gingerbread plums...
By jb78000
@jb78000 (15139)
November 14, 2009 8:27am CST
not as i first thought the result of a sinister genetic experiment that involved crossing the gingerbread man with the sugarplum fairy but one of several thousand species of wild fruits in africa. others include a chocolate flavoured berry, honey flavoured plums and a berry that is like caramel when dried.
up until recently many of these were eaten regularly but infrequently cultivated (one of the main problems is that a fruit tree takes a very long time to grow to maturity when you plant a seed/stone/pip) but programs are now underway to domestic many of them using techniques such as taking cuttings to speed things up.
this has been done in cameroon and the benefits are striking - the smallholders involved have experienced significant increases in income. also because these trees are indigenous they withstand drought far better than many crops. and previously agricultural developments focused on enormous areas of the same crop (you just need one untreatable pest or disease to completely destroy it).
so what adaptations to farming in your country do you think would benefit small farmers, local people and the environment rather than big business?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@Hatley (163772)
• Garden Grove, California
14 Nov 09
hi jb ye old blue bunny here in the US its so sad that many small farmers are going bellyup or selling out to the larger
'farmers instead of trying new adaptions to farming at all.
It would be wonderful if the smaller farmers did have some
new and wonderful adaptations of any sort of veggie or fruit that was new and could be cultivated and added to their incomes instead of the little guys being swallowed up by big conglomerate farmers.To think that generations back farming was the big
thing in the US. and now so many farmers cannot make it at all.
@cloudwatcher (6861)
• Australia
14 Nov 09
Hatley your last sentence could be said of here too. Years ago it was a common thing to hear "Australia rides on the sheep's back". This is when our Merino wool was our main export earner. Fifty years ago Bundaberg and many other coastal cities of Queensland existed primarily because of the sugar cane industry, but now sugar cane farms are comparatively few (comparatively: it is still a huge industry).
1 person likes this
@jb78000 (15139)
•
14 Nov 09
hiya hatley, it is sad that smallholders are being swamped by conglomerates - this is happening here too and in other countries. in many countries argibusinesses take advantage of small farmers and in no way help them or their communities (quite the opposite sadly). i hope these fruit tree programs work because they seem to be a very good idea.
@cloudwatcher (6861)
• Australia
14 Nov 09
Firstly, anything that helps the African people is good news (though I think the best news for at least some African countries would be a complete change in government)
The agricultural scene in Australia has changed a lot over the years. Back in 1960 a 30acre sugar cane farm was considered a very great asset. "Get big or get out" became the cry and it wasn't long before one needed a 100 acre farm to get the same income. Machinery became gigantic and of course costly. Then one needed a 200 acre farm plus growing smallcrops in the off season. Then smallcrops became more profitable and less cane was grown.
How to benefit small farmers? It seems that small farmers don't have much of a chance. Yes, they can run small farms in smallcrops and fruit and nut trees, but not as profitably as the larger farms. Our biggest problems here are drought, more drought, more drought, hail and floods and bushfires.
1 person likes this
@jb78000 (15139)
•
15 Nov 09
some african countries have absolutely awful governments. anyway the issues related to farming appear to be relevant worldwide - and small farmers struggle everywhere. here one particular plan to help out farmers was implemented incredibly stupidly - it was basically benefits to those with a certain amount of agricultural land but the definition of agriculture included those rich twits keeping horses, who of course immediately were first in the queue for something they absolutely did not need - i need to look into this a little more for the details but it was definitely a prizewinner in the 'moronic policies' category.
@PeacefulWmn9 (10420)
• United States
14 Nov 09
Hm, yes, isn't it sugar plums and ginger snaps??
Imagine indigenous "candy" berries. Yum.
Here in the US, the small farmers seem to be going out of business right and left. I do not know of a solution, since we always have huge stores of leftover crops, and the govt. actually pays farmers now to leave some of their land idle, so as not to create such large excess.
I do know a few farmers are trying "wind machines" on their land to supplement their income and create a more earth-friendly energy source.
As for me, I say grow the darned excess and feed the poor freely here and abroad. But then, I doubt the govt. would agree. Tsk.
Karen1 person likes this
