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THE WOCATEER (No. 14 - June 2007)
(WOCAT Newsletter)

The WOCAT Newsletter is distributed by Email to those who are subscribed to the WOCAT-L mailing list (or as hard copy to those without Email).
It is distributed only in English for the time being, but Websites like http://babelfish.altavista.com/ or http://www.google.com/ language_tools offer fairly good translation facilities. The result is not perfect but quite understandable.

Le bulletin de WOCAT est distribué seulement en anglais pour l'instant, mais des sites Internet tels que http://babelfish.altavista.com ou http://www.google.com/language_tools offrent des moyens de le traduire qui sont assez utile. Le résultat n'est pas parfait, mais plus ou moins compréhensible.

Por el momento el noticiario de WOCAT existe solamente en inglés, pero algunos sitios web como http://babelfish.altavista.com o http://www.google.com/language_tools. ofrecen buenas/aceptables facilidades de traducción. El resultado no es perfecto pero se puede comprender.

Announcement: 12th WOCAT Annual Workshop & Steering Meeting

12 - 17 November 2007, the Philippines

Since 1996, WOCAT has organised eleven Annual Workshops and Steering Meetings (known as WWSM) with the goal (a) to bring together the main collaborating and funding institutions and the core collaborators, (b) to assess the progress and to exchange experiences, (c) to further develop the programme and (d) to plan for the future and (e) to enhance WOCAT in the host country/region.

As decided during the previous annual meeting in Cape Town (South Africa), the 12th Annual WOCAT Workshop and Steering Meeting will take place in the Philippines from 12 - 17 November 2007. The meeting will be hosted by the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (the organisation of our late collaborator Joe Rondal, now replaced by Dr. Arnulfo Gesite) and the College of Agriculture of the University of the Philippines at Los Baños – the institution of Romy Labios. The meeting will start in Manila / Quezon City and then move to another venue, still to be decided upon.

Invited for this meeting are those involved in the coordination of WOCAT activities at the global, regional or national level, and/or involved in any of the WOCAT Task Forces. NB: Sponsorship to participants for this meeting will be very limited and we do urge participants to find their own funding sources. Possible sponsoring will also be dependent on the amount of activities deployed and feedback provided to the WOCAT Secretariat since the previous WWSM.

A formal announcement and registration form will be distributed soon among active WOCATeers. However anyone who is interested to participate may contact the WOCAT Secretariat for more information.

News from National and Regional Initiatives

The Challenge of Conservation Agriculture in the Philippines (Romeo Labios)
The Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture (DA), through the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM), and the Farming Systems and Soil Resources Institute-Agricultural System Cluster, University of the Philippines at Los Baños (FSSRI-ASC, UPLB) organized a Symposium cum Workshop on Conservation Agriculture (CA). The forum titled “Conservation Agriculture: Research Review and Issues for Extension in the Philippines” was held at the BSWM, Elliptical Road, Diliman, Quezon City on 27-28 February 2007. It focused on conservation tillage and residue management as means for sustaining land productivity through reduced soil erosion and enhanced soil properties. Despite the beneficial effects of CA in improving soil and water- related properties in many countries, its practice is not yet widespread in the Philippines. The Symposium brought key scientists, researchers, and other practitioners in the field of Conservation Agriculture who discussed relevant research topics as well as issues and concerns for its wider adoption in the Philippines.

One of the outputs of the activity is the organization of a multi-institutional technical working group which will develop an integrated program on conservation agriculture to address the challenges ventilated during the symposium workshop. The first meeting is scheduled on 7 June 2007 BSWM, DA, Quezon City.

Corn grown using Conservation Tillage Technology at 10 days after planting (DAP)

Serbia (Miodrag Zlatic)
Several activities according to the workplan established in Cape Town were were implemented in Serbia in the past half year. These were realized with minimum funds, because after the elections ministries were not yet fully established and all projects were not still funded.

(1) Contacts with donors:
The main WOCAT donor from an earlier period – Directorate for Waters of the Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Water management - was contacted in January and again in March; decisions regarding investments are postponed till after the full establishment of this Ministry (and some others).

(2) WOCAT promotion:
WOCAT promotion is prepared for two international meetings: (1) “5th Congress of ESSC” – European Society for Soil Conservation in Palermo (June 25-30), through WASWC presentation; and (2) International Conference: “Erosion and Torrent Control as a Factor of Sustainable River Basin Management” to be held in Belgrade (Sept. 25-28).

(3) WOCAT in education:
Two fieldwork and research activities with 4th year students were organized: (1) in April students updated 3 QTs from village Slanci near Belgrade; (2) in May they measured some orchard contour planting with grassed tillaged strips and filled QTs with an “expert farmer” at Gornje Koslje village in Ljubovija Community, near the border with Bosnia.

