The role women play in sustainable agriculture and rural development in Northern Ireland.

Reference: ECA: WPW/02/CASE NORTHERN IRELAND W/X0000/e

Contingent Participation: Imaginaries of Sustainable Technoscientific Innovation in the EU

Citizen participation is often valorised in the governance of areas of high scientific uncertainty at national, international and supranational levels. This chapter considers citizen or public participation in the specific area of the EU’s agenda on sustainable development as it increasingly frames technoscientific innovation and development. Specifically, the chapter focuses on just one underexplored aspect of the conditions of possibility for participation: imaginaries. These include how the EU imagines its engagement, responsibilities and identity in relation to the specific area, including the knowledges that are constructed and used in decision-making, and by implication the role of citizen or public participation.

The discussion draws on an analysis of the social and technoscientific imaginaries found in legal, regulatory and policy discourses. These construct the frame of sustainable development and build a link between it and technoscientific innovation and development. By attention to imaginaries as one aspect of the frame, the chapter highlights the centrality of, and main interactions between, sustainable development in the inscription and potential disruption of the normative and programmatic background for the operationalisation of technoscientific innovation. These insights are used to highlight how imaginaries constitute a crucial aspect of the conditions of possibility for participation: determining who has to participate in decision-making through configurations of ‘citizen’ or ‘public’, how, why, and which outcomes are to be achieved by that participation.

Arsenic in groundwater and its influence on exposure risks through traditionally cooked rice in Prey Vêng Province, Cambodia

Arsenic (As) contamination of communal tubewells in Prey Vêng, Cambodia, has been observed since 2000. Many of these wells exceed the WHO As in drinking water standard of 10 µg/L by a factor of 100. The aim of this study was to assess how cooking water source impacts dietary As intake in a rural community in Prey Vêng. This aim was fulfilled by (1) using geostatistical analysis techniques to examine the extent of As contaminated groundwater in Prey Vêng and identify a suitable study site, (2) conducting an on-site study in two villages to measure As content in cooked rice prepared with water collected from tubewells and locally harvested rainwater, and (3) determining the dietary intake of As from consuming this rice. Geostatistical analysis indicated that high risk tubewells (>50 µg As/L) are concentrated along the Mekong River's east bank. Participants using high risk tubewells are consuming up to 24 times more inorganic As daily than recommended by the previous FAO/WHO provisional tolerable daily intake value (2.1 µg/kgBW/day). However, As content in rice cooked in rainwater was significantly reduced, therefore, it is considered to be a safer and more sustainable option for this region.

Alternate wetting and drying irrigation for rice in Bangladesh: Is it sustainable and has plant breeding something to offer?

The crop management practice of alternate wetting and drying (AWD) is being promoted by IRRI and the national research and extension program in Bangladesh and other parts of the world as a water-saving irrigation practice that reduces the environmental impact of dry season rice production through decreased water usage, and potentially increases yield. Evidence is growing that AWD will dramatically reduce the concentration of arsenic in harvested rice grains conferring a third major advantage over permanently flooded dry season rice production. AWD may also increase the concentration of essential dietary micronutrients in the grain. However, three crucial aspects of AWD irrigation require further investigation. First, why is yield generally altered in AWD? Second, is AWD sustainable economically (viability of farmers' livelihoods) and environmentally (aquifer water table heights) over long-term use? Third, are current cultivars optimized for this irrigation system? This paper describes a multidisciplinary research project that could be conceived which would answer these questions by combining advanced soil biogeochemistry with crop physiology, genomics, and systems biology. The description attempts to show how the breakthroughs in next generation sequencing could be exploited to better utilize local collections of germplasm and identify the molecular mechanisms underlying biological adaptation to the environment within the context of soil chemistry and plant physiology.