A social study of the technologies composing the green revolution

Strictly speaking, the term ‘Green Revolution’ is used to indicate the introduction of improved crop seeds into the agricultural systems of Less Developed Countries (ldcs), starting after wwii and still going on today, but with its major breakthrough during the sixties. It was believed that modern science and technologies —improved crop seeds in particular— would be able to eradicate famine. In this article the metaphor of script, taken from Madeleine Akrich and Bruno Latour, is used to analyse the relation between designers (plant researchers) and users (ldc-farmers) in the Green Revolution. First, it is shown that the new Green Revolution seeds contained a script that drastically reconfigured the farmers’ relation with each other, with their seeds, with their government and with the West. Next, the author analyses how the script was embedded into the seeds. Finally, the ideologies that underpinned the script are briefly discussed

A genealogy of epistemic and technological determinism in development aid discourses

In the last decade or so, the major development agencies have explicitly turned the spotlights on ‘knowledge for development’, ‘ICT for development’, or the ‘knowledge economy’ as new panacea to prompt development. This article argues, first, that knowledge and technology have always been integrally part of the very idea of ‘development’ since its emergence during Enlightenment. Recent appeals to knowledge or technology for development should be placed in an age-long genealogy of similar rationales. Second, the article elucidates that discourses about the roles of knowledge and technology in development have always varied widely, with deterministic and less deterministic interpretations often existing along each other. In this article, the many different interpretations are unravelled. Even today, very opposing roles are ascribed to knowledge and technology in development. Whereas strong versions of technological and epistemic determinism still reverberate in some present-day development discourses, they are simultaneously countered by discourses focusing on ‘capacity building’

Tracing the emergence and deployment of the 'integrated water resources management' paradigm

The unequal distribution of water quantity and quality in space and time severely burdens the livelihoods of billions of people on this planet, the vast majority living in developing countries. ‘Integrated Water Resources Management’ (IWRM) is a normative policy paradigm that holds the promise of a holistic management of this unfair distribution. In two decades time the paradigm has gained an apparently hegemonic status in the network of water development actors worldwide. The article traces the emergence of the IWRM paradigm in the network of development actors and describes its deployment in Mali. Both the governmental and non-governmental pathway of deployment in Mali are accounted for. Harnessing Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as descriptive tool, the article describes how actors create alliances in support of the paradigm, including academics, multi-lateral agencies, non-governmental organizations, and actors in Mali’s water sector. ANT is helpful in showing that the ‘success’ or ‘failure’ of the development paradigm depends on the strength of the alliance, not the strength of the paradigm. It shows how policy making and practice are actively geared one to the other

Data Model and Analysis for Spatial Assessment of Environmental Impact and Targeting of Agri-Environmental Schemes at Regional Scales

The report introduces the concepts and strategies for implementing spatial based methods for the assessment of actual environmental impact of Rural Development agri-environmental measures. The objective is to set directions for research work proposing an array of possibilities to identify, assess and to map the impact of the Rural Development schemes related to the Community environmental priorities in contribution to the EC defined evaluation indicators. Specific research results will be reported separately.JRC.H.5-Rural, water and ecosystem resource

Correspondence of Satellite Measured Phenology to European Farmland Bird Distribution Patterns

This report presents research in establishing linkages between remotely sensed information of vegetation cover and biological diversity, specifically focusing on farmland birds. The vegetation cover was investigated via phenological indices derived from time series of satellite images. The quantification of phenological processes is very important for understanding ecosystems and ecological development. Such factors determine population growth and influence species-species interactions (competition, predation, reproduction) and species distribution. Birds have long been used to provide early warning of environmental problems, because they are the best known and documented major taxonomic group, especially in terms of the sizes and trends of populations and distributions. Common farmland birds are in decline throughout Europe, with the cumulative populations of all 33 species of farmland birds suffering a decline of 44 per cent between 1980 and 2005. For the link between vegetation dynamics and farmland birds distribution phenological indices and their spatial statistical characteristics were calculated from the time series of the SPOT Vegetation images. The farmland birds species data were selected from the European Bird Census Counsel (EBCC) Atlas of European breeding birds. Both datasets were then statistically analyzed using the Environmental Stratification of Europe. The study shows that this stratification is very appropriate to describe the spatial distribution of farmland birds. Furthermore it was shown that phenological indicators, especially the start of the growing season, the first greening up measures and the productivity measures are good indicators of the distribution of the European farmland birds and that these indicators are comparable to climatic measures. The importance of using phenological indicators is argued by the illustrated fact that phenological indicators can deliver information on the habitat on a higher spatial resolution that cannot be obtained through climatic data. This combination of information supplies indispensible measures to monitor those environmental changes that most probably lead to the reported dramatic decrease of the species.JRC.DDG.H.7-Land management and natural hazard

Characterization of Pan-Mediterranean Riparian Areas by Remote Sensing Derived Phenological Indices

This report aimed at inventorying characteristics of Mediterranean riparian-use zones using statistical analysis of some phenological indices calculated from remote sensing time series. Riparian areas are focused because of their prime importance in offering potential for adapted agricultural landuse and their ecosystem services. The quantity of vegetation cover present in these wider riparian-use zones has been proven to be directly dependent to adjacent landuse and related to the functioning of the zone as wider riparian buffer. Phenological indices derived from low resolution remote sensing time series can be used in complement with other data to assess and monitor dynamics and stresses of the riparian-use zones.JRC.H.7-Land management and natural hazard

Methodologies to assess human-induced land change processes relevant to land degradation under different scenarios of climate change and socio-economic conditions

Land degradation is a complex concept encompassing a variety of processes, natural or human induced, that affect the functioning of the land and the providing of ecosystem services. We propose a methodology to evaluate the impacts of future scenarios of socio-economic pathways and representative forcing pathways on land degradation. We selected a limited set of human induced land change processes that could potentially lead to land degradation and combined them spatially for each scenario. We compared the concurring variables between scenarios and over time to assess the sensitivity of the scenarios to the land change processes relevant for land degradation. With the processes or potential issues and the scenarios used in this study on Latin America end the Caribbean, we found (1) that the differences over time were much larger than those between scenarios and (2) that the effect of climate change was negligible compared to the socio-economic effect. Further investigation with more variables dependent on the climate scenarios is needed to confirm the results.JRC.D.6-Knowledge for Sustainable Development and Food Securit

Spatial Assessment of the Status of Riparian Zones and Related Effectiveness of Agri-Environmental Schemes in Andalusia, Spain

The report introduces the concepts and results of a case study on riparian zones in Andalusia, Spain with focus on the assessment of actual environmental impact of Rural Development Agri-Environmental Measures (AEMs) by implementing spatial data and remote sensing based methods. The objective of the research work is to propose an array of possibilities to identify, assess and to map the impact of the Rural Development schemes related to the Community environmental priorities in contribution to the EC defined evaluation indicators. The present study suggests widening the concept of riparian zones into a larger riparian area including immediate surrounding land. The riparian zones of the Guadalquivir river network have been mapped and analyzed by using three types of spatial data. Confirmation of the association of extensive agricultural land use with better riparian system status as monitored through remote sensing vegetation phenology indicators is a step forward to spatially address riparian-use zone management and targeting of Agri-Environmental and water protection measures. Furthermore the results indicate the possibility of assessing the effectiveness of AEMs on erosion control in olive areas in southern Spain.JRC.H.7 - Land management and natural hazard