Category: Featured

Pat Heslop-Harrison can’t take it any more:

what are the problems? why is uptake of improved varieties slow? how are you coping with urbanization? who wants to be a farmer today?

Got the answer? An answer? Comment here.

Alan Duncan of ILRI responds to Luigi’s “could do better” on a database of forage in sub-Saharan Africa.

There are various “nifty ILRI tools” in development and I’m not sure that the SSA feeds database is the right one for what you’re suggesting. … The key issue is choosing technologies that deal with the major constraints: feed scarcity, feed quality and feed seasonality. And it’s also about much more than nutritive value – there are many other characteristics of feed technologies which will affect their suitability in different contexts. We do envisage a suit of tools to deal with some of these issues and will keep posting progress on the fodder adoption blog.

Good to know.

Diana weighs in on the whole hoe thing:

This could be a misprint and-or misunderstanding on the part of the writer? Though, even at the ‘correct’ price, hoes can be a major investment for poorer smallholders. That is the case here in Burundi, where a hoe may be shared by several families and is often included as part of an agricultural ‘package’. In the 19th century in central-east Africa, economic transactions were frequently carried out with hoes.

Which kind of puts the whole thing in perspective.

Eve knows what that maize stuff in the Machu Picchu light show is all about:

I think the figures in your screen grab are intended to represent Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo, the legendary founders of Cusco and the Inca empire. Once they found the place where the golden scepter could be plunged easily all the way into the earth, that meant that was the place to build their city. They taught the people about agriculture (hence the maize), weaving, and all aspects of civilization, and went on to found the lineage of Inca rulers. There are many versions of this story — a couple can be found here or here.

Kate Gold asked herself how those tree tomatoes got to Kenya from the Andes, and then answered her own question:

“missionaries or settlers moving north from the Cape of Good Hope after the Boer Wars may have taken seeds of C. betacea with them to Kenya and Tanzania.”

Seeds had come to the Cape from the Botanical Gardens in Jamaica. How tree tomato reached Jamaica is not clear, but it was well established there by 1884 (but, interestingly, is seldom seen there today).

Lots more information and a map showing dispersal routes around the world:

Bohs, L (1989) Ethnobotany of the Genus Cyphomandra (Solanaceae). Economic Botany, 43(2), 1989, pp. 143-163

Sort of like Physalis, then?