A whole bunch (er, hand?) of banana articles

The New Agriculturist has a series of articles on African bananas:

African banana--on an upward curve (New Agriculturist)

Brought to my attention, as is so often the case, by the Agrobiodiversity Blog (they even threw in a bonus story on carotenoids in bananas...)

Traditional Ugandan crops disappearing

I hesitated a bit to post this, but I gave in because I really like the names and descriptions of all the traditional crops, and, whatever the cause, the issue is a serious one.

However I'm a little concerned about what seems a little bit like a misunderstanding of how hybrid seed works. It's common to hear people say "you can't save seed from hybrid varieties". This is true to the extent that these varieties won't come true from seed. However, you CAN get seed from these varieties, and, despite what the story describes, they generally will germinate just fine. The resulting seedlings won't be as uniform as the previous generation, and they probably, as a group, won't be as productive, but you could save seed for generations this way without problems (and in fact, if you did, it would probably eventually homogenize into more of a landrace and become increasingly uniform).

Hybrid varieties are distinct from the so-called "terminator" technology, which actually produced non-viable seeds (and also, despite the hype, was never actually implemented commercially). In theory I suppose it would be possible to find two inbred lines which when combined yield an F₁ plant incapable of producing viable seeds, but it seems pretty unlikely, since genes encouraging sterility would hopefully be bred out of the breeding program.

There is a disturbing trend to characterize modern varieties as inherently pest-prone, fertilizer-intensive, and worse-tasting. They can be all those things, but so can traditional varieties. You get what you select for. I get really sick of the tendency to talk about plant breeding as a process which makes crops into finicky, crappy tasting garbage in exchange for yield. You absolutely can create varieties which taste as good (or better) than traditional varieties, produce more, and resist pests. In fact, plant breeding is the only way to get to that.

With those caveats, enjoy the akatunda akaganda, ebigaaga and obuyindiyindi:

Disappearing delicacies (Monitor Online)

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Balanites...Sounds like a mineral, eats like a fruit

Actually, I'm only guessing at how it eats. I've never had it or even seen it. And I only know what I read about it in the following article:

African Fruits Could Help Alleviate Hunger and Bolster Rural Development (ScienceDaily)

One rather unfortunate legacy of colonialism (among many) is that Europeans' fruit crops to a great extent displaced the native crops in Africa and, to an extent, South America. North America's mostly held their own (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, cranberries, assorted are all mostly or partly North American in origin--the main fruit native to North America that hasn't hit it big that comes to mind is the Pawpaw) and were exported to the rest of the world themselves, and Asia and Europe had kind of shared a common pool of crop species for centuries. (I don't know enough about the native fruits of Australia to even comment, but I notice there aren't too many Australian species in the supermarket these days...)

The native fruits in Africa and South America are still around, for the most part, some on a small scale and some relatively common in the local market. But because they're unknown in the rest of the world, there's no great market and not that much money in them to prompt further cultivation and research.

Anyway, the linked article was prompted by the completion of the latest book in the Lost Crops of Africa series--Vol. III: Fruits. I read and enjoyed Vol. II: Vegetables, so I expect this to be a quality piece of work. And, because it's from the National Academies Press, the whole book is available online, as is the earlier Lost Crops of the Incas which has some cool info on South American species as well.