Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
The cacao community is meeting in Ghana under the sponsorship of Mars to draft a plan for sustainable cacao farming in Africa:
Topics on the table range from multifunctional agriculture, genetics and germplasm, to pest and disease, and science and leadership.
I hope they will also consider the kind of value-adding that is being discussed at the just-opened annual Paris chocolate show.
During my recent trip to Syria I visited the world’s largest restaurant. I thought that was really cool and I wanted to at least mention it here, but could think of no excuse until a couple of stories appeared about a Middle Eastern food staple appeared in the news and I could resist no longer. I wonder how many olives the Bawabet Dimash needs to haul in every day to supply its 6,014 tables. Olive cultivation has really been booming in Syria during the past 20 years, expanding into large areas that were formerly little more than rocky pastures. I saw some huge newish plantations around Aleppo, for example. There are lots of different varieties in Syria, but I got the feeling that only one or two account for most of the expansion. These areas are likely to get drier with climate change, so I don’t know how sustainable the expansion is.
Meanwhile, further south, the olive harvest in the West Bank is being affected by some very unpleasant incidents. The olive is a mainstay of what remains of the Palestinian economy, and this is bound to impact people’s already sorely stressed livelihoods. I suspect not much of the West Bank’s production in currently being exported, but if and when it does start being marketed in Europe, it will have to cope with some sharp-nosed Italian police officers.
Drought tolerance is the holy grail in crop improvement these days. We are running out of water; cannot easily expand irrigation; poorer farmers are affected most by it; and climate change will make things worse (etc.).
Breeding for drought tolerance has not been very successful. For lack of trying? Many years of work at CIMMYT seem to be paying off. Or is it just too damn difficult because of the multiple genes involved (from stomatal regulation to root growth), and the multiple droughts (when, how long, how much) to deal with.
Can biotech come to the rescue? This New York times article suggests that big companies and single genes may do the trick. I have to see it before I believe it, something like this picture, which shows drought-resistant corn on the right, tested next to “traditional” corn plants in Nebraska, USA. I want to see that picture in the fields of African farmers.
Or should farmers who cannot grow maize because of drought start thinking of another crop? Why not grow sorghum?
We’ve been contacted by Dr Ana Valenzuela, an expert on agaves and tequila who has a website dedicated to the diffusion of information on sustainable agave agriculture, and to the conservation of diversity in this crop. We’re happy to add “Agaves Tequileros” to our blogroll. If you read Spanish, check out Ana’s blog.