officers are the sons of members. They know that we are a community-based movement who address issues which are Zimbabwe’s issues and not just women’s issues.

However, even though some police officers understand what we do, the police remain the main perpetrators of violence against us. When they arrest us, we focus on telling them that we are fighting for a better Zimbabwe with social justice for us and them. WOZA has a history of six years of non-violent protest.

The people of Zimbabwe live in fear all the time, regardless of who they are. There is a deep awareness that one can be arrested at any moment and tortured and killed. Our study revealed that repeated exposure to trauma has a cumulative effect. Some 53 percent of the women who were surveyed had scores indicative of a psychological disorder.

WOZA is investigating models of peace and reconciliation in Rwanda and South Africa. Can one really start thinking about healing while Robert Mugabe is still in power?

It is of the utmost importance that the people of Zimbabwe are healed. If healing does not take place, we will continue to have a violent society. In South Africa we are looking at what the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions achieved and in Rwanda we are looking at the Gacaca courts.

WOZA was founded because of the oppressive regime of Mugabe and, in spite of him, it grew into a massive organisation. We need a structure to promote the agenda of healing. In the meantime we have ways and means of accessing people and helping them on a one-to-one basis.

In the long term we hope to engage the security forces as well. We need some form of reconciliation with the same people who are responsible for the trauma and atrocities.

By openly writing peace slogans like ‘‘Woza Moya” on the streets and marching against oppression, we show the next generation that one can fight in a non-violent way against a terrible situation.

*****
+ Women of Zimbabwe Arise (http://www.wozazimbabwe.org)
+ TRADE-SOUTHERN AFRICA:The Deal’s Signed But Where’s The Action? (http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43855)

Filed Under: Interview, Report

Q&A: ”We Will Write About Them”

September 6, 2008 By

Global Geopolitics – Global News Blog – Global Politics Online – IPS
Saturday, September 06, 2008

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.

Interview with Hausa novelist Sa’adatu Baba

KANO, Sep 6 (IPS) – While formal publishing companies in Nigeria languished through the economic crises that accompanied the structural adjustment programmes of the late 1980s and early 1990s, young Hausa writers began writing about their lives and contemporary problems they faced. Bypassing formal publishers, they self-published their novels, often with the help of a writers’ cooperative.

Although the books were dubbed ‘littattafan soyayya’ (romance novels) for the predominant themes of love and marriage, the novels — written in colloquial Hausa that reflects the rhythms of everyday speech — also serve as muckraking critiques of a corrupt elite and the failures of the older generation.

Women writers dominate the field, perhaps because of the large female readership; their work explores the daily life and tensions of women’s lives in contemporary Northern Nigeria. According to Balaraba Ramat Yakubu, the head of Kallabi Writer’s Association, a group of women writers, there are over 300 Hausa women publishing novels in Northern Nigeria.

The large female readership has caused anxiety, mostly from male authority figures, about a supposed negative effect the novels have on young girls. In May 2007, A Daidaita Sahu, the Kano state agency for the ‘reorientation’ of society, organized a book and film burning at a local girl’s school.

That book burning, however, was a tame threat compared to the new requirements that the Kano State Censorship Board is seeking to impose on writers. In a letter to Kano’s five writers’ organisations dated Aug. 12, the board confirmed that it wanted each writer in the state to register individually before they can publish or distribute writing.

At 25, Sa’adatu Baba has twenty-three books in print and another twenty that are not yet published. She is also an executive committee member of the Association of Nigerian Authors and a student of Languages at Bayero University.

She spoke with IPS writer Amina Koki Gizo in Kano on 16 August about her writing and the current crisis Hausa writers are facing.

IPS: When did you start writing?

Sa’adatu Baba: I started writing in 1997. I write to educate — because through writing you can send a message to the people.

Also, it soothes my worries. If I write something down, it is past tense. I just forget about it. So, it helps me psychologically and it sends a message to the people.

What is your bestselling book so far?

Ban K’arya Alkawari Ba. (I do not break my promises). It is a story about love. When I released the book it sold out. I published more than 20,000 copies. We are always reprinting the book, but the more we reprint the book, the more it is finished. I can’t count how many times I have reprinted it. Now, I keep the plate with the publisher because it is always working. There is no need to take it back home.

IPS: Tell me about some of the problems you are facing and the current crisis with writers in Kano.

SB: The problem we are facing is lack of understanding.

My book Mu Kame Kanmu (Keep Ourselves Safe) is about HIV and how it is spread in our society. I wrote it because one of my friends became an HIV victim. She lost her daughter and separated with her husband as a result of this virus. So I decided to write a book about it.

