Four students of Pakistani American descent won the coveted $1m Hult Prize in New York City last month. They were handed over their award by former US President Bill Clinton.

Recent graduates of the Rutgers University, Gia Lakhani, Hasan Usmani, Moneed Mian and Hanaa won seed funding for their transportation startup called Roshni Rides. The team devised a solution to provide affordable, readily available and reliable public transportation for informal settlements in the South Asian region. Customers have the option of using preloaded Roshni cards that act as tickets to ensure an efficient and uniform payment option.

The Hult challenge is one of the most prestigious awards for social entrepreneurs and enterprises and has gained considerable popularity in a very short span of time. The contest invites teams from all over the world to address pressing social issues centered around food and water issues, energy, climate change, sustainable growth and education.

This year’s contest on social ventures to address problems of people residing in informal settlements anywhere. After several rounds in the competition six finalists, including Team Roshni Rides and another team from Pakistan, pitched before a jury in New York to take the ultimate prize.

Roshni Rides had successfully raised around $30,000 through a crowd funding campaign to put their idea to practice in Karachi’s Orangi Town. The team felt that transportation was a major challenge for the informal communities because of lack of infrastructure and this resulted in poor access to hospitals, schools or workplaces. Due to poorly constructed roads even three wheeled rickshaws cannot make it to some of these localities and those that do often demanded often staggering fares.

Beginning with trying to build a solar powered electric rickshaw, the team ended up using ride sharing app for existing rickshaw fleets. This way the drivers could share rides and earn a higher income than what he could as an independent driver.

In the coming years, Roshni Rides hopes to use the prize money to expand the company. By 2022, they aim to have a fleet of 1,200 rickshaws across south Asia and serve 2.2 million refugees. If they meet that goal, the company is projected to make a profit of over $5 million a year through advertising revenue and fares.

A group of researchers at King Abdullah University of Sciences and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia have discovered three herbal plants which can be used to combat cancer. These plants carrying cytotoxic (harmful/destructive to living cells) potential, have traditionally been used against a host of diseases.

In an effort to devise inexpensive treatment options against cancer, a group of scientists led by Dr. Timothy Ravasi and Dr. Christian Voolstra set out to study a local plant derived agent that has the property to hamper cell growth. Timothy Ravasi – a professor of Bioscience at KAUST – has a Ph.D from the University of Milan in Italy. Ravasi who specializes in systems biology is also working with Christian Voolstra on discovering new bioactive compounds from Red Sea marine animals.

PhD student from KAUST studying anticancer potential of native plant species

The researchers discovered that a chemical compound found in plant extracts has the ability to inhibit the activity of (topoisomerase) enzymes that play a vital role in cell division. Enzymes are biological agents that accelerate chemical reactions. In order for a cell to divide and produce copies of itself the cell undergoes a process called DNA replication. The topoisomerase enzymes participate in a process that facilities the replication cycle (they correct topological problems caused by the double stranded DNA structure). Inhibitors of this enzyme are the most widely used anticancer drugs.

The researchers narrowed down their search to three plants after investigating around 52 plants for their biological properties. They used plant extracts to demonstrate that the said plants contain substances capable of acting as topoisomerase inhibitors thereby stalling uncontrolled cell growth.

This discovery builds upon a series of research in a branch of science called Natural Products Chemistry that involves the use of naturally occurring chemical compounds having therapeutic capabilities for producing drugs in the pharmaceutical industry.

This initial research although a step in the right direction is fraught with challenges. The development of new drugs derived from naturally occurring compounds is a complex and expensive process. In the Muslim World, there is an old and established practice of traditional medicine but it has been challenge to bring this traditional knowledge to the 21^st Century.

There are several research centers in Natural Products Chemistry the most notable – HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry which has the additional title of being the International Center of Chemical and Biological Sciences – has been active in the Natural Products Chemistry for many decades is seeking to develop the capacity to convert this science into pharmaceutical drugs after appropriate animal and himan testing.

While this discovery is a step in the right direction, the Muslim world has a long way to go to fully capitalize on these discoveries and need to make more focused efforts – and expend more resources – to indigenize the drug development cycle.

This humble pen picked from Jan Piotrowski, specialist in science and technology issues, says food security is an issue that touches all aspects of the sustainable development agenda, from agriculture and environmental management to economics, governance and social equality.

He also stresses that food security is a challenge with no simple solution.

True to Piotrowski’s assertions, it is estimated that the world’s population will reach around nine billion by 2050, and as a result, demand for food is going to increase.

For that reason, the Southern African Development Community is not spared by this population growth, and would need to increase crop production since it has the greatest potential to feed this projected population.

Sadly, while the world population is growing, the amount of available cropland, fresh water and other key resources is not. The number of undernourished people, for instance, already exceeds one billion.

Providing solution to these and other pending challenges demands answers to these all-important question: “How do we feed the world without exacerbating environmental problems and simultaneously cope with climate change? How can the SADC region ensure everyone has access to enough safe and nutritious food? Can science help to improve food security in the regional bloc?”

British biochemist, Professor Douglas Kell, acknowledges that food security is a complex and wide-ranging challenge but science can play an important role in improving it. “New science, new genetics, genomics, genome sequencing, modern plant breeding techniques – all of these improve all aspects of sustainable food production,” says Kell.

Sharing same sentiments, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, says science is an essential contributor to solving the triangle of the global problems of hunger, poverty and environmental degradation.

“Without sound scientific input of different kinds, the challenges will not be addressed. Science, including the biological sciences and increasingly the social and physical sciences, must be applied to agriculture, fisheries, and forestry, and to those rural, coastal, and urban ecosystems and human systems within which hunger and poverty persist,” asserts FAO.