(4) QTs:
In Gornje Koslje QTs were filled on blackberry contour planting, raspberry contour planting and in plum orchard on the slope with grassed and tillaged strips.

(5) QM:
- all data for Belgrade district (17 communities) have been collected; for 10 communities data were entered into the WOCAT database;
- for the Kolubara district data were collected for six communities on Land Use Type (LUT) only;
- for the Macva district data were collected for eight communities regarding LUT.

We are waiting for the ministries establishing, hoping on their decision to continue WOCAT funding. So more WOCAT activities are expected.

Students learning in the field in the Crveni Potok (Red Stream watershed)
(Miodrag Zlatic)

Bangladesh (Jalal Uddin Md. Shoaib)
Our colleagues in Bangladesh very recently published a Website with recent news on their WOCAT efforts in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. It also has – among a nice photo gallery and various other things –a link to the “HIMCAT” Website at ICIMOD, which of course is also worth visiting, for the entire Hindu Kush- Himalayan region, of which the Chittagong Hill Tracts form part.

Nigeria (Ikponke Nkanta)
Dr. Ikponke Nkanta from the Tropical Research & Conservation Centre of the Zoology Department, Faculty of Science ,University of Uyo in Nigeria, reports about progress made in his own and neighbouring countries:

A QT on “Aerial cropping” has been edited and 3 more QTs filled on:
o Planting of moisture producing plants.
o Application of palm fruit residues;
o Composting pits for yam planting.

We have also been able to initiate WOCAT in the Republic of Togo, through Dr Gbénonchi MAWUSSI of the Ecole Supérieure d'Agronomie Université de Lomé. A training of SWC specialists for data collection in Togo is required. Efforts are also made to initiate WOCAT in Ghana and Benin.

Projects

WOCAT has recently been increasingly involved in large international projects.

o The SOWAP project, which has been reported upon in various previous newsletters, came to an end in September 2006. The study sites in the UK (5 technologies and 4 approaches), Belgium (2 technologies and 1 approach) and Hungary (2 technologies and 2 approaches) have been documented and added to the WOCAT database. More results on issues not directly covered by WOCAT are available on the SOWAP Website. Follow-up activities are currently under discussion.

o WOCAT is a formal partner in LADA, a global project on Assessment of Land Degradation in Dryland Areas, funded by GEF and implemented through FAO. WOCAT’s main responsibility is a degradation mapping exercise at the national level through the WOCAT mapping method. This method is currently being revised not only to better fit the LADA requirements but also to improve the system as a whole. A major change is for instance the assessment of the impact of both degradation and SWC on ecosystem services rather than on productivity only, as before. Also the previous rather broad categories of land use types will be replaced by more comprehensive Land Use Systems following a method devised by FAO. Meanwhile the software for the mapping programme is thoroughly revised and replaced by a more accessible on-line version. This will apply not only to the mapping (QM) but also to the Technologies and Approaches databases. Our South African partners are very actively involved in this software revision. The mapping at the national level will be complementary to a global mapping exercise by ISRIC, using NDVI analysis to assess changes in biomass as an indicator of land degradation. At the same time land degradation assessment is undertaken at the local level under the coordination of the University of East Anglia.

o In March this year the DESIRE project “kicked of” with an initial meeting at Crete (Greece). Funded under the EU Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) and coordinated by Alterra in Wageningen (The Netherlands), the DESIRE project is bringing together 28 research institutes, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and policy-makers from around the world. The aim of the €9 million project is to come up with alternative strategies for the use and protection of these vulnerable areas.

The team of researchers has identified 18 hotspots from southern Europe to Australia, Chile and the United States of America, covering a wide range of problems, from soil erosion by wind or water, to salinisation and droughts or flash floods. These hotspots will be the 'global laboratory' for researchers to apply both tested conservation techniques and remediation measures, and find new and innovative approaches to combat desertification.

