12wonderY
Maslins - an ancient practice of sowing a mixture of grains together
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/01/ancient-farming-strategy-holds-promise-...
“Right away we were thinking, the proportions of wheat and barley must change year to year,” Ruelle says. “It’s this continuously evolving responsive entity. On its own, it’s operating outside the farmer’s control to respond to whatever conditions happen.”
For example, if an unusually heavy rain destroys half the plants, the plants that are still standing are well adapted to that rain event, says Anna DiPaola, a doctoral student and a co-author of the paper. “Nature is giving the farmer feedback and saying, ‘This is well-adapted. Plant this again.’”
And if a drought makes it a bad year for wheat, barley, which tends to be more drought resistant, will compensate and produce a better yield, Ruelle says. “So no matter what, you’re going to be able to make bread with this.”
McAlvay found farmers extoling that benefit during research in the country of Georgia. On their first field trip there, in summer 2022, he talked with a priest who was growing a mixture of wheat and barley, which he uses for holy sacraments and church feasts. “He said, ‘If one fails, at least we have the other.’ The translator used the exact same words that the translator in Ethiopia had used. I thought, ‘Wow, this is a phenomenon,’” McAlvay says.
The proportions in the mixtures shift from year to year, automatically adapting to the growing conditions at hand. If an area is getting increasingly drier, the wheat won’t grow as well, and the seed the farmer saves for the next planting will automatically include less wheat and more barley, McAlvay says.
...
But the practice continues today in Eritrea, India, Georgia, Greece and Ethiopia. In Sudan, farmers grow a mix of rice and sorghum in areas that flood predictably; rice grows in flooded zones and sorghum grows under drier conditions.
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/01/ancient-farming-strategy-holds-promise-...
“Right away we were thinking, the proportions of wheat and barley must change year to year,” Ruelle says. “It’s this continuously evolving responsive entity. On its own, it’s operating outside the farmer’s control to respond to whatever conditions happen.”
For example, if an unusually heavy rain destroys half the plants, the plants that are still standing are well adapted to that rain event, says Anna DiPaola, a doctoral student and a co-author of the paper. “Nature is giving the farmer feedback and saying, ‘This is well-adapted. Plant this again.’”
And if a drought makes it a bad year for wheat, barley, which tends to be more drought resistant, will compensate and produce a better yield, Ruelle says. “So no matter what, you’re going to be able to make bread with this.”
McAlvay found farmers extoling that benefit during research in the country of Georgia. On their first field trip there, in summer 2022, he talked with a priest who was growing a mixture of wheat and barley, which he uses for holy sacraments and church feasts. “He said, ‘If one fails, at least we have the other.’ The translator used the exact same words that the translator in Ethiopia had used. I thought, ‘Wow, this is a phenomenon,’” McAlvay says.
The proportions in the mixtures shift from year to year, automatically adapting to the growing conditions at hand. If an area is getting increasingly drier, the wheat won’t grow as well, and the seed the farmer saves for the next planting will automatically include less wheat and more barley, McAlvay says.
...
But the practice continues today in Eritrea, India, Georgia, Greece and Ethiopia. In Sudan, farmers grow a mix of rice and sorghum in areas that flood predictably; rice grows in flooded zones and sorghum grows under drier conditions.
2John5918
>1 2wonderY: In Sudan, farmers grow a mix of rice and sorghum
I remember about 25 years ago taking an agricultural expert to a very remote, isolated and inaccessible part of Sudan to see if there was anything the local farmers could learn from modern techniques. After she had studied their farming methods, she admitted, "I've got nothing to teach these people! What they're doing is ideal for local conditions."
I remember about 25 years ago taking an agricultural expert to a very remote, isolated and inaccessible part of Sudan to see if there was anything the local farmers could learn from modern techniques. After she had studied their farming methods, she admitted, "I've got nothing to teach these people! What they're doing is ideal for local conditions."
32wonderY
>2 John5918: she was incredibly enlightened for that time then.
4John5918
>3 2wonderY:
Well, she was South Sudanese so she already had an understanding of local conditions as well as her modern training and experience. We tried not to take ignorant European and north American "experts" to those areas if we could possibly avoid it!
Well, she was South Sudanese so she already had an understanding of local conditions as well as her modern training and experience. We tried not to take ignorant European and north American "experts" to those areas if we could possibly avoid it!
52wonderY
My eyebrows nearly left my face! Bayer is elbowing into “regenerative agriculture.”
http://www.bayer.com/en/us/forground
(It’s about the money)
http://www.bayer.com/en/us/forground
(It’s about the money)
62wonderY
An algae has been discovered with a unique organelle, a Nitroplast.
According to the Wikipedia page:
“The discovery of nitroplasts challenges previous notions about the exclusivity of nitrogen fixation to prokaryotic organisms. Understanding the structure and function of nitroplasts opens up possibilities for genetic engineering in plants.1 By incorporating genes responsible for nitroplast function, researchers aim to develop crops capable of fixing their own nitrogen, potentially reducing the need for nitrogen-based fertilizers and mitigating environmental damage.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitroplast
According to the Wikipedia page:
“The discovery of nitroplasts challenges previous notions about the exclusivity of nitrogen fixation to prokaryotic organisms. Understanding the structure and function of nitroplasts opens up possibilities for genetic engineering in plants.1 By incorporating genes responsible for nitroplast function, researchers aim to develop crops capable of fixing their own nitrogen, potentially reducing the need for nitrogen-based fertilizers and mitigating environmental damage.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitroplast
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