Luigi Guarino

March 13, 2009March 14, 2009

Iraqis let down again

Talking of disasters… Drought, salinity, violence, higher paying jobs in construction, the Coalition Provisional Authority and its Order 81, a corrupt Australian; and before that Saddam Hussein and the embargo: Iraqi agriculture has had a lot to deal with over the years. ((Via.)) The genetic erosion must have been phenomenal. But there’s always ex situ, right? Well:

ICARDA scientists are uncertain … about the fate of Iraq’s research facilities, especially its genebank. Prior to the war, the Abu Ghraib national genebank contained some 1,400 accessions of different crops. According to Shideed, virtually all of the country’s agricultural research centers have been destroyed or severely damaged. Large quantities of genetic materials for crops and livestock animals are feared lost, he said.

We now know that the Iraqi genebank was in fact destroyed, but that copies of the material had previously been sent to ICARDA. I wish I could say that such ex situ collections of Iraqi material maintained around the world are adequate in the face of what’s been happening there. But SINGER gives 1147 accessions, 402 of which geo-referenced, and these are all from the north of the country.

And GRIN returns 1150 hits. I just don’t think that can possibly fully represent the diversity that was present in even the main staples 20-30 years ago, let along the vegetables and fruits.

Ok, it’s probably not all gone on farm. But who’s going to go out and collect it?

March 13, 2009March 14, 2009

Disaster anthropology and agrobiodiversity

A post at antropologi.info, which covers anthropology in the news, discusses a recent master’s thesis by Uy Ngoc Bui which “looks at the role of NGOs, the state and the people themselves” in the efforts to recover from typhoon Durian after it hit Báº¿n Tre province in Southern Vietnam on 5 December 2006. Although there’s nothing specifically on agrobiodiversity in the article, this quote from the thesis struck me as very relevant:

My experience is that more research should be done on the bridging of relief aid with long term reconstruction and development. Relief aid has become more efficient and standardised, which is positive, but this is only short term help for people who are in a vulnerable situation. Decreasing their vulnerability and strengthening their capacity to overcome disasters in the future should be the key foci of anthropologists and NGOs.

I would guess she’s mainly thinking about the sort of relief that involves the shelter and health of victims, but one could say very much the same thing about seed relief after disasters — and indeed, it has been said. “Decreasing [people’s] vulnerability and strengthening their capacity to overcome disasters in the future should be the key foci” not only of anthropologists but also of agronomists and breeders.

March 13, 2009

Reading at the table

Here’s a coincidence: reviews of books on food and drink.

March 13, 2009

Nibbles: Venezuela, Bangladesh, Climate change, Geographic indications, Dried herbs, Maize, Cydonia, Snakes, Hawaii, Pinot passion

“For some, eating out at an arepa place is turning into a luxury.” Go Chavez!
“Two farmer families live adjacent with one another. One has a good quality mango tree and other one has same as a jackfruit tree.” Discuss.
“Ex situ conservation in genebanks must expand dramatically.”
“…the question concerns how [geographic indication] could help develop commercial food crop growing, fix agricultural and food know-how, ensure food security in rural areas, and alleviate poverty.” That indeed is the question.
“Il profumo dell’origano di Sicilia rimane integro sino allo sbriciolamento.” I would hope so!
Purple maize used to make dyes. What’s wrong with just eating the damn stuff?
“…it was probably a quince and not an apple or Cheeto that Adam tempted Eve with.”
Farming snakes in Thailand.
“Instead of being a source of health and well-being for the land and people, the American system of industrial agriculture has become a source of problematic food and even fear.” Via.
“Pinot Noir first came to America … in the middle years of the 19th century.”

March 12, 2009June 28, 2009

Back to the wild

As promised, the new BGjournal is out, and the topic is “Ecological restoration and the role of botanic gardens.” Remember, this is the one with the paper on inter situ conservation:

One of the first places that this idea has caught on is on the properties of the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) and those of collaborating landowners. At Lāwa’i-kai, the uniquely beautiful coastal property managed by NTBG as part of the historic Allerton Gardens on Kaua`i’s south shore, just a few kilometers from Makauwahi Cave, invasive vegetation has been removed from the beach strand and coastal forest and replaced with not just the three hardy native plant species that had persisted there, but dozens of other natives that cores collected from the adjacent marsh as well as the detailed record from other sites along the south shore such as Makauwahi shows were there when the Polynesians arrived a little more than a millennium ago.