Is it a trend yet?

May 23, 2011: “Each kit provides enough seed for one household to grow vegetables on 100 m2 of land to provide a balanced supply of protein and micronutrients during the initial months after a disaster.”

June 19, 2011: “…offers farmers the opportunity to buy different varieties of previously forgotten under-utilised seeds, more suitable for the area. They supply them in smaller quantities so farmers aren’t over reliant on one crop.”

June 21, 2011: “I think it could have an enormous impact if we could fill those seed packages with hundreds of different varieties to be tried by farmers, young and old. Now that would boost on-farm crop diversity.”

August 8, 2011: “Including seeds of local crop varieties in relief-seed packages distributed to smallscale farmers after natural calamities could help indigenous crop diversity rebound faster.”

August 17, 2011: “‘We tell farmers that diversifying to more drought resistant crops is key to cope with the changing climate,’ Leakey says. To encourage them, she offers a ‘Leldet Bouquet:’ Instead of 2kg maize seeds costing 300 Kenyan shillings ($3), the farmer can get a mix of five seed packets with an equivalent weight of cowpeas, sorghum, beans, pigeon pea, millet and maize. The mix of crops in the ‘bouquet’ is adapted to the farmer’s location.”

Nibbles: Gardens, Heirloom tomatoes, Maple beetles, Nepali citrus, Guyana adaptation, Indian policy, GMOS, Apple festivals

Turning stories into data

Seeds

We have a new time-waster to share. Global Giving, a meta-NGO we’ve raved about before, has just launched its globalgiving storytelling project. Why?

We’re trying to break through the self-report bias that often prevents international development from having a larger impact.

With this community-based beneficiary feedback we’re identifying community-focused organizations, good listeners, potential innovators, and we’re breaking through the self-report bias that often prevents international development from having a larger impact.

It will be interesting to see how this effort develops, and what uses are made of it. Meanwhile, it is easy to emerge from a rabbit-hole to find that half an hour has vanished from your life. We searched on “seed” to get the Wordle picture above. If you find any really great stories that deserve a wider audience, why not share them in a comment here?