- Maize origins investigated.
- Plants climb mountains.
- Rice endures, too.
- “How would our federal government respond if 1 out of every 3 cows was dying?“
- Bees in trouble in India too, but maybe not for same reason.
- We’ve blogged about 冬虫å¤è‰ before, but I personally can never get enough of the stuff.
- Apple breeding bears fruit in India.
- Videos of urban agriculture in Washington DC. Via.
Sorghum endures
How much crop genetic diversity have we lost? At one level, the question is easy to answer: three quarters over the last century. That’s certainly the number that’s most often quoted.
But that doesn’t make it right. In particular, I have it on very good authority that the figure may in fact be traceable back — a la Chinese whispers — to a statement in Fowler & Mooney’s 1990 book Shattering: “As the mid-1970s were reached, three-quarters of Europe’s traditional vegetable seed stood on the verge of extinction.”
Not quite the same thing. Anyway, be that as it may, the existence of a dominant narrative hasn’t stopped people going out into the field and — the horror! — actually collecting data.
Nibbles: No-dig, Joe, Gritty Veg, Insect food, Forests, Finger millet, Bees
- No-dig, (almost) no-water surplus veggies in Lala land. Via.
- Smell the coffee and wake up.
- Yet more urban agriculture reviving neighbourhood culture.
- Giant grasshopper is good for you.
- And speaking of Google Earth (see below): you can use it to track disappearing forests as well as disappearing gourds.
- “Our mother who grinds ragi at home is far more superior to our father who rules this country.” Finger millet makes a comeback in India.
- Aussie report urges honey bee protection. Good on ya, mate.
Nibbles: IK, Environmental change, Peasants, Sugar, Indians, Ancient wine, Water, Poverty, Food crisis
- Hanging out with farmers. Sounds like fun.
- UNEP maps Africa, then and now.
- Small farms are beautiful?
- How sugar changed everything etc etc.
- “Last week, descendants of the early Pueblo nations returned to plant a summer crop of corn, beans and squash, donating some of their traditional seed.” How cool is that?
- Balisca wine at the root of it all.
- California’s farmers waste water — because they have to.
- University of Leeds to spend GBP2.8 million studying poverty, agriculture and nutrition.
- “We have already lost three-quarters of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops.” Right.
Of spears, shields and sorghum
Africa’s farmers have been making sorghum beer for centuries, but it now looks like European brewers are getting in on the act. Heineken and Diageo have started replacing imported barley with locally-grown sorghum in their brewing operations in Ghana and Sierra Leone. It started as a social responsibility project (funded by the Common Fund for Commodities, with the European Co-operative for Rural Development as a partner), but recent increases in the price of malting barley have made it “commercially rather attractive” too.
Of course, farmers have to grow the right variety, and ensure that a consistent supply gets to the breweries, so the project has provided training, access to finance (for seed, fertilizer etc.), and assistance with organizing into groups. This is meant to lead to the establishment of a “sustainable production chain,” which is often touted as a prerequisite for the successful promotion of an underutilized crop — or a crop underutilized for a particular purpose, such as sorghum for industrial brewing: “Farmers need to build confidence that the market is there.”
What will the promotion of a single, industrial use for sorghum do to the diversity of the crop? Nothing good, probably, unless the possible consequences are recognized and appropriate steps taken. In a recent paper we have advocated a “spear and shield” approach to promotion. This means that specific incentives that support diversification should be included when promotion of a particular species, variety or use carries significant risks for (agricultural) biodiversity.
Actions which would support diversification include strengthening community germplasm exchange networks. Coincidentally, there’s an IFPRI discussion paper also out today which looks at the seed system for sorghum and millet in West Africa — Mali, in this case. It seems little certified seed is reaching farmers, though it is still unclear whether this is a demand or supply problem. One of the recommendations is that the formal seed supply systems should deal not only with improved material but also with local landraces. This should be brought to the attention of Heineken, Diageo and their sorghum-brewing partners. Their project should seek to strengthen the local seed system as a whole (the shield), not just help farmers get hold of the preferred brewing variety (the spear).