Tag: India
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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 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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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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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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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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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…
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FAREWELL INDIA
We were overwhelmed by the number of family members who came to the airport to bid us farewell and a safe journey home. Ravi and Minny left Gudur before dawn for a three-hour journey to the airport; Chandra, Sampath, Uma, Kumari came from afar the previous days and Usha, Santhosh, Raju and Sujatha came from Chennai. They all came to have one final chance to say goodbye. Imagine taking a six-hour round trip like Ravi and Minny did just to say farewell at the airport. We arrived to the airport early…
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ONE PHOTO, PLEASE
‘One photo, please.’ I kept hearing their voices all the time. The children asking me to take a photo of them. ‘One photo, please.’ ‘Thank you.’ And I kept thinking of all the times I was thanked for taking a photo of a child, a man or a woman. ‘Thank you, thank you.’ Why were they so keen to have their photo taken? Why did they feel compelled to thank me when all I did was press the shutter release button? Andhra Pradesh was a photographer’s dream for an editorial photographer…
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KASHMIR’S LAKE DAL
Allāhu akbar! The Muslim call to prayer at dawn woke us all from our deep sleep on the houseboat. They must have a special New Year’s Day version of the call because it seemed to go on forever. It was a good alarm clock for me though as I wanted to get up at dawn and check out the lake since we arrived in the dark. From the bedroom window though I could see it was still dark as we were completely fogged in so I went back to the warm…
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SRINAGAR
We said goodbye to the Himalayas and drove a couple of hours down to Srinagar, the summer capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmir is a shopper’s paradise due to its carpet and textile industries so our first stop was a carpet wholesaler. Our home is already well decorated with handmade carpets from Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and India but we weren’t thrilled with the carpet Padma bought a few years ago in Agra so we thought we’d have a look at some Kashmir carpets to replace it. Big…
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