A Pinch of Salt

2011-10-05T04:17:00.000-07:00

Said and Jan sorting seed

Once back in Dushanbe we had a lot of sorting, cleaning and recording to do with our collection that numbered over 360 accessions. We were given a room out at the Agriculture Research and Germplasm Centre where we had space to clean and divide up our collection to be split amongst ICARDA, Tajikistan, Russia's, Vavilov Institute and NZ Agriculture.

I'd like to take the opportunity to publicly thank Dr Ken Street and ICARDA for what has been an amazing experience. To everyone at the Ag Academy in Tajikistan, in particular Mirullo Amonulloyen, Mavlon Pulodov and Zebuniso Muminshoyeva who, without them and their invitation it would have not been possible to go and find out how truly beautiful the Tajik people and its lands are. The nuts and bolt of our crew, Said “DJ” Jafar (greatest cook going round), Imondod and Sharif who kept the vans going and did a fantastic job; I don't think I could have changed the pinion gear out of a diff while on the side of the road quite as quick as those guys.

Zane and Sergey hard at work

To the collection team of Jose Piggin, Jan Konopka, Zane “Jet” Webber and Courtney “Omada Jon” Fullilove who made this trip that much more enjoyable and informative because of their involvement, thanks for your company on this fantastic adventure.

It is at this point special mention must be made to Sergey “Scout” Shuvalov who has been our guide and interpreter during our stay. His good humour, knowledge of the area and professional nature were second to none and complemented this trip perfectly. It is obvious to me now why Ken and many of the Tajik people who were involved in this trip greeted him warmly and held him in high regard. Thank you.

Back to Dushanbe

2011-10-05T03:47:00.000-07:00

We had a long day in the van to get back to Dushanbe but we managed a stop at Said-Jafar's home in Faizabad. Said was our chef on the trip and studies at the Agriculture Academy in Dushanbe.

At the top of a hill on his property we found a large stand of Agelopes cylindrica (bottom right) and triuncialis (right) as well as some Hordeums including bulbosum (bottom left) that has, as the name implies, a bulb beneath the soil. All are related to wheat and barley in some way. Hard to believe when you see some of them.

That's why they call it weed

2011-10-02T03:57:00.000-07:00

After Khorog we began heading back out of the Pamirs stopping at sites as we went. It was always nice to get out of the car and walk around in a new area collecting crops and seeing them bundled up ready to thrash or be stored for the winter. For me it has been a step back in time to see crops harvested by hand.

My tent and a nice patch of cannabis (bottom right)

Our last stay was up the Yazgulem River. There was a lot of corn being grown in one of the villages and not a lot of wheat to pick from. I rolled out my tent like always, oblivious to a large quantity of cannabis I'd just moved next door to. The stuff grows wild around here like, well, a weed. There were a few photos taken of me sitting in front of my tent before I realised what was going on.

Shakheera Valley

2011-09-30T04:34:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-29T05:45:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-29T05:21:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-28T06:18:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-16T07:25:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-15T07:51:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

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?

2011-09-14T07:24:00.000-07:00

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?

2011-09-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-12T07:39:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-12T07:21:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-07T05:58:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-07T05:48:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-06T06:06:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-05T05:33:00.000-07:00

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!

It's a long way to go to see a Sturt's Desert Pea!

2011-09-05T04:49:00.000-07:00

After 11 years you can see how different salinity levels effect plant growth

Behind us are some the palms growing in fresh water.

I was up early to catch a bus south to Yotvata to meet up with Efi Tripler (love that name) at the Arava Centre for Agriculture Water Use Research.

Efi has been running a long term trial with saline water on date palms for 11 years. They are all in giant pots attached to lysimeters (measure water use). This trial shows how much saline water can affect even salt tolerant plants like date palms. I'll let the photos do the talking.

There are a lot of veggies grown out here in the desert, water is a problem but there is very little disease because nothing can survive getting across the desert to infect their crops.

