And here’s another nice agrobiodiversity video, though not part of the contest Jeremy refers to in the previous post. It’s about the guarango (Prosopis pallida) tree of the Peruvian coast. Once central to pre-Columbian culture for its pods, wood and ecosystem services, it is now “near extinction in the Ica-Nasca region.” But it’s not going down without a fight, and it is getting some help, for example from a Kew reforestation project. Thanks, Charlotte.
Nibble: Wild apples, Genetic erosion, Bananas, Cow DNA, Honeybee virus survey, Women and traditional agriculture
- BBC slideshow on the wild apples of Khazakhstan.
- Malawi breeder decries genetic erosion.
- Bananas good for food security in central Africa. Well, yes.
- The ruminant family tree deconstructed.
- Public to help researchers locate wild honeybee colonies in Hawaii.
- “No Pesticides No Foreign Drinks.”
Nibbles: Markets, Easter Island, Honey, Coffee, Cowpea, Morocco, Urban Ag, Kenya
- I love pictures of agrobiodiversity in markets.
- Humans did for trees on Rapa Nui after all, not rats.
- Like refining chocolate, extracting honey is a fragrant, messy process. Bring it on.
- Fair Trade coffee unfair to farmers, CIAT says.
- Another day, another genome. This time it’s cowpea.
- 2000 year old food forest in Morocco. Honestly! And guess what? It’s not thriving.
- Another video (long). Education of an Urban Farmer.
- Education of an ex-pastoralist farmer, Karamojong, Kenya
Nibbles: Great Migration, Taro in Hawaii, Chestnut blight, Coopering, Urban beekeeping photos, Plant breeding online forum
- Ex-ILRI staff member Robin Reid on “60 Minutes” explaining the Masai Mara migration.
- GM taro banned.
- All about Cryphonectria parasitica, cause of chestnut blight.
- The ins and outs of cooperage.
- I’m the urban beekeeper and I’m ok…
- Did I already announce this new plant breeding forum?
Chewing up Kenyan gums
This strikes close to home. The Ministry of the Environment in Kenya has instructed farmers in Central Province to cut down eucalyptus trees growing near water courses. Apparently, this constitutes “an attempt to lessen the impact of the drought that is ravaging the country,” because eucalypts are “thirsty.”
The mother-in-law has been managing (by coppicing) a small eucalyptus stand for years. The firewood is what keeps her — and us, when we visit — warm during the cold season. And she sells a few poles every now and then for extra cash. You can see how important gums and other exotic trees are around her place in the Limuru highlands in this picture:
Now, I’m all in favour of indigenous trees, but the seeds haven’t been available in sufficient quantities until recently (to say nothing of awareness and policies). And the hydrological case against eucalypts is subtle: they certainly use a lot of water, but they are efficient in its use, and a very valuable resource in many places.
It seems unfair to blame and penalize farmers for choosing eucalyptuses and Australian acacias when they needed to plant some trees many years back and those were the species that were available, and were being pushed. I hope the mother-in-law gets to keep her eucalypts, at least until she can get some grevilleas growing. We’ll need them when the cold comes.