Lost Crops of Africa Volume I: Grains (1996) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix A: Potential Breakthroughs for Grain Farmers
Appendix A: Potential Breakthroughs for Grain Farmers
Pages 273-284
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From page 273... ...
We present them to encourage scientists and administrators to explore these unappreciated topics that just might become vital to Africa's future. CONQUERING QUELEA A tiny bird is perhaps the greatest biological limit to African cereal production.
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From page 274... ...
the birds are loath to leave. When disturbed, the chattering flock flutters forward a meter or two and only reluctantly decamps into the soundless darkness beyond.
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From page 275... ...
Actually, because of such disappointing results the Zimbabwean authorities dropped the whole idea. They do, however, still use trap roosts to concentrate the birds so that workers with backpack sprayers can get to them with avicides (bird-killing chemicals)
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From page 276... ...
6 It is possible that desirable or endangered birds might inadvertently get caught, but so far experience shows that the tailor-made quelea roosts invariably contain few or no other species. 7 Actually, striga seedlings are so small that the "drain" they put on the host is probably only moderate.
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From page 277... ...
But this is impractical for the millions of subsistence farmers who have no surplus land for crop rotations and can afford neither fertilizer nor herbicides. Also, it would be nearly impossible to train millions of farmers to modify their farming practices, especially in the impoverished zones where striga is most threatening.
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From page 278... ...
The stimulants, for instance, can be diluted 10,000-fold or more and still cause striga seed to germinate.8 If compounds like these can be synthesized, mimicked, or economically extracted from plant roots, they could be (at least in humanitarian terms) among the most valuable of all organic chemicals.
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From page 279... ...
For nearly 30 years Dieldrin was the pesticide of choice. Applied in strips across the desert terrain where locust larvae hatch, it seemed an ideal way to stop the insects before they reached their damaging migratory stage.
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From page 280... ...
In western China, where another plague locust occurs, farmers have reportedly met with success by protecting, and even building, nesting sites for the feathered locust eaters of the area. EASING EROSION The effects of soil erosion are well known: it devastates farms and forests; worsens the effects of flooding; shortens the useful lifetimes of dams, canals, harbors, and irrigation projects; and pollutes wetlands and coral reefs where myriad valuable organisms breed.
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From page 281... ...
This captured moisture allows crops to flourish when those in unprotected neighboring fields are lost to desiccation. So far, all the international attention has focused on an Indian vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides)
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From page 282... ...
These are undoubtedly not the only innovations for planting small-seeded crops, but we present them here as guides to those who wish to help Africa's lost crops. Cameroon In the late 1980s, the Cameroonian Agricultural Tools Manufacturing Industry (CATMI)
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From page 283... ...
It is said that to plant a hectare of land using the Magulu hand planter takes between 18 and 27 man-hours as compared with 80 man-hours using the conventional method of planting by hand hoe. Thailand The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)
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From page 284... ...
Fifty seeders made locally by the Agricultural Tools Factory in Birganj cost US$13.50 each. By making a less onerous and more systematic operation, the jab seeder could well increase grain-crop productivity and thereby benefit millions of Africa's grain farmers.
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