Efi had a commercial flower trial at the centre and I got a kick out of seeing an Australian plant growing there, a Sturts Desert Pea. Apparently they are quite salt tolerant and almost bullet proof. I had to laugh, I've travelled through the desert country of central Australia years ago and never got to see one and here it is in Israel.

You've got to go a long way to see Sturt's Desert Pea!

Out and about in the Negev

2011-09-05T04:29:00.000-07:00

Salt tolerant Sea Aster had a nice taste

Uri Na'amati pulled up out the front of my hotel in Beer Sheva for what turned out to be a great day.

Uri is president of the Field Crop Growers Association (FCGA) which has around 300 members representing over 200,000 ha. Talking to Uri I learnt no one owns land here, it's leased from the Israel government for up to 49 years. The average family land holding in the Negev desert area is around 8 ha but they typically come together to form a community called a Kibbutz and pool their resources. The average Kibbutz out here is 960 ha which surprised me after travelling through the Middle East where I became accustomed to most farms being 1-2 ha.

Uri took me out to the Ramat Negev Agroresearch Centre and we caught up with Zion Shemer (Director). Ramat has some interesting stuff going on with growing crops with saline water.

Zion with a novel way to grow stawberries

Strawberries are easy to pick at sholder height

They have been concentrating on trials for human consumption crops that can handle some salt. We looked at some salt bush, portulaca, salicornia and a very tasty plant called sea aster. All of these were being looked at for salad mixes. The sea aster was very nice and had a less salty taste compared with all the other crops there. I think the natural salty taste of these plants would complement a conventional salad. Zion also took us in to see an innovative strawberry growing system that kept the fruit up off the ground.

One of Uri's desal plants

We had lunch at Uri's Kibbutz which was brilliant and checked out his desalination plant and water storage which was very impressive and has to be the biggest plastic lined dam I've seen with a capacity of 1600 megalitres. As you would imagine water is in demand out in a desert and nearly 80% of the water used for irrigation here is recycled waste water from the major cities like Tel Aviv and it's all delivered to farm via pressurised pipe at around 6 bar. They have a time schedule for irrigation to avoid losing pressure.

Better than average tomatoes

2011-08-06T07:07:00.000-07:00

Eli in one of Zeraim Gedera's net houses

Getting on a bus in Israel can be an interesting experience if you're not use to seeing lots of guns. Nearly everyone here has done military service and most of the young teenagers who have finished school and doing their military training seem to get on with their weapons slung over their shoulder. At times nearly 2/3rds of the passengers are carrying a machine gun of one type or another. Pity the fool who would attempt to hijack a bus here.

The black tomatoes that I couldn't stop eating

Back in Beersheba I met up with Dubi Raz (Agronomy Director for Netafim) who helped me out for much of my trip. He set up a meeting to go out to Zeraim Gedera's net houses where they develop new lines of tomatoes for their international markets. Zeraim Gedera is now part of Syngenta which seems to be a trend in agriculture for chemical companies to invest in plant genetics.

I have to say some of the best tasting tomatoes I have ever eaten have been in Israel but the best of all were on this visit. There was an amazing array of different types and colours all tailor made for specific markets to places like Spain and Brazil. The guy responsible for these better than average tomatoes is plant specialist Eli Yehoshua who kindly showed me around. All the plants are grafted and he had some salt tolerant lines that looked good. I fell in love with a black tomato that he developed and couldn't stop eating the things. I left with a bag full and a big smile on my face.

Later that day Dubi took me out to Netafims factory where our drip tube was made for us over 27 years ago. I've got to thank Netafim for the opportunity to walk through their plant and see the advances in design since those days. There's a lot to making a drip than just putting a hole in a pipe.

A visit to the holy city of Jerusalem

2011-08-06T06:49:00.000-07:00


A constant line of people feed in and out of the famous Dome of the Rock

As my contacts were tied up for a few days, I took a tour up to the very famous city of Jerusalem.

