Category: Featured

The naked oats farmer explains his vision:

What I want to see is that this grain in a number of years is grown by farmers large and small around the world as a replacement for a lot of the rice that is currently grown. The biggest advantage that Cavena Nuda has is as a replacement for rice that can be grown on dry land without irrigation like rice. … I tell people I want to see in 10-20 years is that a small farmer in a place like India for instance where the rainfall is less all the time due to climate change can stop flooding a rice paddy and drink the precious fresh water instead and grow Cavena Nuda instead of rice. When he or she harvests the Cavena Nuda in the morning, they can cook it for a noon meal for their family-it is ready to eat right off the field with no processing needed like rice or oats-in the afternoon the farmer can take it to the city to relatives to sell some of it and come home with some money in their pocket and a house full of healthy kids.

Not a complete reply, but helpful for anyone who wants to reduce the drudgery of food preparation, Diane Ragone recommends a source for processing machinery that can deal with soybeans, among other things.

Compatible Technology International develops low tech grinders and other devices to process various nuts, grains, and other crops, including soybeans.

Hope that helps Matt Cognetti.

wew had this to say in reply to a query from Jeremy three years back in connection with a very popular post (41 comments!) on the release of a new soybean variety in Uganda:

In Uganda, soybean is consumed by mixing the flour with millet or maize flour and preparing a porridge from this mixture. This is consumed by children and adults alike as a protein supplement (there are few cheap protein sources in Uganda). This method uses the greatest amount of soybean in Uganda but the most common method of consuming soybean in Uganda is by eating the roasted grain as a snack, often sold by hawkers or street vendors. Small amounts are also consumed as soymilk (locally prepared using a mortar, pestle and strainer) and as paste (mixed with local vegetables).

Now Matt Cognetti wants into the discussion:

I’m part of a Ugandan health team interested in making more efficient grinders to prepare soybeans. Can you please email me back with the method of preparing soybeans, ie. do they use hand mortar and pestle, etc.

We live to make such connections.

Robin Hide says nutritional data on PNG crops is pretty readily available:

The ready availability of such information to villagers is a problem, but at least this information is no longer buried in inaccessible journals.

And she has the references to prove it. But what about those villagers?

Zachee Ngoko answers (sort of) Afiniki Bawa Zarafi’s about the CABI Global Plant Clinic’s work on taro leaf blight.

Taro blight (P. colocassiae) is still a threat to farmers and “Achu” and “Ekwan” consummers in Cameroon. In the Western Highlands (WHL) and South West regions, that crop is disappearing at an alarming rate. Eating habit is being shifted to rice or maize or others comodities. At this moment, after the primary works we carried with CABI, future activities are slow to come. If nothing is done, in the next few years, that crop will joint cowpea (for the WHL) in a closed cupboard. Can you contribute? Please contact us.

Is CABI listening?