"Crunch Time," The Evening Paper
Issue of 22 May 1996
Yet, the bottom line is the same. Between homemade bottles of jam and jelly from an excess of vegetation in a rich and blessed land and genetic variants grown on dry and arid land (or no land at all), there is a common impetus.
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Behind the contemporary race to fill the food bowls of Africa, where hunger has historically outrun the land's ability to feed people, are the tools of technology.
In a continent where traditional methods of farming no longer work, where nutrients get sucked out and pests spread faster than plants, the Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) now boasts of having saved from extinction one of Africa's most important food crops--cassava--by releasing insects to biologically control pests and implementing selective breeding to improve yields.
The institute has now set its sights on cowpea, a legume that provides as much as 25 percent of protein in arid parts of Africa. In secure freezers inside the institute, more than 15,000 varieties of cowpea seeds are stored. Scientists work to insert insect-resistant genes from wild cowpeas in cultivated varieties.
Only in the past four months has IITA obtained a transgenic plant with reporter genes that work against the insects. The next step is to use the genes to transform the plant. Even then, it will still take three to four years of laboratory work before the institute can have a sturdy cowpea strain growing in the open.
And it will need private industry and the help of NGOs before the institute's cowpea can find growing space in the fields of hungry, malnourished Africa.
In a continent where traditional methods of farming no longer work, where nutrients get sucked out and pests spread faster than plants, the Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) now boasts of having saved from extinction one of Africa's most important food crops--cassava--by releasing insects to biologically control pests and implementing selective breeding to improve yields.
The institute has now set its sights on cowpea, a legume that provides as much as 25 percent of protein in arid parts of Africa. In secure freezers inside the institute, more than 15,000 varieties of cowpea seeds are stored. Scientists work to insert insect-resistant genes from wild cowpeas in cultivated varieties.
Only in the past four months has IITA obtained a transgenic plant with reporter genes that work against the insects. The next step is to use the genes to transform the plant. Even then, it will still take three to four years of laboratory work before the institute can have a sturdy cowpea strain growing in the open.
And it will need private industry and the help of NGOs before the institute's cowpea can find growing space in the fields of hungry, malnourished Africa.
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When you look at another aspect, Singapore is in a worse situation than Africa, which has the land, if not the money.
However, one Singaporean, Lee Sing Kong, is proving to have technology--"not high-tech or low-tech ... rather the right tech."
Lee's technology is aeroponics, which has already been tried in the United States and Israel. This science of growing plants without soil seems best suited to Singapore, which imports its water and most of its vegetables, growing locally only 10 percent of its vegetable supply.
Lee has been experimenting with aeroponics for the past five years, and he is now reaping fresh crops from his experiment: high-yield, high-value temperate and subtropical crops such as lettuces, capsicums, tomatoes, and asparagus, grown in Singapore's tropical climate, "at reasonable cost," in greenhouses without air-conditioning or special lighting.
The plants are placed in troughs made of polystyrene foam with their roots beneath an insulating cover. As described by Reuters' Abdul Jalil Hamid, nutrients are supplied to the roots in the troughs in mist form through a pump activated by a light sensor.
How long does it take a plant to grow? "We grow them faster down here. In the temperate climate, the crop cycle for iceberg lettuce from seed to harvest is 100 days. On this system, it takes me 45 to 50 days.
"In the past, when you talked about growing temperate plants in tropical countries, you were talking about creating a temperate house. An aeroponic system is practical because ... we don't need to cool the area environment. All we need to do is to modify the root zone, modify the environment within the trough itself. When you insulate your trough, the heat gain is much lower. That's why it makes the system cost-effective. Furthermore, you can grow 365 days a year," Lee explained.
Lee is now experimenting with growing strawberries and herbs aeroponically.
However, one Singaporean, Lee Sing Kong, is proving to have technology--"not high-tech or low-tech ... rather the right tech."
Lee's technology is aeroponics, which has already been tried in the United States and Israel. This science of growing plants without soil seems best suited to Singapore, which imports its water and most of its vegetables, growing locally only 10 percent of its vegetable supply.
Lee has been experimenting with aeroponics for the past five years, and he is now reaping fresh crops from his experiment: high-yield, high-value temperate and subtropical crops such as lettuces, capsicums, tomatoes, and asparagus, grown in Singapore's tropical climate, "at reasonable cost," in greenhouses without air-conditioning or special lighting.
The plants are placed in troughs made of polystyrene foam with their roots beneath an insulating cover. As described by Reuters' Abdul Jalil Hamid, nutrients are supplied to the roots in the troughs in mist form through a pump activated by a light sensor.
How long does it take a plant to grow? "We grow them faster down here. In the temperate climate, the crop cycle for iceberg lettuce from seed to harvest is 100 days. On this system, it takes me 45 to 50 days.
"In the past, when you talked about growing temperate plants in tropical countries, you were talking about creating a temperate house. An aeroponic system is practical because ... we don't need to cool the area environment. All we need to do is to modify the root zone, modify the environment within the trough itself. When you insulate your trough, the heat gain is much lower. That's why it makes the system cost-effective. Furthermore, you can grow 365 days a year," Lee explained.
Lee is now experimenting with growing strawberries and herbs aeroponically.
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Others with arid land, or no land at all, are finding ways around their disadvantages. Filipinos let their comparative advantage wither away from disregard for technology and, worse, lack of enterprise.
-- NBT
-- NBT
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