- How they grow bananas in Fadan Karshi, Nigeria.
- How they grow sorghum in Karamoja, Uganda.
- How tequila is ruining small farms in Mexico. Or is it?
- How small farms cannot feed Africa. Or can they? Join the debate! Via.
- How the Brits plan to rebrand cauliflower. This I gotta see.
- How the ancient Chinese made wine out of rice, honey, and fruit. Pass the bottle.
- How Georgia is mapping where its chestnuts used to be.
- How farmers’ rights are being implemented.
- How Indian agriculture should move beyond wheat and rice. Ok, but what would everybody eat?
- How microsatellites can be used to help catfish breeding.
- How Ni Wayan Lilir is helping people learn about the traditional healing herbs of Bali.
- How the Brits brought back the Konik.
Nibbles: Agroforestry
- ICRAF gives Cameroon top marks for “planting the right tree in the right place.”
Seek alternatives to maize, Kenyans told
Maybe, just maybe, the tide is beginning to turn away from derivative monocultures in countries where those crops are risky. That seems to be the case in Kenya, where the Daily Nation reports that farmers are being urged to plant other crops that are less risky. David Nyameino, chief executive of the Cereal Growers Association, says Kenya needs a commitment by the government to promote such foods.
Non-maize crops are viewed with a degree of suspicion by Kenyans, to the extent that farmers would rather gamble with the chance of good rains rather than plant them. …
“The government should emphasis on demand for other forms of food beside maize such as sweet potatoes, cassava, beans and peas,†Mr Nyameino told the Sunday Nation. “By this we are not taking away the demand for maize but are creating demand for other foods such as sorghum and millet.â€
Will government, and farmers, heed the message?
Nibbles: Wolf, Conservation agriculture, ODI, Food policy, Stress, Sustainability
- Evidence of extrogression from dogs. That would be the opposite of introgression, and there are apparently lots of examples from mammals.
- “Conservation agriculture is an essential element of … intensification.†Oh please.
- Simon Maxwell, director of the Overseas Development Institute, on the Millennium Villages etc. Lukewarm, I’d say.
- Louise Fresco makes bread at TED. Fiat Panis, eh?
- India to manage abiotic stresses. I’ve got a few of those I’d like to manage a bit better.
- Arab nations discuss differences of opinion on sustainability. Someone tell me the bottom line.
The perils of diversification
Alex Tiller forecasts a price spike in the cost of salads and melons in the US this summer as a result of a drought in California’s Central Valley. Farmers are abandoning those crops to save water for even more valuable crops, like almonds. Tiller suggests that
The coming cost spikes in lettuce and melon may provide incentives for growers outside the “melon belt†to invest in the production of these popular fruit and vegetable crops.
Right. But unless those farmers can fashion some kind of new deal with their buyers they’ll be able to kiss goodbye to their investment and their income just as soon as California gets another normally wet season, which it will, soon enough. Prices will plummet, and the buyers will abandon (more) local suppliers to save a couple of cents. You mark my words.