A researcher in plant sciences, Professor Dale Sanders, is of the view that science, especially plant science offers new ways to “sustainably increase crop yields, while at the same time reducing inputs such as fertiliser and pesticides.”

Further to that, Dr Achim Dobermann, soil scientist and agronomist, believes science is key in increasing food security, but so are policies and strategies. “Science can offer tools and strategies that are critical in increasing food security; science programmes for crop improvement are essential for future food security but policies must change, too,” says Dobermann.

However, not everyone supports the idea that increasing yields through scientific advance will deliver food security.

Tim Lang, an expert in food policy, says just focusing on the role science can play in increasing food production is ‘nonsense’.

“I belong to a school of analysis that says the problem of food security is not just scientific or technical, but the problem is societal, cultural and economic. This appeal that only science will resolve the food problem is, therefore, folly. It is bad policy,” he says.

Accordingly, Professor Lang calls for a greater focus on the social dimension of food policy – behaviour, consumption, expectations. “Policies should encourage farmers to adopt alternative strategies, and must be reformed to stimulate innovation, and access to new technologies,” he adds.

This means policy makers in countries within and across the SADC region must support research that improves lives and livelihoods of citizens. They need to focus on cutting edge technologies and state-of-the-art developments to guide the regional bloc to solutions in challenging areas.

However, in most – if not all – SADC countries, the ‘extension’ systems that bridge the gap between laboratories and farmers’ fields are often weak, forming major obstacles to the diffusion of scientific knowledge.

Therefore, governments, policy decision makers and other critical stakeholders must work to avert this challenge.

They simply need to collaborate across disciplines and across borders as science, to improve food security, needs more development.

Honestly, with proper planning, science can help improve food security not only in the SADC region but in the entire world. SADC countries must, therefore, harness the best technologies, building the required infrastructure, developing effective institutions and crafting appropriate policies with a view to realising the full potential of the region’s agrifood systems to contribute to broad-based economic growth.

Source: The Southern Times

The relationship between religion and science is a very controversial one. The antagonism between Christianity and science is well known and documented, being the case of Galileo Galilei and Kaplan.  Any scientific inquiry questioning or challenging the scientific position of the Church was declared heretic.

In the case of the relationship between Islam and science, Islam considers the natural world and scientific inquiry as non-“sacred” spheres in the sense of Christianity’s view, for Islam, the nature of scientific inquiry is error and changeable laws and paradigms for explaining the natural world, even though the natural world is sacred as a manifestation of the creator, scientific inquiry is dynamic and serves as a tool of knowing and getting closer to the creator, changes in scientific paradigms is the natural course of the natural worlds realm and study.

The question of the reconciliation between Islam and science, is assuming, that there is a tension or contradiction between the two. As it has been stated, from the philosophical point of view, there is no tension since the study of the natural world is considered in Islam as a human activity, a way of knowing the creation and the divine manifestations through the study of nature. As a result, Islam does not claim that its revelation contains sacred and eternal scientific truths.

For Islam, the Qur’an is a miracle itself, it contains enormous references to science from encouragement, to studying the natural word, to the pursuit of knowledge and scientific references, to embryology, sea life etc. It is important to mention, that some marginal school of thought intends to prove the divine source of the Qur’an, by stressing the scientific discoveries mentioned in the Qur’an, discoveries unknown by humanity until the twenty-century. This position does not represent the mainstream discourse about the relationship between Islam and science.

The Qur’an is not a scientific book, it is a divine revelation for humanity, the guidance for the Islamic way of life. Revelation is the primary source for the believer, reason is very important, but it is secondary with respect to revelation. Putting reason as a primary source for belief, is not in line with the teachings of Islam. Reason is the tool for science; revelation is the tool for life.

The idea of the reconciliation between Islam and modern science, came from the controversy about the idea of evolution and natural selection. In this respect, Islam is not against the idea of evolution, it is against the idea of natural selection since it contradicts creationism. In other words, it is against the dogmatic imposition of “scientific truths”, in order to promote atheism, secularism or religious doctrines, for which the role of the creator in the universe is secondary. On the other hand, Islam is in favour of knowledge, scientific inquiry, the deconstruction of scientific dogmas, and especially represents an alternative, in terms of ethics in the modern and contemporary science.

Without the recognition of the creator, the purpose of the universe and the natural world in the relationship between God and man and the ethical responsibility of man towards nature and humankind, humanity will continue to witness the destruction of the environment, the unethical usage of science to promote war and genocides, especially the war and persecution of religions based on their rejection of the dominant scientific truth, for the “progressive scientists” and “free spirits”, whoever rejects the scientific truth belongs to fundamentalism, extremism and a “danger” for children and youth. Modern and contemporary science is in need of the infusion of ethical values, accountability, responsibility and the humanization of science.

The assumption of a free value science, is no longer arguable in light with use in academic circles of plagiarism, corruption of the evidence and data for ideological purposes. The scientist should have the right to apply positive ethical values to their practice, and the imposition of the dominant values against creationism is the opposite of free inquiry, since revelation is not the source of scientific inquiry, it is the source of ethics and in order to apply those values to the scientific enterprise, it is necessary that the metaphysical recognition of the existence of divine entity, together with the axiological ethics put science to the service of humanity, instead of nature to the service of capitalism, materialism and consumerism.

The most important factor in promoting creativity and innovation within the Muslim societies, is by inculcating the principle of moderation in the scientific enterprise. Thus, Islamic moderation must promote the accountability and responsibility of man towards nature as a sign and manifestation of the creator of the universe, removing the ego of modern man denying the creator and divinizing the domination of reason over revelation, by claiming that the scientific enterprise can deliver absolute truths, like the Darwinian interpretation used to deny creationism.

