Did you know there was such a thing as a Sumatran striped rabbit?
Local and exotic crops in Africa
The long dry spell throughout much of February and March, caused by an unexpected El Nino that kept the main rain belt to the north of Zimbabwe, will cause serious hardship in significant areas of the country.
That’s not the only thing, of course, but an article from the Harare Herald ((Posted at allAfrica.com)) makes a plea for farmers to grow local indigenous grains such as “sorghum, mhunga and rapoko” rather than watch maize “wilt and die four years out of five”.
It is a wonderful article, making lots of good points. That food-for-work programmes should be accompanied by intensive training on growing small grains, so that those who need it most can become self-reliant in food and maybe even sell a bit for income. That modern machinery makes preparation much easier, and it isn’t expensive. That an advertising campaign could make a virtue of sadza ((Zimbabwean porridge?)) the way grandmothers made it. That there are benefits for urban consumers too. And finally, “Variety is wonderful. But we should not be rejecting indigenous grains simply because they are not “modern” or “Western”. We should be using them as well”.
I wonder whether anyone is listening?
The Ethiopian Herald, meanwhile, says green gram is becoming the crop of choice in Southern Wollo zone. A legume, green gram (Vigna radiata, maybe most familiar in the West as mung bean) improves soil fertility, ripens more rapidly and doubles or even triples incomes. One farmer is quoted as having replaced his teff crop with green gram, but if everybody does that, who is going to supply the teff flour for njera?
First study of global pollinator value
Back in October 2006 the Royal Society published an online version of a comprehensive study that was the first attempt to put a global value on pollinators. It attracted some attention back then, at The Worsted Witch, who got it from Science Daily. We missed it at the time ((Probably because the whole site was pretty new)), but as the paper version has just been published, that’s enough reason to revisit it ((Thanks to Michael Kubisch for sending the information below and the link)).
Very briefly, the article shows that 87 of the leading 115 crops depend to varying degrees on animal pollination. These 87 crops represent 35% of the world’s food production. While a few food plants are pollinated by birds or bats, the most important pollinators are, of course, honeybees, domesticated and wild. This is particularly troublesome in light of the various threats to the domesticated bee. The authors conclude that agricultural intensification jeopardizes wild bee populations and plead for more research into landscape management practices that would enhance wild bee viability.
Interestingly, I couldn’t find an actual cash value for pollination services in the article, but maybe I didn’t look hard enough.
Magnolias in trouble
The Global Trees Campaign says that 131 of 245 wild Magnoliaceae are threatened worldwide. According to this press release from BGCI:
The significance of this potentially catastrophic loss lies not only in the threat to the genetic diversity of the family, but also because they are a highly sensitive indicator of the well-being of the forests in which they are found. Magnolias are among the most ancient groups of flowering plants and have long been cultivated by mankind.
You can download a PDF of the new Magnoliaceae Red List. The publication of the red list has been widely covered by the press, including New Scientist. Many species have medicinal uses and some are used for food.
Predictably, protected areas are highlighted as an important approach to the conservation of these species, particularly in their hotspot in southern China. A separate new study
concludes that protected areas are necessary for preventing the loss of species due to climate change – provided that shifts in species’ ranges are factored into early analysis of whether to expand current protected areas or create new ones.
The new red list includes distribution maps of all magnolias, clearly an important first step.
Wiki on climate change and biodiversity
We have been contacted by David Wiedenfeld with news of a wiki-style site with the objective of aggregating information about biodiversity conservation and climate change. It will mainly focus on wild biodiversity, but material on agricultural biodiversity will be welcome. You can find David’s wiki here. Sounds like a great idea, good luck with it!