India’s Financial Express has a piece describing some of the recent history of Basmati rice. I guess it’s a fairly familiar story, but a couple of things stood out for me as I read it. One was that India and Pakistan “are planning to jointly claim rights for geographical indications (GIs) for this aromatic long grain rice.” Another was that the “European Union … is in favour of duty derogation for import of Basmati having pure parental lines.” So not landraces, just newly bred Basmati varieties? Finally, I found the link between Basmati and organic agriculture intriguing.
Garlic in the press
The beginning of a panic about the garlic deficit with China? Via Food Museum Blog.
Indians urged to grow seaweed
Indian fisherfolk are being trained as seaweed farmers in an effort to improve their incomes, according to a report in The Hindu. It says that seaweed has a market as a source of raw materials and that “seaweed cultivation would not harm the environment”. Seaweed can be used for food, fertilizer, medicines and other purposes, including biofuel, apparently. Fisherfolk on India’s coast are suffering as a result of indiscriminate exploitation.
Revitalizing Kenya’s drylands
The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) has just kicked off a Kenya Arid and Semi-Arid Lands Research Programme (KASAL) with funding from the European Union. Assistant Minister for Science and Technology, Mr Hassan Sasura, said at the launch that “the fragile pastoralist economies required product diversification and value addition to root out poverty and marginalisation.” That seems to give at least some hope that the programme will pay due attention to the importance of agricultural biodiversity. Let’s hope so.
Australian fruits
Aussies scour their flora for cool fruits.