Category: Featured

Glenn asks a good question:

Is anybody in charge of the CGIAR reform looking at this question of the mix of research between the supercrops — rice, maize and wheat — and the so-called “orphan crops”?

Which we have passed on.

William, commenting on Nabatean agriculture, raises a much more widely applicable point:

What isn’t eatable to us humans sheep and goat often find palatable.

Crucially important in considering agricultural biodiversity.

Detoxifying cassava prompts Ford to ask interesting questions:

I knew about the value of cyanide to deter theft and pests and have also read that it’s a useful pool of nitrogen for the root, but reducing “the social obligation to share” is interesting. As I recall, “Famine in Peasant Societies” puts part of the blame for famines on the expectation that anyone who gets a little ahead will share with relatives, rather than investing in irrigation equipment or whatever. Bank accounts, even if they don’t pay interest, offer a way to hide resources from relatives so, the book claims, famines became less likely. Still, do the risks of sharing outweigh the benefits? Or is there some optimum level of sharing?

One for the game theorists?

Matt welcomes the new word on cassava domestication:

Wow, thanks for that post! I never would have guessed bitterness would be important. It’s a good reminder for all of us not to get too ahead of ourselves in “fixing” other peoples ag problems.

André has a bone to pick with the non-circumspect quoting of numbers too:

If the celebration of the Year of Biodiversity is a celebration and mourning of past century(ies), of course idyllic, agriculture and an occasion to bicker against modern agriculture – with little consideration for the challenges ahead, particularly in terms of conservation of agro-biodiversity – then it will have been a formidable failure. I am afraid, we already know the answer.