- The floating gardens of Bangladesh.
- So, USDA-ARS, what have you done for me lately?
- The story of Ed Toth, the director of New York City’s native plant center on Staten Island. In other news, New York City has a native plant center.
- Not all floods are bad.
- The Consortium discovers FIGS.
- Livestock genetic resources for the poor: The interview. And the PowerPoint. And the Fancy Science.
Technofix vs agroecology
It is easy to mock the various conferences, emergency meetings and seemingly endless policy documents that have tried to mitigate the threat but so far have achieved little. In fairness, though, responding effectively will be extraordinarily difficult. Despite what some conspiracy-minded critics have alleged, the crisis has a number of drivers, each one of which would be challenging enough on its own, but which taken together seem to call for a radical restructuring that is hard to imagine in the current political climate.
These drivers include the diversion of grains in North America and Western Europe to biofuel production; higher energy costs, which translate into more expensive chemical fertilizers; and since 2000, financial speculation over staple crops, which causes price fluctuations.
From an opinion piece in the International Herald Tribune by David Rieff, who is writing a book about the global food crisis. Well worth reading in its entirety, and although he doesn’t judge between the competing metanarratives — technofix vs agroecology — he is optimistic that there will indeed be a solution. On that, I’m not so sure.
Brainfood: Football nutrition, Sorghum markers, Alpine herb, Gap analysis, Evolutionary breeding, Aphids, Birds and farmland, Cameroon forests
- Nutrition and culture in professional football: A mixed method approach. Footballers need a more diverse diet. Well, kinda. I just wanted to get this paper in here because wouldn’t it be cool if we could get Lionel Messi to talk about agrobiodiversity-rich diets?
- Diversity analysis using ISSR markers for resistance to shoot pests in sorghum. There may be a diversity of resistance mechanisms.
- Domestication of Alpine blue-sow-thistle (Cicerbita alpina (L.) Wallr.): six year trial results. I know. Why would you want to, right? Takes all sorts to make a diverse diet, I guess. Maybe we can get Lionel Messi to eat it?
- Improving representativeness of genebank collections through species distribution models, gap analysis and ecogeographical maps. Fancy GIS-based prioritization results in more, better germplasm collecting. Nice to have the data.
- Evolutionary Plant Breeding in Cereals—Into a New Era. Martin Wolfe and colleagues lay it on the line; why it is a good idea, and what the obstacles are.
- Genetic interactions influence host preference and performance in a plant-insect system. Aphids and barleys have genetic preferences for one another.
- Pasture area and landscape heterogeneity are key determinants of bird diversity in intensively managed farmland. As in the northern hemisphere, so too in Argentina.
- Tree diversity and conservation value of Ngovayang’s lowland forests, Cameroon. Both high, and I’m betting some economically important trees are among them.
Nibbles: Coffee pix, Afghanistan pix, #GROW, #GORTA
- It’s been coffee week at Old Picture of the Day.
- More pictures. Afghanistan’s silk industry this time.
- It’s been #GROW Week too.
- Jess at Gorta. Follow #gorta for live updates.
From little acorns (and other tree seeds) mighty oaks (and other trees) grow
Astute followers of the Commenters to our blog will know that James Nguma, an enterprising Kenyan, is looking for scientific names for some trees his group is interested in. 1 James’ comment comes at an opportune moment. Scidev.net summarizes an article by researchers at the World Agroforestry Centre to the effect that African farmers deserve certified tree seed. 2 Why? “To help farmers know what trees they are planting so that they can make informed decisions”, according to the lead researcher. Also today, Eldis Agriculture drew attention to a 2007 report, also from the World Agroforestry Centre, that presented results from a survey of tree-nursery farmers in Malawi. And the point of this post is to ask what the people who wish to plant trees, like James Nguma and Luigi’s MIL, actually want?
My suspicion, although I have carried out neither the desk studies nor the on-site interviews to confirm this, is that they want sturdy saplings of locally sourced provenance that will grow away well and that are adapted to local conditions. Cheaply. How will certified seed serve their needs? And how can nursery owners be helped to supply them with what they need?
A third paper — Innovation in input supply systems in smallholder agroforestry: seed sources, supply chains and support systems — actually supplies answers. But it also sounds a cautionary note:
Lessons from the evolution of smallholder crop seed delivery systems can be applied to tree germplasm supply and indicate that a commercial, decentralised model holds most promise for sustainability. However, current emphasis in agroforestry on government and NGO models of delivery hinder the development of this approach.
The paper is Open Access, so you can read the whole thing and see whether you agree that neither of the two “centralized” models, Government and NGO, is actually the best way to get good quality tree seedlings into the hands of farmers who want to plant them.