- “Take into account both women’s and men’s preferences when developing and introducing new varieties.”
- Rats!
- Domestication of figs pre-dates that of cereals?
- Neanderthals liked barbecue.
- Underutilized plant in homegarden a terror threat.
- Heirloom bean farmer feted by Washington Post, added to Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog blogroll.
- Orchards as hotspots of agrobiodiversity.
- “…grass pea is a ‘poster child’…”
Happy 2001
I’m OK with the idea of there being a diversity of calendars around the world. New Year, after all, should fall at some reasonably meaningful time, like right after the winter solstice, or around one of the equinoxes. Or, as in Ethiopia, around the end of the main rains.
Today.
To celebrate, the Ethiopian Institute of Biodiversity Conservation has a long article celebrating and explaining Enkukatash. That word means Gift of Jewels. The article explains a few of them.
An approach to extension in Africa
Sharron responded to my thoughts on extension in Africa with this remark:
Sounds like the kind of work Peace Corps volunteers have been doing for decades.
Not quite. Peace Corp volunteers do wonderful work, but in essence they parachute in and often, though by no means always, apply solutions that are not necessarily entirely appropriate to the situation in which they find themselves. What is needed is local people, locally trained, but exposed to a world of experience among similar farmers facing similar obstacles. Agreed, we don’t yet know how to fund this sustainably, or exactly how to establish the e-aspect of it. But those details could be worked out, with a will.
Meantime, here’s a little video interview with Getachew Tibuket, whose Farmer Field Schools have trained something like 25,000 farmers in Ethiopia. I’ve no idea what they are trained to do, but it sounds like a useful approach.
Other examples welcome.
Nibbles: Double dose of Pacific, Harlan II Symposium
- Pacific genebank will help secure future food supplies. Mary Taylor comments: “It’s significant insurance”.
- And more from Luigi’s old stomping ground: “We need to sign up to the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, so that we can access a wider pool of diversity and share genetic resources.”
- Diamond Does Davis.
Bosnian bee-fest
Spent the whole week in Sarajevo for a meeting, but did get a chance to explore on Friday morning. Doing so, I stumbled on the Sarajevo Bee-Fest: lots of stalls with people selling all kinds of different local honeys, other bee products, and bee-keeping equipment. No sign of worry about colony collapse disorder.
