The National Research Council’s series on Lost Crops … is on our shelves, and well-thumbed too. Now comes news that Voice of America has just launched a five part series reporting on various aspects of the story. The first episode — “Lost Crops” of Africa Could Combat Poverty and Hunger — is online here, with links so you can download and listen to the broadcasts.
Other episodes available are:
- Certain Fruits Among Africa’s Lost Crops with Noel Vietmeyer
- Certain Vegetables Among Africa’s Lost Crops with Martin Price
- Local African grains among Lost Crops with Adi Damania
- Plans and Hopes for Developing Lost Crops of Africa with Professor Damania again
It’s odd, though, that in the final episode Professor Damania gives the impression that only two of the CGIAR centres are involved in research on these lost crops. We can think of others…
I was mainly referring to the African sorghum and millets and wild rice when I mentioned the two CGIAR Centers. Of course there are other CGIAR Centers also working on lost crops in Africa, such as, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA).
Understood, and thanks for the amplification. I could also mention that Bioversity International is working on crops that aren’t even in Lost Crops.
@Jeremy –
Thanks. I am fully aware of Bioversity International’s work on minor crops, including the so called “under-utilized” crops. This work is important as plateau’s of yield and crop improvement are reached for the world’s major crops. We will, I am sure, never run out of food because we grow at present only a tiny fraction of the food plants that nature has provided us with. In times of necessity humans have always turned to crops that have so far been not or under-utilized. The main problem for solving world’s hunger is optimum distribution of food crops and minimization of storage loss.
Thanks, Adi, and welcome to our blog! Perhaps you’d like to contribute a post on this topic, or indeed another?
Could you direct me to updated links for the Lost Crops of Africa series. I’d love to listen in, but the links on this page are no longer active.
Thanks!
Try this.
That worked. Thanks!