By Sifelani Tsiko
Harare,Zimbabwe (July 20 2007)

The world of science and technology is always on the move scaling new heights and opening new avenues of responding to numerous problems facing people in Zimbabwe and across the African continent.

This week, this article captures science and technology events which have been happening across the continent to help Zimbabwean scientists get informed about events happening elsewhere.

Scientists Urged to Disseminate Information
Visiting top agricultural research scientist Dr Andre Bationo from Burkina Faso urged African scientists to explore ways of disseminating information to end-users and policymakers for it to contribute towards overcoming development challenges facing the continent.

He told New Ziana that African scientists had a problem of limiting results of their research to scientific for a such as journals instead of passing it on to end-users.

"Most research information is with research scientists, in national and international institutions while those in remote areas plus extension staff have limited access to it," he said.

Dr Bationo also urged African scientists to build networks for sharing knowledge and experiences.
"There is need for synergies," he said calling for closer collaboration among African scientists to find solutions to the continent's pressing problems.

More Funds Needed for Science, Tech Learners.
More funding should be made available to encourage learning in the areas of science and technology.
Higher levels of innovation and creativity were needed for the country's continued economic growth, said Prof Mzamo Mangaliso, addressing the University of South Africa (Unisa) in Pretoria recently.

Prof Mangaliso, president and chief executive officer of the National Research Foundation (NRF), expressed concern over the low number of students graduating at the level of PhD in science related fields. It was critical for South Africa, he explained, to produce well-trained, effective scientists, engineers and technologists.

He said mechanisms should be identified to circumvent the skewed demographics in research, by ensuring that the current higher educational landscape promotes active participation by all designated groups into the mainstream research domains.

"As far as human capacity development is concerned, we have a long way to go. As a country we produce about 23 PhDs per million of population per year," he said, adding that this number was low compared to what other countries were producing. "Some of our competitors are producing up to 150 million per year."

For the country to produce more scientists, Prof Mangaliso said it should not shy away from recruiting abroad, as this would boost research and graduate training platforms.

"We can develop a stronger culture and practice of postdoctoral fellowships and make effective use of these highly skilled people to mentor young researchers.

"They could also assist more experienced researchers to cope with their heavy work loads of research, teaching and administration."  -BuaNews

Farmers And Researchers - Annan Urges Stronger Links
Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has urged African farmers to build stronger links with scientists and research institutions as part of their efforts to boost food production on the continent.

He also said that, whatever the potential future benefits of genetically modified (GM) crops, conventional seed breeding currently represented an important path towards securing a 'green revolution' in Africa, and thus of decreasing Africa's dependence on food aid.

Annan made his comments after a meeting with the Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki in Nairobi, Kenya, as the new chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), an organisation focusing on alleviating poverty and hunger in Africa.

"As we speak, many people in Africa are receiving food donations. This is however not sustainable," he said. "We need to get the right seeds into [the farmers] hands by strengthening research partnerships with local universities and other institutions."

Annan announced that over the next four years the AGRA initiative will focus on developing hardier seeds, improving soil health and use of fertilizers, improving water management, and strengthening agricultural markets. The alliance will put special emphasis on problems specific to small-scale farmers.

He also said AGRA programmes will not involve GM seeds, but will instead focus on conventional seed breeding.
"Science is evolving. We do not know what science will offer us in ten or twenty years. However, our programmes will not involve GM seeds," he said.

Annan said science and technology are becoming increasingly important to small-scale farmers.
"The cell phone revolution has come to rural Africa, and farmers can now use their cell phones to get real-time market information," Annan said, referring to the Kenya Agricultural Commodity Exchange program.

 "These are just a few of the many innovations bringing the benefits of technology and science to small-scale farmers so that they can improve their farm productivity and incomes and end the poverty that has become so entrenched in rural Africa," said Annan.

Annan said for Africa to achieve a green revolution as experienced in Asia in the 1960s, governments must provide policies that can support growth, but must be careful of obstructing progress.

Insufficient infrastructure, such as roads, poor storage facilities and weak market structures must also be addressed, he said. -SciDev

Ants Employed to Defend Mangoes
African farmers could effectively control fruit fly damage to citrus fruit, cashew and cocoa crops by using the weaver ant as a method of biological control, according to researchers.

