Always nice to see exotic fruits finding their way into markets. That seems to have happened with baobab – of all things – in the UK. And it may be on its way for the goji berry.
Sorghum woes in Somaliland
Another farmer speaks:
Worried about the infertility of my farm, the other day, I was sitting alone trying to find explanation as to why my farm was productive in the olden days producing 100 sacks of 50kg each of sorghum in one go and why it is sterile today producing less than 5 sacks a year no matter how hard I may work?
Read the whole lot.
Nibbles: Vine, Food, Soil, Malnutrition squared, Coca
- Italians rescue forgotten grape varieties for new varietals. Diciamo “cin cin”.
- Eat up all your beets.
- LEISA magazine tells us about making soils better.
- Maps of malnutrition in Ecuador. Where are the agrobiodiversity maps to mash with them, Andy?
- “If we were to look at improving the height of children, rather than the weight, we might be able to improve this situation.”
- NatGeo video on coca marketing in Bolivia.
Schomburgk on bananas and breadfruit
Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk (1804-1865) was a British botanist and explorer, perhaps most famous for fixing the boundary between British Guiana and Venezuela. I only mention the fact because the Stabroek News, a Guyanese paper, recently reprinted an extract from the description of his travels to the interior of that country. It’s of interest to us here at Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog because it includes a fascinating description of banana cultivation, as well as a somewhat gratuitous, but pithy and elegant, summary of the events surrounding the mutiny on the Bounty. A bit further down the production chain, the Liverpool Echo has a short piece on how bananas first got to that city in particular and the UK in general, though from West Africa.
Nibbles: Maize squared, Urban Ag, Traditional farming, Rice, Extension, Training, Pine nuts, Beer, Markets
- More on ancient maize. Old popcorn contains interesting DNA diversity.
- How teosinte became maize.
- Urban Harvest has a new web site. Via.
- Khadin cultivation system contributes to sustainability in Rajasthan.
- Vietnamese farmers helping their African brethren grow rice.
- Agricultural development officer delivers training on village-level seed management, then hands out improved seed.
- Former student waxes lyrical about UP Los Baños.
- Pine nuts.
- Brewing medieval and modern juxtaposed.
- Working out fair trade.