A paper just out in the Journal of Applied Ecology is a really great illustration of the interactions among different components of agrobiodiversity that we’re always on about here. ((TADEY, MARIANA & FARJI-BRENER, ALEJANDRO G. Indirect effects of exotic grazers: livestock decreases the nutrient content of refuse dumps of leaf-cutting ants through vegetation impoverishment. Journal of Applied Ecology 44:1209-1218.)) The Argentinian researchers found that putting more cattle to graze on the steppe vegetation of the Monte Desert in Patagonia resulted in a progressive decrease in plant cover and species diversity. So what, right? Well, this affected the diet of leaf-cutting ants. And that meant that the ants’ refuse dumps were less rich in nutrients. Which meant lower soil nutrient avalability. And perhaps eventually less healthy and productive cows. As well as further changes in the vegetation. It just takes a slight reduction in stocking rate (the number of cows per hectare) to restore the ants’ diet and the fertility of the soil.
Dryland, Livestock/Wildlife Environment Interface Project
Fatter livestock, more wild animals, honey. The elusive win-win-win?
Paris Hilton and agrobiodiversity
Paris Hilton worried about elephants getting drunk on rice beer. Pocket pig bandwagon awaits her.
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?
Brazil reaches out
The website of the Arab Brazil Chamber of Commerce has a long, fascinating interview with Silvio Crestana, president of EMBRAPA, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation. Having set up shop in Ghana, EMBRAPA is now thinking of doing something similar in Morocco and Qatar. It is great that the considerable expertise of Brazilian agricultural scientists is going to be shared more widely with the rest of the world. But benefits — including agricultural biodiversity — are expected to flow both ways. Here’s a selection of quotes to give you the flavour:
The whole world will be experiencing … confusions caused by climate change, and if we manage to obtain a plant with a gene that is more tolerant to drought, it will attract a lot of interest.
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They are well developed in goat raising. They have goats that give birth to three lambs (usually they give birth to a single lamb). This is of great interest to Brazil, to our goat raising centres, which are located in the Northeast. This race is of interest to Brazil. There could be a transfer from there to here.
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Another field of interest is olives, olive trees. They are way ahead of us in that field, and the demand for those is growing in Brazil… It is an ideal field for us to cooperate, they have research, they cultivate many different varieties, they have an amazing variety of olives, small, large, of all sizes and features, for oil, edible ones.
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They also have varieties and research on wheat. They have a very interesting variety of wheat that we are interested in for hybridisations, germplasm banks.
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Our germplasm bank, from the vantage point of tropical biodiversity, is like no other. They would benefit from that.