Shakheera Valley

Using Khorog as a base we made our way up the Shakheera (Sharkdara) Valley where we had to walk across a cable bridge to get to a small village. During the visit we found an unusual wheat that looked more like a two row barley. The farmer only had a little of the seed but told us it came from further up the valley. Jose Piggin, our travelling expert, felt it was some type of old world wheat or a land race. That's the problem with genes; you just don't know what's inside.

Organic Hedgehog

The Pamirs has some stunning vistas and no matter where you look there's something to photograph. From mud brick huts, the weathered faces of the farmers we met or the beautiful children full of fun provided plenty to photograph. The huts that we saw were plain looking from the outside but inside they were spacious and comfortable with walls and floors adorned in beautifully detailed rugs. On many occasions we would have dinner or lunch with a relation or friend of someone in the group. 

In some homes there would be a spiky little bush, no bigger than a dinner plate, at the door way or somewhere near. The little bush grows high in the mountains and is believed to ward off evil and bad luck; I doubt if you sat on this little organic hedgehog you would be inclined to agree. 

 We had one in our van for most of the trip and it was only when a hitch hiker who had some seriously nasty body odour got in. That's when things started going pear shaped. His smell, which I'm sure he had been working on for weeks, must have over powered our little plants ability to do it's job. Apart from the bad luck of having this smelly individual in our van we had a break down and Courtney (my fellow mission member and car companion) got sick. I have to admit she was a bit ill before the guy got in but he was enough to set her off on a spray. Once he got out he had trouble shutting the car door and after three attempts we found our little bush mangled. I like to think it tried to jump out and bite him but got caught in the door. Upon saving it our little bush was safe and sound and what do you know, things got back to normal.

The beautiful people of Tajikistan

Many of the Tajik people speak more than one language, in fact the Pamiris people speak their own language separate to Tajik. Most speak Russian with only a few who speak English; those that do are typically young.

From time to time we would see men wearing their traditional hats but most of the young men wore western style clothing. Many of the women, if not all, wore brightly coloured clothes and can be quite stunning in appearance.

I've been struck at how often many Pamir people will give up their possessions to help someone out. Often as we travelled we would stop to pick up someone on the side of the road between villages and collections. One day while we were having lunch after collecting wheat in a nearby field, we were given a flat brown rye bread that was still warm and was some of the tastiest bread I think I've ever eaten. After this a large bowl of apricots appeared. It was a classic example of the generosity that followed us everywhere we went.

4200 metre marmots

Much of our time was spent following the Panj until we got to Khorog, from there we made the climb up to Alichur village, some 4200 metres above sea level. We passed some salt lakes along the way and saw marmots quite often. They are very shy and fast (for an over grown hamster) making them hard to get a good photo of them.They must be tough to live up in these mountains.

We left the marmots to it and went over the pass to follow the Ghundt River valley making our way to Novabod, collecting as we went with the plan to make a loop and return to Khorog for a few days.

Apricots, apples and other nice things

 

Saidjafa with some beautiful dried white mulberries

Most days our trip would be made up of several stops a day to collect from the many small villages and the crops that surrounded them as we headed to Khorog. We were always welcome and asked in for tea by the locals. Often we would be given apricots, home made bread or apples. Most of the cereal crops we saw were wheat, both awned and awnless, with some crops having up to four deferring types. Rye sown with various mixes of peas and a six row barley that had a greenish tinge to its seed were common. There were fields of potatoes, apricots, apples and white mulberries everywhere we went. Within a few days I have come to the conclusion the Pamirs people are rich in food and culture.

The River Panj

The river Panj is the most violent river I have ever seen. It roars down the valley in places at an amazing speed, so much so that the levels of the river appears uneven with one side lower than the other due to the huge volumes of water pushing through it. Often water would be shot straight up into the air as it collided with the many giant boulders that filled its course.

