Tag: Agriculture
-
A MOROCCAN ROADTRIP
MOROCCO ROADTRIP DAY 1. WELCOME TO MY WORLD It was a coincidence and a stroke of luck that my work travels in Morocco converged with the travels of Padma, Jenni and Russ. So they were able to meet my work colleagues and we were able to spend a night in Marrakech before the three of them returned home. We all decided to make the most of our night and travelled to Jemaa el-Fnaa, the famous square in the city’s medina. We were a convoy of three vehicles which included my Crop…
-
A TALE OF TWO MARYS
Once upon a time a man married two Marys, which is something you can do in Kenya. The man passed away but his two wives, the Marys, lived on and prospered while growing finger millet. Finger millet is a traditional crop of Eastern Africa and once grew abundantly in the Western Kenya near the town of Kakamega. But in the 1990s farmers replaced it with maize. That was a pity as finger millet is incredibly nutritious, grows really well in these parts and can command about twice the price at market…
-
JONAH, THE KENYAN TEA PLUCKER
It’s an all-day journey from Nairobi to Kisimu, where my colleague, Benjamin Kilian, and I will look at some finger millet pre-breeding projects. Halfway into the journey we climbed to 2400 metres on the western side of the Riff Valley and entered prime Kenyan tea country. We stretched our legs and met Jonah, a tea plucker on a massive plantation owned by Unilever. Jonah picks only the light green recent growth leaves. With all the rain the plantation has received, he’ll be back in a couple of months to pick again…
-
MORAG, THE QUEEN OF CASSAVA
The last time I saw Morag Ferguson I was shoving hummus into my mouth and washing it down with arak. It’s been 25 years since Morag and I worked in Syria. The times have changed, but not Morag. I caught up with Morag at her home for the past 15 years – Nairobi, Kenya. Morag now works for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and she’s doing some mighty fascinating work with cassava. Morag took my Crop Trust colleague, Benjamin Kilian, and me, out to her second home at KEPHIS, which…
-
BACK AT ICARDA
It’s taken me 25 years, but I’ve finally returned to the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, the organisation I once worked for. This time it wasn’t in Syria but the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon … but Syria was just a few kilometres away beyond the mountains in this photo. The location has changed but not the work. ICARDA is doing some amazing work in regenerating seeds from crops native to the Fertile Crescent. For me, it felt like old times when I lay down in the soil…
-
MARUTI THE PIGEONPEA SAVIOUR
In the early 1980s, the Indian state of Karnataka was suffering. Its principle commercial crop, pigeonpea, was being devastated by wilt. Researchers discovered some pigeonpea seeds in the genebank of the International Crops Research Center for Semi-Arid Tropics which were resistant to wilt. The seeds were directly released from the genebank to pigeonpea specialists in Karnataka within a few years, the pigeonpea industry was restored and is thriving today. I wanted to see the long-lasting impact of this direct release so ICRISAT’s Head of Genebank, Dr Hari Upadhyaya, took my Crop…
-
A SMILE IN THE STRAW
Working out on the farm on a hot summer day can be exhausting. In 1990, I was shooting some photos of a group of men and women chopping up wheat straw for sheep fodder in northern Syria. I was trying to get around the mounds of straw when I heard a rustle in the next mound and this woman’s head popped up. I was sorry to have disturbed her during her hard-earned rest break but she was still rewarded me with a beautiful smile.
-
Asociación para la Promoción de la Mujer en Monte Romo
Excerpt from Participatory communication in development: integrating women into forestry projects in Costa Rica A research project conducted in 1987 funded by the Inter-American Foundation, Ibero-American Studies Program of the University of Wisconsin and the Tropical Agricultural Research and Training Centre, Costa Rica. Antecedents Although the principal agricultural activity in Hojancha is cattle raising, the declaration in 1980 of Hojancha as a coffee‑growing region stimulated many farmers to plant coffee. Extensionists from COOPEPILANGOSTA promoted the planting of shade trees in coffee plantations. With the creation of new coffee plantations the demand…
-
COOPEMATAMBU
Excerpt from Participatory communication in development: integrating women into forestry projects in Costa Rica A research project conducted in 1987 funded by the Inter-American Foundation, Ibero-American Studies Program of the University of Wisconsin and the Tropical Agricultural Research and Training Centre, Costa Rica. Although located only five kilometers from the municipal center of Hojancha, the indigenous community of Matambu has many distinct characteristics and does not follow the agrarian pattern of the rest of the county. Matambu is characterized by its moderate slope, high population density (approximately 100 people/km2) and very…
If you see this after your page is loaded completely, leafletJS files are missing.