We’ve blogged a few times about how mobile phones bring farmers and fisherfolk closer to the market, and how this can work for agrobiodiversity. But of course agriculture is not the only field which can benefit; people all over the developing world have realized this, and manufacturers have in turn noticed that, and are trying to cash in. There’s an article in the NY Times Magazine about an anthropologist hired by Nokia to help them design the kind of phones that poor people need — and could help lift them out of poverty. Jan Chipchase is his name and if the article piques your interest you can see him give a TED talk. He also has a blog that’s great fun, and which occasionally even refers to food and agricultural biodiodiversity.
E-discussion on neglected plants
Our friends at the Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Plants have informed us that CTA has helped them set up an e-forum to follow up the recommendations of the recent conference in Arusha. Do join in!
More on meta-analyzing diversity
You may remember a post a few days ago summarizing something of a milestone paper by Bioversity scientists and partners which analyzed ten years’ worth of data on the diversity of 27 crops on farms in 8 countries around the world. As you’ll see if you revisit the original post, there’s been interesting discussion of the paper in the comments section. But I’ve been engaging the writers by email as well and it might be worth recounting the gist of that conversation.
The main point, I guess, is that they consider the crux of the paper as not so much the discussion of how/why diversity is being maintained on farm, as the fact that the richness/evenness relationship makes it possible to estimate one from the other (though separately for different kinds of crops). They see this as establishing really quite a novel framework for discussing — and generating hypotheses about — crop diversity.
It seems to me the discussion has started already.
Pacific Island Food Leaflets
Lois Englberger has alerted me to the fact that my former colleagues at the SPC nutrition section in Noumea have put six new Pacific Island Food Leaflets online. Well worth a look. CTA helped with the funding.
Ugandan discussions about Ankole
Jeremy has already blogged about these articles, but I didn’t get around to reading them until this past weekend, and a connection between them struck me, so forgive me for linking to them again. They’re both worth reading again anyway.
The first is a piece in Wilson Quarterly entitled The Coming Revolution in Africa. It purports to be optimistic about the future of African agriculture, but in fact it ends up being a bit of a downer, even if you accept its premise. Part of that premise is that agricultural experts have got it wrong in the past, which seems fair enough, but is it really the case that
Disdainful of the market, these agricultural specialists preferred to obsess over arcane questions about soil quality, seed varieties, and some mythical ideal of crop diversity. In classic Âbutt-Âcovering mode, they blamed “market failures†and Africa’s geography for farmer’s low incomes and their vulnerability to famine and food Âshortages.
“Some mythical ideal of crop diversity”? What is that supposed to mean? But the quote that really struck me was this one:
Then he criticizes the country’s traditional Âbig-Âhorned Ankole cattle. These animals are beautiful and beloved but provide very little milk, he says, “no matter how hard you squeeze.†He prefers European Friesian cows. “Five of them will produce the same as 50 Ankoles,†he Âsays.
The person speaking is Gilbert Bukenya, vice president of Uganda. The comment jumped out at me because I had previously been reading about the views of his boss on the same topic:
President Yoweri Museveni once imposed a ban on imported semen. Museveni belongs to the Bahima ethnic group. When he was a baby, in a sort of Bahima baptism ritual, his parents placed him on the back of an Ankole cow with a mock bow and arrow, as if to commit him symbolically to the defense of the family’s herd. Museveni, now in his 60s, still owns the descendants of that very cow, and he retains a strong bond to the Ankole breed. Two years ago, I accompanied a group of Ugandan journalists on a daylong trip to one of the president’s private ranches, where he proudly showed us his 4,000-strong herd of Ankole cattle. At one point, a reporter asked if the ranch had any Holsteins. “No, those are pollution,†Museveni replied. “These,†he said, referring to his Ankoles, “the genetic material is superior.â€
This latter quote comes from a long, careful piece in the New York Times about the future of the Ankole cattle.
There must be some very interesting cabinet meetings in Kampala.