In this context, the purpose of the scientific enterprise is the pursuing of knowledge as a virtue encouraged by divine revelation and the ultimate goal is to get closer to the creator through his creation. The Islamic civilization have achieved the peak of scientific flourishment, especially in al-Andalus, one of the factor for the advancement of science superior to any civilization even Christian Europe at that time, was also the practice of moderation. In fact, the respect for cultural diversity, the social cooperation among Muslims, Christian and Jews on scientific and philosophical matters is emblematic.

The Islamic civilization considers knowledge as a non-sacred territory, Andalusi Muslims were able to Islamize and re-interpret the knowledge and works of Greeks and other civilizations’, in order to promote the universal “ornament of the world”. It was the practice of “fundamentalist” doctrines, denying cultural diversity and respect for cultures within and outside Muslim communities, as one of the factors dealing with the decline and end of an almost eight hundred years of scientific advancement, lead by the Islamic civilization.

There is a possibility for the Muslim world to practice “Islamic science”, the scientific enterprise infused by the tawhidic worldview, which is not in contradiction with the study of the existing technical and scientific knowledge, benefiting societies from it and redefining the metaphysical, philosophical and axiological assumptions of contemporary science, by restoring the prominence of the creator in the future scientific enterprise.

References

1. Muzaffar Iqbal. The Making of the Islamic Science. Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust, 2009

2. Menocal, Maria. The Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture. New Have: Yale University Press, 2008.

3. Menocal, Maria. The Ornaments of the World: How Muslim, Jews and Christian created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain. New York: Brown and Company, 2002.

4. Goldstein, Bernard. “Astronomy as a “Neutral Zone”: Interreligious Cooperation in Medieval Spain”. Journal of Medieval Encounters 15(2009): 159-174.

5. Jim al –Khalili .The House of Wisdom How Arabic Science saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance. New York: Penguin Books, 2010

6. Saliba, George. Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance. Massachussetts Institute of Technology Press, 2007.

7. Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Muzaffar Iqbal. Islam, Science, Muslims and Technology. Islamic Kuala Lumpur: Book Trust, 2010.

8. Sheldrake, Rupert. The Science Delusion. Hooder & Stoughton, 2012.

9. Turner, Howard. Science in Medieval Islam. Austin: University of Texas, 2006

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The world’s worst Ebola epidemic has endangered harvests and sent food prices soaring in West Africa, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Tuesday, warning the problem would intensify in coming months.

The FAO issued a special alert for Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the three countries most affected by the outbreak, which has killed at least 1,550 people since the virus was detected in the remote jungles of southeastern Guinea in March.

Restrictions on people’s movements and the establishment of quarantine zones to contain the spread of the hemorrhagic fever have led to panic buying, food shortages and price hikes in countries ill-prepared to absorb the shock.

“In the three countries severely affected by Ebola, the agriculture and food security situation is really deteriorating,” said Vincent Martin, head of an FAO unit in Dakar that is coordinating the agency’s response.

“People either cannot afford to buy food or it is not accessible anymore,” he said in an interview, adding that the food crisis could hinder containment of the disease, which is typically spread via the bodily fluids of the sick.

Rice and maize production will be scaled back during the fast-approaching main harvest season as migration and movement restrictions cause labor shortages on farms, the FAO said.

Cash crops like palm oil, cocoa and rubber will be seriously affected, squeezing the purchasing power of many families, who will also lose income and nutrition due to the ban on bush meat.

The price of cassava at a market in the Liberian capital Monrovia rose 150 percent in the first weeks of August, the FAO said, adding that currency depreciation in Sierra Leone and Liberia was likely to force prices up further.

Border crossing closures and the reduction of trade through seaports have tightened food supplies in the three countries, which are all net cereal importers, and propelled prices upwards, exacerbated by higher transport costs.

EMERGENCY FUNDING

The U.N. World Food Programme and the FAO have approved an emergency program to deliver 65,000 tonnes of food to 1.3 million people affected by Ebola over a three-month period.

Food is to be shipped to Ebola patients, suspected cases living in isolation and to communities within the badly-affected border zone of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone that has been surrounded by a “cordon sanitaire” to prevent the further spread of the disease.

In a sign of the lack of provisions within treatment centers, a man escaped from an Ebola treatment center in Monrovia this week and walked through a market in search of food.

“Sometimes you have an area right next to a quarantined area where there is food but you can’t get it there,” Martin said.

Liberia, where cases are increasing fastest, said in August that it has only enough rice stocks to last for about a month.

The WFP says it needs to raise $70 million to pay for its emergency program.

In addition to this sum, the FAO is seeking to raise $20 million to help isolated populations grow their own crops and support themselves, Martin said.

“Delivering food directly to the population is not sufficient. What the FAO is proposing is to see how we can help restore their livelihoods and help them cope by providing tools to produce good and nutritious food,” he said, and raising chickens or short-cycle crops could form part of the solution.

Source: www.reuters.com

The sustainability, health and ethics of the global food system are an increasingly relevant topic of research and policy. Changes in the world’s food system have been incredibly dramatic in the past few decades, impacting producers, consumers, institutions, governments and the greater environment. While this food system provides for over 7 billion people, a significant proportion of the world’s population is improperly nourished, and the land, environment, and organisms are damaged through drastic land use change, deforestation, pollution and loss of biodiversity. In light of these impacts of our food choices, ‘sustainable diets’, ‘global food systems’ and ‘sustainable food security,’ are vital concepts in a world threatened by climate change.

Food sciences, food geographies and environmental sciences (in themselves, applied sciences), involve the active collaboration of engineering, and the physical and biological sciences. Moving beyond the introductory questions of production, consumption and appreciation of food, studies of food critically examine issues of environment, identity, justice and economy of food. However, most discussions of religion and food are confined to religious injunctions of permissible/impermissible foods and the food habits and traditional cuisines of religio-cultural groups. While these are very important, particularly in a rapidly globalizing community, this narrow focus side-steps the significant potential that religions like Islam have to offer for improving the food system.

