Michael Major

A Traveller's Eye, A Thinker's Heart

Category: Travels for Crop Trust

  • A POTATO JOURNEY FROM WISCONSIN TO KENYA

    I started out begrudgingly planting potatoes for a merit badge in Wisconsin. Decades later, I found myself in Kenya, watching advanced potato breeding at work. From garden patches to in vitro labs, I’ve come to appreciate the science behind every spud, and the people shaping its future.

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    A POTATO JOURNEY FROM WISCONSIN TO KENYA

  • THEY’RE HARVESTING POTATOES IN KENYA

    Potato harvesting in Kenya is being transformed through improved farming practices, including better seed selection, soil management, and access to agricultural support. These changes are helping smallholder farmers increase yields, strengthen food security, and build more resilient livelihoods in the face of climate and economic challenges across the region.

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    THEY’RE HARVESTING POTATOES IN KENYA

  • THE STIGMA OF GRASSPEA

    The ancient Greeks, notably Hippocrates, were pretty wary of grasspea (Lathyrus sativa). They figured if they ate too much they’d get some neurological disorders. The stigma of grasspea still persists today in many parts of the world.Last month I joined a team from the Crop Trust‘s BOLD Project to visit researchers and farmers in India and Bangladesh to learn more about grasspea. ICARDA’s Shiv Kumar Agrawal led us on a journey to Bhopal, New Delhi, Kolkata, Gazipur, Ishurdi and Rangpur. And I had two takeaways from that journey. First … wow!…

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    THE STIGMA OF GRASSPEA

  • CROSSING THE BRAHMAPUTRA

    The Brahmaputra is one of the mightiest rivers in the world. From its source on the Angsi Glacier in Tibet it flows nearly 4,000 kilometres to its mouth in the Bay of Bengal. Our hosts at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute wanted to take us to a char on the river. A char is a salt and silt island. But they’re not really islands … they’ve got kind of a ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ existence as the Brahmaputra keeps changing its mind about where it wants to flow. It was a…

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    CROSSING THE BRAHMAPUTRA

  • THE PEA OF THE CHAR

    As I jumped off the horse cart and landed on the sandy soil of Charbongram, an island in the Brahmaputra River in Bangladesh, I kicked what appeared to be a weed. It was a scraggly, prostrate plant somehow surviving where no other plants could. ‘That’s grasspea,’ said ICARDA pulses breeder Shiv Agrawal proudly as if showing off his children. ‘The locals just broadcast the seed and come back 100 days or so later and harvest the pods. Absolutely no inputs.’ I looked around the char, a sand and silt island, and…

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    THE PEA OF THE CHAR

  • GRASSPEA IS A GRACIOUS GIFT OF GOD GLOBALLY (5G)

    As I stood in the middle of a 28-acre community managed grasspea field in West Bengal, India, I asked how the villagers divided the tasks of managing the field. There were puzzled looks on the farmers’ faces. ‘There is no labour with grasspea … only sowing. God does the rest.’ Former ICARDA pulse breed Ashuthosh Sarker told me that the proper moniker for the hardy crop is ‘Grasspea is a Gracious Gift from God Globally’. It’s not a terribly demanding crop. It’s hardy enough to withstand pretty much anything Mother Nature…

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    GRASSPEA IS A GRACIOUS GIFT OF GOD GLOBALLY (5G)

  • SHUSHILA SPEAKS OUT

    As our convoy of three cars arrived to Bamuliya, a village an hour out of Bhopal, we were met by a gaggle of men. They escorted us to a field neatly planted with grasspea. I asked which of the men was the farmer and then attached a microphone to his shirt. I forgot some equipment, so I hiked back to the car. As I passed the farmhouse a woman in a glowing red sari came out the door and looked to see where everyone had disappeared to. I greeted her with…

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    SHUSHILA SPEAKS OUT

  • THE FAMINE CROP

    You’d be forgiven if you admitted you had never heard of grasspea. It’s really not one of the world’s leading crops. But as our climate is changing and soils degrading it could be one of the most promising. Grasspea is a nutritious crop which is heat- and drought-tolerant and often survives when other crops fail, thus gaining a reputation as a ‘famine crop’. The problem with the crop is that for many years people believed that a toxin in the plant could cause paralysis if people eat too much of it…

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    THE FAMINE CROP

  • PRESERVING MALAN IN CENTRAL KALIMANTAN

    Papa Dewi told me about his way of ‘malan’. That means farming in his native Ngaju Dayak language of Central Kalimantan in Borneo, Indonesia. And it’s based on planting seeds according to local wisdom and ancestral customs. Those seeds are inseparable from the Dayak way of life. But the malan traditions are disappearing as traditional lands are now being planted to palm oil plantations or destroyed through gold mining or limited by government regulations. When farmers are able to farm, they often don’t have access to enough quality seed at the…

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    PRESERVING MALAN IN CENTRAL KALIMANTAN
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