TOKYO (AP) ? Japan's factory output declined 3.1 percent in May from the previous month as the world's third biggest economy grapples with weaker European demand and an uneven recovery from last year's tsunami disaster.
It was the second consecutive month of decline in?industrial?production, the economy ministry said Friday. It said worsening sectors included autos, chemicals and general machinery. But the ministry expects production to recover in coming months as output picks up in electronic parts and devices, machinery and electrical products. Other data showed the unemployment rate fell in May.
Disaster-struck Japan's economic outlook continues to be murky. The economy expanded at a rapid clip in the first quarter, helped by spending on disaster reconstruction, but is unlikely to maintain that pace over the rest of the year.
The earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters in northeastern Japan in March last year destroyed coastlines, disrupted manufacturing and displaced people in evacuations due to leaking radiation. Analysts say the recovery will continue but faces headwinds from the European debt crisis and ebbing U.S. growth.
Some companies such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. have bounced back. But Japan still faces enormous challenges from a strong yen and rising competitors in South Korea, China, Taiwan and elsewhere. Major electronics makers Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. reported the worst losses ever for the business year ended in March.
Separately, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications data showed jobless people totaled 2.97 million people in May, some 170,000 fewer than the same month the previous year. The unemployment rate declined 0.2 percentage points from April to 4.4 percent. Manufacturing, transportation, medical and welfare sectors all gained jobs.
Japan's core consumer price index, which excludes fresh food but includes energy prices, slipped 0.1 percent in May from a year earlier, according to the ministry.
Coaches from three high schools in the Lubbock area called into Jack Dale?s Sportsline with Steve Dale, hosted by Kelly Robinson and George Watson to discuss the upcoming football season.
The first coach to join the show was Frenship coach Brad Davis, who spoke with Kelly and George about their situation coming into the season and what their expectations for the next season will be. Coach Davis discussed the losses from the previous season, and how they will be affected by the redistricting that happened in the off season. Davis also discussed the possibility of a 6a program, and how that would change high school football for the better.? Listen to the entire interview below.
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Next up was Littlefield coach Brian Huseman. Kelly and George discussed the upcoming season with coach Huseman, who talked about preseason conditioning, and how tough Littlefield?s schedule will be in the upcoming year. Coach Huseman also talked about the rivalry between Littlefield and Muleshoe. The discussion then changed to Littlefield?s incoming class, and how good he feels about his team this season. Listen to the entire interview below.
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Finally, Estacado head coach Danny Servance joined Kelly and George to discuss Estacado?s upcoming season, and how much work they will have to do to replace last years team. Coach Servance discussed is offense and defense for the upcoming season, as well as what they are doing to prepare for the upcoming season. Listen to the interview below.
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Rafael Nadal crashed to his worst Grand Slam defeat in seven years on Thursday when Czech journeyman Lukas Rosol, the world number 100, pulled off one of the greatest upsets in Wimbledon history.
After a day when the sleepy All England Club had been rocked by allegations of cheating and sexism, it was the unknown Rosol who delivered the final, late night, earth-shattering blow.
Rosol, whose only other five visits to Wimbledon had ended in first round losses in qualifying, stunned the 2008 and 2010 champion, and 11-time Grand Slam title winner Nadal, 6-7 (9/11), 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in the second round.
It was a remarkable upset as Nadal slumped to his earliest exit at a major since the same stage of the 2005 Wimbledon championship when he was beaten by Luxembourg's Gilles Muller.
"It's painful to lose tonight, I'm not very happy but it was just the second round, I was a long way from the final," said Nadal.
"The last four months have been great for me. I lost a tennis match tonight, it's not a tragedy. There are more important things."
Rosol, 26, who has never gone beyond the third round of a Grand Slam, was stunned by his own performance which was capped by three aces, out of a total off 22, and a forehand winner in the decisive last game.
"It's like a miracle for me. He's a superstar. I played unbelievable. I guess Nadal is only human," said Rosol, after the match had been delayed by 45 minutes to allow the Centre Court roof to close and for the match to finish.
Rosol goes on to face Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber in the next round.
Earlier Thursday, Wimbledon had been engulfed by scandal with Ivo Karlovic accusing officials of cheating him out of victory against home hope Andy Murray and Gilles Simon refusing to back down in the equal prize money row.
Croat giant Karlovic was called for 11 foot faults in his 7-5, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) loss and accused All England Club line judges of deliberately attempting to ease the British player's path through the tournament.
"I feel cheated. On a Grand Slam, Centre Court," said 33-year-old Karlovic.
"It was outrageous. It's Wimbledon and they do this. This is bullshit.
"The whole credibility of this tournament went down for me. I don't expect it here. Even though it is against an English guy who they always want to win."
Murray, the fourth seed, admitted he was surprised to see so many foot faults called against the big-serving Croat.
"If he wasn't foot faulting then he has a right to be upset, because there was a lot of them. But if he was, then you can't do it. It's not allowed," said the Scot, who has been a semi-finalist in the last three years.
Murray will tackle Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus for a place in the last 16.
Meanwhile, Simon defended his controversial views on equal prize money which he opposes, claiming the men's game is more attractive than the women's and is more popular with the fans.
And he believes that the men's locker room supports him but players are afraid to speak out.
"The 128 male players here think like me," said Simon, who was knocked out of the tournament by Xavier Malisse in the second round.
"Maybe they can't say it; maybe they won't; maybe they will lose $2 million on the contracts. In the conversation in the locker room, for sure they agree with me. Trust me."
Simon, who has never got beyond the quarter-finals of any Grand Slam, was lambasted by Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams, two of the women's game's superstars, after they had secured their places in the last 32.
Top seed Sharapova, the 2004 champion, had to dig deep to clinch a gritty 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (3/7), 6-0 victory over Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova, a semi-finalist in 2010 and quarter-finalist last year.
She will next face Taiwan's Hsieh Su-Wei as last year's runner-up tries to reach the Wimbledon final for the third time.
Four-time champion Williams reached the third round with a 6-1, 6-4 demolition of Hungarian qualifier Melinda Czink and next faces Chinese 25th seed Zheng Jie, who she beat in the 2008 semi-finals, for a place in the last 16.