The food system in its current form appears to have evolved primarily in a reactive manner, driven by demand and conforming to the ideals of the modern commodity-driven world. The stark contrasts of immense tracts of intensively farmed crops and animals, resulting in surgically clean and impersonal packages of food and the small, personalized gardens and co-op farms with their intimate relationship to food, exist in the same world and at the same time. Although we are recognizing the dangers of intensive agriculture to our health and the environment, it is still needed to provide a greater proportion of the world’s population, with the basic food energy required for the sustenance of life. The weaknesses in distribution networks, the geographically imposed boundaries for food production, still require that the perceived ideal of the locally grown food products are economically beyond the reach of most people. While research and innovation continues, for a variety of reasons, the current troublesome form of the latest food system must continue until a cleaner, more efficient and dynamic alternative is found.

Islam, like many other religions, offers a number of guidelines pertinent to food. Muslims have been encouraged to ‘eat of the good things’ (Quran 2:172) provided to them. Permissible/impermissible foods are frequently discussed in scholarly literature, and can be a prime source of concern when living in non-Muslim countries. However, expanding the field of interest to environment and ethics, Islam can provide a greater number of guidelines that can be applied to the food system. Ethically aware and sustainable food companies already emphasize similar ideals, by sourcing responsibly and by ‘putting a face’ on their products. Entrepreneurial endeavors are engaging with food at every step, now notably by tackling food waste, redefining what classifies as ‘waste’ and enjoining people to consume mindfully. Muslim communities will do well to apply such ideals to their food systems and force the discussion beyond issues of the halaal/haraam dichotomy and consider healthy, ethical and sustainable diets.

Scientific innovation for the food system mostly targets intensification (with the best of intentions in most cases), resilience and safety. We want the most of the best food, with the least resources input, to be distributed as quickly as possible, while remaining as safe as possible. Compromises have been made in this process, with disastrous consequences. The advent of the ‘broiler chicken’, public concerns over GMO crops, manure flood disasters, resistant pests and waterlogged lands are common sights in our foodscapes. In parallel, technological innovations like no-till farming, pest-resistant crops, fertilizer improvements and vertical farming are increasingly common as well. However, like most innovations in history, while the idea may be touted as a stroke of brilliance, actual implementation is met with problems of finances and strong resistance over many fronts: resistance over changing deeply ingrained activities, resistance over the potential loss of revenue, and resistance over the potential of failure. Innovation is always challenged, but often worked through, as can be seen through the successes of the food system.

Optimistically speaking, the opportunities in this system are boundless. Enterprising individuals across the world are working through solutions, resulting in advancements like highly productive home-window farms, bringing hydroponics to the average consumer, improving kitchen gardening, and many others. Communication, collaboration and the potential of connecting with experts, entrepreneurs, financial backers, producers and consumers from every corner of the world, are the biggest strengths at our disposal to drive innovation in science. The expertise and confidence contained in the Muslim world is staggering; seen in the research produced in their institutions and the risks and chances taken by their individuals to improve their communities.

The global food system is a behemoth that connects every single human being on this planet. There are few human constructions that can boast of such an achievement. Each decision made on where one shops for food, what diet they follow and what happens to the smallest scrap of food waste, has an effect on this system. The Muslim world has the opportunity to shoulder some of the responsibility to ensure that it functions to the best of its ability, for the good of the planet and all of mankind. And when it comes to matters of everyday essentials, of something as intimately relevant and viscerally profound as food, no challenge is too big, or, opportunity too small.

The current definition of food security explains the concept as, the availability of food to individuals within national boundaries. That definition in some way, mandates governments to encourage individuals, and by extension, communities to engage in farming practices that will ensure their food security. What this means is, that rather than focus investment in commercial large scale farming, governments should search out ways of supporting local efforts at food security.

Tassa

At the core of agricultural efforts at the local and community level, is traditional farming techniques. Traditional or indigenous knowledge based agricultural practices, are easily accessible and inexpensive, and governments that have supported citizens to build-on or scale-up traditional farming practices, have recorded successes. An example that will be explored here, is the predominantly Muslim nation of Niger in West Africa, which has, by scaling-up a traditional irrigation technique known as Tassa, proven that food security at the community level need not be founded on expensive and difficult-to-sustain, imported western technology.

Niger is, by land mass, the largest nation in African South Sahara, with a 94 percent Muslim population. 80 percent of Niger’s land area of 1,270,000 km, is covered by the Sahara desert, making the arid nation much insecure in the area of food cultivation. Niger’s food insecurity situation, is reflected in its ranking consistently at the bottom in the United Nation’s Human Development Index (HDI) – 186th out of 186 countries ranked in 2012. Niger’s land locked position and the low level of education, has led to very poor quality of life for the country’s populace, reflected in the dearth of infrastructure, poor healthcare quality and environmental degradation.

Several failed attempts were made by the World Bank and other agricultural funding agencies, to commercially irrigate large areas of the patchy terrains of Niger . Through that process, the Government of Niger has incurred tremendous amount of debt, in efforts to apply western irrigation technology, in pushing back desertification, and to improve soil quality towards increased agricultural output. However, a simple, inexpensive and sustainable Nigerien traditional farming technique, known as Tassa, has succeeded tremendously in boosting household food security and holds substantial promises, if adequate investment is made, of mitigating agricultural risks.