When the book came out in 2006, some were asking me to put it into the newspapers, because some are reading newspapers and not reading books. So, I serialised it in the newspaper ”Albishir”, from Triumph publishing company.

After I finished serialising the work, there was one special assistant to the Kano State government, Abdullahi Musa, who attacked me personally. He said I collected millions of naira from European countries to spoil our culture.

I was offended because most readers take my advice. They call me and say this message is very important… I felt discouraged when he criticized, not my book, but me in person.

It’s a false allegation. Nobody gave me anything to publish my book. I am the one who wrote and published it myself .

IPS: How do you respond generally to people who say that writers are spoiling culture?

SB: I don’t believe in that. A writer is a responsible person in the society. As a responsible person, you cannot write something that can spoil culture or children. All of us writers are respecting ourselves, and we are respected and loved by our fans.

I don’t think we have a problem with the society. We only have a problem with this Kano State government.

(In one of my books, the heroine) is crying terribly, so the husband takes her veil and tries to wipe the tears. But they say it is wrong, just because the husband wipes the tears.

So, since he says we don’t have the right to write about family or love, we are now beginning to write our next books on government.

We will stop writing about social issues, we will write about them. The way they are killing people on election day. Many can lose their souls because of the election and the election rigging.

So we said our next write-up we will write about this current issue. They are torturing us now. Next time we will torture them…

If I have money I will write a book about government and release without fear. I think that nobody can attack me since they say they don’t want love stories. If I write about government, I don’t think there’s anything they can do. Even if they will do something, it is fact.

After a film actress used her phone as a video camera when she was making love with her boyfriend, they took the matter to the censorship board… They decided to bring law and order to the filmmakers.

The writers didn’t do anything, but they asked us to register our writers association… Later on they said booksellers should register. And after booksellers, publishers, and writers should bring their books to censor before we release them.

They told us that some of our books were spoiling children. We said we did not write our books for children, and we did not say anything against children. But they insisted that we bring the books for censoring. If you take your book there, you will pay them and they will censor the book. They will look for romantic scenes and cancel them.

But now, they said each writer will have to register individually. We will have to be registered before we will write anything. They will open a file for us and note everything about us and write it down and file it.

After this, we will come for an interview. If we pass the interview, they will give us an ID card so that we can be able to write. If we don’t do this, we break the law.*

IPS: What did the writers and the Association of Nigerian Authors’ executive do in response?

SB: We called a three week strike for warning. Our elders said we shouldn’t write anything. We can write down what is in our heart and our thoughts but keep it without publishing because we don’t have the right to publish anything.

Then we wrote a reply to Malam Rabo about the letter he sent to us. We told him our strike is through. That we would resume writing our books by tomorrow, without taking our books to him.

He said every writer should register, but in the next statement, he said that if you could read the book in front of your parents without any shame… go ahead, don’t take the book to his office, distribute to the market.

So some of us said that they will use this statement to release their books into the markets. But I know that next time, in the next interview, maybe he will say that the journalist has written it, he was not the one that saying it, because he is always saying things that he denies later. What he will tell you in his office is not what he will say in the media.

Even yesterday, an Organization for Islamic Values Protection produced some papers in the mosque, they accused writers, saying some of us are agents of Jews and Europeans. They are intimidating society to hate us. But in Islam, what Malam Rabo has done is not acceptable. It is not in religion. What I believe is that he is using religion as a cover. This is not good.

Because of this, I think I will not release any of my books because I believe that he is looking for a way to attack us. I will wait till this government has finished their time and is gone so that I can go and write. We pray that a new governor will come, who will allow us to write.

IPS: What are you hoping to do in the next few years with your writing.

SB: I think what I will do is that I will write. I will keep on writing, but I will keep it aside, not publish it. In the next two years, the tenure of this governor is due. So what I wish, what I pray is that a new governor will come — that his government will not accuse us.

What we want here: we want writers all over the world to look at the situation we are in now in Kano State–to help us in any way they can. As soon as they read my interview, I want them to help us, because we are in a worrisome situation.

We spent three weeks on strike. We are now resuming our work. We don’t know what is going happen. He promised us, whatever we do, if we break his law, he will take us to jail. I know that what we do will never be wrong. But they are looking for the opportunity…

* Since this interview, the Kano State Censorship Board has agreed — following meetings with national and state representatives of the Association of Nigerian Authors — that the various writers’ associations will be registered, not individual writers.

Filed Under: Africa, Culture, Interview

Q&A: Finding New Ways To Reach Farmers

August 24, 2008 By

Global Geopolitics – Global News Blog – IPS
Saturday, August 23, 2008

All rights reserved, IPS – Inter Press Service, 2008.

