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A request from Gapminder

We are happy to pass on this request from Gapminder for feedback on their agricultural data, which came in as a comment on a recent post. And to apologize for the error it highlights in our characterization of the relationship between Gapminder and Google.

Dear Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog,

Thank you for your enthusiasm! You are so right it takes a while to find the interesting stories from the massive data. It is over 700 indicators which in different combinations can show interesting stuff. But just imagine trying to do that without the visualization. We are as excited as you.

Please, when you or your visitors find some interesting combination or revelation from the graphs, please let us know. We are soon going to implement a new function where we hint of some of the interesting facts that can be found in the graphs with the possibility to add some explaining text to each graph.

We therefore need good stories to tell from the graphs. Just drop us a line if you have an example you want to share with the world!

Just one correction though, Gapminder is not owned by Google. Gapminder is a foundation of its own, totally independent from Google. They only bought the software (Trendalyzer) to improve the technology further. Gapminder continues to use it in order to explain the world in an understandable way.

Thanks again and see you on Gapminder.org!

Staffan, Gapminder

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Give us the gift of your indigenous knowledge

I know it is impossible to believe, but we’ve been straining nourishing chunks from the effluvium that courses through the interwebs for three whole years. Would you do something for us?

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“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is the English proverb that sums up the value of agricultural biodiversity better than almost anything else. 1

Are you aware of equivalents in other languages? Stick them in the comments. Please. We’ll do something with them, eventually.

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Featured: Mind the gap

Staffan at Gapminder wants you to play:

Please, when you or your visitors find some interesting combination or revelation from the graphs, please let us know. We are soon going to implement a new function where we hint of some of the interesting facts that can be found in the graphs with the possibility to add some explaining text to each graph. We therefore need good stories to tell from the graphs. Just drop us a line if you have an example you want to share with the world!

As if we needed encouraging.

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Gates embraces diversity?

This post has two purposes. The first is to try and explain the shenanigans yesterday. That’s possibly of interest to only a few geeks who care about journalistic ethics. 2 The second is warmly to welcome some of the comments made by Bill Gates as he announced a further US$120 million for agricultural research. That should be of interest to everyone except monocultural thinkers.

Second things first. Judging from the stories we’ve seen, the Gates’ announcement might just mark a shift in the Foundation’s priorities. 3 That pesky iAfrica.com site, which started all the trouble, has perhaps the longest report, which contains several nuggets.

Gates will warn that as scientists, governments, and others strive to repeat the successes of the original Green Revolution, they should be careful not to repeat its mistakes, such as the overuse of fertilizer and irrigation.

“The next Green Revolution has to be greener than the first,” Gates will say. “It must be guided by small-holder farmers, adapted to local circumstances, and sustainable for the economy and the environment.”

That’s as clear a statement as any we’ve seen that Africa’s problems will require a huge diversity of solutions, and that African farmers may well know what they need. But this is the real money quote:

Gates will say that major breakthroughs in the fight against hunger and poverty are now within reach [and] he will caution that progress toward alleviating global hunger is “endangered by an ideological wedge that threatens to split the movement in two.”

On one side, he will say, there are groups that support technological solutions to increase agricultural productivity without proper regard to environmental and sustainability concerns. On the other, there are those who react negatively to any emphasis on productivity.

“It’s a false choice, and it’s dangerous for the field,” Gates will say. “It blocks important advances. It breeds hostility among people who need to work together. And it makes it hard to launch a comprehensive program to help poor farmers. The fact is, we need both productivity and sustainability — and there is no reason we can’t have both.”

That, quite simply, is music to our ears. We’ve been saying the same ourselves at every opportunity. And given that today is a rather special day for us, we’re going to delude ourselves into thinking that someone out there reads us and even pays attention to our ramblings.

Thanks.

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Gapminder adds agricultural data at last

We’ve blogged before about how cool it would be if agricultural production statistics were available in Gapminder, the visualization tool developed by the great Hans Rosling and his family. Well, the wait is over! Gapminder, which is now owned by Google, announced a couple of days ago that you can now use it to explore the FAOSTAT database. This will take weeks, if not months, to get to grips with, but I just leave you with a tasty morsel: what’s happened to area of fonio cultivation in Guinea and Nigeria in the past 45 years. Note the rapid increase in the past decade or so. And compare to the trend in overall production. Why has Guinea done so much better in increasing yields, at least since 1995? Real, or artifact? Oh, there will be so much fun to be had from this. Thanks, Gapminder! And thanks Jon for the headsup.