JEDAIDA, Tunisia — Tunisian farmers are turning to the
past to ensure a future by planting indigenous seeds as the North African
country suffers at a time of drought, disease, and climate change.
اضافة اعلان
Traditional seeds come from a genetic heritage best suited
to the
environment, said Maher Medini, from Tunisia's National Gene Bank, which
promotes the development of sustainable agriculture in the country.
"They are reservoirs of genes hundreds, if not
thousands of years old," Medini said, adding that the seeds are more
resistant to the ever-growing dangerous impacts of global warming.
Climate change is causing challenging variations in
rainfall, temperature and humidity, creating disease in the crops, he said.
"The foundation of adaptation is diversity,"
Medini said.
Wheat varieties developed in the 1980s are being blighted by
disease in Tunisia, but farmers say that traditional varieties appear to be
more resistant.
In the past, using indigenous seeds, Tunisian farmers set
aside a small part of the harvest to sow in the next season.
But the development of hybrid or genetically modified seeds
resulted in better harvests, and native varieties largely fell out of use.
One problem is that seeds from the new varieties cannot be
replanted, and farmers have to buy in more seed every year.
Now some farmers are looking at the methods used by their
forebears.
Mohamed Lassad ben Saleh farms in the agricultural region of
Jedaida, some 30 kilometers northwest of the capital Tunis.
Eight years ago he switched to planting a traditional
variety of wheat, known as Al-Msekni. On his farm, the harvest is now in full
swing.
The wheat harvested from each hectare is weighed separately,
so each plot's productivity can be calculated.
"The results are good," Ben Saleh said.
Superior yield
When he meets other farmers, he lets them know how his
traditional seeds are performing.
The national average in recent years has been 1.4 to 2
tonnes a hectare, while Ben Saleh says his yield has been 5 tonnes.
Ben Saleh reports his seeds are more resistant to drought
and disease, which means he does not have to use as much pesticide.
"The new varieties are weak and quickly affected by
mold," he said.
With most farmers buying new seeds every season, the country
currently imports 70 percent to 80 percent of its seeds each year.
"A return to local or native seeds is one of the
conditions needed to reach food sovereignty," said Aymen Amayed, a
researcher in agricultural policies.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization has warned
against the increased use of hybrid seeds, and considers it a threat to
indigenous varieties and to local genetic heritage.
The FAO estimates that over the past century, around three
quarters of the diversity in world crops has disappeared.
'2050 is tomorrow'
But Tunisia's gene bank is working to "reclaim its
genetic heritage".
Since 2008, it has been collecting traditional seeds from
farmers, and also working to recover indigenous Tunisian seeds stored in gene
banks around the world.
So far, it has been able to repatriate more than 7,000
samples of seeds from fruit trees, cereals and vegetables out of over 11,000
located worldwide.
These seeds are once more being
planted in Tunisian soil.
M'barek Ben Naceur, head of the national gene bank, says
that more than 400 farmers have been persuaded to use these seeds, and old
varieties such as Msekni and Mahmoudi are being sown again.
"These seeds are the descendants of this land, and they
know it," said Ben Naceur.
"Our varieties have been accustomed to rises in temperature
and drought for thousands of years, so they will resist climate change and
temperature rises," he added.
A report last month by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change showed unequivocally that the climate is changing faster than
previously feared, and because of human activity.
August saw record-breaking temperatures: in Tunis the
mercury reached 48°C at midday, smashing the capital's previous record high of
46.8°C in 1982.
"Between now and 2050, temperatures in the world will
rise between 1.8 and 2°C," Ben Naceur said.
"And 2050 is tomorrow — it's not so far away. Varieties
that are not resistant will disappear."
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