Along the Panj

What to do with a rock slide

As we snaked our way along the Panj we could clearly see the Afghan villages on the other side of the river. It was amazing to see the small farm villages that clung to the mountain side where ever there was a spring or seep of water. To me they did not look uninviting and disorderly. Vegetable patches in neat rows and various crops surrounded by stone fences snaked their way along the contours of the mountain side. Hand harvested crops stood in small bundles here and there ready to be thrashed. We even saw thrashing being done by cattle or donkeys who were made to walk over crop that had been placed on the ground in small circles.

Eating out in the Pamirs

We made our way along the border of Afghanistan stopping in Ishkashin for lunch and fuel. There are only four meals you will get everywhere in the Pamirs; Shorpo (a soup, sometimes with lamb or goat meat), Plov (a rice dish with meat), Manty (big dunplings, sometimes in a broth) and Borsch (a vegetable soup). Most of the time they were served with a flat bread and tea. There are other meals to have on rare occasions but why bother when those four were so tasty everywhere we went.

The Pamirs highway?

Can you find the 2 vans?

Following the Panj River (nice bit of road)

The Pamirs highway could be best described as a series of pot holes on a corrugated gravel track that may or may not have some bitumen that has survived being gouged out by water running off the surrounding mountains or buried under mudslides or avalanches of stone. Our main drivers, Imondod and Sharif had to constantly use both sides of the road to avoid all of the above. As we climbed over Sagirdasht Pass, some 3200 metres above sea level, we descended into the Pamirs heading for Kalaikhum. It was regular to see the lead vehicle almost directly below us, so steep were the mountains in places. We drove all day along the Afghanistan border hugging the cliff edges along the Panj River. At times the road would be little more than a single lane width and I have to admit feeling a little nervous at times before we made camp in an apricot grove.

Why collect seeds?

So why collect seeds? Well the fact is we are losing biodiversity all the time. Scout commented that he has seen a decline in variation in the crops he has collected throughout Tajikistan over the years. Those important genes that may be in some of those plants lost may have been able to improve the crops we grow today.

The fact is food costs money, land and water to grow so if we can improve disease resistance, for example, we have healthier crops that produce healthy food and have less impact on the environment due to a reduction in chemical use. This helps to reduce the cost of production and so the cost of living.

What about GM? Until the general public accept we have the ability to put genes of another species in their food and do we really want to do that, we will need to preserve what we've got today. I have seen natural diversity allow tomatoes to grow in half sea water. It's out there, we just have to go and look. That's what seed collectors are all about.

Seed collectors are a passionate lot

Jose Piggin, they don't come more passionate than this one

With our team assembled, we headed off in 3 Toyota Hiace vans and after 3 attempts to get out of the city we finally got sorted and picked up some supplies from a local market. Our journey on the Pamirs highway was under way.

Seed collectors are a passionate lot and it wasn't long before the urge to start collecting had us pulling up on the side of the road to see what we could find.

For the most part we collected clovers, lucerne and some wheat. It quickly became apparent though, the use of common names wasn't going to cut it with this lot who use botanical names when talking about anything. It was a steep learning curve for this farmer from Barooga.

As the day progressed we started to climb into the mountains and made camp at a beautiful little lake. The first day in and already the scenery was beautiful.

Dushanbe

The Ismoili Somoni monument

               Our first day in Dushanbe had us pay a visit to the Tajik Agriculture Science Academy to meet with the president. After some formalities and a brief run down on their gene bank (containing over 300 accessions of apricots and are currently repatriating crops collected by the Soviet Union during their occupation of Tajikistan) we were free to have a look around Dushanbe while Scout and Jan sorted out some finer details with the academy before our departure for the Pamirs.

Off again, this time Tajikistan

Sergey "Scout"

Flying out of Melbourne late at night I settled in to what was going to be a long flight through China to start another adventure. This time I was heading for Tajikistan to participate in a seed collecting mission for ICARDA (International Centre for Agriculture Research in Dry Areas) made famous in Australia by the ABC documentary, “The Seed Hunter” featuring Dr Ken Street.

On a previous visit during my Nuffield studies to ICARDA, I met up with Ken who invited me on a seed hunt into Tajikistan. He has always been keen to have an Aussie grain grower along; I couldn't let that opportunity pass me by to travel through the mountains of the Pamirs collecting wheat, barley, peas and anything else that may be of interest to the mission team.

