Lost Crops of Africa Volume I: Grains (1996) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix E: After Words
Appendix E: After Words
Pages 318-328
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From page 318... ...
Bunting The resources of farmers are not confined, let us remind ourselves, to the classical factors of land, labor and capital, although by suitable definitions we can fit all resources into one or other of those omnibus packages. We have to think also of seed, equipment, knowledge, chemicals, credit and many other things, as well as of external encouragement, services and support, particularly from the policy of governments.
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From page 319... ...
Lock The promotion of any indigenous crop must be done within local constraints of labor availability, gender relations, cultural constructs, and environmental stress. If local constraints, practices, and beliefs are not realized, promotion of the crop will not succeed.
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From page 320... ...
Yet those unreasoned feelings dominate a good deal of public reaction to misery in the world today. In fact, pessimism is not new in this field, and has had a major role over the centuries in dampening hearts and in forestalling preventive public action.
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From page 321... ...
Beech There is no doubt that the human body was designed mainly to get calories from carbohydrates-starches and sugars and since most starchy foods are fairly bulky it can be actually quite difficult for children to consume enough carbohydrates in a day if they come entirely from starchy foods like bread and potatoes and root vegetables. John Birkbeck Some 8~85 percent of the population in many African countries subsists on farming, and this large segment needs to be helped in improving itself.
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From page 322... ...
In one country, they told me that the farmer could double the grain yield of pearl millet with existing agronomic practices but when the farmer did this, the government cut the price in half. Wayne W
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From page 323... ...
Andrews, Helen Clark Since the most ancient of days, the destiny of humanity has been inseparable from grain. Even today in the age of the microchip processor, humanity's affairs remain closely linked to the Fates attending cereal grains.
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From page 324... ...
By setting standards for six characters which could be measured on single plants, rejecting plants or small bulks in which these characters were below the norm or the arithmetic mean, and by advancing the standards in successive years, he soon produced populations of improved quality which yielded very much more than before. Starting from preliminary observations in 1940, the first wave of about 500,000 kg of improved seed was issued in 1943; and by 1949 yields around 1 ton of lint per hectare were being harvested on a field scale by some farmers.
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From page 325... ...
Whereas vehicles and computers have been supplied to thier in-country projects, little or no input has been given to adequate seed storage. Therefore, the maintenance of lands races, varieties, and breeding lines requires frequent re-increases; inefficient activity with risks of losing the original genetic composition.
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From page 326... ...
Such grain lends itself to high storage losses, low decortication yields, poor food quality, and poor seedling vigor. That the farmers don't adopt those varieties should not be a surprise.
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From page 327... ...
Its present adaptation to marginal production areas and its lack of research input to increase its response to external inputs guarantees its better fit into any future agricultural production systems. Its wide, untapped genetic variability found in landraces and its wild an weedy relatives lend tremendous genetic wealth to increase its productivity in these more sustainable systems.
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From page 328... ...
Fred R Miller The profuse branching and wide distribution of the root system is one of the main reasons why the sorghums are so markedly drought resistant.
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