Proceedings of the “2nd International Symposium on Underutilised Plant Species: Crops for the Future – Beyond Food Security”

We are pleased to announce that the proceedings of the “2^nd International Symposium on Underutilised Plant Species: Crops for the Future – Beyond Food Security” has been published by Acta Horticulturae publication of International Society for Horticultural Sciences (ISHS) on 31 March 2013.

The symposium was held on 27 June-01 July 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and was organised by Crops for the Future Research Centre, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus under the auspices of ISHS. The event was co-convened and supported by Crops for the Future, Bioversity International, the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, Boustead Holdings Berhad, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Kirkhouse Trust, British Council and Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa.

The follow-up to this symposium is the coming “3rd International Conference on Neglected and Underutilized Species (NUS)” that will take place on 23-25 September 2013, in Accra, Ghana. Please visit the official conference website for more information. Interested participants are encouraged to sign up for the conference newsletter to receive updates on the development of this conference.

Archived postings of the symposium in the past:

http://www.cropsforthefuture.org/2011/08/crops-for-the-future-symposium-2011-introduction/

http://www.cropsforthefuture.org/2010/09/2nd-international-symposium-on-underutilised-plant-species-2/

The Horticulture CRSP Trellis Fund

The Horticulture CRSP Trellis Fund provides small-scale, in-country development organisations access to U.S. graduate student expertise, providing benefit to both the student and the in-country institutions.

Organisations in 18 selected developing countries are invited to identify a horticultural problem facing local farmers and the type of expertise they seek in a U.S. graduate student. Interested organisation are requested to submit a project proposal with their intended objectives, activities, gender program and a $2,000 budget

Graduate students from UC Davis, Cornell University, North Carolina State University and University of Hawaii at Manoa are invited to submit applications to participate in this programme. Selected students will travel to meet their partner organisation and, upon return, will support their organisation’s outreach programme via email.

Deadline to both organisations and graduate students applications closes on 04 March 2013. Please visit the official website of the Horticulture CRSP Trellis Fund 2013 for more information or direct your enquiries to email hidden; JavaScript is required.

SEAVEG 2014 - Regional Symposium on Sustaining Small-Scale Vegetable Production and Marketing Systems

AVRDC just announced “SEAVEG 2014: Families, Farms, Food – Regional Symposium on Sustaining Small-Scale Vegetable Production and Marketing Systems for Food and Nutrition Security“, to take place 25-28 February 2014, in Bangkok, Thailand.

The objective of the symposium is to examine how policies and practices to sustain small-scale agriculture — vegetable production and marketing in particular — can improve availability of and accessibility to safe and nutritious food, as well as contribute to better nutrition and balanced diets, thus enhancing the socio-economic development of ASEAN member states.

Please visit SEAVEG 2014 official website for more information.

AVRDC is inviting researchers and extentionists to sign up for this training course on technical and managerial skills from vegetable breeding to marketing. There will be three modules to be carried out at different dates from 16 September to 6 December 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Download the event brochure for more details on each training module.

Yacon roots on sale in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia (Photo courtesy: Choo Kwong Yan, March 2012)

The pictured yacon roots (Smallanthus sonchifolius) were recently seen by our colleague Mr Choo Kwong Yan on sale in various outlets of locally grown vegetables in the Cameron Highlands in Peninsular Malaysia. By all accounts yacon is a new crop in Malaysia, unheard of until recently, and we have yet to identify the grower, and from where s/he has received the original planting material of this vegetatively propagated crop.

Most of the dry matter of yacon roots consists of oligo-fructose, and the information on display next to the roots fairly accurately describes its beneficial effects on gut heath, as revealed in a number of recent studies. Originally from the Andes, but largely unknown there and absent from Andean markets until the early years of this century, yacon has rebounded from oblivion and scientific neglect after its introduction to Japan in 1983, where yacon’s  chemical composition and hypoglycemic effects have been discovered.

In addition to perceived nutritional benefits, it is the crunchy and succulent texture of yacon that may have endeared it to Asian users. Within 15 years, yacon spread from Japan to China, Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan. The sighting of yacon in Malaysia suggests that the dispersal of this crop in Asia is in full swing and has now reached the Cameron highlands which –at an altitude of over 1200 masl- offer climatic conditions similar to those in the crop’s native range.

Yacon planting material is largely dispersed through informal seed systems. Unless there is proof to the contrary, we are rather confident to suspect that introductions across borders have likely been at odds with international best practices for germplasm movement, and with post-CBD thinking about national ownership and control of genetic resources. However, without the yacon development that has taken place in Asia, it is hard to see how the crop would have regained so much popularity in Peru in the last 10 years. Attribute discovery in Japan, although initially resented by Peruvian news media, eventually stimulated investment in research and value chains in Peru itself, and many farmer communities derive new income from an ancient crop plant they hardly used any longer before the current yacon boom. Thus the complex but real “access and benefit sharing” implicit in many informal crop disersals  in the past is still at work, a fact conveniently overlooked in the debates about “biopiracy”.

The case of yacon also quite nicely illustrates that minor crops are no exception to the interdependency of nations with regard to crop genetic resources, suggesting the inclusion of such species in multi-lateral access schemes. There is a large number of lesser known crops that have hugely benefited local populations by dispersal outside their native range and spill-over back into native areas in terms of new varieties or product technologies.

The Chinese name for yacon now in use in Malaysia can be translated as “Snow lotus fruit”. Prices in the Cameron highlands vary between 7 and 20 Ringgit per kg (US$ 2-7). Such a high price could suggest that demand outstrips supply, a situation commonly found in slowly propagating species in an emerging market.

Interestingly, the pictured roots show cracks as in market displays in the Andes. The roots are quite brittle, and easily break upon extraction from the soil. This limits shelf life and is a supply constraint that needs to be addressed in yacon improvement. Unfortunately, yacon very rarely sets seeds, and current varieties are most likely ancient Andean farmer cultivars.