Origin of Tassa

Tassa is a traditional practice in the Sahel, that is located in the use of planting pits to reclaim land lost, or about to be lost, to degradation. The modern and improved practice of Tassa in Niger, can be traced to the predominantly Muslim Yatenga province of Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso, it can be said, learnt the hard way: earlier on than Niger; in the 1960s and 1970s, international donors and multi-lateral institutions invested heavily in two unsuccessful major projects in the Yatenga province of Burkina Faso, aimed at reduction of soil erosion over thousands of hectares. The project was single handedly formulated and implemented by donors. Indigenous farming knowledge and practices of the Burkinabes, was considered of little or no use in policy action. The dismal failure of both projects, brought the Yatenga province back to a worsened state of soil erosion, across previously farmed spaces . Local farmers, left with no other alternative, resorted to the traditional practice of planting pits to check against soil erosion. Burkina Faso calls its planting pit Zai, and the successes experienced by farmers who utilized this age-long practice, include rehabilitation of tens of thousands of hectares of land and up to 94 per cent of cultivated land in the several villages, which adopted the practice.

Tassa in Niger

Thirteen local Nigerien farmers from Tahoua, went on a study tour of the Zai practice in Burkina Faso, in 1988. The farmers realized, that what they were learning, was a more developed variation of their own rarely used traditional land rehabilitation technique of planting pits. The farmers returned home and most decided, to revive their own traditional planting pit technique known as Tassa. With four hectares of land, which included a display field close to a major road, the farmers began a pilot Tassa project, that rapidly expanded to 70 hectares in that year alone . The farmers who cultivated using the Tassa technique, ended with a reasonably higher harvest than their peers, notwithstanding that it was a drought year. Tassa has been credited with the rehabilitation of thousands of hectares of land in Niger, and by 2008, had become “an integral part of the local farming scene and is still spreading at a rate of about two to three hectares per year.”

How Tassa Works

Tassa aims to fully rehabilitate severely degraded farmland, that is impenetrable by water. By digging a grid of planting pits on very hard – rock textured – soil. Nigerien farmers were innovative in their approach, by increasing the depth and diameter of the pits, and adding “organic matter, such as manure, to the bottom of the basins.” The planting pits are able to hold water for unusually extended periods of time, which then allow crops in the farmland to survive drought. Since farmers are able to dig the pits during dry season, the land is ready and waiting for cultivation, by the time rainy season approaches, cutting out several months of wait time. In addition to its previously enumerated benefits, Tassa has enabled Nigerien farmers to “effectively raise their yields from virtually nothing, to 300 to 400 kilograms per hectare in a year of low rainfall, and up to 1,500 kilograms or more per hectare in a good year.”

Conclusion

• Scaling-up traditional knowledge: Tassa has shown that communities, before seeking expensive and sometimes unsuitable foreign solutions to food security challenges, might do well to explore traditional knowledge based practices, that might have been forgotten or are rarely used.

• Independence from donors: Following successive failed efforts at an outside-in, and overly dependent approach to solving the problem of soil erosion and desertification, Nigerien farmers displayed a high level of single mindedness and independence, by searching out and reintroducing a hitherto ignored farming practice.

• Cooperation/interdependence among Muslim communities: By borrowing from another Muslim community in Burkina Faso, Nigerien farmers have leveraged on the social capital provided by religion, to tap into the indigenous resources of their Burkina Faso neighbors.

Chika Ezeanya Ph.D. is an Africa focused researcher, writer and public intellectual. Chika emphasizes indigenous knowledge and home-grown solutions in her writings on Africa, some of which can be read on her blog – www.chikaforafrica.com.

References:

1. Reij, C., G. Tappan, and M. Smale. 2009. Agroenvironmental Transformation in the Sahel: Another Kind of “Green Revolution.” IFPRI Discussion Paper. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute.

2. Belemvire, A.,A. Maiga, H. Sawadogo, M.Savadogo, and S. Oudrago. 2008. Evaluation des impacts biophysiques et socio-economiques des investissements dans les actions digestion des ressourves naturelles au Nord du Plateau Central du Burkina Faso. Rapport de synthese Etude Sahel Burkina Faso. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso: Comite Permanenet Inter Etats pour la Lutte contre la Secheresse au Sahel.

3. IFAD. (1998). The Niger Special Country Programme – Phase 2 (PSN-11). Rome: IFAD.

5. IFAD. (2008). Tassa and Soil Fertility in Niger. Rome: IFAD.

6. Kabore, P.D., and C. Reij (2004). The Emergence and Spreading of an Improved Traditional Soil and Water Conservation Practice in Burkina Faso. Environment and Production Technology Division Discussion Paper No. 114. Washington, DC. International Food Policy Research Institute.

Humankind is facing big challenges in the form of Energy, water, poverty, education etc. The first millennium development goal (MDGs) as identified by the UN , was eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. To eradicate hunger, we need to achieve sustainable food security. According to Rio+20 – UN Conference on Sustainable Development, Food Security is defined as “when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food, to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” . Some people see genetically modified crops, as playing a big role, in helping to reach this goal.

What is GMO

Genetic modification is the technology, that employs genetic material from unrelated organisms and injects them into another organism (plant or animal), to confer the recipient organism new and desirable features i.e. higher yield, pest resistance, drought tolerance etc.

According to the ISAAA report , developing countries are at the top of the GMO production scale, with USA ranked number 1 in the production of genetically modified organisms, while Brazil is ranked second and Argentina is ranked 3rd. In the case of the Muslim world, only two countries are among the international GMOs producers: Pakistan, ranked 8th globally and Egypt ranked 24th.

At the moment, there are around 160 million hectares around the world cultivated with GMOs. Out of these, more than 30 million hectares are in Brazil and around 24 million hectares are in Argentina. The production is focused on Maize, soya beans and cottons. The Brazilian case, in particular, can be inspiring for many countries in the developing world. They started to use GM crops in the early 1990s and now Brazil has become the engine of GMOs growth around the world. Currently, Brazil cultivates around 50% of its lands with GM crops. They can now develop, deliver and approve a new state of the art biotech crop, with their own indigenous resources.

