The Root Crops Agrobiodiversity Project in Vanuatu is inventorying varieties in various villages around the archipelago, and coming up with some astonishing results. ((Although an old Pacific hand of my acquaintance disputes the inclusion of the Solomon Islands in this statement from the press release: “In other Pacific archipelagos, such as New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, the introduction by the Europeans of new root and tuber species, combined with the arrival of a market economy, has totally disrupted the existing systems.”)) But, crucially, the work will not stop there. One of the objectives of the project is “to identify new varieties aiming at broadening the existing genetic bases and to propose them to producers and users, taking into account their needs and preferences.” So it’s more than the usual 3Cs — collect-characterize-conserve. There’s also creation, and dissemination, of new diversity, via seed production. That’s not that easy to do with taros and yams, but then, neither is conservation in conventional field and in vitro genebanks. It’s a very sensible idea to get the diversity increasing and moving around, rather than locking it up on research stations.
Nibbles: Bees, Honey, Fertilizers, Desertification, Nutrition, Decor, Mobile phones
- Bees under lots of “sub-lethal stresses.” I know how they feel.
- Hadzabe, who have been doing it for thousands of years, to be trained in honey production.
- Chinese farmers to be taught law of diminishing returns.
- “Workers at the Egyptian Desert Gene Bank in Cairo harvest and grow threatened desert species in its laboratory before replanting them to their native soils, hoping to revitalize threatened desert species.”
- Lao National Nutrition Policy puts nutrition at the centre of development.
- Economic botany and architectural fripperies.
- Got milk?
Socializing with plants at Kew
Kew is hosting a festival of ethnobotany, highlighting research into plant-people relationships. Featured topics will likely include medicinal plants in Britain, Spain, China and southern Africa; wild foods in Britain and Africa; natural fibres and basketmaking, home gardens in Britain, spice plants in India, and many more. The emphasis is on hands-on, table-top displays with plenty of opportunity to talk to the exhibitors.
It’s on 7 March, and it sounds like fun. If you go, let us know about it. And send us photos.
Nibbles: Paan, Homegardens, Yams, Apiculture, Sorghum, Asparagus, Vicuna
- Paan unwrapped — betel leaf, areca nut.
- “We were suffering; we had no food to eat so we tried to make a garden.”
- IITA comes up with technique to propagate yams through vine cuttings using carbonized rice husks as growth medium. Worlds beats path to Ibadan.
- The Virgin Fresh Apicultural Project is cool, but needs a new name.
- Sorghum makes big move from wallboards to gas and booze.
- Great Witley sweeter than Peruvian. No, not weed, dude.
- The vicuna: use it or lose it. They did, so they didn’t.
Find your feet
Find Your Feet is a UK charity that works with families in rural India and Malawi “to build a future free from hunger, poverty and discrimination”. They have a blog too, which I found by running down some of the ideas about Malawi’s success — or otherwise — in boosting agricultural production. I’m adding it to our list of links.