Mesoamericans drank fermented cacao pulp 3000 years ago.
Molokai farmers get a taste of taro diversity
A fine and detailed report on a taro diversity day held at the University of Hawaii’s field station near Molokai. The report makes clear why field genebanks need to exist, the threats to genebanks in general and taro in particular, and the vital links between culture and agriculture.
Fine beans
We just received a message from Christine, a reader in New Zealand, who hopes ultimately to do a roundup of seed-saving efforts down there for us. In the meantime, she has a question:
Yesterday I sowed Fin de Bagnol bean seeds, an heirloom French variety. As I did so I wondered what the name meant – it seemed strange to have ‘End’ in a seed name. I did a spot of googling to try and find an answer, but no luck.
Maybe you have a French contact who knows?
Indeed, maybe we do. Meantime, I think that fin in this case means “fine” or “slender” rather than “end”. There are other French beans with the same word; Deuil Fin Precoce for one, which is early (precocious).
So my guess is that this is a fine, slender bean of the Bagnols, but whether it is a Bagnol family, or the rather fine Château de Bagnols (which might be linked to the family) I cannot say. Probably the Château.
But maybe someone out there knows for sure.
Maize preferences survey
Glenn Hyman at CIAT is doing a survey of the preference for different maize colours in Latin America. There’s a questionnaire you can take. The results so far are shown on the map to the left: dark brown is a strong preference for yellow maize, dark green for white. Glenn told us about it in a comment on a post of mine a couple of days back, but I figured he’d like some more publicity.
Africa got milk
Carlos Seré, the Director General of the International Livestock Research Institute, said, at a recent meeting on how improved livestock breeding can help alleviate poverty, that high world milk prices are a great opportunity for small-scale producers in Africa. Normally that kind of thing would just make me yawn. But my mother-in-law is one such small-scale producer, so I read the copious material provided by the ILRI public awareness people with interest.
“In Kenya, for example, the familiar black-and-white Holstein dairy cow is a status symbol among smallholders, who want to own this high-milk-producing exotic animal,†Seré said. “Smart and sustainable breeding strategies that conserve local breeds can bring about higher smallholder milk production.â€
I can personally vouch for that. There was talk at the conference about coming up with better adapted breeds:
We need higher-producing cross-breeds for the high-potential areas as well as hardier cross-breeds for less-favourable agricultural areas, particularly Kenya’s vast drylands where water, feed and veterinary services are scarce.
And also about the marketing side:
Over the last decade, scientists at ILRI’s Nairobi-headquarters have worked with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), the Kenyan Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development, and civil society groups to help transform the country’s 39,000 informal ‘raw’ milk sellers into legitimate milk marketers.
All well and good. But I know what my mother-in-law’s main problem is with her milk. She can’t get it down to the cooperative for processing quickly, cheaply and reliably enough on those terrible roads up in the Limuru highlands, especially during the rains. Anybody doing anything about that?