Emeka Okafor at Timbuktu Chronicles has turned me on to Sustainable Food Lab, a consortium of 70 businesses and social organizations dedicated to “accelerating the shift of sustainable food from niche to mainstream.” Among other agrobiodiversity-related things, they have a project on Allenbackia, which is what got Emeka excited in the first place. I like the geographic interface.
Sharing and genebanks
Gathuru Mburu, coordinator of the African Biodiversity Network in Nairobi, gets interviewed by IPS about AGRA and all that. He ((I think he’s a he, but I’m not entirely certain.)) says a lot of sensible, though not particularly new, things about the Green Revolution approach to African agricultural development.
What we need to do in Africa is to promote ecological farming, promote farmer varieties of seeds and even support or pass laws that support local farmers and their indigenous plant breeding innovation.
True, if perhaps not the whole truth.
And in India, there are so many people who have realised that the way to save the population of India is not going chemical, but going back to the natural ways, the ecological farming systems. And they are reclaiming, they are recuperating the seeds and the culture around the seeds and they are bringing them back [into use] and they are sharing.
We have to bring back that culture. It’s not just the seeds but the culture around the seeds. It’s the value of sharing — in the corporate world, there is no sharing, but in Africa in our own indigenous cultures, seeds were not sold, they were shared.
Interesting that about sharing. Though I think that particular culture is alive and well in Africa. I wonder if he would extend it to the international level. Or maybe there are limits to sharing? But let’s explore further the bit about recuperating.
At the moment, what is happening in Asia is that farmers are actually going back, retracing what they have lost in terms of biodiversity. And it is an uphill task because the knowledge of managing that biodiversity is gone. Because the elders who have that knowledge are no longer there. The people who are farming today have grown up with monocultures; there are very few people who can take farmers back in Asia, back to where they came from before the Green Revolution.
An uphill task. Recuperating seeds is not an easy thing. They have to look for them, sometimes they may have to even buy the original seeds from the few people who still have the original varieties. And all this is happening because they lost their indigenous seeds to the Green Revolution, which favours monocultures of improved seeds only.
Well, what about genebanks? Recuperating seeds is what they’re there for. People may need to look no further than Muguga, where the Genebank of Kenya is located, to get back the seeds they lost. Or something like them anyway. Assuming they were shared with the genebank in the first place.
Nibbles: Aquaculture squared, Food policy, School, Beer
- More audio aquaponics goodness.
- “The road from growing rice to raising shrimp to misery.”
- Angola’s national strategy on food, nutritional security includes seeds. Anyone know more?
- Handbook for School Gardens.
- Oh no, climate change to screw up Czech hops! Now I’m really mad.
Pesticide brigades
It is well established that brown plant hopper outbreaks in rice are caused by the use of pesticides. So why do farmers and their advisers spray even more when there is an outbreak?
According to this post on the Ricehoppers blog, it might be because plant protection services (in Vietnam) operate like fire brigade services, equipped for rapid response and control. And because, for the people leading these services, it is better to do the wrong thing (spray) then to be perceived as not acting (and perhaps lose their job).
Perhaps, like modern fire brigades, plant protection services will be able to shift their emphasis to prevention. And, like modern fire-ecologists, learn to let the occasional outbreak run its course.
Organic agriculture key to climate change adaptation and mitigation
Ma. Estrella A. Penunia, Secretary General of the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), at the Round Table Discussion “Research and Innovation for Smallholder Farmers in the Context of Climate Change,” organized by IFAD during the 32nd session of IFAD’s Governing Council, 18 February 2009:
In closing, we reiterate our belief that sustainable, organic, ecological friendly agriculture, which is owned, controlled and managed by small men and women farmers, and supported by government policies and programs, is a strategic agricultural measure to adapt and mitigate climate change, ensure food security, and reduce poverty among smallholder farmers. We ask for strong support to this kind of agriculture by putting money for research and development, for communication and information dissemination, for promotion and upscaling. We look forward to meaningful partnerships with all stakeholders — government, business, civil society, producer organizations to promote this kind of agriculture.
On the other hand….