We did all the classics, the room of the last supper, walked the stations of the cross, visited Mary's tomb, the wailing wall and the dome of the rock. I never realised just how close all of these sites are to one another. One of the amazing things I saw that day was in the Garden of Gethsemane where thousand year old olive trees reside. I never new they could live so long. It is also the site of the Church of Nations where Jesus prayed after the last supper before he was arrested by the Romans and crucified. All in all a very interesting day.

Inside the beautiful Church of Nations

Tel Aviv

2011-08-05T06:09:00.000-07:00

I flew into Tel Aviv, Israel, late at night and with a Syrian visa in my passport I had a 3 hour wait while security checked me out. This was the last leg of my Nuffield study travel.

A walk through some of the nearby markets here found me trying out pomegranate juice (good salt tolerance) which was delicious. The fresh produce was very good with one store having 5 different types of tomatoes that I found interesting. Tel Aviv reminded me of the Gold Coast in Australia with the city hard up against the beach.

I caught a bus down to Beersheba and went out to the Gilat Agriculture Centre to meet up with Alon Bengali. Alon, like so many researchers on salinity, use lysimeters to measure how much water a plant uses under various degrees of salinity. They are basically giant pots and in this case they had olives growing out of them. Unforunately, Alon was very busy and after the usual chat about saline water it was time to go.

At the end of the day I dropped in to see a memorial park for the Australian Light Horse.

Damascus, a city of treasures

2011-08-05T05:58:00.000-07:00

My last few days in Syria were spent in Damascus. I spent some time in the old city souk which was full of spices and all things that sparkle. Entering through one of the giant gateways that completed the fortified walls that encircle the citadel you encounter an amazing network of streets, weaving and uneven, twisted by the centuries. There are many alley ways full of stores selling all manner of things and I spent a whole day just wondering around. Like much of the Middle East, a buildings exterior doesn't always convey some of the gems that are hidden behind its walls. Many of these old buildings hide courtyards that are now popular guest houses. There are many religious sites (both Christian and Muslim) as well. History is measured in thousands of years; an antique here is hundreds of years old, anything less than that is just old.

The amazing city of Palmyra

2011-08-05T05:44:00.000-07:00

Temple of Bell

After Rasafa my driver took me out to Palmyra. There's a lot to see among the ruins there. Palmyra would have been quiet amazing when it was at its finest. The stone columns and archways that line the streets here are still impressive and you get a sense of the grandeur this once busy city would have possessed.

The Temple of Bell is a masons dream and, although weathered now, this large imposing temple still displays some beautiful stone carvings atop the giant columns that adorn the courtyard and the temple itself. You have to marvel at the size of each circular block that sit one on top of another, meters high and wonder how much blood, sweat and tears went in to building this place. I visited the Tower Tombs and the Ba'alshamin Temple which I loved. The temple is very old (2^nd century) and is the temple to the god of heavens, storms and fertilising rains. Just the thing for the farm; no wonder a tree now grows inside its walls.

Palmyra's famous column lined streets leading into the city from the Temple of Bell

Ba'alshamin Temple

Overlooking the whole place is a distant crusader castle. My time ran out and my driver had to get me to Damascus. Maybe one day I'll get back to take a closer look.

Cisterns in the desert and Indiana Jones

2011-07-31T06:51:00.000-07:00

My time in Aleppo ended all too soon. I was not looking forward to my taxi ride out to Rasafa and Palmyra, then on to Damascus. I suffered from food poisoning the night before I was due to leave. I got myself in the car hoping not to be sick and somehow made it through the whole day without a drama.

