The Equilibrium Fund is now called the Maya Nut Institute

Read the Maya Nut Institute summer 2010 Newsletter!

Maya Nut (Brosimum alicastrum) project appears on Guatemalan TV

Las tierras del oriente de Guatemala tienen sed y sus habitantes tienen hambre. La sequia termino con la cosecha, la falta de visión y de políticas agrícolas a largo plazo no ayudo, pero no muy lejos de oriente, en el departamento del Petén, nace la esperanza y su nombre es Ramón.

El Ramón es un árbol que crece en el Petén. Es de rápido crecimiento, su follaje es excelente alimento para le ganado y de sus nueces sale una harina altamente nutritiva. Gelio Cuellar, agronomo petenero, cree fervientemente en sus bondades y cree que podrían ser aplicadas en todo el país, porque al Ramón le gusta toda Guatemala. Gelio cree que el Ramón es la respuesta, no solo a la hambruna, sino a la deforestación y el subdesarrollo económico.

Se puede mirar el video aquí: http://www.entremosleaguate.net/

Jackfruit delights

JACKFRUIT is an easy crop to grow. It requires no artificial fertilizers, pesticides or even irrigation. All parts of the fruit, except the stalk, can be converted into food.

It is nutritious as well. One hundred grams of jackfruit has 303 mg of potassium, an ingredient which helps lower blood pressure. It is low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium and high in Vitamin C and manganese. It is an ideal food for weight loss.

Jackfruit contains phytonutrients which reduce the risk from cancer. It has anti-ageing, antioxidant and anti-ulcer properties. The seeds too are edible and nutritious. They contain 38 per cent carbohydrates, 6.6 per cent protein and 0.4 per cent fat.

Here is a recipe for you to try.

 

Jackseed vada

Ingredients

Jack seed powder: 3 cups
Flour: Rice/Wheat//Besan/Maida: 4 cups,
Chillies: 4, Onions: 2
Curry leaves: A few
Ginger: Half inch chopped
Salt to taste

Steam cook the jackfruit seeds. Peel the outer cover. Retain the inner brownish skin, it’s nutritious. Powder the seeds after drying. Let the powder be a little coarse. Mix all the ingredients. Press into flat round vadas and deep fry in oil.

For more receipes visit: www.civilsocietyonline.com/aug09/aug093.asp

GFU Features

Haat Bazaar, a great marketing lesson from Nepal

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Here are the Micronesia Bananas on stamps!

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Pomtajer: exploring the potential of an under-utilised specie in domestic cuisine and gastronomy

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African leafy vegetables come out of the shade

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Potential boom for biofuels in Tanzania?

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Organic production of indigenous leafy vegetables in Tanzania

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Moringa leaf powder is being standardised in Ghana

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Sea-buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) in the Republic of Azerbaijan

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Emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum Schubler) in Ethiopia

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The potential of small holder technology in quinoa producing communities of the Southern Bolivian Altiplano

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Argania spinosa: a rare Sapotaceae from south-western Morocco

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Inga Edulis – a Plant for the Farmer and the Rainforest

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The AfriCulture Project

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Ethno-pharmacology, traditional medicine and the effort that Aidemet, a French based NGO is making!

Read about it in French
and in English

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A story on Emmer production in Italy

Emmer production in the Marche (Italy): the Monterosso company.

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The “Biodiversity as Food” project

“Biodiversity as Food” – a workshop aiming at initiating regional collaboration in the areas of wild edible
plants, underutilized species, dietary diversity and food security research as well as related public policy
issues.

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A story of Baobab from Benin

Traditional processing and cultural value of baobab (Adansonia digitata) in Benin

Bitter gourd: High value, high input

Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia) is regarded as one of the world’s major vegetable crops and has great economic importance. It also is a promising candidate as a remedy that can help millions in the developing world who suffer from metabolic disorders such as type-2 diabetes. These positive features may make bitter gourd look like an all-purpose crop; however, to be successful on a global scale, this indigenous crop requires attention from breeders as well as production system specialists.

Read newsletter at www.avrdc.org

Flora et Vegetatio Sudano-Sambesica now online in Open Access

Edited by Rüdiger Wittig (Frankfurt), Sita Guinko (Ouagadougou), Brice Sinsin (Cotonou), Adjima Thiombiano (Ouagadougou)

Flora et Vegetatio Sudano-Sambesica is a refereed, international journal aimed at presenting high quality papers dealing with all fields of geobotany and ethnobotany of the Sudano-Sambesian zone and adjacent regions. In contrast to its predecessor (the “Etudes …”) that was a series occurring occasionally, Flora et Vegetatio Sudano-Sambesica is a journal, being published regularly with one volume per year.

See publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/volltexte/2008/5860/

Maya nut changes lives while aiding the rain forest

Erika Vohman, not a new face to many of us from the Equilibrium Fund is a CNN hero!
She works with people teaching them to sustainably use the forests and the Maya nut (Brosimum alicastrum) that grows in Latin America and elsewhere. The fruit of this plant  is an undervalued treasure, also from the people that inhabit the forest itself!
Read and watch the video and if you have heroes to suggest, let us know or contact CNN directly!

edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/04/16/cnnheroes.erika.vohman/

More about Maya nut

• Seeds of inspiration – website including movie
• Seeds of inspiration – pdf information
• Maya Nut (Botany Photo of the Day – In science, beauty. In beauty, science. Daily.)
• Maya Nut (GFU Species Brochures)
• Seed initiative
• GFU Maya Nut post
• Centro de recursos the informacíon sobre Brosimum alicastrum
• Maya Nut Trees Make A Comeback (WRI)
• Feature story from the GFU web site

Acacia Gum – Innovative Management of Acacia Senegal Trees

The ACACIAGUM project provides a unique north-south collaboration where relevant expertise and resources are being availed for addressing problems of food security and livelihood faced by developing countries. The European and African partners in a more or less balanced way are sharing the various work packages and tasks. There is thus a strong complementarity between research teams from the two regions resulting in high quality multi-disciplinary research approach.

• Various innovative approaches are going to be implemented:
• Innovative approaches to the study of water-use and photosynthate allocation within trees are particularly apt for this study of an exsudate-producing crop. Physiological measurement systems of tree water (stem sap flow, leaf gas exchange, soil water content) will be conducted in relation to gum production;
• Tree management (shoot and root) for optimization of gum-arabic production in relation to soil microbial populations present in the rhizospheric area in differing environmental conditions will form an important topic for improvement of the financial profits of the populations concerned in gum-arabic production.
• The innovative linking of genetics with quality attributes of verified A. senegal trees will yield a tool to ensure that future tree plantings produce high quality gum.
• An innovative and novel, certified marketing system that provides equitable returns to producers and rural populations and assures importers of the source, bio safety, hygiene and quality of the product will be developed and proposed to policy makers and commerce.
• The relationship between soil fertility and sustainable gum-arabic production will be developed and quantified with the final objective to produce gum arabic with a green label.
• The topic of dissemination of results and information has been granted particular importance and a work package has been dedicated to dissemination issues to try to maximize impact amongst end users. Dissemination plans will be developed for different audiences: to Government Departments in DC’s countries involved in the study to national and international agencies involved in natural resource management, NGOs, all actors in the production/marketing chain from local populations through farmers, and the scientific community.

Visit the projects website: inco-acaciagum.cirad.fr