But instead of discussing their tournament prospects, the two All England Club A-listers aimed their fire at Simon.
"No matter what anyone says, or the criticisms that we get, despite everything else, I'm sure there are a few more people that watch my matches than his, so....," said Sharapova in an ice-cold put down.
Williams backed up her title rival.
"She's way hotter than he is, so more people will watch Maria," said the American.
Defending champion Petra Kvitova and second seed Victoria Azarenka also reached the third round.
GENEVA (AP) ? An international conference on Saturday accepted a U.N.-brokered peace plan that calls for the creation of a transitional government in Syria, but at Russia's insistence the compromise agreement left the door open to Syria's president being part of it.
The U.S. backed away from insisting that the plan should explicitly call for President Bashar Assad to have no role in a new Syrian government, hoping the concession would encourage Russia to put greater pressure on its longtime ally to end the violent crackdown that the opposition says has claimed more than 14,000 lives.
But even with Russia's most explicit statement of support yet for a political transition in Syria, it is far from certain that the plan will have any real effect in curbing the violence. A key phrase in the agreement requires that the transitional governing body "shall be formed on the basis of mutual consent," effectively giving the present government and the opposition veto power over each other.
Syrian opposition figures immediately rejected any notion of sharing in a transition with Assad, though the agreement also requires security force chiefs and services to have the confidence of the people. Assad's government had no immediate reaction, but he has repeatedly said his government has a responsibility to eliminate terrorists and will not accept any non-Syrian model of governance.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insisted on Saturday that Assad would still have to go, saying it is now "incumbent on Russia and China to show Assad the writing on the wall" and help force his departure."
"There is a credible alternative to the Assad regime," she said. "What we have done here is to strip away the fiction that he and those with blood on their hands can stay in power."
Kofi Annan was appointed the special envoy in February, and in March he submitted a six-point peace plan that he said the Assad regime accepted. It led to the April 12 cease-fire agreement that failed to hold.
Moscow had refused to back a provision that would call for Assad to step aside, insisting that outsiders cannot order a political solution for Syria and accusing the West of ignoring the darker side of the Syrian opposition. The opposition has made clear it would not take part in a government in which Assad still held power.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined that the plan does not require Assad's ouster, saying there is "no attempt in the document to impose on the Syrian people any type of transitional process."
Lavrov accused armed opposition groups in Syria of provoking the government to use force disproportionately. "We cannot say that the regime should simply withdraw its heavy artillery that it is shooting at armed citizens," he said, referring to one of the conditions that the U.N. had set for sending truce monitors to Syria. "Certain armed groups and those who sponsor them are always trying to provoke the spiraling violence."
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi called for all sides to end to the violence "without attaching any conditions," but said that no one from the outside can make any legitimate decisions for the Syrian people.
More than a year into the uprising, Syria's opposition is still struggling to overcome infighting and inexperience, preventing the movement from gaining the traction it needs to instill confidence in its ability to govern.
The U.N. plan calls for establishing a transitional government of national unity, with full executive powers, that could include members of Assad's government and the opposition and other groups. It would oversee the drafting of a new constitution and elections.
Annan said following the Geneva talks that "it is for the people of Syria to come to a political agreement."
"I will doubt that the Syrians who have fought so hard to have independence ... will select people with blood on their hands to lead them," he said.
The envoy had earlier warned the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council ? Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States ? that if they fail to act at the talks hosted by the United Nations at its European headquarters in Geneva, they face an international crisis of "grave severity" that could spark violence across the region and provide a new front for terrorism.
"History is a somber judge and it will judge us all harshly, if we prove incapable of taking the right path today," he said.
Syria, verging on a full-blown civil war, has endured a particularly bloody week, with up to 125 people reported killed nationwide on Thursday alone.
The opposition's divisions are tied to issues at the heart of the revolution: Whether to seek dialogue with the regime and what ideology should guide a post-Assad Syria.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said following the agreement that "no member of the Syrian opposition will accept to be part of a transitional government while Assad is still in power."
"Assad's staying in power will mean the continuation of the bloodshed in Syria," he said.
Unlike Libya's National Transitional Council, which brought together most factions fighting Moammar Gadhafi's regime and was quickly recognized by much of the international community, Syria's opposition has no leadership on the ground.
Regime opponents in Syria are a diverse group, representing the country's ideological, sectarian and generational divide. They include dissidents who spent years in prison, tech-savvy activists in their 20s, former Marxists, Islamists and Paris-based intellectuals.
Communication among those abroad and those in the country is extremely difficult. Political activists in Syria are routinely rounded up and imprisoned. Many have gone into hiding, communicating only through Skype using fake names, and the country is largely sealed off to exiled dissidents and foreign journalists.
International tensions also heightened last week after Syria shot down a Turkish warplane, leading to Turkey setting up anti-aircraft guns on its border with its neighbor.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague noted on Saturday that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told diplomats a U.N. monitoring mission in Syria would have to be pulled back if no diplomatic solution was found.
The head of the struggling U.N. observer mission, Norwegian Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, has described the 300 monitors approved by the U.N. Security Council to enforce a failed April cease-fire as being largely confined to bureaucratic tasks and calling Syrians by phone because of the dangers on the ground. Their mandate expires on July 20.
"Ultimately, we want to stop the bloodshed in Syria. If that comes through political dialogue, we are willing to do that," said Khalid Saleh, a spokesman for the Syrian National Council, a coalition of Syrian opposition groups based in Istanbul, Turkey. "We are not willing to negotiate (with) Mr. Assad and those who have murdered Syrians. We are not going to negotiate unless they leave Syria."
Clinton said Thursday in Riga, Latvia, that all participants in the Geneva meeting, including Russia, were on board with the transition plan. She told reporters that the invitations made clear that representatives "were coming on the basis of (Annan's) transition plan."
The United Nations says violence in the country has worsened since a cease-fire deal in April, and the bloodshed appears to be taking on dangerous sectarian overtones, with growing numbers of Syrians targeted on account of their religion. The increasing militarization of both sides in the conflict has Syria heading toward civil war.
