PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Marie K. Thompson
DATE:
September 4, 2002
Local Agency
Helps on World Stage
MUSCLE SHOALS
- World leaders have spent the last nine days in Johannesburg, South
Africa, learning ways to bring development to their countries
without depleting global resources.
Among the hundreds
of non-government organizations participating in the World Summit on
Sustainable Development, which ends today, is the International
Center for Soil Fertility and Agriculture Development on the
Tennessee Valley Authority Reservation.
A three-person
delegation from IFDC attended the summit to discuss the
organization's research into using geographic information for
sustainable development and its efforts to improve soil fertility in
sub-Saharan Africa.
Amit Roy, president
and chief executive officer of IFDC, said the organization is
recognized as a world leader on both topics.
As proof, the
Muscle Shoals-based organization is coordinating a study by
government agencies and universities around the world into how
geographic information from satellite photographs can be used to
improve agricultural production while protecting the environment. He
said the photos can help scientists, government leaders and farmers
map watersheds, plan crop strategies and trace urbanization trends.
"Information
is power, and we are trying to give the information to the
farmers," Roy said.
Money for the study
into using geographic information technology to help developing
nations increase food production through sustainable agriculture
comes from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Roy said IFDC's
work into improving soil fertility in Africa is also being discussed
at the summit.
"IFDC has been
in the forefront of issues related to soil fertility in
Africa," he said. "The rate African farmers are removing
nutrients from the soil is alarming. We are working to reverse that
trend."
He said farmers in
sub-Saharan Africa, where the population is growing faster than farm
production, are depleting soil fertility by growing crops without
using fertilizer. Some of the research into increasing fertilizer
use on African farms was conducted in Muscle Shoals.
A key to solving
the food production and environmental woes will be government
agencies and private businesses forming partnerships to address the
problems, Roy said. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a
release that governments alone cannot solve the world's problems,
and commercial enterprises must help.
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