- Governing Agrobiodiversity by Regine Andersen. Anyone read it and want to review it for us?
- Louise Sperling on assessing the security of seed systems.
- Ike inflates Cohiba prices?
- Kibera slum goes very green. Via.
- “35 years ago, I was bringing seeds from France to California. Now I’m bringing seeds back to my friends in France.”
- John Innes Centre maps out a future for peas.
- Pictures from my recent trip to CATIE in Costa Rica, including some agrobiodiversity.
Nibbles: Double dose of Pacific, Harlan II Symposium
- Pacific genebank will help secure future food supplies. Mary Taylor comments: “It’s significant insurance”.
- And more from Luigi’s old stomping ground: “We need to sign up to the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, so that we can access a wider pool of diversity and share genetic resources.”
- Diamond Does Davis.
Nibbles: ICTs, Dance, Information, Animal genetic resources
- Video on Web 2.0 applications in the development sector in Africa.
- Dancing with agrobiodiversity. Via. Thanks, Kev.
- New Agriculturist is out.
- China will “ban the export of genetic resources of newly-discovered, unidentified livestock and poultry breeds that are unique to the country.” Unidentified?
Nibbles: Banananomy, El Tratado Internacional, Water, Quinoa, Bananamama, Rice, Goats
- Wilson Wong raves about banana name book. We say: “Banana? Plantain? What’s the difference?”
- ¿Hablas español? ¿Quieres aprender sobre el Tratado Internacional? Sigue este link.
- Nice take on food shortages; realistic water pricing will cut waste.
- (North) American farmer loves quinoa.
- Africa’s “banana mama” tells Linda Nordling how winning the YARA prize has been the fulfilment of a lifelong goal.
- IRRI receives $500,000 handout; wonder what the true cost to the donor was.
- “Let’s extensively raise goats in all families.”
A puzzle of African farming
I’m puzzled by a report on SciDev.net about last week’s 3rd African Green Revolution Conference in Norway. Two speakers told the conference that although new technologies have been developed that can increase yields, farmers are not adopting these technologies. The speakers said one reason is that there is no funding to promote these new technologies to farmers, and a Vice-President of AGRA told the conference that AGRA was spending US$50 million to fund a network of agro-dealers that will make the technologies available closer to the farmers and arrange for demonstrations.
Here’s the puzzle: is a network of agro-dealers really the solution? Or would an equal investment in extension services be a better use of the money? Countries tend to be neglecting extension right now, possibly because they are lured by technological solutions that are more glamorous than spreading best practices. What if there were a transnational service that put an army of barefoot extension workers into the countryside? Equip them with a bicycle and some communications technology. Give them access to one another’s experience and a global network of experts. Give them access, too, to those technological developments, if they think those are worthwhile. Maybe even give farmers vouchers that they can exchange for advice.
If the result is improved yields, stability, nutrition and all the rest of it, wouldn’t that be more sustainable than new technologies that — for whatever reason — languish on the shelf?