What is the lacustrine agrobiodiversity eaten both by the Aztecs and the Kanembu people of Lake Chad? Fascinating case of parallel cultural evolution.
Nibbles: New York, Kenya, London
- Restoring grasslands on Long Island. I know, not very agrobiodiversity, but it brought back memories.
- “Children long for Coca-Cola, though, far more than they do mursik, and for them food means maize and potatoes, not millet or sorghum.” This brought back memories too, and is about agrobiodiversity to boot.
- Urban winemaking in London. And yes, memories here too.
Give us the gift of your indigenous knowledge
I know it is impossible to believe, but we’ve been straining nourishing chunks from the effluvium that courses through the interwebs for three whole years. Would you do something for us?
“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is the English proverb that sums up the value of agricultural biodiversity better than almost anything else. ((And thanks to Caitlin Burke for the photo, from Flickr.))
Are you aware of equivalents in other languages? Stick them in the comments. Please. We’ll do something with them, eventually.
Coping with climate change
SciDev.net reports on a project launched a couple of years ago to unite farmers, weather-wallahs and government in Benin to “help farmers make informed choices about when to sow and harvest crops”. About 300 farmers are enrolled in 60 field schools across the country.
[T]o develop, test and implement farming strategies suited to local conditions. These include mulching, planting pits, adopting integrated crop management and using organic fertilisers.
What, no agricultural biodiversity? No new varieties or crop selection? No participatory plant breeding? We think they’re missing a trick.
Nibbles: Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Agrobiodiversity tourism, Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle, Eels
- A Sri Lankan renaissance farmer muses.
- A Mongolian renaissance farmer talks.
- The Opium Museum and the Corn Palace.
- Guam fights rhino beetle with virus to save coconuts.
- Dutch ban eel fishing.