Rasafa is a fortified city from the 6^th century AD out in the eastern desert of Syria. It is surrounded by nearly 2 km of wall (with most still standing today) and is an impressive sight as we approached it in the car. I had been given instructions from Ken to track down the giant cisterns that are built deep into the earth here. There is an old staircase that leads down to the bottom. After some searching, I found a hole in the ground that did not look like something I wanted to go in to without a torch but I did and after a few nervous moments in the dark I felt my way down to the base of these giant rooms designed to hold water for the armies, horses and residents during a siege that may have lasted for months. At 58 metres long and 13 deep it was hard to believe it was built by hand over a thousand years ago. I felt like Indiana Jones walking out in to this amazing place. Light came in from the arched roof above and once through the stairwell it was well lit. The best thing of all was being the only one there. Walking among the ruins was great; the Basillica of Saint Sergius and the main entrance were very impressive. Although a lot of the interior has gone, there is still much to see. Walking along the walls of the city you could imagine how busy it may have once been.

Inside Saint Sergius

The main gates of Rasafa

Wild wheat, cumin and ancient ruins

2011-07-01T05:49:00.000-07:00

While at ICARDA I paid a visit to Dr Ken Street, he's better known to Aussies as the

“Seed Hunter”. Ken showed me through the massive seed bank they have at ICARDA which Ken busies himself trying to fill. He collects wild species of wheat and legumes and from this it is hoped to discover useful genes like salt tolerance. These new genes can then be used by crop breeders to enhance the performance of crops we grow today. It was cool to see the parent seeds of wheat; they looked nothing like what we grow today.

After a few days at ICARDA, Ken was kind enough to take me out and see some of the local ruins just north of Aleppo on the Turkish border. Amazing to see buildings, even small villages still standing after hundreds of years. The locals plant crops of olive trees and cereals right in amongst them. On the way out we stopped to look at cumin being planted. To get the tiny seeds to run out evenly it is mixed with urea. Cumin is commonly use in curry mixes and the smell wafting out of their seeders was great.

Out and about in Syria

2011-06-30T05:31:00.000-07:00

Traditional homes for the area

Flood irrigated faba beans

I had the pleasure of meeting farmers in the area and talking about their production systems. Irrigation bays are done very differently there with a criss cross pattern. It wouldn't suit a 30 foot front on my grain harvester but things are on a smaller scale and often what looks like strip farmingis in fact individual farms in long lines. Most fields are not fenced so it's hard to know where one starts and one ends. What about livestock I hear you ask? There is a herdsman with every flock and they watch over them all day. So well trained and used to moving about to graze along channels and roads, I witnessed a large herd of sheep crossing over a busy freeway overpass in orderly fashion. Wish I had taken a photo. The soil in the area is a wonderful red earth and is the birth place to some of our first wheat and chickpea crops. Faba beans, cucumbers, zucchinis, barley and chickpeas were all in and looked good. There were a few ominous signs of pending problems around Al Assad lake and talking to some locals they told me their ground water was rising. Around the lake salinity was starting to creep up into the little towns that sit on its fringe. I was taken out to see some waste water used in the area and though they should have run into salinity problems before this, they haven't. Dr Qadir suspected it was due to the organic matter that comes with the waste water. It's not the prettiest stuff to look at but we will have to find ways of using waste water in the future as our fresh water supplies dwindle. Most irrigators here pay US$60 for the waste water a year and US$70 for fresh. Water isn't metered so you can take as much as you want. The problem occurs if you are at the end of a channel and everyone upstream of you gets what they want before you get a go. This has caused some tension amongst irrigators as you could imagine.

Local farmers setting up a new drip irrigation system for cucumbers

A visit to ICARDA

2011-06-20T06:30:00.000-07:00

direct drilled lentils

I was in Aleppo to visit ICARDA (International Centre for Agriculture Research in Dry Areas) and pay a visit to Dr Manzoor Qadir who has some expertise in irrigation and salinity. He offered to show me around the area to see some saline water being used. In this case, some recycled water from the local treatment plant as well as some ground water use. Although Manzoor and I spoke at some length about saline irrigation, he got snowed under with commitments and he was unable to be my guide for our farm visits.
My first day was a look around ICARDA's 1000 ha property. As a model farm, it is quite something with trials of many descriptions going on. ICARDA's focus is getting more farmers practising conservation farming with the use of zero or minimal till. ICARDA encouraged local manufacturers to modify and eventually build a direct drill that would suit the area.