Lack of GMO’s in the Islamic World

The world is divided into two parties: one party is against the extensive use of GMOs, which is lead by the EU. They prefer organic matter and perceive it to be healthier. They are of the belief, that GMO’s do more harm than good. The second party, headed by the US, is supportive in using GMOs widely. They argue that GMO’s have no proven risks and hence, there is no harm in using them. A food security expert at a leading university in the US, Dr. David Comell, is of the opinion that “The GMO movement must continue. The worlds hunger is getting ridiculous. In such a case, the only solution is GMOs, GMOs and more GMOs.”

Positive outcomes of producing GMOs are the expected high yield, resistance to pests and drought tolerance. But those who are against GMOs think, that GMOs can introduce allergens and toxins into food, GMOs may lead to developing antimicrobial resistance, constitute risk to biodiversity, may lead to creation of superweeds (if the resistance genes transferred to weeds) and other environmental risks and it may cause adverse changes in the nutrient contents of crops.

Right or wrong?

In addition to the previous general concerns about GMOs in the Islamic world, another debate bordering on religious dogma, has surfaced in the Muslim world. This debate revolves around whether GMOs are religiously acceptable (‘halal’) for the Muslim community to consume. This is where opinions differ. Food policy professor Dr. Adan Saleh believes that, “We are losing a great chance by consuming ourselves in this haram-halal debate. While other countries are progressing by employing this innovative technology, we are again left with mere issues. There is nothing religiously ‘unacceptable’ in my opinion. It is simple science and nothing else.”

However, there are others who differ in opinion, such as agricultural researcher Adeeba Khairun, who has spent the last few years researching on GMO and feels that “there are some aspects to GMO that require more research, only after which it can be deemed appropriate or inappropriate.” Several Islamic countries have sufficient resources and expertise, that can enable them to lead the scene in this field and set the ground.

If we look at the different concerns around GMOs, are they really valid? To date, there does not seem to be any substantial evidence of GMO crops that caused weed growth, as cross-pollination rates are very low. Similarly, there is no evidence of a large-scale increase in pesticide resistance in insects or antibiotic resistance due to GMOs. GMOs have been used in USA since two decades and none of the previous anti-GMO claims has been recorded.

One ironic question arises here, is that while the Muslim countries might not be indigenously producing any GMO’s, yet are they still not consuming such products through imports? GMOs exist in more than 80% of food packaged in USA and whats more is, that USA and Canada have no restrictions on labeling GM food . When we are consuming GMOs already, then why not produce it internally as well? This will enable the Muslim countries to not only become self-sufficient and rely less on imports but, also set their own rules and regulations so as to ensure that GMOs will be appropriate to consume.

One Major risk of using GMOs seeds is the monopoly of large companies, but this can be regulated through tough monitoring and fair legislation, which ensure rights of small farmers as well as big companies.

The way forward

GMOs is not the only way to achieve food security but, it is one option that should be explored carefully. In a world of increasing hunger facing drastic climate changes, once cannot afford to ignore GMOs as a possible option for improving food security. Moreover, if the Muslim countries come together in developing this field within the Muslim regions, then it can not only aid food security but, also work towards the unison of the Muslim world.

The Author is an Associate professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Head of center for scientific excellence “Helwan Structural Biology Research” (HSBR) and Co-chair of the Global Young Academy (GYA), Helwan University, Egypt.

References:

http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

http://www.uncsd2012.org/index.php?page=view&type=400&nr=227&menu=45

http://www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/briefs/43/executivesummary/

http://healthresearchfunding.org/pros-cons-genetically-modified-foods/

Divides in Muslim World

The World Summit on Food Security (1996), defines food security as “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”. The three pillars of food security are: affordability, availability and food quality and safety (or utilization). Unlike other commodities, food is a basic human right, besides education and freedom (UDHR Article 25(1)). More than 800 million people throughout the world, do not have enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs. Some of these countries are Muslim countries such as Sudan, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Yemen. However, some Muslim countries, particularly oil rich countries, score good marks in terms of food security, such as, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait (with an average of 71) (EUI, 2014). A non-oil based economy that is able to reach a relatively high score, is Malaysia (68). The highest score is achieved by the US (89.3) and the lowest is Congo (24.8). The lowest among Muslim countries is Sudan (32.7). (Figure 1)

Figure 1: The Food Security Score of Selected Muslim Countries and Regions, 2014
Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit (2014).

Structurally, there is a clear divide among the Muslim countries, that is, the oil rich economies and the non-oil based economies. The rich oil countries, are characterised by oil-centric economies, with heavy dependence on food imports. With large surpluses in government coffers, these countries are comfortable in “affordability”, which allows them the “availability”, as well “quality and safe” food advantages. In short, these countries are fiscally sound to reap the benefits of food security through import. Due to the numerous conflicts that exist in the Middle East regions, there are oil rich countries that are experiencing fiscal strain, such as Syria, Iraq and Iran. Among the non-oil based economies, the countries that are seriously challenged in terms of their food security situation are, West Bank and Gaza, Sudan and Bangladesh. Clearly, economic wealth is highly correlated with food security.

However, high income breeds “excessive” lifestyle. It may have some bearings on “obesity”. Selected Muslim countries hold world’s high records of obesity. As shown in Figure 2, highest prevalence of obesity are observed in selected Arabic Muslim countries such as Kuwait (43%), Saudi Arabia (35%), Egypt (35%), Jordan (34%), UAE (34%) and Syria (32%). Hence, despite having a comfortable food security status, obesity prevalence may cause “food insecurity” to these countries, due to poor diet and lifestyle. The lowest prevalence of obesity, is observed in food insecure countries, such as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nepal, Vietnam, India, Cambodia, Niger and Chad (with an average of 2.5%).

