Michael Major

A Traveller's Eye, A Thinker's Heart

Category: Travels for Crop Trust

  • IS ARCTIC SNOW REALLY BLUE?

    For years, I have been seeing photographs of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. And in nearly every photograph, the snow is blue. The Svalbard Archipelago is halfway between the Arctic Circle and the North Pole, so I often wondered if perhaps up there the snow truly is blue. I finally got an opportunity to travel to Svalbard last month. And I can ensure you … the Arctic snow is perfectly white. It’s just that our not-so-smartphones think it’s blue. I bought my first camera – an Olympus OM-1 – in 1978…

    Read the full story …

    IS ARCTIC SNOW REALLY BLUE?

  • A SEED’S JOURNEY TO THE FAR FAR NORTH

    It’s a long long way between Zimbabwe and the Svalbard Archipelago in the Barents Sea inside the Arctic Circle. It’s 10,500 km precisely. That’s a long way for a seed to travel. But a bunch of vacuum packed seeds of rice, sorghum, millets and groundnuts made that journey this week. I saw those seeds at the beginning and end of their journey. Last September, I travelled to Zimbabwe to see those seeds being multiplied, cleaned and processed for their long journey to the Arctic. And yesterday I saw those same seeds…

    Read the full story …

    A SEED’S JOURNEY TO THE FAR FAR NORTH

  • BETTER CHICKPEAS FOR KOT SARANG

    Blight decimated the chickpea crop in the Punjab village of Kot Sarang a decade or so ago. Farmers were reluctant to plant it again. But breeders from Pakistan’s National Agricultural Research Center found types of chickpea in the National Genebank of Pakistan that had some resistance to the blight. The breeders planted those chickpeas in Kot Sarang and sure enough they had some blight tolerance. So, the farmers are now growing chickpeas again. I joined those breeders and staff from the National Genebank to pay those farmers a visit and see…

    Read the full story …

    BETTER CHICKPEAS FOR KOT SARANG

  • THE CITY OF ISLAM

    ‘Islamabad’ means “City of Islam” or “City of Peace” in Urdu. So, I thought it would remiss of me if I didn’t visit the Faisal Mosque while visiting the City of Islam. The Faisal Mosque was built in 1988 and named after King Faisal of Saudi Arabia who inaugurated it. It was designed by a Turkish architect who aimed for a more contemporary structure in a triangular design reminiscent of a Bedouin tent. The foothills of the Margalla Hills give it a picturesque backdrop. With a 100,000-person capacity it ranks as…

    Read the full story …

    THE CITY OF ISLAM

  • ISLAMABAD’S SUNDAY BAZAAR

    You can get pretty much anything at the Sunday (AKA Margalla) Bazaar, even on a Friday. Open three days a week, the bazaar is the place to go in Islamabad to purchase essential items at competitive prices. It sprawls across 25 acres with 2,760 stalls. Carpets, clothes, fresh food, techie stuff and even soccer balls. I wanted to have a look at food so my hosts, Drs Kashif and Umer from the Plant Genetic Resources Institute, brought me to the bazaar for a gander at the diversity of food the Pakistanis…

    Read the full story …

    ISLAMABAD’S SUNDAY BAZAAR

  • THE CANALS OF THE MEKONG DELTA

    Back in the early 19th century the Emperor Gia Long, the founder of the Nguyễn Dynasty, had the foresight to build canals for irrigation, transportation and military purposes in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. The French colonizers thought that was a pretty good idea as well and they enlarged the network in the mid-19th to mid-20th century. The French recognized the agricultural potential of the Mekong Delta and used the canals to promote rice cultivation, improve transportation and extract natural resources. Today, canals are everywhere in the Mekong. It does mean, however, that…

    Read the full story …

    THE CANALS OF THE MEKONG DELTA

  • THE VARIED PERSONALITIES OF MALUNGA

    The last time it rained in Malunga was in January. The rainy season ended early in this part of the Motobo District of southwestern Zimbabwe, on the fringe of the Kalahari. The village only recorded 181 mm of rain during the rainy season, due to an El Niño-induced drought. The region is arid regardless and even in the best of years it wouldn’t get more than 400 mm of rain. But that’s enough to grow pearl millet and sorghum. My Crop Trust colleague, Beri, and I joined our partner from the…

    Read the full story …

    THE VARIED PERSONALITIES OF MALUNGA

  • GOOD TO BE ORGANISED

    For three days, my Crop Trust colleague, Beri, and I have been visiting farmers in Zimbabwe. As we arrive to each destination, we find a group ranging from 25 to 200 of farmers awaiting us under the shade of a tree or two. Without fail we are greeted with song and dance, which continue throughout our meetings. Today’s spontaneous performance at the Chimukoko Community Seed Bank in northeastern Zimbabwe was my favourite. In her closing remarks, Beri commended the community members for efforts in developing their genebank and how organised the…

    Read the full story …

    GOOD TO BE ORGANISED

  • ASK THE WOMEN

    A long time ago a client asked me to document a forestry project in the rural town of Hojancha in northern Costa Rica. I took photos of proud men standing by amazing stands of introduced eucalypts, Gmelina and teak. The trees were grown for both timber and firewood. But I learned the women weren’t too crazy about eucalypts as firewood. They said they didn’t like the smell and it made their gallo pinto taste bad. No one bothered to ask the women about their preferences before the trees were planted. That…

    Read the full story …

    ASK THE WOMEN
Travelers’ Map is loading…
If you see this after your page is loaded completely, leafletJS files are missing.