Nutritional dietary supplements are an essential element to your overall health regardless of whether you are attempting to get into shape, reduce bodyweight, make muscle, ward off disease, or just making an attempt to lead a healthier lifestyle. However, the dietary supplement sector is chock complete of misleading hype and misinformation, creating it very perplexing for the common purchaser to locate out what health supplements are productive and very important. Here, we will summarize some of the fundamental vital nutritional health and fitness health supplements that would benefit most individuals. Nevertheless, continue to keep in mind that if you have certain demands or goals in mind, you may perhaps will need to do some more homework to come across which health supplements you want.
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Charlize Theron has ditched the hat! The "Snow White and the Huntsman" actress proudly debuted her completely shaved head while carrying her baby boy Jackson in Namibia on Sunday. Theron, 36, buzzed off her long blonde locks for her role as Furiosa in "Mad Max: Fury Road," the fourth film in the 1979 action franchise.
Infusny-220 / ACE/INFphoto.com
Actress Charlize Theron is seen in Namibia with her son, Jackson.
PHOTOS: Stars with shaved heads
The South African star and her adorable 6-month-old even wore matching outfits -- Theron and Jackson both wore red shirts as she carried him.
Theron first agreed to star in "Mad Max: Fury Road" opposite Tom Hardy in 2009, but a series of production setbacks delayed filming. "It's been three years: It's time to skin this cat already!" Theron told Us Weekly while promoting Prometheus in London May 30. "I'm very excited about it."
PHOTOS: Charlize's hottest looks ever
The original "Mad Max" created such a vivid world, so to go back and re-imagine it and re-play in that sandbox sounds like fun to me," she continued of the flick that made Mel Gibson a household name. "It's a really challenging piece of material."
US heat wave: Record-breaking temperatures have closed schools and sent people seeking refuge ... at the zoo
By Kevin Murphy,?Reuters / June 29, 2012
As temperatures soar with heat indexes in the 100 degree plus range in the New Orleans Metro area, children and adults find the will to chill by taking in the Cool Zoo water park area at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, Wednesday, June 27, 2012.
Eliot Kamenitz,The Times-Picayune/AP
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Temperatures soared?across?the Midwest on Thursday, reaching a blistering 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 Celsius) in?St. Louis, and possibly causing two deaths in?KansasCity,?Missouri, as a massive?heat?wave pressed eastward from the Rockies.
In?Kansas?City, where the temperature rose to 105 (40 C), the city health department said two deaths were being investigated to determine if they were?heat-related.
A massive high-pressure system over the Midwest caused triple-digit temperatures in?Chicago?and several other cities. The oppressive?heat?is expected to linger for several days.
The searing?heat?presented a challenge for the?St. Louis?Zoo, which provided misting machines, large fans and cooling stations for visitors and took steps to cool down the animals.
"When it gets hot like this, we like to take a bone and freeze it into a big block of ice then throw it into a pool where the big cats can play with it," said?Jack Grisham, who heads the zoo's animal collection. "We'll freeze bananas and oranges and throw them to the primates as well."
Hill City,?Kansas, which has been the hottest spot in the nation for five days, reached 108 (42 C) Thursday afternoon, the?National Weather Service?said. The thermometer hit 115 (46 C) on Wednesday in the?northwest Kansas?farm community.
"It feels like you have a big old furnace blowing in your face," said?Rayson Brachtenbach, a technician at Elliott Plumbing, Heating, Air Conditioning and Electric in Hill City.
Brachtenbach said the hot weather kept the company busy repairing air conditioning systems.
A city in the Midwest having the nation's high temperature for five days in a row is very unusual, said?Chris Foltz, a weather service meteorologist in?Goodland,?Kansas.
"It's what you expect in the desert of?Nevada?or?California," Foltz said.
Sustained heat
Drought conditions have contributed to the early and sustained?heat?this summer, said?Alex Sosnowski, expert senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.com.
"A lot of these places haven't had a lot of rain, and dry soil contributes to?heat," Sosnowski said, when asked why the high temperatures are being seen so early in the summer. "The sun's energy doesn't go into evaporating moisture, so it heats the ground and that heats the air. It takes a really big rainfall event to bust a drought like this."
Though scattered thunderstorms are expected to dial down the?heat?in the Midwest on Friday, Sosnowski does not see anything that would make much of an impact in dry areas.
The weather conditions have contributed to?Colorado?wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of homes. The?heat?and drought conditions also are damaging crops. U.S. corn prices have soared 17 percent this month as the hot dry weather persists in the main growing area of the Midwest.
Farther to the east, it was 102 (39 C)in?Cincinnati?and 103 (39 C) in?Nashville,?Tennessee.
"It's when you stop sweating and you get goose bumps that you worry," said?Sean Lachendro, one of a trio installing fiber-optic line for?T-Mobile?along a south?Nashville?roadside.
In?Chicago, the high temperature reached 100 degrees (38 C) for the first time in seven years. Summer school was closed Thursday for 10?Chicago?public schools without air conditioning.
In?Indiana, burn bans are in effect in 74 of 92 counties, and 45 counties have restrictions on shooting off fireworks.
With temperatures soaring, officials from?Kansas?to the?Carolinas?asked residents to take steps to stay cool and check on friends and neighbors. In Birmingham,?Alabama, police were checking on the sick and elderly.
"We want to ensure our citizens remain safe during the excessive?heat?outbreak,"?Birmingham PoliceChief A.C. Roper said. (Reporting by Mary Wisniewski, Kevin Murphy, Bruce Olson, Tim Ghianni, Christine Stebbins, Keith Coffman, and Susan Guyett; Editing by David Bailey and Stacey Joyce)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd's board is under mounting pressure to consider unpalatable options such as selling its network business or forming an alliance with Microsoft Corp after the Blackberry maker again delayed the release of its next-generation smartphones, said three sources familiar with the situation.
Shares in the Canadian company, which announced a steeper-than-expected quarterly operating loss on Thursday, plunged 18 percent in extended trading, slashing its market value to $4.1 billion. The stock has fallen about 70 percent in the past year.
RIM said the launch of BlackBerry 10 mobile devices has been postponed to early 2013 - more than a year later than initially promised - because the development of its new operating system had "proven to be more time-consuming than anticipated."