I flew with China Southern and although I had some doubts about the airline it all went smoothly. I met up with one of the team members, Stephen, in Urumqi who was part of a media team that were writing an article on the trip. Together we arrived in Dushanbe four hours before the main team.

As we had to have our visas given to us on arrival and there was no one in the administration office at one in the morning (can't blame them for that) we had to wait it out until the rest of the crew arrived from Istanbul. It was at this time a strong looking Russian guy with arms like tree trunks introduced himself as our guide and interpreter. Sergey, better known as “Scout” to his friends, works at the Vavilov Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In the end we all got our visas to start our adventure into the Pamirs.

Thank God for tigerfish

After my time in Israel, I flew into Cairo less than a week after Egyptian President Mubarek was thrown out of power. The Cairo airport was a ghost town with more security staff than passengers.

Despite this my bags miss my connecting flight to Aswan. Note to self: next time check them in yourself. I had a fishing trip on Lake Nasser lined up before I returned home.

I was amazed by the clarity of the water in the lake as well as the Nile itself. I had a great time living aboard the African Anglers house boats while we fished in a small tinnie through the day. I was hoping for some big Nile perch but we had struck one of the coldest weeks for that time of year so the big perch were sadly absent. Thank God for tigerfish is all I can say. These things are great on light spin gear, just watch where you put your fingers when you unhook them. 

Water, salt and other things

Travelling through the Middle East has reinforced how valuable water is when you don't have it. To maximise water use efficiency, both the water providers and users in Israel have put systems in place to reduce any losses; something Australia is still struggling to achieve.

History has shown the prosperity irrigation brings can be great but it can come with a price paid in salt. The irrigation systems and farming practises we put in place now and into the future will have the biggest influence on how much salt ends up in our catchments and how much water will reside within them. Being able to produce crops under saline conditions is important in reclaiming soils lost to salinity and taking pressure off our fresh water supplies. In Australia, we need to address this now while water reform is still on the agenda. I have no doubt good environmental, social and commercial outcomes can be achieved through technologies, techniques and genetics I have seen. Utilising all three could preserve enough water to sustain all for many years to come in the Murray Darling Basin. The failure to act in the past has increased the financial burden to bring anything to reality. If we value the food we produce and the environment in which it grows then support from all sides will be required. My report on irrigation with saline water can be found at http://www.nuffieldinternational.org/reports/report.php

Thank you to the board of Nuffield, Horticulture Australia, The Australian Processing Tomato Growers and my family for allowing me to travel on such an adventure.

If you like war birds you'll love this

My last day in Israel was spent out at the impressive Israeli Air Force Museum just out of Beer Sheba (Be'er Sheva). Lots of great stuff to see if you like war planes (like me). The museum is home to quite a few Migs that had been captured over the years, largely from defecting pilots. There's a lot of Mirage's (French jet fighter) and I can only assume that the Israeli Air Force had a love affair with the F-4 Phantom jet fighter because there's a hell of a lot of them.

I enjoyed my time in Israel (despite 4 days spent with a stomach bug I couldn't shake).

I was impressed at how water is used and reused, the quality of their produce and the friendliness of the people. 

Fruit and veg field day

On my return from Yotvata I had the good fortune to be hosted by Zeraim Gedera (seed company I visited earlier) the following day, to attend a small field day. I have observed that many chemical companies are buying up small seed companies over here. Monsanto had a stand for their line of fruit and veg which was the first time I had seen the Monsanto brand in the fruit and veg market.

There were a lot of different tomato varieties to be seen on the day, it was nice to see cherry tomatoes in bowls on almost every stand as free nibbles. I have to say the best tomatoes I have ever tasted have all been in Israel. The diversity of varieties and flavours was outstanding. Zvi Howard Wener (Chief Agronomist for Zeraim Gedera) gave me a bell pepper that they have been working on but have yet to release. It was the most amazing tasting thing I have ever eaten......as far as bell peppers go anyway. It was so sweet and juicy I ate the thing like an apple, Beautiful!