Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
“Malnutrition,” “hidden hunger,” and “stunting” are just a few of the buzzwords currently being heard throughout the development community.
Buzzwords? Let’s hear it for the buzzword that will render them obsolete: “biofortification.”
Coincidentally, or not, The Lubin Files points to a useful page of FAO statistics on nutrition.
A final dispatch from the front lines of agrobiodiversity conservation and use. That is, the 6th Henry A. Wallace/CATIE Inter-American Scientific Conference on “Agrobiodiversity in Mesoamerica — From Genes to Landscapes” at CATIE in Costa Rica.
The participants at the last day of the 6th Wallace Symposium shared a warm glow. The people who I chanced to talk to all raved about the conference. Although agrobiodiversity suffers from being a vague term, it has the attractive ability to bring together a crowd of scientists from worldwide institutes, who obviously see great relevance in each other’s research. Everyone can appreciate the needs of farmers for a suite of integrated and sustainable options, including biodiversity at all scales, to enable them to cope with markets, pests and diseases, soils, climate, and — maybe most importantly — changes.
CATIE is in a prime position to integrate options with its stronghold in forest and agroecology research, watershed management, enterprise development and its international collections of cacao, coffee, peach palm and many other crops. Dr Ronnie De Camino, CATIE’s Deputy Director, stressed to the audience that the drivers of change are not slowing down and our actions are too slow. What is needed is a revolution. After this conference, I will certainly be looking to CATIE and the Mesoamerican region to lead the way in this agrobiodiversity revolution.
Global Giving, mentioned yesterday as a possible source of funds, is running a Global Open Challenge: projects have 30 days in which to secure themselves a spot on Global Giving’s roster of projects. And there are 3 days left. So just for fun, I skimmed through 150 projects to find those that are directly connected with agriculture, ignoring some that might be borderline, such as nutrition projects. Here’s the list:
Personally, I wouldn’t support this last one, because it describes Moringa and amaranth as “super-foods”. They’re good, but to pin your hopes for “a long term solution to poverty, malnutrition & food insecurity” on two species — any two species — is to miss the point comprehensively.
We’ve had a couple of flattering comments on some obscure pages lately. 1 One asked:
Please, let me know, if your organisation supports our research work.
The first response is that we are not an organisation. Just a couple of guys discussing agricultural biodiversity. With occasional wonderful contributions from our friends. But, hey. Thanks.
The second, possibly much more important response is that no, we don’t support anyone’s research. We can barely support ourselves. We often get asked about support, and all we can do is sympathise with the difficulties researchers face, especially those outside the mainstream. There really isn’t much we can offer.
In the very traditional realm, IFAR has a small grants program that might be a source of funding.
Thinking a bit sideways, it could be worth trying to get something like Global Giving to take a project on board, although pure research is unlikely to make it. I discovered them through a campaign to educate girls, and it seems like they have some really interesting ideas.
Finally, a completely off the wall suggestion that first emerged in our posts about the Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter: Kickstarter. Sure, they say they’re mostly about creativity, but what could be more creative than finding new ways to use agrobiodiversity to solve problems of food and nutrition security?
If you are aware of other possible sources of small grants, why not add them to this post in a (totally legitimate use of a) comment?
Couldn’t resist today’s trifecta of Brassica papers. At the meta level, there’s “Origin and Domestication of Cole Crops (Brassica oleracea L.): Linguistic and Literary Considerations” in Economic Botany. Then some of the same authors follow up in GRACE with “AFLP analysis of genetic diversity in leafy kale (Brassica oleracea L. convar. acephala (DC.) Alef.) landraces, cultivars and wild populations in Europe.” And finally, in Plant Breeding, enjoy “The cytoplasm effect comparison between Brassica napus and Brassica carinata on floral characteristics of Brassica oleracea.” Enough to keep brassica boffins busy for weeks.