RIM CEO Thorsten Heins - who replaced long-time co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie in January - kicked off a broad strategic review in March that seeks to tie the fortunes of the company to the success of the new operating system.
But the latest setback has increased pressure on RIM's board to more seriously explore other options, including measures that would amount to an admission that its current strategy is untenable, said the sources, who declined to be identified because the information was confidential.
One of these options is for RIM to abandon its own operating system and adopt Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer approached RIM shortly after Balsillie's departure, looking to strike a partnership similar to the one the software giant has with Nokia Oyj, the sources said. Under that partnership, Nokia will use Microsoft's latest Windows operating system on its smartphones.
In such a scenario, RIM could also look for Microsoft to buy a stake in the company and fund marketing and other expenses, the sources said. However, this option is not attractive to RIM because it would mean the end of the Waterloo, Ontario-based company's technology independence, they said.
The RIM board still prefers to see through the efforts to develop the new operating system, according to the sources.
Microsoft could also be interested in RIM's wireless patents, the sources said.
Another option for RIM would be to sell its proprietary network to a private equity firm or a technology company. The buyer could then open up RIM's network operating centres to other smartphone providers, allowing them to also provide highly secured emails and other services to companies and government agencies, the sources said.
In that scenario, however, RIM's device business is seen to have no future, they said, adding that private equity firms have been considering how to separate the hardware business from the network business.
RIM and Microsoft declined to comment.
Separating the network business would be an about-face for RIM after it rejected a similar proposal from Balsillie, who had been in advanced negotiations with wireless carriers to boost revenue by letting them use the RIM network.
The idea was to clearly define the network as an asset that could exist without BlackBerry handsets, which are facing fierce competition from Apple Inc's iPhone and Google Inc's Android phones.
RIM is "going to have to be much more open-minded to the idea that Jim Balsillie was working on before he was ousted of opening their network to third parties," said Eric Jackson, a hedge fund manager at Ironfire Capital in Toronto.
STRATEGIC REVIEW
On Thursday, Heins gave away little in regards to the strategic review, which is being conducted with the help of investment bankers at JPMorgan Chase & Co and Royal Bank of Canada.
But he did reiterate his faith in RIM's integrated model and dismissed a suggestion that the BlackBerry will adopt Google's Android software. He said on a conference call with analysts that he is "convinced that BlackBerry can deliver value as an integrated hardware, software and services offering."
Analysts have said RIM should assess opportunities to license its untested BlackBerry 10 software, make money from its patent portfolio or invite a partnership with another mobile company.
"They need to get to a strategic decision soon. Even though it may cause some near-term pain if you separate the business, it might be the best course of action," said Scott Sutherland, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.
With the delay in the launch of that software now, RIM's working capital is also likely to come under more scrutiny. The company held $2.2 billion in cash at the end of its fiscal 2013 first quarter.
"If you want to rip the company apart for its assets and cash, this is the year to do it because the cash balance increased this quarter, but it's likely they're going to start burning cash as they move into the back half of the year," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners.
On a conference call with analysts, RIM Chief Financial Officer Brian Bidulka said working capital management was one of the areas of focus for the company.
Bidulka said the company also had an unused credit facility and it was "continuing to work with our banks on renewing that facility."
It is also trying to reduce costs by about $1 billion, including by cutting about 5,000 employees.
(Reporting by Nadia Damouni; Additional reporting by Alastair Sharp in Toronto; Editing by Ryan Woo)
Farmers get fertilizer advice with loans via mobile technologyPublic release date: 29-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bianca Ferrer b.ferrer@irri.org 63-258-05600 x2587 International Rice Research Institute
Using mobile technology, Filipino rice farmers now have access to personalized fertilizer advice and micro-loans to buy fertilizer for their crop thanks to a new partnership between a microfinance bank and a farmer-focused organization
Using mobile technology, Filipino rice farmers now have access to personalized fertilizer advice and micro-loans to buy fertilizer for their crop thanks to a new partnership between a microfinance bank and a farmer-focused organization.
Technologies are great solutions by themselves, but linking them to financial services can provide even more benefits for farmers.
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in partnership with the Philippines Department of Agriculture developed an Internet-based tool named Nutrient Manager for Rice (NMRice), which provides rice farmers with a fertilizer recommendation precisely matching their crops' nutrient needs. Use of this recommendation increases a farmer's' profit and rice yield. The Internet version was supplemented last year by a mobile phone service, and early this year as an Android application that can be downloaded for free.
NMRice is now being linked with services of BPI Globe BanKO Inc. (BanKO), the first mobile-based, microfinance-focused savings bank in the Philippines.
BanKO has agreed to partner with Alalay sa Kaunlaran (ASKI), Inc., a farmer-focused group in Central Luzon in the Philippines, to provide micro-agri loans for agricultural inputs for Filipino rice farmers. The provision of the micro-agri loans is being pilot-tested with rice farmers receiving a crop management recommendation from NMRice to increase their rice yield and profit.
The initial number of farmer-beneficiaries targeted by ASKI in the pilot is 1,500. The agreement between BanKO and ASKI was signed on May 25, 2012. Disbursement for the loans will start in late June to early July.
"This partnership is the beginning of a great opportunity to help rice farmers by combining their access to financial services with timely information on the best-bet rice management practices for increasing yield and profit in their fields," says Dr. Roland Buresh, IRRI's nutrient management expert and lead developer of NMRice.
"Fertilizers are often the highest cost for rice farmers after labor, accounting for about 20 percent of total production or capital cost for the farmers," he adds. "So, our team from IRRI partnered with the Department of Agriculture to develop NMRice to help rice farmers increase their yield and profit and to help contribute to achieving rice self-sufficiency. Through improved timing and selection of fertilizers, farmers can get more yield per amount of added fertilizer.
"Linking technologies developed from research with microfinance services that a farmer can easily access is a promising approach for helping farming households and boosting food production in the country," Dr. Buresh concludes."
