NIbbles: Banana collecting, Perennial staples, Gender myths, Biodiversity on farm, Farmers’ seeds

One Reply to “NIbbles: Banana collecting, Perennial staples, Gender myths, Biodiversity on farm, Farmers’ seeds”

  1. Perennial versions of staple crops:

    Tim Crews, the Land Institute’s research director says: “Ecologically, it is shocking,” he says, “likening annual tillage to a forest clear-cut.”
    No Tim, it is not at all ecologically shocking, just the reverse. The purpose of tillage is to allow annuals to out-compete perennials. We now know that traditional and modern annual tillage is a very close mimic of the natural ecology of the immediate wild relatives of our first cereals. These cereal ancestors had a copious production of unusually large seed; had mechanisms to bury seed against the (probable) ecological stress of annual fire; the large seed then allowed large monodominant stands, that is, completely outcompeting perennials under disturbed conditions. That we have to continue this disturbance by tilling is an enormous pat-on-the-back for the first farmers in their recognition of the ecological strategy of cereal annual wild relatives.
    Unfortunately, the many perennial rhizomatous grasses that compete with woody plants in stressed conditions (for example, the fire climax Imperata cylindrica) tend to have small seeds. The closest domesticate of this perennial type is probably sugar cane – not, of course, grown for its seeds. Stan Cox’s remit – perennial sorghum – is probably the best bet for a perennial cereal. But, again, that evolved under grassland burning.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *