Yearly Archives: 2015

Bean breakthrough bodes well for climate change challenge

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Scientists are hailing a new breed of bean seed as a breakthrough, thanks to its ability to grow amid rising temperatures and yield more nutritional value, qualities they believe can thwart the anticipated destruction of nearly half of all bean production.

The new seed was launched on Wednesday by scientists from the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. As well as being more resilient to heat, the bean has a higher iron content.

About 400 million people rely on beans for subsistence, according to CGIAR. But by 2050 nearly half of the world’s bean production could be wiped out by rising temperatures if new seed varieties are not rolled out immediately.

“Beans are not very well adapted to high temperatures because they originated in the cool hills and mountains of central America, Mexico and South America. So pushing them down into the warmer areas has always been a challenge,” said Steve Beebe, a researcher at CGIAR, based at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia.

In 2012, CGIAR researchers began to test more than 1,000 types of beans in a bid to find “heat beater” beans able to grow amid high temperatures and drought. Scientists cultivated test plots on Colombia’s Caribbean coast and in greenhouses, before eventually discovering 30 heat-tolerant bean types that can withstand a 4C increase in temperature. CGIAR said it used natural breeding to discover the seed.

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The ‘unlikely hero’ that transforms lands and livelihoods in Uganda

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Poor soils make people poor. The people living in the area that borders Lake Victoria in Uganda know this for a fact: They have seen maize yields on their small plots of land dwindle, as they can often not afford the fertilizer the nitrogen-hungry crop requires to grow strong. Income and nutrition levels drop. The community faces a struggle to escape from poverty.

Yet a Humidtropics intervention led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture that takes an integrated approach to tackling the triple challenge of poverty, hunger and environmental degradation all at once has offered hope, by turning to an unlikely hero: soybean. With the help of partners such as the national research organizations of Uganda, development partners such as World Vision and Bioversity International and with help from the local government the humble soybean has helped to transform lands and livelihoods.

As a legume, soybean naturally fixes nitrogen to soil, a nutrient sorely needed in the degraded lands of this region. This leaves the land capable of nourishing maize crops planted either at a later date or alongside the soybean. During a trial period in the Kiboga district, soybean yields were abundant, but this presented new challenges. Farmers did not know how to process this new crop, and as demand for soybean seed increased, so did the challenge for farmers to access quality seeds, since the local market is poorly developed.

To combat this, Humidtropics researchers enlisted the help of both the public, and the private sector. In September 2014, Makarere University taught local groups how to multiply quality seeds and how to utilize soybean in the household.

One man who participated in this training, Majid, is a school headmaster. After what he learned about the uses and nutritional quality of soybean, he decided to include soy in the maize porridge the children at his school were served at breaktime and lunch. Local government learned about the lessons and brought the headteachers of district schools together to make it a practice adopted across the region. This strategy is now being adopted in schools across the area to improve the nutrition levels of children and subsequently their performance at school.

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Where the wild vegetables are: Moroccan food from the forest

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Winter has arrived in Morocco. From December to March, there is a lot of rain (more than the rest of the year) – and widespread availability of wild vegetables. Although wild foods, especially wild vegetables, have held an important place in Moroccan culinary practice for generations, up until recently, they have been largely overlooked by research and policy initiatives. But, two recent publications have changed this. In one recent publication, Nassif and Tanji, reported almost 80 species of edible vegetables in Morocco.

A study  published by CIFOR last April showed that in a community in the Rif Mountains, 84 percent of households had used wild vegetables in the last seven days and wild vegetables were eaten up to four times a week. This work suggests that rural Moroccan communities are using their agricultural landscapes in diverse ways. Wild vegetables are collected from fields, field margins, roadsides and streambeds: diversity within the landscape ensures local communities have access to more than just staple crops.

The study also looked at the geographic distribution of knowledge and use of wild leafy greens across three sites in Morocco and found significant variation, not only between regions, but also between villages in the same region. For example, in the north, Calendula arvensis and Erodium moschatum are regularly consumed, while women in the High Atlas Mountains to the south say these species are not eaten, even though they grow there as well.

In the north, women in one village call the genus Calendula “Karn kebsha,” while in a village only 40 kilometers away, it is called “Mesk azara.” There was a greater overlap in the knowledge of wild vegetables among villages that use the same market. We think that this is because markets act as a site where knowledge is transmitted and a place where social and cultural values, tastes and dietary habits are shaped. We conclude that markets could have an important role in preserving the diversity of rural agricultural systems and landscapes in Morocco.

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Badal unfolds blue print for agricultural diversification in State

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Punjab Chief Minister Mr Parkash Singh Badal today reiterated his government’s firm commitment to put the state on fast track of Agriculture diversification in order to achieve twin objective of restoring soil’s fertility and checking the depletion of water table on one hand and strengthening the agrarian economy on the other.

