<
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/climate/agriculture-africa-traditional-crops.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QE0.IKjp.d9TKVd98jUpi>
"Cary Fowler once helped build an Arctic vault to save the world’s great
variety of crop seeds from extinction. Now, as the State Department’s global
envoy for food security, he is trying to plant a new seed in U.S. foreign
policy.
Instead of urging developing countries to grow only huge amounts of staple
grains, like maize, as American policy has done for decades in Africa, Mr.
Fowler is promoting a return to the great variety of traditional crops that
people used to grow more of, like cowpeas, cassava and a range of millets.
He calls them “opportunity crops” because they’re sturdy and full of nutrients.
The effort is still in its infancy, with a relatively tiny budget of $100
million. But at a time when climate shocks and rising costs are aggravating
food insecurity and raising the risks of political instability, the stakes are
high.
Mr. Fowler’s boss, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said this week at the
World Economic Forum in Davos that the idea could be “genuinely revolutionary.”
Traditional crops are more nourishing for people who eat them and for the soils
in which they are grown, according to Mr. Fowler, and they are better at
withstanding the wild weather delivered by climate change. The problem, he
says, is that they’ve been ignored by plant breeders. His goal, through the new
State Department initiative, is to increase the agricultural productivity of
the most nutritious and climate-hardy among them.
The initial focus is on a half dozen crops in a half dozen countries in Africa.
“These crops have been grown for thousands of years in Africa, Mr. Fowler, 74,
said in a recent interview. “They’re doing something right. They’re embedded in
the culture. They really supply nutrition. If they have yield problems or other
barriers to commercialization, frankly, by and large, it’s because we haven’t
invested in them.”"
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-malaria-vaccine-reforestation-china-poverty-india/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
