Category: Neglected species

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Goji lovers threaten devastation

The UK government is warning that illegal imports of goji (Lycium barbarum) plants threatens commercial potato and tomato crops with destruction. Goji, tomato and potato are all members of the family Solanaceae, and apparently “bugs” could come in on the clandestine gojis. According to one advisor, “the retail value of British tomato production is £150m, and potatoes are worth more than that, so the size of the industry that is under threat is pretty massive. If some bugs were to arrive here, they would be devastating.”

The Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate destroyed my entire stock of pepino (Solanum muricatum) in a former life because of some viral threat, even though the plants they confiscated initially tested negative. It’s easy to think that these “invading pests and diseases” threats are just crying wolf, but all the evidence suggests that intensive plantings are indeed very vulnerable. Of course, why that should be so is another matter …

I’m not sure how the UK government plans to sniff out every goji plant, but Sir Mick Jagger and Kate Moss, goji enthusiasts, presumably have plans to cope. Let’s hope proposed imports get up to speed soon, and don’t carry the bugs.

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Growing greens in Kenya

The relationship between food, nutrition and health is what is missing in most of Kenya’s homes and even at the national level even when they talk of food security.

Helen Murangi, whose family farms 11 hectares near Kiringa in Kenya, grows all kinds of greens, and stresses their value for good nutrition and as a cash crop.

Murangiri farm has with time come to classify weeds into good weeds, that are now grown intentionally for food and human medicine and the other weeds from which the farm derives its pesticides and herbicides needs. In the class of ‘good weeds’ are such common plants as the Black jerk, Jute (mlenda in Swahili), or murere in Luhya, Kisii), ground nuts, Amaranths, Spider Plant (thangeti in Kikuyu, chiisaka in Luhya, a lot-dek in Luo, saget in Kalenjin), Pumpkin, Crotolaria, Solanum, the various Aloe specie among many others.

According to Helen, what she earns from her small portions of these good weeds combined earns her far more that what she gets from the 7 hecteres she had dedicated to mangos. Interestingly enough, every one in Murangiri’s home is converse with the value of everything that occupies their farm’s space and can explain in detail about each plant and crop—from the biological name, local name, its usefulness etc.

Lots more from the horse’s mouth, as it were, at Africa Science News Service.

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Nibbles: Desert garden, Funding, Vegetables, Communication, Ecosystem services, Bees, Native grasses, Soil, Raspberries, Ancient ag trade, Soybeans, Ag origins

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African vegetables gone missing

How frustrating. The excellent Agrobiodiversity Grapevine links to an article about indigenous vegetables in East Africa at Africa Science News Service. The article concerns a report Development and promotion of technologies for sustainable production and utilization of Indigenous Vegetables for nutrition security and wealth creation in Kenya, but ASNS’s link to the source of the report is broken and I cannot find it anywhere. I’d like to see what the full report has to say; the article mentions nutrition, horticulture, incomes and research, aspects of the use of African leafy vegetables that I’m sure many people are interested in.

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Entomophagy. Again

The Economist is promoting entomophagy, but I have my doubts. Yes, insects are nutritious. Yes other food is expensive. And maybe eating insects “is common in some 113 countries”. But the fact of the matter is that in other countries, I doubt that it is going to happen any time soon, no matter how good it might be for us, for the planet, for everything. I’ve eaten my share of insects; fried locusts are a favourite. And Luigi likes the odd mopane worm. We’re both entirely happy with decapod crustaceans too. But it is my considered view that outside of those 113 countries, insects are going to continue to be a hard sell.