Professor Stephen Hopper, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, in London, argues that the world is currently too reliant on just a handful of key species of edible plants for food.
Welcome aboard, Prof. Hopper!
Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
Professor Stephen Hopper, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, in London, argues that the world is currently too reliant on just a handful of key species of edible plants for food.
Welcome aboard, Prof. Hopper!
Meta-analyze the meta-analyses on ecological agriculture and this — at least according to Lim Li Ching, a researcher at Third World Network — is what you get:
It is clear that ecological agriculture is productive and has the potential to meet food security needs, particularly in the African context. The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development concurs that an increase and strengthening of agricultural knowledge, science and technology toward agroecological sciences will contribute to addressing environmental issues while maintaining and increasing productivity (IAASTD, 2008). Moreover, ecological agricultural approaches allow farmers to improve local food production with low-cost, readily available technologies and inputs, without causing environmental damage.
Miguel Altieri thinks that small farms is where the most ecological and sustainable agriculture is predominantly taking place, and that we need to support that. He repeatedly mentions that they are havens of agrobiodiversity, but he doesn’t mention another meta-analysis that shows that small farms are diverse farms.
LATER: From Brazil, “how family farmers may have benefited benefit from the implication of large retail chains in the organic sector and how an economically and ecologically outstanding agriculture may arise from these circumstances.”
There’s a bit of follow-up on the news from a few weeks back that Turkey was planning to build another genebank. At a meeting of the D-8 countries (Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Nigeria), Turkey’s Agriculture and Rural Affairs Minister Mehmet Mehdi Eker proposed that “the seed bank to be established within D8 countries be housed in Turkey.” So it will be a sort of regional backup facility? Hard to say. The plot thickens.
About 30,000 cows drawn from different species will be used in Jigawa state for artificial insemination experiment before the end of May this year, the state commissioner of agriculture, Alhaji Nasidi Ali has said.
Ok, I suppose he meant breeds rather than species. Although a follow up quote from the commissioner adds that: “We want to change the species and varieties of cows in Jigawa state.” Anyway, one has to wonder what this will do to whatever local breeds ((There are also lists of local breeds from ILRI and FAO.)) roam around Jigawa State, Nigeria. The recent State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture did not paint a rosy global picture, you’ll recall.