A Traveller’s Eye, A Thinker’s Heart
I like to tell stories. I like to take photos.
And I like to share them. Enjoy.
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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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HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE
Longest night … shortest day … take your pick. I watched from my study this evening as the sun dipped into a bank of clouds and then disappeared into the Indian Ocean. Mother Nature signalled the sun’s maximum tilt away from the Sun with a spectacular display of colour. It’s a bittersweet day, which is…
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SURF’S UP AT LEEUWIN-NATURALISTE NATIONAL PARK
July is supposed to be cold and rainy, but we’re seeing the contrary this winter. The forecast promised a sunny day, so Joseph, Padma and I drove south for a couple of hours till we reached the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park. The Indian Ocean was at its finest and we watched bottlenose dolphins and later humans…
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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…
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THE FIVE CENT BELT
At eight years old, I found myself living aboard a leaking boat in Alaska, taken suddenly from my mother by my father. In that strange and quiet world, a five-cent belt became more than just something to hold up my pants—it became a small anchor of comfort in a drifting life.
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A BLANK CALENDAR … SO A BEACH WALK
With the exception of a couple routine doctor appointments, a visit by a screen door repairer, and some Aussie visitors in August, I’ve got nothing on my calendar for the rest of my life. No travel plans, no meetings, no weddings, no holidays, no social engagements. Nada. Nothing. Zippo. I like that. Particularly since Padma…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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