| Biotechnology:
Tools for Conserving and Using Biodiversity
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Biotechnology covers a spectrum of ancient and
modern techniques for harnessing the biochemical processes that take place within living
things. End products can be useful organic materials visible to the naked eye like
preserved foods, pharmaceutical drugs, liquid fuels, plant tissues, and even whole plants.
Or they can be microscopic aids. (complete text)
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Agrobiodiversity Conservation: Keeping the
Options Alive
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Biodiversity represents the very foundation of
human existence. Yet by our heedless actions we are eroding this biological capital at an
alarming rate. . .
The genes, species, ecosystems and human knowledge which are being lost represent a living
library of options available for adapting to local and global change. (complete text)
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Common Bean: The Nearly Perfect Food
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For more than 300 million of the world’s
people, an inexpensive bowl of common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) is the
centerpiece of the daily diet. This staple is the world’s most important food legume,
far outdistancing chickpeas, faba beans, lentils, and cowpeas. The global bean harvest of
18 million tons annually has an estimated value of US$11 billion. (complete
text)
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Cassava: A Crop for Hard Times and Modern
Times
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Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a
starchy root crop that has been cultivated in tropical America for more than 5,000 years.
Introduced to Africa and Asia by Portuguese traders during the 16th century, it is now
grown in over 90 countries and provides food and a livelihood for 500 million people in
the developing world. (complete text)
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Tropical Forages: A Multipurpose Genetic
Resource
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Much of the feed for livestock in developing
countries comes from various tropical forage species. In Latin America as much as 70
percent of the total agricultural land area is in native and planted pastures. Worldwide,
livestock use 3.4 billion hectares of grazing land as well as the production from about a
quarter of the land in crops. This amounts to more than two-thirds of total agricultural
land area and a third of total land area. (complete text)
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Rice: Latin America's Food Grain of Choice
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In the 20th century, rice (Oryza sativa)
has gradually become the most important food grain in Latin America and the Caribbean,
supplying consumers with more calories than staples such as wheat, maize, cassava, and
potatoes. It is surpassed only by sugar as a source of energy in the diet.
(complete text)
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GIS: A Window on Tropical Agriculture and
Natural Resources
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Geographic information systems (GIS) are a
relatively new set of scientific tools—powerful hybrids born of the marriage between
modern disciplines, especially electronic computing and remote sensing, and more
traditional ones like cartography and geography. (complete text)
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(175 kb) |
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