- A is for artichoke, B is for bract. A botanist in the kitchen explains.
- C is for colour and color, both of which affect the nutritional value of rice.
- D is for Directorate of the EU, three of which are at a standstill as an expert is apparently blocking all attempts to loosen EU seed laws.
- F is for fish, which smart farmers are helping to survive low water in rice paddies.
- G is for the genes tweaked by scientists to deliver seeds without sex.
- H is for horseradish, whose root problems can now be solved. In other H-related news, horseradish has root problems.
- I is for improvements in child nutrition and less stunting is many countries.
- J is for Jeremy, who must have some time on his hands.
- K is for Kenya, where clever scientists have created Striga-resistant sorghum. Again.
- L is for Lodoicea, and other botanical treasures.
Nibbles: Sesame, ABS, Symposium, Yield sensitivity, NUS Symposium proceedings, Food Fest, Typha pollen, Arepas
- Texan farmers have solved the problem of open sesame – with non-shattering varieties.
- They’re protected by patents, of course. No need then for handy dandy guidelines to access and benefit sharing in research projects.
- But you just know that ABS will be a hot topic when they round up the usual suspects for the International Symposium on Agrobiodiversity for Sustainable Development.
- As will the question of whether yields are becoming more or less sensitive to temperature.
- I wonder how quickly the proceedings of that shindig will become available. It took the 2nd International Symposium on Underutilised Species less than two years! Course, they’re still not open access …
- No free access to the IncrEdibles festival at Kew either. And why should there be?
- I’m willing to guarantee that cat-tail pollen will not be featured at Kew.
- Arepas, on the other hand…
Nibbles: Carnivory, Insectivory, Pearl farming, Development grants, CWR mapping, Cassava genes, Permaculture in Malawi, Sustainability book, Sustainability conference, Commission, Morality & conservation, Beer from genebank
- Eat steak!
- No, eat cicadas!
- Farm pearls!
- Get a grant!
- CIAT got one, to map crop wild relatives!
- Not sure if any of these drought tolerance genes in cassava are from wild relatives, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
- I would likewise not be surprised if both cicadas and cassava featured in Malawian permaculture.
- Punjab’s 1st investigative e-paper doesn’t allow visitors to highlight and copy text, which means that the potentially interesting book about agricultural sustainability it mentions will go ungoogled.
- Which is a pity because I was really hoping for a nice segue into this conference on, ahem, agricultural sustainability, to take place in a few months in China.
- Which I could then have followed with a plug for the FAO Commission on GRFA, which many of us will be attending next week here in Rome.
- No, wait: Agricultural Sustainability: Progress and Prospects in Crop Research.
- But of course the best argument for sustainability is the moral one, right?
- That. Or beer.
Conserving an Indian banana every which way
I hope the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) won’t mind us reproducing in full a recent post on their Facebook page, entitled Geographical Indications to Elite Agri-Products. It’s just that I don’t know whether if I just point to the URL anyone else will be able to see it.
When you buy Dussehri mango, are you sure you have paid the price for real Dussehri that belongs to Malihabad region of Uttar Pradesh near Lucknow? Same is true for Nanjanagud Banana, Allahabad Surkha (guava), Nagpur Orange, Pokkali Rice from Kerala and many other agri-products belonging to a specified geographical territory. To protect the interest of consumers and producers Parliament enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, which came into force in September, 2003. Agricultural, natural or manufactured goods originating from a definite geographical territory are registered under the Act and given the status of Geographical Indicator. The specific features or uniqueness is largely due to existing geo-climatic situation in the region of production. By now, more than 150 products have been registered as GIs including some of the renowned agricultural products. A survey by National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM) found that consumers are willing to pay more for agricultural GIs than non-agricultural GI products, therefore is GI for farmers? And how do we go further prior to registration and after registration?
Having just posted about that new wild banana subspecies from India, I guess it was inevitable that I would decide to take a few minutes to look into the “Nanjanagud Banana” a bit more deeply. It’s unfortunately not one of the case studies described in a very thorough paper on the Indian agricultural IPR system. 1 But the variety known locally as Rasabaley certainly seems to have contributed to making Nanjangud, a town in Mysore district in the state of Karnataka, famous.
The fruit evokes tremendous appreciation for its taste among the older generation of the region. A variety of banana that offers a distinctive taste, “Nanjangud rasabale” has tickled the taste buds of people from far and wide.
However, despite its charms, and high cost, it was until recently described as on the way to disappearing.
The crop that was raised in around 500 acres just three decades ago has come down to around 100 acres now, mostly concentrated in villages of Kaarya, Devarasanahalli, Hullahalli, Kumbarahalli, Tagadur-Hanumanthapura and Hadinaru of Nanjangud taluk, near here. Just around 50 farmers showed interest to grow the crop, and many who tried gave up following losses. Devarasanahalli, which supplied large quantities of this banana variety, today has only 28 acres under “Nanjangud rasabale.”
Which seems to have been the rationale for slapping a geographic indication on it.
To ensure an independent identity that is exclusive to the fruit, the Department of Horticulture applied and registered “Nanjangud rasabale” in the Geographical Indications Registry of the Union Government during July 2005. Incidentally, “Nanjangud rasabale” along with “Mysore Betel” vine, a variety of betel vine and “Coorg Orange” were the first crop varieties in the country to be registered in GI registry.
It’s unclear to me whether this has worked. ICAR is silent on the subject, beyond that enigmatic question at the end of their Facebook post:
And how do we go further prior to registration and after registration?
How indeed. Good to know, therefore, that “Nanjangud rasabale” does seem to be conserved ex situ, according to MGIS, at India’s National Research Centre for Banana. It’s not, however, backed up at the International Transit Centre. Which is a pity, as there would be a pleasing completeness to the story if it were.
A document much quoted, little linked to
A new review examines 20 years of monitoring initiatives in sustainable agriculture. It provides insights and tools to help stakeholders prioritise investments and manage competing development goals.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? I was certainly hooked, when I saw that on the DFID website, and then followed the echoes as they reverberated hither and yon around the internet. Only one problem. None of the pages which refer to or summarize the study actually link to it. None of them. Not even DFID’s. 2 I know that because I really looked (I posted a frustrated Nibble to that effect earlier today), but most importantly because once Jeremy had helped me locate the document 3, I asked Google who links to its URL, and the list was very short. 4 So, for completeness, here is the document in question, which was produced by ICRAF. And if I hadn’t found it, I wouldn’t now know that Appendix 7 contains a discussion of “Information systems for biodiversity in agro-ecosystems” which I really didn’t need to see.