Winding up the intensive discussions after two days meeting with central team of Agriculture experts and progressive farmers here today, the Chief Minister said that these fruitful deliberations had helped the state government to prepare a roadmap for the implementation of Agriculture Diversification plan in a phased manner. Mr Badal said the over exploitation of its natural resources i.e. micro nutrients of soil and ground water had sounded alarming bells for the state government towards second push to ‘Green Revolution’ which was the need of the hour. He announced in the meeting that the state government would submit comprehensive proposals in this behalf to the Union Ministry of Agriculture positively by April 30th.

The Chief Minister revealed that the state government   has chalked out a strategy to reduce major area of state under paddy cultivation to alternate crops with a view to shift from supply driven to demand driven agriculture. It was purposed to shift this area to Maize (5.5 lakh hectare), Cotton (seven lakh hectare), Sugarcane (2.6 lakh hectare), Guar (0.3 lakh hectare), Fodder (5.5 lakh hectare), Arhar (0.6 lakh hectare). Moong bean (0.6 lakh hectare), Kinnow (0.8 lakh hectare), Guava and Pear (0.2 lakh hectare), Agro Forestry (three lakh hectare), Groundnut (0.2 lakh hectare) and Vegetable (0.5 lakh hectare), he added. Mr Badal said that the Diversification plan would be instrumental in ensuring long term sustainability and improving farm incomes.

Listing out the initiatives to promote diversification, the Chief Minister said that APMC Act 1961 was being amended to provide direct marketing and setting up of private markets. He said that new Contract farming act has been enacted and notification has been issued to regulate the contracts and make mutual obligations enforceable. To incentivize the cultivation of Basmati, infra structure cess on it had been abolished to give boost to its export. The state government was seriously contemplating to review the tax structure on marketing of alternate crops by lowering them considerably to ensure a level playing field to all the stakeholders. Effective steps were afoot to incentivize the cultivation of Maize, Cotton, Sugarcane, Fruits and vegetables through ensuring  subsidized supply of hybrid seeds, weedicides etc., capital assistance at the rate of 50% for purchase of Maize planters and harvesters, cotton pickers, strengthening of infra structure in designated markets, timely availability of quality seeds through MoU with BT hybrid seeds manufacturing companies, establishment of Tissue culture labs in sugar mills, supply of quality planting material propagated through tissue culture besides setting up of four modern wood timber markets in Dasuya, Hoshiarpur, Balachaur and Ludhiana to promote Agro Forestry in a big way.

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Opinion: Eco-efficient Crop and Livestock Production for Nicaraguan Farmers

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For Roberto Pineda, a smallholder farmer in the Somotillo municipality of Nicaragua, his traditional practice after each harvest was to cut down and burn all crop residues on his land, a practice known as “slash-and-burn” agriculture.

A widespread practice on these sub-humid hillsides of Central America, it was nonetheless causing many negative environmental implications, including poor soil quality, erosion, nutrient leaching, and the loss of ecosystem diversity. Slash-and-burn allows farmers to use land for only one to three years before the plots become too degraded and must be abandoned.

“We used to work in our traditional way, pruning everything down to the ground, and if there was anything left we would burn it,” he said. “The land would be destroyed and things weren’t getting better.”

But about three years ago, Pineda and a group of farmers became involved in an agroforestry programme overseen by a group of partners including the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) as well as Nicaraguan, American, Austrian and Colombian institutions.

The programme works with farmers to enhance the eco-efficiency of their rural landscapes, helping them to introduce stress-adapted crop and forage options and improve crop and livestock productivity and profitability. This helps smallholders not only to improve local ecosystems but also to adapt to extreme climate conditions and safeguard soil fertility and food production over the long term.

“Now we have seen a change,” Pineda said. “We used to yield 10 quintals per manzana, and now we produce between 30 and 40 quintals per manzana. We have improved our natural resources, and trees have grown. Before, we had no trees and there was no rain.”

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A miracle tree combats malnutrition in Africa

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Foto: Roy BeuskerThe National Postcode Lottery in the Netherlands, a lottery program that donates 50 percent of its proceeds to charities, announced yesterday a nearly €1.3 million three-year grant to The Hunger Project, to scale up its successful Moringa nutrition program in Benin to Uganda, Ethiopia and Malawi.

Moringa is a tropical tree whose leaves are packed with more vitamins and minerals than most foods we know. The tree is extremely rich in protein, vitamins A, B and C and other minerals that are key to combatting malnutrition.

“The Hunger Project developed a strategy, together with farmers and local volunteers, of knowing, planting and eating,” Pascal Djohossou, Country Director of The Hunger Project in Benin explained. Through the program, communities are mobilized to create nurseries to grow Moringa and factories to produce Moringa powder. The Hunger Project and its volunteer leaders also educate communities about the benefits of this power food and train them how to cook with it. These trainings are part of a larger program to educate people about proper health and nutrition for pregnant and nursing mothers and young children. By breaking the cycle of malnutrition at the start, healthy mothers deliver healthy babies who can grow into healthy, productive adults

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