This is a new one to me. Prof. Dr. Willem van Cotthem is asking his blog’s readers to donate spare seeds of melon, watermelon and pigeon pea. What’s more, he just wants the melon seeds you would otherwise throw away. Given how promiscuous most melons can be, the seeds are going to represent a bonanza of agricultural biodiversity.
This is why he wants the seeds:
All the seeds will be used for fruit production in arid or semi-arid regions, where we treat the soil with a water stocking soil conditioner, so that the rural people can grow these plants with a minimum of water. I promise to publish pictures on the results obtained with your seeds.
Isn’t this a very nice way to contribute to the success of a humanitarian project? The more melons and water melons you eat, the more poor rural people will get chances to grow them in their family garden and the kids will grow them in their school garden.
And the more varieties will be exposed to those testing conditions. I wonder what will emerge from the mix?
Thanks for your two comments, the second one telling me “Wonderful idea. I hope you’ll be on the lookout for types that perform really well”. Being a botanist myself, I fully understand your scientific concern about the genetic mix of “promiscuous” melons. However, our aim is not to offer the best F1 seeds of adapted varieties to poor people living in desertlike conditions, but to test a wide variety of seeds upon their fruit production capacities in the extremely difficult local circumstances. The most promising ones can be used for multiplication.
This will only be a first step towards other (financial) opportunities, unless some sponsors would help us today to buy a large quantity of seeds (vegetables and fruit producing species) to alleviate hunger of those rural people. It is primordial for us to look for an “acceptable” production of fresh food before finetuning our choice of genetic material. That is why our scientific concern concedes priority to humanitarian considerations.
Please do not misunderstand. I am not “concerned” at all about the genetic mix. In fact, I think it is a great idea. I love the idea of de-hybridizing all those carefully bred commercial melons and seeing what emerges. I’ve done it myself with tomatoes. I don’t think the F1s would do well under your conditions anyway. This is an exciting opportunity to let loose a whole bunch of genetic diversity and select good progeny.
I actually think your approach is probably better than having some sponsor buy a large quantity of seed which could easily fail under those marginal conditions you describe.