WOCAT, through CDE, is one of the main partners in the project and will not only document case studies of successes (or failures!) but also apply the mapping method that is currently being revised.

o WOCAT case studies are used in ISRIC’s Green Water Credits Proof of Concept Project. Green water is the water held in soil and available to plants. It is the largest fresh water resource but can only be used in situ, by plants. Blue water is groundwater and stream flow, supporting aquatic ecosystems and that can be tapped for use elsewhere: for domestic and livestock water, irrigation, industrial and urban use. Green Water Credits (GWC) is a mechanism for transfer of cash to rural people in return for improved water management activities that determine the supply of all fresh water at source - these activities are presently unrecognised and un-rewarded. The mechanism is tested in the Tana River Basin in Kenya, where various WOCAT case studies offer examples of improved water management.

o Finally, WOCAT also participates in a project proposal submitted in May to the EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), concerning “A geographical Transects Approach to Desertification” (GEOWISE). Like DESIRE, this will be a large international project with many partners worldwide, several of them also quite active in WOCAT. We hope to have more (and good!) news about this proposal at the next WWSM and in the next Newsletter.

o Not being part of a large international project (well, WOCAT is one, in a way!), a current internal WOCAT activity is the addition of WOCAT case studies from the WOCAT database to Google Earth. All technologies from the database have already been entered, the approaches will follow soon. The relevant Google Earth placemark (.kml) files will be published through the WOCAT mailing list in the near future. See an example from India herewith.
Moreover, the case studies from the book “where the land is greener” will also be added to the database very soon.

o Recently some new cases have been added to the WOCAT database and more are following very soon. We will notify you through the mailing list if there are major additions, but meanwhile you are invited to check the on-line database every now and then.

o Our query on the global spending on SWC / SLM (see mail through WOCAT-L of 14/5/07) has produced some interesting reactions, including some national figures as well as some local expenditures. Though we are still far from having a reliable global overview, it is also confirmed by others that this is a very interesting question worth pursuing further. Therefore not only more data are welcome but we also would like to hear whether you would be interested in mutual collaboration to investigate this issue in more detail.

Articles

Prof. Jean Poesen of the Catholic University at Leuven (Belgium) sent us the following interesting article (click here for full text; PDF: 1223 Kb)

o Effects of double drilling of small grains on soil erosion by concentrated flow and crop yield
G. Gyssels, J. Poesen, A. Knapen, W. Van Dessel, J. Léonard. # 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Abstract
Soil erosion on agricultural land and its detrimental environmental and economical effects has aroused increased interest among both the research and policy-making communities. The call for erosion control measures adapted to local farming practices is high, especially in Europe where farmers are reluctant to adopt soil conservation techniques. This study investigates a new technique for controlling concentrated flow erosion rates in the loess belt of central Belgium: i.e. double drilling of cereals in zones of concentrated flow. Cross-sectional areas of erosion channels as well as crop yield parameters in single- and double-drilled zones were compared. The technique is based on the combined effect of the increased density of plant shoots and roots for reducing soil loss. Results indicate that double drilling can reduce soil loss through concentrated flow by 25% on average and by up to 40% under optimal conditions. No net change in wheat grain yield was observed, and farmers who participated in the experiments were satisfied with the results and the easy application of the technique. Globally, benefits were larger than costs. However, the effectiveness of the technique in reducing soil loss by concentrated flow erosion seems to be topographically restricted. For positions in the landscape with a contributing drainage area larger than ca. 0.75 ha, the effectiveness of double drilling can be doubted. Double drilling should therefore be regarded as one possibility amongst others to reduce concentrated flow erosion rates in farmers’ fields.

Dr. Bob Evans of the Department of Geography, Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge (UK) sent us another interesting article (Click here for full text; PDF; 113.2kb):

o Sustainable practices to limit soil erosion: a review and discussion
R.Evans; CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources 2006, 1, No. 030, 12 pp. September 2006

Abstract
The review looks mainly at the literature published since 2000, but does not exclude earlier publications. The sustainability of practices to limit erosion must be assessed not only in terms of the soil resource and the wider environment but must also take into account economical and socio-political factors. Soil degradation may be due to a number of causes and in some places erosion is not the main factor. So how erosion is assessed and perceived may be an important factor if degradation is to be successfully tackled. Certainly, in many parts of the world farmers do not, or cannot, combat erosion. A brief history of soil conservation practices is given and then these techniques are examined in more detail in terms of their environmental, economical and socio-political sustainability. Many practices are environmentally sustainable, especially those used by small indigenous farmers, but few are sustainable in financial and socio-political terms. Although conservation tillage techniques are being vigorously promoted they may be more sustainable when carried out on small farms where no herbicide inputs are needed. It is the economical and socio-political factors that lead to erosion which need to be tackled if sustainable practices to limit soil erosion are to be successful.

Although not all Task Forces could report significant progress, this was the first time since many years that the overall results of the Task Forces could be evaluated positively, in particular the Mapping TF (largely driven by the South African team working and even investing considerable funds on it), the Questionnaire revision TF (though largely run by CDE staff), the WOCAT in Research and Education TF and the WOCAT Strategy TF. No results were reported by the Use of WOCAT TF.