Paul Van Mele and colleagues published their work in the June edition of the Journal of Economic Entomology.  The weaver ant, Oecophylla longinoda -- commonly found in Africa, Asia and Australia -- preys on fruit flies and is already used in several Asian countries and Australia to protect citrus and other fruits from fruit fly damage.

Fruit fly damage has a large economic impact on African farmers. As pesticides are often too expensive, they harvest fruit before it matures to prevent damage, but an estimated 40 per cent is still lost. The European Union and the United States have banned imports of West African mangoes due to fruit fly damage.

Van Mele and colleagues conducted a study in Benin to assess whether mango plantations containing weaver ants had less fruit fly infestation than those with few or no ants.

They found that where weaver ants were abundant, infestation of fruit flies of several species was significantly reduced and the plantations produced fruit of significantly better quality.

Van Mele says they intend to take the research to other African countries, including East Africa.-SciDev  Investment in Science May Be Only Key to Continent's Future.
If all the aid from Live Aid was spent on agricultural colleges rather than relief, Ethiopia would not be in difficulties today.

So says Professor Calestous Juma, co-ordinator of the UN's Millennium Project Task Force on Science, Technology and Innovation. Professor Juma is among many experts who are stressing the need to improve science research inside Africa, including forging more partnerships with UK research centres.

"Scientific collaborations with British universities will do more for Africa than distributing food aid," he told the Material World programme on BBC Radio.

In 2003, an African Union plan of action stated that 1 percent of GDP should be spent on science research. But so far, the only country to achieve this goal is South Africa.

One of the main challenges facing the continent is the lack of research inside African universities, which have traditionally concentrated on education. Many governments also remain unconvinced of the importance of scientific innovation in creating economic growth.

Experts point to other global examples where research in science and technology has saved national economies. "Forty years ago, many Asian countries were in a similar situation," explains Prof Juma. "We have to look to places like Taiwan and India and forge a new model where African universities give birth to businesses, and businesses create their own universities."

The current paucity of research facilities is leading talented graduates to leave for better careers abroad. The brain drain of doctors from Sub-Saharan Africa was highlighted in a recent report in the Lancet.

In Ghana, for example, 60 percent of doctors trained during the 1980s have left the country. Currently, there are only nine doctors for every 100,000 people in Ghana. In the UK there are 160. If they do come back, scientists often find it hard to readjust.

"When they return, many find themselves misfits," explains Prof Judi Wakhungu, executive director of the African Centre for Technology Studies at the University of Nairobi in Kenya.

"Often they've been exposed to new, dynamic ways of teaching science. But the conservative infrastructure inside African universities prevents them from applying what they've learnt."

A surprising success story in the battle against brain drain comes from Rwanda. Many migrant scientists and doctors have received personal phone calls from the president, tempting them back to the country with large salaries and high-profile research projects.

Since the Rwandan genocide, the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology has played a vital role in the country's reconstruction.

East African Business
Earliest Ancestor Emerges in Africa; an international team working in Ethiopia has found bones and teeth of the earliest known hominid, a member in good standing of humanity's evolutionary family.

The fragmentary remains come from at least five individuals—in the genus Ardipithecus—who lived between 5.2 million and 5.8 million years ago, says anthropology graduate student Yohannes Haile-Selassie of the University of California, Berkeley. He describes the finds in the July 12 Nature.

Until now, the earliest Ardipithecus fossils came from a 4.4-million-year-old Ethiopian site. Australopithecus, the genus that includes Lucy's famous remains, lived in eastern Africa no more than about 4 million years ago.

DNA studies have suggested that a common ancestor of people and chimpanzees lived in Africa anywhere from 5 million to 7 million years ago.

"Ardipithecus was close [in time] to the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans," Haile-Selassie says. "We don't know what that common ancestor looked like."

Much is also unknown about Ardipithecus' looks. The new finds consist of a partial jaw, a few teeth, several hand and foot bones, and pieces of an upper-arm bone and a collarbone. The bones are about the size of those from a modern common chimp. –Science News Online