Earth Report - Forgotten Fruit 1 of 2 - Monoculture vs Diversity - BBC Documentary

Earth Report - Forgotten Fruit 1 of 2 - Monoculture vs Diversity - BBC Documentary, recorded 30.01.2010

Rediscovering the forgotten crops




Many farmers have stopped growing traditional crops, such as millet
Over the last century about 75% of the world's crop varieties have been lost, data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) suggests.

UN researchers say that we now rely on just three crops: wheat, rice and maize.

The fact that poorer nations are almost twice as dependent on these cereals as richer nations has led to the question: are we now too reliant on too few crops?

The Kolli Hills in Tamil Nadu, southern India, is home to about 40,000 people.

Scientists have visited the area to see if ancient traditions offer any clues to finding a way out of a future global food crisis.

Changing landscape

"First of all, I think the environment is going to be more unpredictable," Sayed Azam-Ali, professor of tropical agronomy at the University of Nottingham, UK, tells the Television Trust for the Environment's Earth Report programme.

"So we need crops that are going to be safe," he said.

For centuries, farmers of the Kolli Hills harvested millet
"We can't rely on importing and moving crops around the world indefinitely.

"I think we have to be more reliant on locally sourced food."

For more Information, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7247218.stm .

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