The Crop Trust Expands its #CropsInColor Palette
A farmer of the Thái ethnic group carries tree seedlings to be planted between fields of cassava in Sơn La Province. The many minority groups of this remote and mountainous region practice diverse farming systems that often include cassava as a key part. The popular varieties, bred for the region, grow relatively low and dense as they efficiently use sunlight to produce their starchy edible roots under the soil.A Sensory Journey of Our Food Crops
BONN, Germany, September 2018 – Today, the Crop Trust launches the second phase of #CropsInColor, an image-led storytelling campaign that celebrates crop diversity around the world.
Phase II, sponsored by Corteva Agriscience™, the Agriculture Division of DowDuPont will send photographers to Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas to highlight the distinct roles that food crops play in people’s lives. Featuring ten different crops, including apples, beans, carrots, chili peppers, quinoa and more, #CropsInColor will explore the connection between people and their plates in 13 countries.
“The diversity of our food crops is central to our lives and helps define cuisines, cultures, landscapes and more,” said Marie Haga, Executive Director of the Crop Trust.
“Few people realize that it also underpins food security by providing the building blocks for agriculture to adapt to the never-ending challenge of sustainably feeding our growing planet. Phase I of Crops In Color proved to be a highly successful and innovative communications effort, which informed audiences around the globe, and we are delighted to have the support of Corteva Agriscience to continue this effort with a second phase.”
Rice terraces at different stages of maturity in a Betsileo village. Betsileo communities in the central highlands are especially renowned for their advanced rice farming. Wherever a flat surface exists – or can be built – rice can be planted. The farmers sow a wide assortment of local types at different times, employing irrigation to grow some in the dry season and waiting for the rainy season to plant others. This diversity is all at once a source of efficiency, security, cultural identity, and pride.
In Los Baños, an IRRI researcher takes notes on a trial of rice plants’ response to rainfall. Drought tolerance is an important target in rice breeding, and so is tolerance to flooding. Some rice landraces and wild relatives are especially good at producing grain during a drought, while others have the ability to survive completely underwater for days or weeks at a stretch. These have proven invaluable in breeding the next generation of climate change-ready rice to prepare for the unpredictable rainfall patterns of the future.
Colombia is home to the world’s largest collection of cassava landrace varieties. At CIAT, in Cali, one finds a test-tube garden that is used by breeders to fight diseases and other threats – not just here in South America, but everywhere the crop has spread across the world’s tropics. The roughly half a billion people who depend on cassava as their main source of energy also depend on its diversity.
In Davao, on the Phillippines’ southern island of Mindanao, farmers are growing different varieties for human consumption and for animal feed, where it is replacing more expensive maize feeds. It has especially gained popularity since 2012, when Super Typhoon Bopha struck the region, confirming fears that the Philippines’ typhoon belt is shifting south under climate change.
Cassava originated in the Amazon but is today at home across the tropics. It is a lifeline for millions of small farmers, especially in Africa, who rely on its dependable harvest of large, carbohydrate-rich roots.
Herminia Dajao, 86, and her family, prepare corn for milling in her family home in Pueblo Antonia, Davao. Maize is an especially traditional crop in Davao. Its history goes back to the galleon trade between Spanish colonies nearly 500 years ago, when ships carried seeds across the Pacific Ocean from Mexico. Those seeds became the basis for uniquely Filipino maize diversity that farmers shared, bred, and handed down through the centuries.
Ancient diversity that would be familiar to an Aztec or Inca farmer still ripens in the fields in countries like Mexico, Guatemala and Peru. More recently – in relative terms – the highly productive cereal was adopted in a big way by African farmers, who depend on it as a food security crop central to many a local cuisine.
#CropsInColor celebrates both the critical importance of crop diversity and its beauty and cultural relevance across different landscapes. With compelling images, unique narratives and video-interviews, the campaign showcases the wonders of crop diversity and what it means to different communities around the world.
To most people, a bag of rice is just a bag of rice. But it is also so much more. In fact, there are thousands of varieties of rice in the world – each variety containing valuable traits, which could help strengthen the basis of our food system. Some of these varieties also hold special value to the farmers which cultivate them and to the people who consume them globally.
This is true of every crop that exists in the world. There are almost 1,000 varieties of banana; more than 4,000 varieties of potatoes; no less than 7,000 different types of tomatoes; and an estimated 40,000 varieties of bean – each with their own unique characteristics.
Phase II of #CropsInColor will be a sensory campaign, exciting the taste buds, and taking our audience on an exploratory journey from seed bank to table, discovering the unique textures, smells and tastes of ten crops along the way.
“From the farm to the market to our homes, we have been forging unique relationships with food crops throughout agriculture’s 13,000-year history. Crop diversity lies at the heart of this interdependent bond,” said Jim Collins, Chief Operating Officer, Corteva Agriscience.
“The Crop Trust’s Crops In Color campaign highlights, in a visually compelling way, the need to recognize, appreciate and conserve this food crop diversity for future generations. We were honored to sponsor Phase I and are excited to support Phase II to produce many more outstanding images and content showcasing food crop diversity.”
Apples, bananas, chili peppers, beans, coffee, carrots, potato, squash, quinoa and tomatoes – these ten crops were chosen for their ubiquity in supermarkets and in kitchens, and their striking visual diversity. While the common potato may be considered mundane, and other crops like quinoa are currently enjoying the spotlight, each of these crops are important for global consumption and have their own unique story to tell.
By exploring some of our most beloved crops, in both familiar and distant settings around the world, #CropsInColor will highlight many key actors in our food systems – from consumer to farmer to seed bank – who are doing their part in safeguarding, making available and using crop diversity. The Crop Trust is proud to have the support of the International Potato Center (CIP), the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the World Vegetable Center, and many more partners.
"We’re pleased to partner with the Crop Trust in what promises to be an innovative initiative to raise awareness about the importance of conserving crop genetic diversity," said Peter Bretting, a National Program Leader at USDA-ARS. “Consumers’ preferences could play a role too: when they seek and purchase diverse foods, farmers, supermarkets and food companies will take note.”
In Rwanda and the United States, the campaign will explore the role of beans in every day society; while in India and Mexico, #CropsInColor will uncover the countless uses of chili peppers. From chefs, who are developing new ways of experiencing and enjoying food diversity, to farmers who are building direct relationships with consumers, to indigenous communities working with restaurants, to urban farmers and everyone in between, #CropsInColor will celebrate the crops and the people using them to create more sustainable and delicious food systems.
To learn more about #CropsInColor, please click here. For series of images, click here.
Categories: For The Press, Press Releases