Recognizing and realizing the potential of organic agriculture in Kenya

Formal organic agriculture in Kenya dates back to the early eighties when the first pioneer organic training institutions were established. During the same period, a few horticultural companies started growing organic vegetables for export. Initial efforts to promote organic agriculture in Kenya were made by rural development non-governmental organizations (NGOs), faith based organizations and community based organizations (CBOs). They seek to help rural farmers in addressing the issue of declining agricultural productivity (especially the degradation of soils and natural resource base), high poverty incidences, food insecurity and low incomes which pre-vented farmers from assessing high costs inputs. Currently Kenya has five major players in organic agriculture namely Kitale-based Manor House Agricultural Center, Baraka College in Molo, the Sustainable Agriculture Community Development Pro-gram in Thika, the Kenya Institute of Organic Farming (KIOF), a training center on the outskirts Kenya’s capital Nairobi, and the Association for Better Land Husbandry (ABLH), headquartered in Nairobi. The organic sector is relatively small; however, it is growing very fast, led mainly by NGOs and private sector (companies growing organic produce for export). Exports of organic products have been taking place for the last two decades, mainly with vegetables and fruits produced on large scale farms. Over the years exports have developed beyond vegetables and fruits to include other prod-ucts such as essential oils, dried herbs and spices as well as products for the cos-metic and pharmaceutical industries which are more often produced by smallholders. Currently, there are five international certifiers operating in Kenya, namely: the Soil Association (SA), EcoCert International; IMO (Institute for Market Ecology); USDA’s (United States Department of Agriculture) National Organic Programme (NOP) and Bio Suisse

Flat pulses in a flat land – what’s on the horizon?

Non-Peer Reviewe

Variation in pinto seed coat darkening

Non-Peer ReviewedDarkening of the seed coat is a significant economic problem in pinto bean production. Beans that have darkened are considered old, more difficult to cook, and prices are discounted. Some varieties darken much more quickly than others and, as a result, are more often downgraded than those that retain their bright background colour. On a Pulse Canada marketing mission to Mexico in April 2002, all pinto bean buyers consistently identified the sample with the brightest background as their preference. They complained about the quality of pintos coming out of the Midwest USA and the eastern Prairies, primarily due to the darkened seed coats. We grew 10 different pinto varieties in four different environments and subjected the harvested beans to aging to determine the level of variability for seed coat darkening in the varieties. Varieties that maintain their bright background will be used in future breeding efforts to develop non-darkening pinto varieties

Intrinsic galaxy shapes and alignments II: Modelling the intrinsic alignment contamination of weak lensing surveys

Intrinsic galaxy alignments constitute the major astrophysical systematic of forthcoming weak gravitational lensing surveys but also yield unique insights into galaxy formation and evolution. We build analytic models for the distribution of galaxy shapes based on halo properties extracted from the Millennium Simulation, differentiating between early- and late-type galaxies as well as central galaxies and satellites. The resulting ellipticity correlations are investigated for their physical properties and compared to a suite of current observations. The best-faring model is then used to predict the intrinsic alignment contamination of planned weak lensing surveys. We find that late-type galaxy models generally have weak intrinsic ellipticity correlations, marginally increasing towards smaller galaxy separation and higher redshift. The signal for early-type models at fixed halo mass strongly increases by three orders of magnitude over two decades in galaxy separation, and by one order of magnitude from z=0 to z=2. The intrinsic alignment strength also depends strongly on halo mass, but not on galaxy luminosity at fixed mass, or galaxy number density in the environment. We identify models that are in good agreement with all observational data, except that all models over-predict alignments of faint early-type galaxies. The best model yields an intrinsic alignment contamination of a Euclid-like survey between 0.5-10% at z>0.6 and on angular scales larger than a few arcminutes. Cutting 20% of red foreground galaxies using observer-frame colours can suppress this contamination by up to a factor of two.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures; minor changes to match version published in MNRA

Can grasshoppers spread common bacterial blight in beans?

Non-Peer ReviewedCommon bacterial blight (CBB) is a seed-borne disease of dry bean that is usually spread through rain-splash, particularly when heavy rain or hail damages plants. CBB can cause a reduction in yield and if the seed becomes infected it will become a primary source of inoculum in the next generation. During drought cycles, we often experience heavy grasshopper infestations in Saskatchewan. Not only do grasshoppers reduce crop yield and lay eggs for the following year, but they may also be responsible for spreading disease as they travel through a crop. This could be the result of feeding damage which allows rain to spread disease, or grasshoppers may be carrying the pathogen from plant to plant causing the disease to spread more rapidly through the field. In August 2002, a dry bean breeding nursery at Saskatoon was heavily infected with CBB during the same time frame as a major grasshopper invasion. This research was designed to determine if the grasshoppers themselves can physically spread the disease from plant to plant or if they just damage the plants, making them more susceptible to infection

Seed coat colour development in black beans

Non-Peer ReviewedDry beans come in a wide variety of seed coat patterns and colours and the quality and value of the bean crop is largely determined by appearance and condition of the seed, particularly colour uniformity and stability. In western Canada, black bean is a significant portion of the crop. For some black bean varieties, the seed coat colour does not fully develop until the pod is mature. This may be the result of genotype, or environment, or both. In these cases, harvesting at plant maturity rather than at seed maturity can lead to a non-uniform crop sample in which the black beans are mixed with beans that have a purple or gray tinge. Full expression of seed coat colour is economically important as variable colour development may result in a 2-4 cent per pound discount. Seed coat colour is determined by the presence of anthocyanins and condensed tannins. In this experiment, we examined the timing of pigment deposition in the seed coat in relation to pod maturity for 5 black bean varieties (CDC Expresso, CDC Nighthawk, CDC Jet, AC Black Diamond, and T39) to determine if there is genetic variation for timing of seed coat colour development. If it is under genetic control, we will be able to breed for earlier colour development to ensure full colour expression at plant maturity

Do grasshoppers prefer one species of lentil over another?

Non-Peer ReviewedSevere outbreaks of grasshoppers cause yield losses in many economically important crops. Lentil (Lens culinaris) is particularly susceptible to grasshopper damage. The weather patterns of 2001-2002 in most of the lentil production regions of Saskatchewan contributed to the outbreak in grasshopper populations resulting in major damage to the lentil crop. Grasshoppers preferentially target the flowers and young pods of lentil plants. Lentil plants, due to their indeterminate growth habit, will re-grow if moisture is available, leading to development of new pods, resulting in delayed maturity and further grasshopper damage. Pods that are damaged or not consumed entirely may shatter or not fill properly. Grasshoppers are known to have very specific feeding habits and may show a range of preference from one plant species to another based on taste or texture. One of the seven known species of lentil has hairy pods. Grasshopper feeding preferences were examined on five lentil species, including the cultivated lentil. The purpose was to determine if grasshoppers prefer to feed on the cultivated lentil compared to four wild species. If they do, it may be possible in future to breed lentil varieties that are less damaged by grasshoppers by using the wild lentil species in the breeding program

Pulse crop breeding update

Non-Peer ReviewedThe pulse crop breeders at the Crop Development Centre (CDC)/Department of Plant Sciences are developing improved cultivars of lentil, field pea, chickpea, dry bean and faba bean for producers in western Canada. General objectives include improvement of yield, disease resistance, earliness, and quality for diverse markets

Moving pulse crop breeding into the 21st century

Non-Peer Reviewe

Rapid introgression of common bacterial blight resistance genes into dry bean elite varieties by marker-assisted backcrossing

Non-Peer Reviewe