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Battling it out over drought-tolerant maize in Africa

Maize in Africa is becoming a bit of a battlefield in the agri-culture wars. The BBC has a radio programme on the Water Efficient Maize for Africa project, which is a partnership between national programmes, CIMMYT and Monsanto, with a lot of work being done in Kenya. Predictably, it is very biotechnology-oriented, with marker-assisted selection and genetic modification to the fore.

At the other end of the spectrum, Scientific American has an article on a GEF project (funding comes also from Norway and the Netherlands) at Sakai, Kenya which is very different.

Agricultural extension officers now offer seasonal and locally relevant climate predictions explained in simple terms in Kikamba, the regional tribal language. They are now producing a handbook to translate weather predictions into practical advice about what and when to plant.

The project has also helped farmers set up a seed bank. A group of about 40 men will collect, process and preserve the best local seeds and loan them out again during the next planting season, slowly selecting for the best climate-adapted varieties.

Sakai’s farmers are hedging their bets. Increasingly, they are diversifying their crops by planting more drought-tolerant grains, peas and beans.

One wonders whether the two projects are even aware of each other, let alone talking. Maybe someone will tell us.

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Featured: Biofortification

Pablo Eyzaguirre is somewhat critical of the Gates Foundation in a comment to a specific bit of a non-Nibble:

At several stages people have tried to call the foundation’s attention to analyses calling for a broader perspective on crop improvement that includes crop and varietal diversity for food and nutrition. Yet the foundation still puts all its stakes on high gains through breeding of global staples.

But Jeremy sees that and raises him with a quote from a recent paper which makes reference to one of his reviews:

Biofortification of staple foods is the most promising strategy to alleviate micronutrient deficiency (Brinch-Pederson et al. 2007; Johns and Eyzaguirre 2007; Welch and Graham 2004).

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Evaluating St John’s wort not as easy as it sounds

USDA researchers at Ames, Iowa are screening 180 accessions of St Johns wort (Hypericum) for biologically active compounds. I hope they’ll take into account phase of the moon in their evaluations:

Research on St. John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum, Hypericaceae) herb, one of the top ten herbal products in retail sales in the United States, has shown seasonal variation and differences due to cultivation location. Levels of hypericin and pseudohypericin, the compounds to which commercial products are usually standardized, were found to vary from 100 ppm to 5000 ppm from winter to summer. This remarkable quantitative difference in compounds could account for some of the differences in commercial products whose raw materials are usually from multiple sources. Additional studies with St. John’s wort found significant variation among wild and cultivated plants sourced from around the world.