Category: Policy

Posted on

For once the obviously bemused deputy governor was talking sense

The line that I’ve used as the title of this post comes from an article in the Lagos Daily Independent which describes the recent torching, by the said deputy governor, of a crop of “Indian hemp” in Osogbo, the capital of Osun State, Nigeria. While setting her fire she…

…lamented that valuable acres of land in the state were being used to cultivate indian hemp instead of staple food crops.

Indian hemp? As in Apocynum cannabinum? Why set fire to Apocynum cannabinum? Especially after getting it to grow in Nigeria! Well, needless to say, I had the wrong end of the stick.

Anyway, what struck me about the article, apart from the delicious line which graces this post as its title, and the confusion that can be caused by the use of common names, is the following:

The peasant farmer should take centre stage. Revitalized commodity boards should be aligned with improved seeds and guaranteed farm gate prices to increase production. The effect will be a great increase in the living standard of all those involved in agriculture. There will clearly be no space for fallow farm lands to be used for growing indian hemp. Since she seems to be peeved, someone should educate Erelu Obada on the fine point of Indira Gandhi’s green revolution. The people of Osun State will clearly be better off for it.

I just can’t imagine commodity boards (however revitalized), seeds (however improved) and farm gate prices (however guaranteed) ever convincing “enterprising miscreants,” in the words of the author, in Nigeria or any other country, to give up their bhang fields. Just like I can’t imagine Yemeni farmers ever giving up their qat fields, despite similar interventions. Legalize it!

Posted on

Hungarian parliament to discuss agrobiodiversity

I think it’s pretty impressive that the Parliamentary Commission for Agriculture of Hungary’s Parliament is organizing a Parliamentary Open Day entitled “Landscape Management, Local Varieties and Genetic Conservation” on the occasion of the International Day of Biological Diversity. I wonder how many other legislatures around the world are doing something similar. Few, I’ll wager. Thanks to Györgyi Bela for the tip.

Posted on

Nibbles: Adam Forbes, Squash, Native Americans, Gardens, Buffalo, Pastoralism, Primula, IPR

Posted on

The Welsh pony story gets a happy ending, maybe

I mentioned earlier that DAD-Net is holding an e-consultation on threats to livestock diversity. There was a bit of discussion on the nature of the threats last week. One of the more interesting contributions came from Dafydd Pilling of the animal genetic resources group at FAO. He offered “an example in which the threat does not correspond exactly to any of the categories listed in the background document.”

The threat in question is the financial burden imposed on the owners of mountain ponies by the EU “horse passport” scheme. The story can be traced by visiting each of the following web pages in turn:

Passport threat to wild ponies

Time running out for wild ponies

Ponies saved from passport threat

Our little ponies facing extinction

Carneddau wild ponies

The problem goes back to 2004, and we noted it two years ago, but not the dénouement.

Three years ago the European Union passed a law that all such animals had to have a passport and be tagged. This costs £50 per animal, and at that time the ponies were only worth around £15 each so it just wasn’t going to be financially viable for us to keep protecting them.

Then seven local farmers got together, managed to secure Objective One funding and set up the Carneddau Ponies Association to fund and carry out this work.

…

We also want them classed as a rare breed, which would allow us to sell a group on one passport instead of individually.

Looks like livestock diversity is no less at risk from some EU regulation than the crop kind. Although Dr Pilling does add that “EU rules on ear tagging of cattle had been amended” when they were found to pose “a threat to extensive livestock management practices” in Europe. I’ll try to find out more about that one.

Posted on

Happy World Fair Trade Day!

Today, May 9th is World Fair Trade Day, apparently. I had no idea until I saw this poster a few days ago. And even then there was some confusion as for some reason the date on it is the 10th.

dscf8671

The theme is food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture. There’s a great-looking programme being organized here in Rome. Anyway, as an old germplasm collector, I can really relate to all those seeds on the poster.