{"id":1732,"date":"2020-01-16T18:57:18","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T18:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seedsystemsgroup.org\/?p=1732"},"modified":"2020-01-16T18:57:18","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T18:57:18","slug":"eritrea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/2020\/01\/16\/eritrea\/","title":{"rendered":"Eritrea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Scanning\nthe countryside from 30,000 feet on the flight from Addis Ababa to Asmara\ntoward the end of the growing season, I was struck by the progressive shift\nfrom a green landscape to a paler shade of green, and finally yellow as we came\nin to land.&nbsp; Eritrea\u2019s agro-ecologies are\nquite varied, like most African countries\u2019, but rainfall is limited in all of\nthem, and droughts are common.&nbsp; Total\nrainfall amounts are likewise varied, from season to season.&nbsp; This is an agricultural system that calls for\nearly-maturing varieties, and the best that stress-tolerance breeding can\noffer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/seedsystemsgroup.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/2-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C768\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1734\"\/><figcaption> The breeding team at Eritrea\u2019s Agriculture Research Institute.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of\ntotal harvest, Eritrea\u2019s leading food crop is sorghum, but, in keeping with the\ndiversity theme, we saw very little sorghum in and around Asmara.&nbsp; It turns out that sorghum is mainly\ncultivated in the country\u2019s northern regions bordering Ethiopia.&nbsp; Next in order to importance on a national\nlevel is barley, followed by wheat, millet, and maize.&nbsp; Lentils are the countr\u2019s most important\nlegume crop.&nbsp; Sesame is also an important\ncrop in some parts of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/seedsystemsgroup.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/1-1-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1735\" width=\"825\" height=\"619\"\/><figcaption> Barley bread served at Eritrea\u2019s World Food Day event. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>SSG was\nvery warmly received by the Government of Eritrea.&nbsp; This was evident from the beginning:&nbsp; on our first full day in the country, we were\ninvited by the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Arefaine Berhe, to participate in\nthe country\u2019s World Food Day ceremonies, followed by a wonderful meal of local\nEritrean dishes.&nbsp; All of the dishes\n(including a sort of casserole made from oats and vegetables) were delicious,\nbut I was most impressed by the barley bread, which is very hearty, and can be\nstored for long periods.&nbsp; We also enjoyed\nlocally-made Mozarella cheese and sorghum injera.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the\ncourse of our week in Asmara we met with all the heads of departments of the\nMinistry of Agriculture, including the seed regulatory body, the director of\nplanning (Mr. Bereket Tsehaye, our host for the mission), the director of the\nAgricultural Research Institute &nbsp;(in\nHalhale, some 40 km from Asmara), and extension.&nbsp; We also met formally with the Minister, who\nexpressed a great desire to collaborate with Seed Systems Group.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nMinister and all the directors of the Ministry understand the importance of\nimproved seed, and seed production and distribution is one of the main\nactivities of the Ministry, led by the Extension Department.&nbsp; The main priorities for seed supply, at\npresent, are hybrid maize seed production (currently small quantities are\nimported from India), new, higery-yielding varieties of sorghum, and improved\nvarieties of pearl millet resistant to downy mildew.&nbsp; The good news is that recently-developed\nvarieties of all of these crops, and more, are available from CGIAR breeding\ninitiatives.&nbsp; We will do our best to\nrespond!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scanning the countryside from 30,000 feet on the flight from Addis Ababa to Asmara toward the end of the growing season, I was struck by the progressive shift from a green landscape to a paler shade of green, and finally yellow as we came in to land.&nbsp; Eritrea\u2019s agro-ecologies are quite varied, like most African [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}