- 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?
Putting words in the minister’s mouth
ACCORDING to the Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Mr Stephen Wasira, more than 90 per cent of farmers in the country use recycled seeds, which invariably have very low production.
I wonder where he got the idea that farm-saved seed is “invariably” low yielding?
Mr Wasira said this last week, when he was opening a workshop on the seed industry development in Tanzania.
‘Nuff said.
Read the whole report in Daily News Online.
Fishy business
I missed this when it came out a couple of days ago, but a study by Daniel Pauly at the University of British Columbia shows how small-scale fishers ((Don’t blame me; that’s the acceptable gender-neutral term.)) are short changed by “well-intentioned eco-labelling initiatives and ill-conceived fuel subsidies”. I’d expect no less from Pauly, who has always been a champion of artisanal fisheries. Industrial fishermen ((Yes, industrial giants are gender-specific.)) receive 200 times higher fuel subsidies than artisanal fishers, who also discard far less fish as waste. Campaigns to persuade shoppers to buy eco-friendly fish have not paid off either, according to Pauly.
“For the amount of resources invested, we haven’t seen significant decrease in demand for species for which the global stocks are on the edge of collapse,” says Pauly. “Market-based initiatives, while well-intentioned, unduly discriminate against small scale fishers for their lack of resources to provide data for certification.”
Fish really does represent the ethical frontier of food. Farmed pollutes and wild destroys the stocks. What’s a piscivorous person to do? Get rid of the subsidies, say Pauly and his colleagues. Without subsidies, large-scale fisheries would not survive, small fishers would thrive supplying local markets, and global fish stocks would have an opportunity to rebound.
So we can overfish them again?