Horticulture News from Around the World:
Here are three stories from all around the world that focus on vegetables!
1. Mega-Artichokes to Power Homes?
(LONDON) – Reuters: Spanish farmers are growing three-meter high artichokes for burning in special power stations to produce electricity, the Independent newspaper reported on Thursday.
The genetically-modified monster vegetables, which boast seven meter roots, will be generating power for 60,000 people when operations in the northern towns of Villabilla de Burgos and Alcala de Gurrea begin in two years.
The newspaper said twin power stations will burn 105,000 tonnes of the dried and pulped Cynara Cardunculs each year. Farmers were persuaded to sow the prickly plant by EU subsidies and price guarantees from the electricity generator.
Burning plants for energy is not a new idea, but the biomass sector has seen a revival in recent years as environmental concerns rise. While there are already a number of biomass schemes in Europe they often struggle to compete commercially with other green energy schemes.
An Irish scheme to burn cannabis as a fuel foundered last year because of it was considered too expensive compared with wind power projects.
2. Scientists Champion Drought-Tolerant Crops in India
By John Chalmers
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – An agricultural research group said on Tuesday it has pioneered two drought-tolerant chickpea crop varieties that have reversed the fortunes of poor farmers in one of five Indian states suffering from an acute water shortage.
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), based in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, said alternative crops and the application of community-managed watersheds are solutions for the 800 million people living in low rainfall areas around the globe.
“In the semi-arid tropics, drought occurs two out of every five years. And even when there is rainfall, it is erratic, varying from year to year, and within seasons,” the group said in a statement released at a news conference in New Delhi.
“Further, only 30-60 percent of this rainfall is used effectively for crop production; the remaining 40-70 percent of rainwater is lost as runoff, evaporation and deep drainage.”
ICRISAT said that in Andhra Pradesh, one of several Indian states currently reeling under severe drought conditions, it had introduced short-duration chickpea varieties which mature in 85-100 days and therefore escape end-of-season drought. For farmers near Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, 1999 was particularly harsh: there were no rains at all after October 21. But those who grew the Swetha and Kranthi chickpea varieties harvested as much as 1.7 tonnes per hectare.
ICRISAT said Andhra Pradesh’s ‘silent chickpea revolution’ — production of the pulse has grown sevenfold in the state over the past 10 years — has been a boon to farmers previously struggling to make a living from cotton crops.
The chickpea requires less investment, labor and fertilizer than cotton crops, which have long been dogged by pests. In recent years dozens of indebted cotton farmers in central and southern India have committed suicide.
ICRISAT said that in conjunction with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research it had also released five varieties of groundnut in India, three of which are tolerant to end-of-season drought and two are tolerant to mid-season drought.
The institute also promotes the conservation of rainfall through community-managed watersheds, which it says increase crop productivity and reduce soil loss.
“It’s a good approach to properly harvest the little rainfall we have,” said ICRISAT Director General William Dar, who said that of the 800 million people living in semi-arid tropics, 300 million are the ‘poorest of the poor’ and food-insecure.
Barry Shapiro, director of the group’s natural resource management program, said that expansion of deserts is affecting 40 percent of Asia’s land surface.
Advocating a long-term approach, he said scientists need to use remote sensing to identify areas of degradation, geographical information systems to locate ideal watershed areas and terrain modeling to capture rainwater efficiently.
3. ‘Super-broccoli’ to help fight cancer
BRITISH scientists have developed a “super-broccoli” that could help to combat colon cancer, it was disclosed yesterday.
It looks and tastes the same as ordinary broccoli but holds 100 times more of the chemical sulphoraphane, which helps to kill cancer-causing substances in food. The chemical is in Brussels sprouts and cauliflower but strongest in broccoli.
Scientists at the government-funded John Innes Centre in Norwich bred the broccoli, which could be in the shops in 2002, by crossing an ordinary variety with a wild Sicilian relative. Tests on people could start next year, New Scientist magazine said. Dr Richard Mithen, a plant biologist at the John Innes Centre, said it was acknowledged that a third of cancers were probably caused by bad diet. Colon cancer kills about 25,000 people a year in Britain.