Category: Indigenous knowledge systems

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Agrobiodiversity in trouble in Cameroon

Ivo Arrey Mbongaya of the African Centre for Community and Development in Cameroon has a blog on the Eldis Community and has recently discussed threats to two different sorts of agricultural biodiversity in his country. Apparently, goat rearing is in decline, because of the disappearance of grazing land, harsh policies about strays and the lack of veterinary services. He doesn’t say if a local breed is involved, however, and does make reference to “efforts by Heifer Cameroon to distribute cheap animals.”

Also in trouble is “eru,” or Gnetum africanum, a shrub whose leaves are consumed as a green vegetable. Unsustainable harvesting and land use changes are taking their toll, and Ivo recommends taking the plant into domestication.There’s been some work on that by ICRAF and others.

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Economic downturn means agrobiodiversity upturn?

Two pieces on what the recession is doing to agriculture in dear old Blighty. Putting it back in the hands of the people, it seems, in the form of revitalized allotments and community supported farming. It will be interesting to see what these trends will mean for agricultural biodiversity, if anyone is monitoring that is. One would think they should lead to increased diversity — of practices, crops and varieties. Thanks to Danny for the tips.

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Nibbles: Easter Island, Quail, Kimchi, Assisted migration, Solar, Training materials, Ancient wine squared, Economics, Wild food

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Agriculture in Old Japan

1890s • Threshing Rice

A woman is threshing rice stalks with a Senbakoki (千歯扱き, threshing machine), while a man is carrying straw bags balanced on a pole. In the back drying rice plants can be seen, it was customary to dry freshly cut rice plants before threshing commenced.

There aren’t that many photographs on the Old Photos of Japan website dealing with agriculture, but this is a great one, and the explanatory notes describe the rice cultivation calendar and point to a useful wikipedia article on Agriculture in the Empire of Japan. Would be interesting to match up with Vavilov’s observations on Japanese agriculture.

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Rooting for the tubers

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.