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Farmers get fertilizer advice with loans via mobile technologyPublic release date: 29-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bianca Ferrer b.ferrer@irri.org 63-258-05600 x2587 International Rice Research Institute
Using mobile technology, Filipino rice farmers now have access to personalized fertilizer advice and micro-loans to buy fertilizer for their crop thanks to a new partnership between a microfinance bank and a farmer-focused organization
Using mobile technology, Filipino rice farmers now have access to personalized fertilizer advice and micro-loans to buy fertilizer for their crop thanks to a new partnership between a microfinance bank and a farmer-focused organization.
Technologies are great solutions by themselves, but linking them to financial services can provide even more benefits for farmers.
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in partnership with the Philippines Department of Agriculture developed an Internet-based tool named Nutrient Manager for Rice (NMRice), which provides rice farmers with a fertilizer recommendation precisely matching their crops' nutrient needs. Use of this recommendation increases a farmer's' profit and rice yield. The Internet version was supplemented last year by a mobile phone service, and early this year as an Android application that can be downloaded for free.
NMRice is now being linked with services of BPI Globe BanKO Inc. (BanKO), the first mobile-based, microfinance-focused savings bank in the Philippines.
BanKO has agreed to partner with Alalay sa Kaunlaran (ASKI), Inc., a farmer-focused group in Central Luzon in the Philippines, to provide micro-agri loans for agricultural inputs for Filipino rice farmers. The provision of the micro-agri loans is being pilot-tested with rice farmers receiving a crop management recommendation from NMRice to increase their rice yield and profit.
The initial number of farmer-beneficiaries targeted by ASKI in the pilot is 1,500. The agreement between BanKO and ASKI was signed on May 25, 2012. Disbursement for the loans will start in late June to early July.
"This partnership is the beginning of a great opportunity to help rice farmers by combining their access to financial services with timely information on the best-bet rice management practices for increasing yield and profit in their fields," says Dr. Roland Buresh, IRRI's nutrient management expert and lead developer of NMRice.
"Fertilizers are often the highest cost for rice farmers after labor, accounting for about 20 percent of total production or capital cost for the farmers," he adds. "So, our team from IRRI partnered with the Department of Agriculture to develop NMRice to help rice farmers increase their yield and profit and to help contribute to achieving rice self-sufficiency. Through improved timing and selection of fertilizers, farmers can get more yield per amount of added fertilizer.
"Linking technologies developed from research with microfinance services that a farmer can easily access is a promising approach for helping farming households and boosting food production in the country," Dr. Buresh concludes."
###
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[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]
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Zoologger is our weekly column highlighting extraordinary animals ? and occasionally other organisms ? from around the world
Species:Gnathonemus petersii Habitat: peering through murky bottom waters throughout west and central Africa
Step from a sunlit hillside into the darkness of a cave, and you immediately have a problem: you can't see. It's best to stand still for a few minutes until your eyes adjust to the dimness, otherwise you might blunder into a hibernating bear that doesn't appreciate your presence.
The same thing will happen when you leave again: the brightness of the sun will dazzle you at first. That's because your eyes have two types of receptor: one set works in bright light and the other in dim light. Barring a few minutes around sunset, only one set of receptors is ever working at any given time.
Peters' elephantnose fish has no such limitations. Its peculiar eyes allow it to use the two types of receptor at the same time. That could help it to spot predators as they approach through the murky water it calls home.
It's electric
Peters' elephantnose fish belongs to a large family called the elephantfish, all of which live in Africa. They get their name from the trunk-like protrusions on the front of their heads. But whereas the trunks of elephants are extensions of their noses, the trunks of elephantfish are extensions of their mouths.
To find a Peters' elephantnose fish, you must lurk in muddy, slow-moving water. Look closely, because the fish is brown and so is the background.
It finds its way through the murk using its trunk, which generates a weak electrical field that helps it sense its surroundings and even discriminate between different objects. The fish's electric sense allows it to hunt insect larvae in pitch darkness.
The fish has paid a price for its electrical sensitivity. Processing the signals takes brainpower, so it has an exceptionally large brain. As a result, 60 per cent of the oxygen taken in by the fish goes to its brain. Even humans, with our whopping brains, only devote 20 per cent of our oxygen to them.
Eyes front
Now for its eyes. Most vertebrates, including humans, have two types of light receptors on their retinas: rods and cones. Rods can sense dim light, but become bleached in bright light and stop working. Cones can't see in dim light, but given enough light they can see fine details and colours.
Most animals' eyes are specialised for one or the other. Animals that are active during the day tend to have more cones than nocturnal animals such as foxes. In the human eye, the cones are clustered in a central region called the fovea, where the light is sharply focused, and the rods are outside it. As a result, we have excellent daytime vision and rather poor night vision.
The retina of the Peters' elephantnose fish looks completely different. It is covered with cup-shaped depressions. Around 30 cones sit inside each cup, and a few hundred rods are buried underneath.
Because of the peculiar design of the fish's retina, it was thought to be blind until about 10 years ago, says Andreas Reichenbach of the Paul Flechsig Institute for Brain Research in Leipzig, Germany. Reichenbach has now worked out what the cups are for.
Crystal cups
Each cup has a layer of massive cells that are full of guanine crystals. These form a mirrored surface that amplifies the light intensity within the cups, ensuring that the cones have enough light to work with.
At the same time, because the cups are eating up so much of the light, only a small amount reaches the cones. As a result, both sets of receptors are supplied with the right amount of light.
Yet when Reichenbach tested the fishes' vision, they didn't seem to do very well. For instance, they could only see objects that covered a big swathe of their visual field. If humans had vision that bad, we would miss any object whose width was less than one sixth of a full moon.
However, the Peters' elephantnose fish were very good at spotting large moving objects against a cluttered background ? essential for fish that live in dirty water. Presented with a monitor displaying a black stimulus on a white background, they took as long to spot it as goldfish. But when a grey noise pattern ? like an untuned TV ? was superimposed, the elephantnose fish spotted the stimulus faster than the goldfish.
The fish's ability to see the wood for the trees probably helps it spot incoming predators like catfish. So Reichenbach thinks its oddball visual system isn't a mistake. "It's the right type for this fish," he says.
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The purchase of life insurance requires consideration of a number of factors, including costs and terms; type of insurance plan; and how much to purchase. In terms of estate planning, another consideration is whether a life insurance policy can be a good vehicle for passing on one's wealth. And, if so, how?
