Category: Neglected species

Posted on

Terrible news from the northern Pacific

My friend and colleague Lois Englberger has just written to say that the building which housed the Secretariat of the Pacific Community office in Pohnpei and the headquarters of the Island Food Community of Pohnpei burned down during the early morning of 4 April. Losses were great, though thankfully nobody was hurt. Both SPC and IFCP are active promoters of traditional foods, and have done great work documenting and conserving traditional varieties of Pacific crops, and not just in Pohnpei. What’s happened is a terrible blow, but I’m sure both organizations will make a full and rapid recovery and continue their vital work. My thoughts and best wishes are with Lois, Konrad, Adelino and all my other friends affected by this in Pohnpei and around the Pacific.

fire-area-inside-office.jpg

Posted on

Resources on PNG food plants

Bruce French taught Food Crop Production at Vudal University in the 1970s and wrote a number of books on the food plants of PNG. These are now sadly out of print, but fear not. I’ll let him take up the story:

In recent years I have continued to put together information for PNG, along with my wider project of trying to describe all the food plants of the world. At this stage I have several books written, available as computerised books in pdf format, on Food Plants, Pests and Diseases and Food Composition for PNG. These are all available on the website, www.foodplantsinternational.com, and can be downloaded. As they are fairly large books, and may take a while to download, it may be easier for me to send them to people within PNG on DVD/CD. There are also other resources such as photos, databases, etc. that could also be made available. The information should be useful for agriculture workers, teachers, health workers and other interested people.

You can find the publications here. They’re wonderful.

Via Didinet Issue 8, 2008 (not online).

Posted on

Publicity for neglected species

Our friends at the Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species have scored a minor publicity coup by getting a series of posts on the University of British Columbia’s Botany Photo of the Day web site. BPOD, as aficionados know it, is a daily source of stunning images and information to match. Sometimes the featured plant is economically important, and some of those are agricultural. But this is the first time I can remember a series devoted to agricultural biodiversity.

So far BPOD has covered Emmer wheat, ((I could actually quibble and insist, again, that farro is a mixture of hulled wheat species, but I wont.)) bay laurel and maya nut. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Posted on

Nibbles: Aromatics, local food, rice, trade, cetriolo mate, maize, sweet potato, media

Posted on

Recommendations of the Underutilized Plants Symposium

This just in from Hannah Jaenicke, Director of the International Centre for Underutilized Crops (ICUC): 

Over 200 delegates from 55 countries gathered in Arusha, Tanzania 3-7 March 2008 for an International Symposium on “Underutilized plant species for food, nutrition, income and sustainable development”. The Symposium was co-convened under the umbrella of the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) by the International Centre for Underutilised Crops (ICUC) with the Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species, Bioversity International, GlobalHort, Plant Resources of Tropical Africa, and the World Vegetable Center, whose Regional Center for Africa was the local host.

The symposium was a resounding approval of the need for a working group on underutilized plant species to provide a voice to those who are working on these plants. The delegates endorsed the International Society for Horticultural Sciences’ working group on underutilized plants, which is co-chaired by Dr Hannah Jaenicke of the International Centre for Underutilised Crops (ICUC) and Dr Irmgard Hoeschle-Zeledon of the Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species (GFU), and filled it with life and suggestions for future collaboration on research and development projects. A report will be published and circulated in the near future.

Following three days of over 150 scientific presentations, the participants developed a series of recommendations around four pertinent issues.

Continue reading “Recommendations of the Underutilized Plants Symposium”