Syrian built minimum till seeder developed with the help of ICARDA and local engineers

Welcome to Syria

2011-06-12T07:29:00.000-07:00

Amad and I in Aleppo's souk

I arrived in Aleppo, Syria, late at night. The flight was not without drama as many of the passengers were in a big debate with the flight crew to change the flight schedule to land in Damascus first rather than Aleppo. We sat on the tarmac for what seemed for ever while the passengers who lived in Damascus debated the merit of dropping them off first rather than flying direct to Aleppo. It got a little heated at one stage and the stewardess showed great patience to get things under control. Though I didn't know it at the time, I was in for an amazing time in Syria.

A walk down the street proved to be one of many experiences of generosity that I found disarming and surprising. Through my travels, I've become used to being approached to buy things on the street but my first day had a twist to it. I met Amad, a Kurdish man who ended up teaching me German in Syria..... don't think I could have come up with that one if I tried. For Amad, English was his fourth language and he wanted the practice. After giving him 200 Syrian lbs for a shirt that was 12 US dollars (In Syria the local currency and the US dollar are often quoted, just remember to ask which one), he didn't blink an eyelid and bought it without question. I realised my mistake but he refused my offers and simply said welcome to Syria. It was a great day walking through the ancient and endless souk. I shared a taxi with another Syrian who I had figured out was going my way. He refused any attempt to pay the fare and, once again, that common catchcry of “welcome to Syria” came my way.

Dead Sea tomatoes and white knuckle rides.

2011-06-08T04:24:00.000-07:00

The day I flew out of Jordan and into Syria started with a white knuckled ride with Yahya, my driver. I didn't think about it too much at the time but a car sporting a wind foil taped to the back should have rung some bells on what was in store. The little car sure had some go. At 160km an hour on a road no wider than the car with camels flying past I had to ask if he could see his way clear to get me to the airport alive today. He replied “ok” and brought the car back to 140km....for a while. We travelled along the Jordan Israeli border headed for a swim in the Dead Sea and to check out some tomatoes growing around that area. Some tomatoes is an understatement, they were everywhere! The climite along the sea is quite mild and I even saw bananas growing right beside them on the flat. Yahya was pretty good to me as he played translator when we pulled up and walked in to see a few fields. Insect control for leaf miner moth was as simple as it was effective. Basins full of water with a little light suspended over it were strategically placed throughout the farm. The moths are drawn to the light, fall in and that's that for them! Simple but effective. The number of trucks stuffed with boxes of tomatoes on the road was amazing, all heading for export. They didn't seem to slow our progress though.

Insect control Jordan style

Not every day you see Tomatoes growing beside Bananas

A swim in the Dead Sea is quiet something. You can lay flat on your back and bob around like a cork. I even got covered is the black mud the area is famous for. It was a fun day and we made it to the airport with hours to spare.

A visit to Lawrence's house.

2011-06-02T04:16:00.000-07:00

Wadi Rum is the landscape that Lawrence of Arabia made famous. It is on a grand scale full of weathered rocks gouged out by centuries of sand blasting to form some truly beautiful patterns and textures. You just know you're not going to be able to capture it with a camera. It's such a massive area that you have to get a car or person in most shots just to get some sense of the scale of the place. A lunch of local tomatoes and some bread covered in thyme and sesame seeds made for a top day. Just like Petra the photos will say it all.

Wadi Rum is vast, the Landcruiser gives some sort of scale.

This is known as Lawrence's house, it's oppisite the Landcruiser.

Can you find the car in this one ?