One vehicle people sometimes use in estate plannin is the irrevocable life insurance trust. These are trusts which are non-amendable which are made the owner and beneficiary of one or more life insurance policies. When the insured individual dies, the appointed trustee invests the proceeds and manages the trust for its beneficiaries.
Putting a life insurance policy in a trust removes it from one's estate, meaning the proceeds of the policy or policies will not be subject to estate tax. When placed in trust, one can set the terms on which funds are distributed to beneficiaries without incurring tax penalties. This can prevent beneficiaries, often children, from spending the proceeds unwisely.
Another benefit of irrevocable life insurance trusts is that they can prevent beneficiaries from having to sell real estate or businesses in order to satisfy debtors of the estate.
One important thing in setting up an irrevocable life insurance trust is to do so well in advance. The reason is that, under tax law, there is a three-year look-back period, so that if one places assets in the trust within three years of death, they are considered part of one's estate.
Planning ahead is a good idea anyway, since it helps one to get going on one's overall estate plan well in advance.
Source: MSN Money, "8 ways to save on life insurance," Stacy Johnson, June 25, 2012
Communities that survived years of violent strife still struggle to secure permanent rights
WASHINGTON, D.C./ROME (28 June, 2012)A new report released today by Namati and the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) details an effective and cost-efficient process to help rural communities work together to protect their lands and natural resourcesa potential solution to the global land grab. The communities, located in Liberia, Mozambique, and Uganda, have all survived long years of violence and upheaval only to find their lands coveted by foreign investors and local elite.
In recent years, governments around the world have been granting vast land concessions to foreign investors for agriculture, mining and logging projects. From October 2008 through August 2009, transactions covering at least 56.6 million hectaresincluding 39.7 million hectares in sub-Saharan Africa, more than the size of Germany and Switzerland combinedwere concluded or under negotiation, according to the World Bank.
In the face of this land grab, an innovative collaboration assisted rural villagers who leveraged national laws to document their community lands as a whole, protecting not only family landsthe focus of most efforts to strengthen land rightsbut also common resources like forests, grazing lands and water bodies. These resources, which communities depend on for their survival and livelihoods, are particularly vulnerable to appropriation. But while the laws allowing for community land titling are on the books in several countries, they are not well implemented.
"Community land titling efforts are not just about getting a document," said Rachael Knight, the report's lead author. "In many post-conflict regions, years of war have broken local governance systems, leaving a management vacuum. The process of documenting community land rights was an opportunity to help communities resolve longstanding local land conflicts, demand accountability from their leaders, and implement rules to protect women's rights and ensure sustainable use of shared natural resources."
The project report concludes that community land protection should combine three processes: the technical task of mapping and titling community lands, the peace-building task of land conflict resolution, and the governance task of strengthening local land administration and management.
"Land titling can be the key that unlocks traditional barriers faced by women and vulnerable groups in rural communities," said Ilaria Bottigliero, Director of Research and Policy for the International Development Law Organization. "Law and legal tools can be successfully used to mediate disputes over land claims and at the same time help empower rural communities to realize their rights."
The Community Land Titling Initiative, was conducted by the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) in partnership with the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) in Liberia, Centro Terra Viva (CTV) in Mozambique and the Land and Equity Movement in Uganda (LEMU) in Uganda. It is now proceeding as a permanent program of Namati, a new non-governmental organization dedicated to legal empowerment for the estimated four billion people around the world living outside the protection of law. The Initiative's field teams, carrying out the only randomized control study of its kind, provided 58 communities in the three countries with different methods of support in following national land laws.
Findings from the field work include:
The communities' desire to secure title to their lands created a strong impetus to peacefully resolve all boundary conflicts, some of which had endured for generations. These local conflicts had destabilized relations with neighbors and contributed to regional insecurity
The process of drafting rules for land and natural resources management gave community members the opportunity to evaluate community rules and implement good governance mechanisms for the first timepreviously, these deliberations were limited to elites and leaders.
The process also provided an opportunity for women and other vulnerable groups to challenge discriminatory practices and implement specific local protections for women's property rights, often for the first time.
Communities are generally receptive to outside investment, but only if they can negotiate all aspects of the investment project so that their health, culture and environment gain protections. Communities also need benefits and fair compensation as well as a signed contract ensuring that all benefits are paid.
Community land documentation efforts include the common lands often left out of projects focusing on securing titles for family properties, yet the estimated costs of community documentation efforts are less than half the cost of separately titling all individual and family land in a given community.
Importantly, although many communities have fulfilled the necessary procedural steps and submitted their applications, not one community in the study has yet received a title, deed or delimitation certificate. The governments' failure to issue the documents appears to stem from a lack of political will and necessary state resources. However, the communities empowered by this fieldwork reported feeling better prepared to fend off challenges to their land tenure.
"I don't care what anyone says, this project is the best thing to happen in our history," a community leader of one community in Liberia's Rivercess County said. "Imagine: now we know our borders, we know our resources, we know our rules and they are written down for everyone to see and know. People are attending clan meetings; and our clan feels stronger together. This has never happened before! Now it is easy for us to organize and ask the government or [foreign investors] for things we want or refuse things we don't want in our community."
More than 15 Percent of Liberia Granted to Investors
Liberia currently has one of the highest rates of land concessions in Africa. Between 2004 and 2009, the Liberian government either granted or re-negotiated land concessions totaling 1.7 million hectaresover 15% of the total national land area. Since then, seven forest concessions alone have granted another 1.7 million hectares. These concessions were often awarded with little or no consultation with the communities living and making their livelihoods on this land.
The fragility of rural tenure security has been compounded by contradictory national land and natural resources policies, corrupt and disorganized management, and a distinct lack of political will to ensure tenure security for rural communities. To address these problems, in 2009 the National Legislature established a Liberian Land Commission to reform Liberia's land laws and policies. There is now a moratorium on further allocation of land grants, which provides a window of opportunity for other communities to take steps to document their land as well.
"Community governance is critical part of the land tenure discussion," said Silas Kpanan'Ayoung Siakor, of the Community Rights Program at the Sustainable Development Institute. "After all that these communities have been through, it was essential to provide them the space to redevelop communal rules and resolve minor conflicts and tensions that have lingered for years. Together, they can now pursue their collective development aspirations."
