- All about potatoes.
- Mutant sheep to attack Australia.
- An Indian Jatropha genebank in the news. And a study to tell us where to collect more using some really cool software.
- The ‘Purple Dragon’ carrots are coming up in a variety of colours but mostly not purple.
Harlan II, day 1
From our man on the spot at Davis, Robert Hijmans.
It is only one day old, but the Harlan II symposium is the best I have been to for ages. That the subject is of some importance helps, of course. In his keynote speech, Jared Diamond called it nothing less than the most important event in the last million year of human history. Guess what, it has something to do with agrobiodiversity. It is plant and animal domestication, of course. Have a look at the program and you may understand that I am challenged to summarize the proceedings. But here are some impressions.
Domestication took a long time. Dorian Fuller summarized archaeological data to show that traits associated with domestication, such as non-shattering of grains, evolved slowly, over 1000s of years. Some speakers distinguished the initiation of cultivation from domestication. I had always thought of these two things as happening at the same time. But why not cultivate wild wheats, or rice? Benjamin Kilian showed data suggesting that wild einkorn was cultivated in Turkish parts of the Fertile Crescent. And Susan McCouch of Cornell University pointed out that, after 4000 years of cultivation, the common rice of West Africa, Oryza glaberrima is not domesticated yet: it still shatters. And I think there are many animal species that are not domesticated but that are nevertheless put to good use. Vicuña for example.
The question whether we domesticated plants or they domesticated us was not (yet) discussed, but there was reference to the self-domestication of dogs and cats. Robert Wayne showed that dogs were domesticated from Mediterranean grey wolves. But wolves are not very friendly to humans, how would you go about taming them? Wayne thinks that it was the wolves who approached our ancestors because they liked to eat the leftovers of their hunting parties. Over time, they may have lost some of their fear and aggression towards humans (obviously not realizing they would end up as chihuahuas). Likewise, cats may have approached ancient towns to catch some of the abundant mice in the granaries of the agricultural revolution.
Molecular biology rules. Remarkable progress is being made in analyzing the genetic make up of crops, the remains of ancient crops, and of crop wild relatives, to solve the puzzles of how our crops and domestic animals left their wild states. In some cases, this work leads to truly new insights in otherwise uncharted territory. In other cases, the molecular work confirms or refines insights that others had obtained from morphological, geographical, and archaeological data.
Even religion was invoked. John Burke explained that sunflower become a popular source of oil in Russia because it could be used during the Lent season, whereas all other sources of oil were on the black list of the Russian church. Gila Kahila Bar-Gal has put the insights from her ancient DNA work on archaeological remains of caprins (goat like creatures) to good use: she showed that the Dead Sea Scrolls were written on goat skin (not sheep). Unfortunately, there was also pieces of (wild) oryx skin — which is not kosher — but these were only used as wrapper; a relief.
Nibbles: Art, Fish, Nut, Potato, Mellow fruitfulness, Camels, DNA chips, Agroecotourism, Urban ag
- Art of biodiversity (some vaguely agricultural).
- Genebank for sturgeon. What the fish?
- Aromatic Green Dwarf. It’s a coconut.
- For the first half of his life, Gregorio Huanuco farmed to a rhythm that dictated the survival of his grandparents and ancestors for thousands of years.
- Fall foods.
- Camels have a hub.
- Genetic GPS.
- Taiwan pushes farm tours.
- The 100-yard diet.
Jim Godfrey on the Potato
The challenges for potato production in the Developing World.
It is a delight to talk to people who are interested in food. My customers are only interested that they get delivery on time, the specification that they require, on time, and at the right price.
One billion people eat potatoes every day. They are good to eat and nutritious.
Chuno and tunta are “the original processed food that can be stored”. Freeze dried, and tunta is from very high Andes, from bitter potatoes, high in glycoalkaloids. After being freeze dried they are washed in streams to remove the glycoalkaloids and make them safe to eat. “However that was discovered, I do not know.”
History of the potato. Same old same old. Three million Irish lived on the produce of 1 acre or less ((What can this mean?)) of largely one variety, Lumper.
Major shift in past years, such that more potatoes are now being grown in the developing world than in the industrial world, especially in sub Saharan Africa.
Belarus has the highest consumption in the world.
32 food deficit, low income countries that are hit very hard when supplies are tight, which they are now.
Potato has greatest potential to increase supply, 4.5% versus other major food crops growing at 1.5% per year.
Talks a bit about CIP and the rest of the CGIAR centres. Erk! His map is out of date, showing IPGRI in Rome. And there’s a photo of a smiling Jim Godfrey taking true potato seed into the Global Crop Diversity Trust’s vault in Svalbard.
Explains how CIP maps poverty, agriculture and policy and looks for intersections to decide where to work. Environmental vulnerability and the threats of climate change will affect tropical areas most. Shows reduction of growing season (for potatoes) in Africa, which will also be repeated elsewhere. Need to study mitigation, adaptation and assessment to feed that into policy changes to approach climate change.
Interesting map that shows “physical water scarcity” and “economic water scarcity” separately. What can this mean?
Cost benefit analysis of programmes shows that work on virus-free sweet potato material in one province in China alone has “paid for the whole of the investment in CIP over the past thirty years”.
On biodiversity, talks about reduction of genetic diversity from 1900 to 1970 in wheat, but that CIMMYT has worked specifically to increase that diversity. “Just as well,” because of Ug99, which, he says, could have been disastrous if it had happened in the 1970s.
On to crop genebanks, “a precious resource for future food security”. Not as simple as just shifting varieties about to respond to climate change, because need to adapt to different daylengths etc etc.
Late blight, and the arrival of A2 mating strain. Arrived in 1976, as a result of the drought in Europe, which forced down barriers and allowed in potatoes from Mexico. Salutary lesson about unforeseen consequences of food shortages. Now another strain, blue13 is rampant in Europe.
Native diversity in Peru. Each family keeps roughly 8 varieties, a whole community keeps about 122.
Solanum phureja has a very high iron variety, and other varieties that are very rich in vitamin C.
“Eating is an agricultural act. What we eat defines how we take care of our land.” Wendell Berry.
A slide of diverse local potato chips draws loud ooohs of admiration.
On orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, introduced in Africa, where vitamin A deficiency is a big problem: “We’ve seen a reduction in blindness, a reduction in under-five mortality, a reduction in maternal mortality, and a prolongation of the lives of AIDS sufferers.”
No time for questions.
Malanga comes through Ike
Cuba has not been lucky this hurricane season. The latest storm to hit is Ike. Damage to agriculture has been extensive, but there is a glimmer of good news:
In Cienfuegos, plantain and sweet potato are affected, as well as vegetables and citrus such as grapefruit and orange. The one crop that hasn’t been affected is malanga – a tuber kind of like potato.
Malanga is Xanthosoma, and Cuban researchers have had a great interest in the crop.
As Grahame Jackson says in his Xanthosoma Yahoo Group post, “diversity of local food crops is so important in countries where there are threats from natural disasters, hurricanes, torrential monsoons, droughts.” Indeed. And we do have some idea of where the threats are going to be concentrated, and therefore where agrobiodiversity will be most needed.