Figure 2: Prevalence of Obesity in Selected Countries (%), 2014 Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit (2014).

The countries that are plagued with food insecurity, are normally poor in resources, slow growth and stuck with political conflicts and instability, such as West Bank and Gaza, Sudan and Yemen. While financial richness may hold the key to food security, its sustainability lies on the ability of the world, to supply a stable supply of food, which as shown in 2008, may not be so in the years to come.

Changing Dynamics

The dynamics of food security have changed. The landmark was made in 2008, when the world saw an unprecedented increase in food prices, causing food insecurity among the poor worldwide. The crisis ignited political upheaval and social unrest in some Muslim countries, such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Somalia and Yemen. Shocks are not new in the food market, but what separates the 2008 from the earlier ones, are the dynamics of it. Figure 3 indicates the continuous prevalence of shocks over time in the case of rice (1960M01-72014M04).

Note: signifies “price crisis” Figure 3: The Monthly Price of Rice, Jan. 1960 – July 2014 (USD/tonne) Source: International Monetary Fund (2014).

Figure 4: Selected Commodity Prices (Jan. 1980 – July 2014) (USD/tonne) Source: IMF (2014).

Consumers worldwide have enjoyed low agricultural and food prices, in the last three decades or so, until 2008. The crisis exhibits a number of pertinent behaviours. The price trends of the major commodities such as crude oil, vegetable oils (represented by palm and soy bean oils) and cereals (rice, maize, wheat and corn), have all experienced a dramatic increase in the beginning of 2006, reaching its peak in July 2008 (Figure 4). The commodity prices are found to move in tandem with each other, as well as crude oil prices. The correlation between the commodities and crude oil prices has increased after 2007 (Figure 5). Note also the growing volatility during the crisis and beyond.

Figure 5: Correlations between Commodity and Crude Oil Prices, Before and After 2007

Like any other price crisis, the fundamentals are the usual explanants of the situation. The demand was chasing the supply, which was constrained by factors such as weather problems, besides other supply determinants, such as low stock. On the demand side, globalization has brought about growth to the world’s populous countries (China and India) and other developing countries, which increased demand for food; particularly high-end products, such as meat and dairy products.

This crisis was unique in the sense, that it revealed a number of systemic factors as well as the emergence of new elements in the market. The systemic factors include: (i) The Green Revolution. which was introduced in the 1960s, has expired in that, its chemical-based input technology was damaging the soil and water, which affected efficiency and productivity. (ii) Despite a good start with Green Revolution, most developing countries have not invested enough in R&D, to improve variety as well as production technology. Investment in agriculture remains low and slow. This is proven by the fact, that the exportable surplus of rice remains very thin at 7% of the domestic production, due to low productivity.

The new elements were: (i) The emergence of demand for biofuel, which resulted in demand for agricultural feedstocks, such as crude palm oil (for bio-diesel) and corn and sugar cane (for bioethanol). All these crops are land intensive. Hence, food production is now competing with feedstock for land and water, creating “food-fuel” dilemma for resources. (ii) The commodity speculation activities in the west, has aggravated the price swings in the world market.

Way Forward: Food First

The Muslim world should not be complacent with hedging on oil, to “buy” food security. The future of world food supply, is challenged on many fronts particularly, climate change and resource depletion, while the world population and hence, demand for food, continues to increase. Rationalizations are needed to improve the food security situation in all countries, oil rich or poor countries alike. There is dire need to intensify R&D, as well as investment in agriculture, to increase production in a sustainable manner. Studies have shown that R&D in agriculture, gives the highest return to agricultural production, followed by education and roads and other amenities. In terms of poverty eradication, education yields highest return followed by R&D and infrastructural development (Table 1). Without doubt, the future of food security lies largely on R&D and innovations, particularly in producing varieties that are resistant to climate change, sustainable farming practices, post-harvest technology and preservation of resources and environment. In short, a “greener” Green Revolution is imperative for the sustainability of food in the future.

Table 1: Ranking of Return of Public Expenditure on Agricultural Production and Poverty Eradication

Fatimah Mohamed Arshad is Director, Institute of Agricultural and Food Policy Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia.

References

1. The human right to adequate food and freedom from hunger

http://www.fao.org/docrep/w9990e/w9990e03.htm

2. Global food security index 2014: An Annual Measure of the state of global food security

http://foodsecurityindex.eiu.com/Resources

3. Fan, Shenggen (2007). Investment Priorities for Hunger and Poverty, paper presented in a seminar titled “Agricultural and Rural Development for Reducing Poverty and Hunger in Asia: In Pursuit of Inclusive and Sustainable Growth”, organised by IFPRI and ADB, Manila, August 9-11.

4. International Monetary Fund (2014). Commodity Prices

http://www.imf.org

5. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

6. World Summit on Food Security

http://www.fao.org/wsfs/world-summit/en/?no_cache=1

It may look harmless – pretty even – but in the wheat belt that stretches from Morocco to Turkey, it’s a sign of ruined crops and dashed hopes. It’s known as yellow rust, but to farmers in the Muslim world, its presence means just one thing: hunger.

Food for All

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food security “exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs … for an active and healthy life.” Sadly, such conditions are becoming increasingly rare.

This year, the population of our planet reached seven billion – and it’s still rising. As our resources are stretched to their limit, many nations are already going hungry. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimated, that nearly 870 million – that’s one in eight people worldwide – were chronically undernourished in 2010-2012.

This situation is expected to be exacerbated by droughts, floods, storms, rising sea levels, and failing crops: the real world effects of what many people still consider to be ‘hypothetical’ climate change.

