Frankia and Alnus

There’s a lengthy review of an interesting-sounding book — People and Forests: Yunnan Swidden Agriculture in Human-Ecological Perspective ((By Yin Shaoting, professor of anthropology at Yunnan University in Kunming)) — in the latest Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment (though the book seems to have been published in 2001). You do need a subscription, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because in an effort to get around the problem I did some googling, and that not only revealed a very similar review (I know because I had access to the AEE piece at work) by the same person ((Prof. Harold Brookfield of the Australian National University)). It also led me to a resource I hadn’t come across before: People, Land Management and Ecosystem Conservation (PLEC) News and Views.

The March 2004 issue, which includes the book review, is devoted to “agrodiversity.” Here’s an excerpt from the introduction, by Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez, PLEC Scientific Coordinator (at the time), which certainly struck a chord:

Smallholder agrodiversity strategies have proved to be effective in dealing with widespread declines in the value of agricultural products, yet they continue to be underutilized by most programmes that aim to reduce rural poverty, environmental degradation, erosion of biological diversity, and other problems affecting rural communities.

Here’s more about PLEC from the website of the Department of Anthropology of the Australian National University:

PLEC is a global network, set up by the United Nations University in 1992. From 1998 until 2002 it was funded by the GEF through UNEP. It brings together over 200 professionals, including more than 130 scientists and researchers, together with 190 skilled expert farmers, and 180 undergraduate and graduate students. PLEC members work out of 65 institutions in Brazil, China, Ghana, Guinea, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Thailand, Tanzania, Uganda, Britain, the United States and Australia. From 1992 until 2002 it was coordinated scientifically by Em. Prof. Harold Brookfield, who is now Senior Adviser.

Conservation through agriculture underpins PLEC’s approach to conserving and utilising biological diversity. Most biodiversity projects relate to protected areas or crop plants alone. PLEC is unique still in its strong and pervading management approach to biodiversity in the context of the livelihoods and social organization of smallholder farmers. Through generations of innovation and experiment, they have nurtured a great diversity of plants and animals, both wild or domesticated, and accumulated rich knowledge of the managed biodiversity.

PLEC also has its own website, where you can subscribe to an electronic list.

Anyway, back to the book about swidden cultivation in Yunnan which started all this. One of the reasons the review caught my attention was the mention of the use of Alnus nepalensis in local agroforestry systems, and in particular the description of that tree as a nitrogen fixer. I had totally forgotten about the phenomenon of “alder-type” actinorhizal symbiosis between some plants and fungi of the genus Frankia. Fungi are agricultural biodiversity too!

A second helping of rice

More today to satisfy your hunger for rice information, hot on the heels of the recent paper trying to explain the pattern of genetic variation across and within two subspecies of cultivated rice, discussed by Jeremy a couple of days ago.

First there’s a paper ((Global Dissemination of a Single Mutation Conferring White Pericarp in Rice. Sweeney MT, Thomson MJ, Cho YG, Park YJ, Williamson SH, et al. PLoS Genetics Vol. 3, No. 8.)) looking at how the red pericarp of wild rice became the white pericarp of cultivated rice. The answer is that a mutation arose in the japonica subspecies, crossed to the indica and became fixed in both under very strong selection pressure by ancient rice farmers. They must have really liked those funny mutant white grains when they first noticed them! Oh to have been a fly on the wall — or a brown plant hopper on the rice stalk — when the white pericarp mutation was first noticed in some ancient paddy…

Then comes news that the three CGIAR centres with an interest in rice — IRRI, WARDA and CIAT — are to boost their collaboration to solve the pressing production problems of Africa. There’s talk of forming a consortium. More flags being prepared.

Preserving rare breeds at the grassroots level

Because there is only modest interest by most national governments in the preservation of rare farm animal breeds, much of this work is done by non-governmental organizations. ((Contributed by Michael Kubisch.)) These are often operated on shoestring budgets and frequently require some pretty imaginative financial acrobatics to exist. Below is a list of some of these organizations. I realize it is likely to be incomplete — lists like this always are — but I hope it’s at least a fair representation of the types of organizations that are involved in this effort. Some are simply umbrella organizations of breeders of specific breeds, while others have actual facilities that produce animals. Some focus on one breed, while others have a barnyard full of different critters.

I can personally attest to the effectiveness of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, having been a member a while back, but I don’t really want to provide any specific endorsements here. If you think rare breed preservation is a worthwhile endeavor (and who wouldn’t), check out these websites, and  if you find an organization that appeals to you, join and support it. If, on the other hand, I have omitted your favorite organization, just post a comment with a link and I will publish a more complete list in the future.

Continue reading “Preserving rare breeds at the grassroots level”

Farmer Field Schools in the Pacific and beyond

Danny Hunter has sent us this contribution. Until recently, Danny ran the TaroGen and DSAP projects at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community in Fiji. Thanks, Danny.

An interesting article from SciDevNet about farmer empowerment through Farmer Field Schools (FFS) reminded me of a great little programme that we had running in Samoa in the late nineties.  Farmer Field Schools began as a training and extension approach for integrated pest management of rice, largely supported by FAO in Asia. Since then FFS have been used for a variety of agricultural crops, systems and problems, including livestock, and have spread to other regions of the world.

The article prompted me to reflect on earlier efforts that we made at the Alafua Campus of the University of the South Pacific in Samoa, using similar “field-based” approaches to help students and farmers (as well as researchers and extensionists!) learn about taro diversity and improvement. In 1993 Samoa was devastated by an outbreak of taro leaf blight. Initial responses using pesticides and cultural methods were futile and while introduced “resistant” varieties helped, the disease was still a major problem.

Continue reading “Farmer Field Schools in the Pacific and beyond”

Bamboo galore

The latest issue of FAO’s NWFP-Digest seems to be joining in with the celebrations of the 10th birthday of the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR). In addition to the International Bamboo & Rattan Expo in Guangzhou, China (see map), it points to a new technique from India for rapid bamboo propagation, the manufacture of bamboo bicycles in Ghana, the sale of bamboo socks in the UK and the planting of bamboo in Bhutan. There’s lots of other stuff too, though.