Uganda's 1998 Land Act: Inaccessible for Communities
In northern Uganda, a region burdened by decades of civil strife and insurgency, local communal grazing lands play a central part in village life. Communities depend on these areas to collect fuel, water, food, building materials for their homes, and traditional medicines. Yet growing population densityUganda's population, just 16 million in 1991, grew to 34 million by 2011increasing land scarcity and weakened traditional land governance systems have created a situation of intense competition for land. This competition has been exacerbated by local elites grabbing land in bad faith for their own enrichment, as well as by people displaced during the Lord's Resistance Army conflict who have moved onto other communities' lands and settled, sometimes without permission. As a result, some communities in northern Uganda are losing their common lands at an alarming rate. The resulting land scarcity has resulted in increased conflict between once-peaceful neighboring villages.
Uganda's 1998 Land Act provides communities with a number of legal protections for their land, but not one community been recognized as a "Community Land Association" and obtained formal documentation of its traditional lands. The national government not only lacks offices secure enough to house land titles but has not hired the necessary land officials to support communities that seek legal titles to their lands. Instead, it has focused solely on documenting individual land claims, leaving communal lands unprotected.
"This initiative brought out the challenges of translating a purely oral customary tenure system to a written and documented one," said Judy Adoko, Executive Director of the Land and Equity Movement in Uganda. "The initiative provided two important lessons: for stakeholders not to 'sensitize' people on what is good for them but to inform them of the various options the law gives them and leave them to choose the best strategy within their capacity to protect their land rights; and also that the communities cannot be rushed through this important work and need to proceed at their pace."
The Promise of Mozambique's Lei de Terras Remains Unmet
Mozambique has also granted large swaths of land to foreign investors. Between 2004 and 2009 alone, the Mozambican government granted 405 large-scale investment projects more than 2.7 million hectares of landseven percent of the nation's arable land.
Mozambique's 1997 Lei de Terras provides some of the most innovative protections for traditional communities and their land tenure. But for the most part the law has not been well or widely implemented. In 2010, the National Directorate of Land and Forests (DNTF) of the Ministry of Agriculture reported that out of an estimated 3,000 or more traditional communities in Mozambique, only 323 have had their lands delimited. As a result, community lands remain invisible on official maps and vulnerable to expropriation.
Most importantly, although communities must approve an investor's application to use communally-held lands, there are no legal mechanisms to ensure that investors fulfill any benefit-sharing agreements that they enter into with communities. For example, World Bank research found that although one biofuels project in Mozambique had promised to hire 2,650 workers, less than 40 people were employed full-time while 30 were employed seasonally. Moreover, the wages provided failed to compensate for the loss of livelihoods caused by the loss of farmland and access to natural resources.
###
Namati is dedicated to legal empowerment for the estimated four billion people around the world living outside the protection of law. In partnership with civil society groups and governments, Namati implements and evaluates innovative interventions in environmental justice, community land protection, and the accountability of essential public services. Namati also hosts a global network to foster greater collaboration among practitioners worldwide. www.namati.org
IDLO empowers people and enables governments to reform laws and institutions to promote peace, justice, social development and sustainable economic growth. IDLO is an intergovernmental organization that offers legal expertise, resources, tools and professional support to governments, multilateral partners, and civil society organizations. It carries out research and advocacy at national and international levels. Bringing together a range of diverse local, national and international stakeholders and working in an enabling rather than directive or prescriptive way, IDLO acts as a catalyst for significant social change. www.idlo.int
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
2 year study helps African communities resolve conflicts, protect rights from land grab Public release date: 28-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Dan Klotz
dklotz@burnesscommunications.com
301-280-5756
Communities that survived years of violent strife still struggle to secure permanent rights
WASHINGTON, D.C./ROME (28 June, 2012)A new report released today by Namati and the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) details an effective and cost-efficient process to help rural communities work together to protect their lands and natural resourcesa potential solution to the global land grab. The communities, located in Liberia, Mozambique, and Uganda, have all survived long years of violence and upheaval only to find their lands coveted by foreign investors and local elite.
In recent years, governments around the world have been granting vast land concessions to foreign investors for agriculture, mining and logging projects. From October 2008 through August 2009, transactions covering at least 56.6 million hectaresincluding 39.7 million hectares in sub-Saharan Africa, more than the size of Germany and Switzerland combinedwere concluded or under negotiation, according to the World Bank.
In the face of this land grab, an innovative collaboration assisted rural villagers who leveraged national laws to document their community lands as a whole, protecting not only family landsthe focus of most efforts to strengthen land rightsbut also common resources like forests, grazing lands and water bodies. These resources, which communities depend on for their survival and livelihoods, are particularly vulnerable to appropriation. But while the laws allowing for community land titling are on the books in several countries, they are not well implemented.
"Community land titling efforts are not just about getting a document," said Rachael Knight, the report's lead author. "In many post-conflict regions, years of war have broken local governance systems, leaving a management vacuum. The process of documenting community land rights was an opportunity to help communities resolve longstanding local land conflicts, demand accountability from their leaders, and implement rules to protect women's rights and ensure sustainable use of shared natural resources."
The project report concludes that community land protection should combine three processes: the technical task of mapping and titling community lands, the peace-building task of land conflict resolution, and the governance task of strengthening local land administration and management.
"Land titling can be the key that unlocks traditional barriers faced by women and vulnerable groups in rural communities," said Ilaria Bottigliero, Director of Research and Policy for the International Development Law Organization. "Law and legal tools can be successfully used to mediate disputes over land claims and at the same time help empower rural communities to realize their rights."
The Community Land Titling Initiative, was conducted by the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) in partnership with the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) in Liberia, Centro Terra Viva (CTV) in Mozambique and the Land and Equity Movement in Uganda (LEMU) in Uganda. It is now proceeding as a permanent program of Namati, a new non-governmental organization dedicated to legal empowerment for the estimated four billion people around the world living outside the protection of law. The Initiative's field teams, carrying out the only randomized control study of its kind, provided 58 communities in the three countries with different methods of support in following national land laws.