While it’s known that in some instances, the Greenhouse Gases that cause climate change can encourage crops to grow faster using less water (a process called carbon dioxide fertilization), the long-term prognosis for world food security is poor. In some wheat-growing regions, production is projected to decline by as much as 47 percent as these new, extreme climatic conditions hit home. Nations such as Algeria, Morocco, Pakistan and the Sudan, are among a dozen identified as being most at risk.

Wheat Rust

Wheat is the most important food crop in the world, after rice. Every year, wheat feeds about 2.5 billion people in 90 developing nations. When it comes to food security, though, the world is currently in a state of red alert and much of that alert is focused on wheat crops.

In addition to the threats posed by climate change, crop disease is a significant constraint on food production, and wheat rust is one of the most aggressive diseases to blight agriculture in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Wheat rust (Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici), is a parasitic fungus, that kills or stunts bread and durum wheat crops. There are three basic types: stem (black) rust, leaf (brown) rust and yellow (stripe) rust, which leaves characteristic yellow spore lines along the plant’s leaf. The fungus has been known and feared, since human records began. In fact the Romans called it ‘numen’, meaning divine power – and no wonder .

Historically, wheat rust was believed to be a problem that mainly affected crops in cooler, Northern climates, but it’s an adaptable and tenacious beast. It loves the sort of humid conditions that climate change brings and outbreaks, such as the one that devastated crops in Ethiopia in 2010, have shown that new strains of the fungus are perfectly at home, even in equatorial climates. So, in addition to regions like North America, today’s wheat rust hot spots also include Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, and Yemen. Further more, plant pathology experts at the International Wheat Stripe Rust Symposium, have reported, that under the right conditions, a rust infection could be carried by the wind from one crop to another, in just 24 hours.

Combining Forces

Given the adaptability and wide geographical spread of the wheat rust fungus, a global pandemic isn’t merely possible; it’s probable.

In any given year, farmers worldwide can expect to lose around two percent of their crop to wheat rust. Yet, when the right conditions occur, as they did in Pakistan in 1977-1978, losses rose to 30 percent in the Punjab.   In 2010, the disease inflicted up to 80 percent losses across the Middle East, where wheat provides 40 percent of an average daily calorie intake. In 2013 it struck again, affecting 40 percent of the crops in Morocco. It’s easy to imagine the human cost behind such startling statistics. Fortunately all is not gloom and doom.

Back in the 1970s, the problem faced by farmers in Pakistan was, that they didn’t have any resistant seed – varieties of wheat that had been bred to withstand rust attack. Small landholders had been reluctant to invest in the expensive new seeds, when they’d been getting good crop yields, from tried and tested wheat stocks for decades.

The government stepped in, importing resistant seed stocks from both Mexico and India. They also established an Agricultural Research Council, to coordinate research efforts and share their experiences with their neighbours.

Saved by Science?

There’s no doubt, that science is a crucial ally in the battle against wheat rust, whether it’s fungicides to fight the rust when it attacks, or new, resistant seed stocks to stop the fungus in its tracks. Emergency disease control plans, need to be drawn up to cover all crucial crops and – vitally – countries need to educate and encourage new generations of agricultural specialists, plant pathologists and agronomists.

At the forefront of the fight, are organizations such as the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), whose work on yellow rust started in 1977. Their ‘Stripe Rust Network’ now stretches from the highlands of Ethiopia, to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The Network has already done invaluable work identifying dominant rust strains, developing and deploying resistant seed varieties, establishing physical spore traps and monitoring and sharing information throughout the Network.

Speaking during the 2nd International Wheat Stripe Rust Symposium, Dr. Mahmoud Solh, Director General of ICARDA, reinforced the message, however, that science is no lone saviour. As Pakistan discovered during its own rust crisis in the 1970s,  international co-operation is vital when dealing with an enemy that has no respect for international borders. “We have to focus on partnership and networking, strengthening science and policy dialogue between researchers and national governments, to control stripe rust at both the regional and global level,” he said.

The father of the Green Revolution and Nobel Laureate Dr Norman Borlaug, commented in his seminal article for the New York Times that, “Rust Never Sleeps” . It’s an ever mutating disease and while those in the poorer, developing world may well bear the brunt of future outbreaks, the problem of safeguarding food security is a global one which must be shared by all of mankind.

Paula Hammond is a professional author of over 35 non-fiction books, including popular science volumes on fossils, dinosaurs and endangered animals. She has a passion for learning and the wonders of the natural world

References:

1. World Food Summit Plan of Action, “Rome Declaration on World Food Security”, Nov. 1996. http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/w3613e/w3613e00.htm

2. World Population Clock see: http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

3. FAO Report, “The State of Food Security in the World”, Rome 2012. http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/i3027e/i3027e00.htm

4. World Bank Report April 2008, “Adaptation and Development”. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTCC/Resources/BaliBreakfast13april.pdf

5. FAO study quoted by the World Watch Institute. http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6271

6. World Bank Report April 2008, “Adaptation and Development”. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTCC/Resources/BaliBreakfast13april.pdf

7. ICARDA. http://www.icarda.org/striperust2014/challenges/

8. International Food Policy Research Institute, Nov. 2009, “Combating Stem and Leaf Rust of Wheat”. http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/ifpridp00910.pdf

9. Dr. Mahmoud Solh, Director General of ICARDIA. See: http://www.icarda.org/blog-content/%5Bnode%3ABlog%20type%5Dqa-dr-mahmoud-solh-mobilizing-international-efforts-defeat-stripe-rust

10. http://www.icarda.org/blog-content/%5Bnode%3ABlog%20type%5Dqa-dr-mahmoud-solh-mobilizing-international-efforts-defeat-stripe-rust

11. New York Times, “Stem Rust Never Sleeps”, 26th April 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/opinion/26borlaug.html?_r=0