A spineless variety of Solanum quitoense now extinct because of pest and disease pressures (Photo: M. Hermann, Ecuador, 1983)

Neglected and under-utilised crops (NUS) are often said to possess high levels of resistance to pests and diseases. Really? We could name quite a few pathogen-susceptible NUS. Also, consider that pathogens build up and may severely limit cultivation once a crop makes the transition from scattered and “insular” distributions to intensified cultivation on a larger scale. Or take specific taxonomic groups such as the nightshades, which “by default” are susceptible to pathogens. A notorious case is the South American lulo (see picture), a worthy contender in any shortlist of the most sprayed plants.

Oftentimes farmers in developing countries have no choice but to use pesticides that have not been tested on a particular minor or specialty crop and therefore are not authorised, a problem that gets far too little attention. This is precisely behind the initiative of the Global Minor Use Portal, to which Luigi has alerted us. Sponsored by FAO and the USDA, the initiative seeks, among other things, to (1) assist the Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues in the development of criteria for the establishment of maximum residue limits (MRLs) for minor/specialty crops; (2) advance the topic of international harmonisation in establishment of MRLs and risk assessment by regulators; (3) develop plans for implementation of new policies for minor use regulatory and harmonisation priorities (such as providing incentives to encourage registrants to register minor uses). We applaud this effort very much!

Prof Sayed Azam-Ali

Crops for the Future Research Centre (CFFRC) has announced the appointment of Professor Sayed Azam-Ali as its first Chief Executive Officer. We have previously reported on the launch of CFFRC.

Professor Sayed Azam-Ali assumed his new post  on 1st August, 2011, after CFFRC was launched by Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia in June this year. He will manage and drive the research strategy and direction of the centre through an independent CFFRC Board and under the overall direction of the global Crops for the Future (CFF) organisation, which is jointly hosted in Malaysia by Bioversity International and UNMC. Dr Michael Hermann was appointed as the Global Co-ordinator of CFF in 2010.

Professor Azam-Ali was previously the Vice Provost of Research and Internationalisation at The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus.  Prior to his appointment at UNMC, Professor Azam-Ali was Director of the University Tropical Crops Research Unit and Professor of Tropical Agronomy at The University of Nottingham’s Sutton Bonington Campus in the UK.

Professor Sayed can be contacted at email hidden; JavaScript is required.

For more information on CFFRC please consult here.

A consortium led by UC Davis with CGIAR partners and the private sector plans to sequence the genomes of neglected African crops, with the ultimate goal of developing “new varieties [...] that are more nutritious, produce higher yields and are more tolerant of environmental stresses, such as drought”. Genomic information generated through the project will be freely available to scientists around the world. Of the US$ 40 million needed by the project, US$7.5 million have already been raised. A list of 96 species has been developed, which will be narrowed to 24 food crops and tree species whose genomes will be sequenced. Candidate species include amaranth, marula, cocoyam, Ethiopian mustard, ground nut tree, African potato, acacia, baobob, matoke bananas, African medlars, African eggplant and Cape tomato. We were intrigued by the latter name but unable to associate it with a taxon. Could this be the pictured Physalis peruviana, a native of South America, which is now globally distributed with much export-oriented production taking place in South Africa under the trade name of Cape Gooseberry?

Durio zibethinus (WikiCommons)

This BBC piece reminded us of the wonderful durian fruit (Durio zibethinus), which despite its potential for diversity-based quality differentiation and high-end markets, is badly neglected by science, plant breeders and development agents. To us the lack of adequate terminology to describe durian flavour diversity is striking: “Pungent”, “creamy”, “stinky”, that’s how far the vocabulary goes, as if a product as complex as good wine, coffee or cocoa deserves no better. Particularly appalling is the continued comparison – as in the BBC article –  of durian’s fragrance with “sewers and dead animals”. Terrible perpetuation of Western flavour prejudice by those who should know better! It is as if producers of Roquefort obstinately referred to the smell of old socks in describing and promoting that marvellous cheese.

Tree tomato entrepreneur Mr Mairuri

A mantra in the agricultural development community has it that middlemen are bad. Yes, of course not all of them, but in general they exploit poor farmers and take most of the profit, or so the mantra goes. You mostly see people nod when this comes up, as recently in presentations at the Crops for the Future Symposium in Kuala Lumpur, where the middlemen took again much blame for dysfunctional value chains of neglected crops. It sounds so obvious and plausible, but is it? Not quite. Much literature identifies middlemen as essential in agricultural value chains, especially where competition amongst themselves adds efficiency to their own chain segment and thus competitiveness to the whole chain. Yet, the disgraceful meme of the exploitative middleman continues to infest minds against all evidence.

This is why we enjoyed reading about Mr Muiruri, who sources tree tomatoes from Luigi’s mother-in-law. Clearly, this entrepreneurial gentleman, who provides seeds and advice to his “contract growers” is key to the tree tomato value chain. He ensures the sustainability of his supply by spreading out production risks to a variety of growers, a perfectly legitimate strategy. And by sourcing from dispersed production sites, he -unconsciously?- avoids pathogen build-up in this notoriously disease-prone crop. How many more Mr Mairuri need to be showcased for the middlemen myth to go away?