Findings from the field work include:
The communities' desire to secure title to their lands created a strong impetus to peacefully resolve all boundary conflicts, some of which had endured for generations. These local conflicts had destabilized relations with neighbors and contributed to regional insecurity
The process of drafting rules for land and natural resources management gave community members the opportunity to evaluate community rules and implement good governance mechanisms for the first timepreviously, these deliberations were limited to elites and leaders.
The process also provided an opportunity for women and other vulnerable groups to challenge discriminatory practices and implement specific local protections for women's property rights, often for the first time.
Communities are generally receptive to outside investment, but only if they can negotiate all aspects of the investment project so that their health, culture and environment gain protections. Communities also need benefits and fair compensation as well as a signed contract ensuring that all benefits are paid.
Community land documentation efforts include the common lands often left out of projects focusing on securing titles for family properties, yet the estimated costs of community documentation efforts are less than half the cost of separately titling all individual and family land in a given community.
Importantly, although many communities have fulfilled the necessary procedural steps and submitted their applications, not one community in the study has yet received a title, deed or delimitation certificate. The governments' failure to issue the documents appears to stem from a lack of political will and necessary state resources. However, the communities empowered by this fieldwork reported feeling better prepared to fend off challenges to their land tenure.
"I don't care what anyone says, this project is the best thing to happen in our history," a community leader of one community in Liberia's Rivercess County said. "Imagine: now we know our borders, we know our resources, we know our rules and they are written down for everyone to see and know. People are attending clan meetings; and our clan feels stronger together. This has never happened before! Now it is easy for us to organize and ask the government or [foreign investors] for things we want or refuse things we don't want in our community."
More than 15 Percent of Liberia Granted to Investors
Liberia currently has one of the highest rates of land concessions in Africa. Between 2004 and 2009, the Liberian government either granted or re-negotiated land concessions totaling 1.7 million hectaresover 15% of the total national land area. Since then, seven forest concessions alone have granted another 1.7 million hectares. These concessions were often awarded with little or no consultation with the communities living and making their livelihoods on this land.
The fragility of rural tenure security has been compounded by contradictory national land and natural resources policies, corrupt and disorganized management, and a distinct lack of political will to ensure tenure security for rural communities. To address these problems, in 2009 the National Legislature established a Liberian Land Commission to reform Liberia's land laws and policies. There is now a moratorium on further allocation of land grants, which provides a window of opportunity for other communities to take steps to document their land as well.
"Community governance is critical part of the land tenure discussion," said Silas Kpanan'Ayoung Siakor, of the Community Rights Program at the Sustainable Development Institute. "After all that these communities have been through, it was essential to provide them the space to redevelop communal rules and resolve minor conflicts and tensions that have lingered for years. Together, they can now pursue their collective development aspirations."
Uganda's 1998 Land Act: Inaccessible for Communities
In northern Uganda, a region burdened by decades of civil strife and insurgency, local communal grazing lands play a central part in village life. Communities depend on these areas to collect fuel, water, food, building materials for their homes, and traditional medicines. Yet growing population densityUganda's population, just 16 million in 1991, grew to 34 million by 2011increasing land scarcity and weakened traditional land governance systems have created a situation of intense competition for land. This competition has been exacerbated by local elites grabbing land in bad faith for their own enrichment, as well as by people displaced during the Lord's Resistance Army conflict who have moved onto other communities' lands and settled, sometimes without permission. As a result, some communities in northern Uganda are losing their common lands at an alarming rate. The resulting land scarcity has resulted in increased conflict between once-peaceful neighboring villages.
Uganda's 1998 Land Act provides communities with a number of legal protections for their land, but not one community been recognized as a "Community Land Association" and obtained formal documentation of its traditional lands. The national government not only lacks offices secure enough to house land titles but has not hired the necessary land officials to support communities that seek legal titles to their lands. Instead, it has focused solely on documenting individual land claims, leaving communal lands unprotected.
"This initiative brought out the challenges of translating a purely oral customary tenure system to a written and documented one," said Judy Adoko, Executive Director of the Land and Equity Movement in Uganda. "The initiative provided two important lessons: for stakeholders not to 'sensitize' people on what is good for them but to inform them of the various options the law gives them and leave them to choose the best strategy within their capacity to protect their land rights; and also that the communities cannot be rushed through this important work and need to proceed at their pace."
The Promise of Mozambique's Lei de Terras Remains Unmet
Mozambique has also granted large swaths of land to foreign investors. Between 2004 and 2009 alone, the Mozambican government granted 405 large-scale investment projects more than 2.7 million hectares of landseven percent of the nation's arable land.
Mozambique's 1997 Lei de Terras provides some of the most innovative protections for traditional communities and their land tenure. But for the most part the law has not been well or widely implemented. In 2010, the National Directorate of Land and Forests (DNTF) of the Ministry of Agriculture reported that out of an estimated 3,000 or more traditional communities in Mozambique, only 323 have had their lands delimited. As a result, community lands remain invisible on official maps and vulnerable to expropriation.
Most importantly, although communities must approve an investor's application to use communally-held lands, there are no legal mechanisms to ensure that investors fulfill any benefit-sharing agreements that they enter into with communities. For example, World Bank research found that although one biofuels project in Mozambique had promised to hire 2,650 workers, less than 40 people were employed full-time while 30 were employed seasonally. Moreover, the wages provided failed to compensate for the loss of livelihoods caused by the loss of farmland and access to natural resources.
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Namati is dedicated to legal empowerment for the estimated four billion people around the world living outside the protection of law. In partnership with civil society groups and governments, Namati implements and evaluates innovative interventions in environmental justice, community land protection, and the accountability of essential public services. Namati also hosts a global network to foster greater collaboration among practitioners worldwide. www.namati.org
IDLO empowers people and enables governments to reform laws and institutions to promote peace, justice, social development and sustainable economic growth. IDLO is an intergovernmental organization that offers legal expertise, resources, tools and professional support to governments, multilateral partners, and civil society organizations. It carries out research and advocacy at national and international levels. Bringing together a range of diverse local, national and international stakeholders and working in an enabling rather than directive or prescriptive way, IDLO acts as a catalyst for significant social change. www.idlo.int
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Public release date: 29-Jun-2012
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