Policy

April 12, 2010April 12, 2010

Rethinking paper on Thai government rethinking of sustainable agriculture

Don has kindly sent us a quote from that paper about the Thai government rethinking agricultural sustainability that Jeremy nibbled earlier today. He suggests it might be more interesting than Jeremy made it out to be.

The Department of Agricultural Extension (DOAE), created under the MOAC with assistance by the World Bank, played a direct role for disseminating Green Revolution innovations, including new high-yielding varieties, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and associated labor-saving machineries, in every subdistrict through the staff stationed in the district center… Yet, except for Central Thailand, where rice yields have risen considerably with developed irrigation systems, the widespread adoption of Green Revolution technologies has resulted in stagnating market prices and yields throughout most areas of the country (Pasuk and Baker, 1995), persisting poverty of small-scale farmers in many rain-fed areas (Apichai, 1997), recurrent pest resistance and resurgence to pests (Sathorn, 2000), health hazards related to farmers’ inefficient use of pesticides (Nipon, Ruhs and Sumana, 1998), among others. Furthermore, a rapid expansion of export cash crop cultivation in the uplands of the North and Northeast, promoted by the MOAC during the 1970, with crops such as maize, cassava, kenaf, and cotton, resulted in rapid deforestation and massive displacement of the poor from the paddy tracts as dependent labor on agribusinesses with no secure titles to land (Pasuk and Baker, 1995).

May well be worth chasing down after all, behind its paywall.

April 12, 2010April 12, 2010

Canada’s Green Party leads the world?

An email from Douglas Woodward of the Green Party in Canada draws our attention to a resolution on Genetic Conservation and Biodiversity, adopted at the Green Party’s convention in February 2009. The preamble to the resolution makes clear the importance of conservation for agriculture:

WHEREAS the conservation of habitat, species and genetically diverse local populations is required not only for the preservation of wild nature but for the survival of agriculture, the possiblity of the domestication of new crops, and the preservation of our food supply,

It then goes on to call for comprehensive collections of crop plant and domestic animal diversity, “especially for low-input systems of farming suited to a resource-frugal future”. This is now part of the Green Party’s policy for Canada.

Does any other political party offer anything similar?

April 12, 2010April 12, 2010

Nibbles: Sustainability, Urban Ag, Briefed, Tea, Yogurt, Manure, Soil, Intensiculture

Interesting stuff behind a paywall: Thai government rethinks sustainability. Not that interesting.
Same goes for Latin American Agroecologists Build a Powerful Scientific and Social Movement.
CNN Mexico shows-and-tells the Spanish-speaking world about urban agriculture. Thanks Jeff.
Emile Frison briefs Eurocrats on the The key relationship between biodiversity and agriculture. Video!
Reflections on the invention of agriculture in MesoAmerica.
Nailing fraudulent labeling of Darjeeling tea. Throw the book at them, I say.
Lassi: “It’s the taste.” Yeah but how healthy can you make the stuff?
“We found large differences in manure levels…” I bet you did.
Soil! Don’t treat it like dirt. (Jeremy’s favourite bumper sticker.)
Veggies in windows, fish in cages.

April 9, 2010April 9, 2010

Nibbles: Asses, Mapping pathogens, Oysters, Tea, Turkish biodiversity hotspot, Dolmades and sage, Yams festival, Pollen video, Agriculture and mitigation, Rarity, School feeding, Sheep

Jeremy probes into wild asses at Vaviblog.
Mapping the evolution of pathogens. And in kinda related news…
The European oyster needs diversity. Well, natch.
The tree forests of Yunnan, and, concidentally, the story of how the secret of their product got out.
The Kaçkar Mountains at Yusufeli, northeast Turkey are in trouble. Any crop wild relatives there, among the bears and other charismatic megafauna?
Speaking of Turkey, here’s how to make one of its delicacies. But hey, if you don’t have vine leaves, you can use this.
Having fun with yams.
Drori does pollen.
FAO’s Mitigation of Climate Change in Agriculture (MICCA) Project. Any agrobiodiversity-related stuff? Need to explore…
“…conserving species may only require specific activities, such as collect and distributing seeds.”
African school feeding programme uses “local” products. What would Paarlberg say? You can find out here, if you have 90 minutes to spare.
British boffins breed self-shearing sheep. No, really.

April 7, 2010

Research on Ethiopian food insecurity not very joined up?

The Drylands Coordination Group (DCG) is a network for capacity building through exchange of practical experience and appropriate knowledge on food security in the drylands of Africa.

And a huge amount of very detailed research they are doing too, in Mali, Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia. But one does have to wonder how much “exchange of practical experience” is really taking place. Take two reasonably recent reports from Ethiopia.

One, entitled “The Levels, Determinants and Coping Mechanisms of Food Insecure Households in Southern Ethiopia” (published Feb. 2009) makes no mention of diversity within crops at all. In fact, it even conflates crops, by measuring household economic status as the “average amount of wheat per person (all household production converted into wheat term).” Surely it makes a difference to the “levels, determinants and coping mechanisms of food insecure households” whether they are producing only one variety of wheat, several varieties of wheat, or both wheat and other cereals.

Compare that with another DCG study, entitled “Seed system impact on farmers’ income and crop biodiversity in the drylands of southern Tigray” (published Jan. 2009). This goes into great detail on the different varieties of each of the cereal crops in the study area.

Surely the two teams could have talked?