Interview with Frances Kimmins, director of Policy and Partnership for the Research Into Use Programme

PRETORIA, Aug 23  (IPS)  – When beekeepers in central and eastern Uganda got vouchers to go online at internet cafés, their most popular query was how to treat bee stings. A local agricultural information provider replied in Baganda, the local language.

In Kenya, horticultural entrepreneurs and researchers lobbied the Ministry of Agriculture to update a clause in the Pesticides Act. This allowed a local company to market a natural pest control package to exporters of high-value products, such as green beans, baby corn and cut flowers, and comply with European Union requirements for no pesticide residues.

In Tanzania, where the cheapest transport is donkeys, a comic book explains how to improve their performance through taking good care of them.

The key here is information: tailored to farmers and to policy makers, requested and delivered through a variety of ways, from computers to comics, and based on research on natural resources funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).

Coming up with creative ways to share agricultural information on a large scale is the goal of the Research Into Use programme (RIU) under DFID’s Strategy for Research on Sustainable Agriculture.

RIU moves away from the generation of new knowledge to the ways in which knowledge is put to use and, in the process, reduces poverty.

Since 2006, RIU has worked in the regions with the highest levels of poverty — South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zambia are all in the process of setting up RIU programmes.

This year, RIU is seeking to fund initiatives to communicate DFID-funded research on natural resources in a further ten African countries. In its search for new initiatives, it is seeking out in particular projects that make use of new communication technologies, such as educational entertainment, and public/private partnerships.

IPS reporter Mercedes Sayagues spoke to Frances Kimmins, RIU’s director of Policy and Partnership, and manager of the Innovation Challenge Fund that is calling for proposals.

<b>IPS: Why has research not reached farming communities?</b>

Frances Kimmons: Its mainly due to the poor flow of information between those who generate research knowledge and those who need to use it.

The reasons include poor infrastructure in rural locations, inadequate financial and business services, weak incentives for researchers to package and disseminate their results informally, poor incentives for producers, particularly those based in risky environments, to invest in new technologies, and few financial incentives for companies to engage with rural communities.

Moreover, research has remained small scale. You are lucky if you reach one hundred farmers. DFID wants to reach thousands of farmers who live away from urban centers, without roads and telecommunications.

<b>IPS: Isn’t that the role of extension workers?</b>

FK: Investment by governments and donors on agricultural extension has declined in the last 20 years, in favour of governance and social development. This is a worldwide funding pattern, with the exception of Latin America, especially Brazil — and it is reaping the benefits.

<b>IPS: How can new communication technologies help?</b>

FK: By making the gaining of knowledge fun and relevant. This is the exciting part: creating new models of agricultural extension using new communication technologies. Bringing information to the Ugandan beekeepers via the internet is cheaper than using traditional extensionists and can reach larger numbers. People associated with universities and research can become information providers for farmers: we call them info-mediaries, or knowledge brokers.

In Kenya, we engaged policy-makers in democratic ways. This is a new area to explore: what kind of information on agriculture do MPs need to make decisions that can affect millions?

<b>IPS: What are the cotton, fisheries and legume platforms established by RIU in Malawi recently?</b>

FK: A platform gathers all players in one sector: producers and buyers, processors and retailers, researchers and government.

For example, cotton is an expensive crop, vulnerable to disease and pests. Farmers need to know when to spray, and even more importantly, when not to spray. A judicious use of chemicals will save farmers money.

The platform can also give the opportunity and the knowledge for farmers to go organic, linking them to markets and buyers, to innovations in the cotton system in Malawi and in the world.

<b>IPS: Will rising food prices create a window of opportunity for African farmers?</b>

FK: In the short term, it helps. But food prices are volatile – who knows what they will be like in 12 months? What Sub-Saharan Africa needs is greater ownership of food production and more control over its food security. This should become a major policy goal.

<b>IPS: What is your position on genetically modified crops?</b>

FK: We have had no demands for it, yet. Personally, I’d go on a case-by-case basis. The process of genetically modifying crops is not too different from what farmers have done for centuries. It could be a hugely important tool to obtain drought-tolerant crops. It could also distort seed systems. It depends on how it is packaged. The priority for African countries must be to develop biosafety protocols.

<b>IPS: How will you address the specific needs of women farmers?</b>

FK: On farm and off farm, women are major contributors to agriculture. Yet it is difficult to hear their voices. We give preference to projects that target women farmers.

<b>IPS: Why is one-third of your budget devoted to monitoring and learning?</b>

FK: Researchers don’t spend enough time learning, capturing what works and what doesn’t. We want a strong emphasis on evidence-based lessons for this programme.

Filed Under: Africa, Agriculture, Development, Economy, Interview