End of a great day!

The harsh and beautiful land

2011-06-01T05:27:00.000-07:00

Farming in Jordan can be a tough game

We headed east toward the Iraq border; the landscape became stony and unforgiving. I'm never going to complain it's dry again. How people make a living from such a tough environment with as little as 50mm of rain a year is beyond me. I can see why livestock play a big roll out there, growing crops is out of the question without irrigation and even then it's saline ground water.

I was having trouble getting hold of my other contacts and so I cut my losses and headed south for Petra. I've always wanted to see it and the experience didn't let me down. I planned to go down to

Wadi Rum as well so I only had the day there. So, up early, I dropped into Karak and Shobak en route, both sites with Crusader castles. Sitting high upon a steep mountain their sheer faces would have presented a daunting task to any would be attacker. I'm amazed they still stand after more than eight hundred years. Petra was busy with people everywhere wanting to see the mighty buildings carved out of stone. It was a thrill to walk through the narrow chasm that opens out to reveal the Treasury building, one of the most famous buildings in the Petra Valley. I could rattle on and on about how great it was but I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. One tip if you go, stay late, bring a torch and walk out in the dark. I had the place virtually to myself after 5pm.

Alpha Beta Foods

2011-05-17T06:53:00.000-07:00

Later that morning Hussien took me to Alpha Beta Food Industries. They are using the waste water from their factory to grow crops. They process all sorts of things from tomatoes to faba beans. The beans are soaked and turned into a paste called Foule. It's the water they use to soak them that gets recycled. The water goes in fresh but, to my surprise, comes out at 3.8 to 4dsm. Recycling water is a problem because it tends to pick up salts as it goes so using it is has its drawbacks. Alpha usually runs 30,000 tons of tomatoes through their factory and will probably use the water from that process as well to irrigate crops.

Cactus - a weed for some, a forage for others.

2011-05-17T06:39:00.000-07:00

Jordan also has a focus on forage crops and the trial site sets out to encourage farmers to adopt this direction and move away from vegetable and olive trees. Jordan imports 80% of its forage requirement, so there's a big demand on feed for them. With soil salinity going as high as 17dsm in the first metre, I could see the importance of the trial site.

Cactus is an interesting one. Known more for being a weed throughout northern Australia it was quite happily growing in the cooler climate of Northern Jordan. Capable of producing a staggering 200 green tons/ha. It is a very fleshy plant so it's dry matter production is quite low. There are 84 farms around Khaleia where the trial block is that are involved with the selection of future varieties. It's a great idea to get farmers involved giving them a sense of ownership.

Jordan

2011-05-02T07:18:00.000-07:00

Medicargo arborta

Hyola 61 was doing very well in this salt tolerance trial

I flew to Amman as I had an appointment with Hussein Mustafa who is part of the National Centre for Agriculture Research & Extension (NCARE). They have a trial site that has connections to ICBA (where I visited in Dubai). Of interest were some cacti, grazing oats, canola, buffel grass and a relative to lucerne, Medicargo arborta, a native of Tunisia.

The Medicargo is a shrub that has the same feed value as lucerne and produces around 5t/ha of dry matter. It was growing in 15dsm soil salinity so the thing is tough. In their trial was a variety of canola that was once available in Australia, Hyola 61. It was doing quite well in some very saline soils and outperformed all other varieties I saw. It just goes to show there are varieties out there that are quite salt tolerant.

I don't know where I'm going but the car does

2011-04-17T06:10:00.000-07:00

Brian Warshay and I at Masdar city check out those solar panels

I didn't know where to go but the electric cars did

After my visit to the falcon hospital, I dropped into the very futuristic Masdar City. I was there to find out a little more about a sea water farming project that Boeing and Masdar are working on. The long term goal is to grow salicornia (a very salt tolerant plant) for oil as a biofuel. Masdar are all about having as little or no environmental impact in everything they do. An example of that is the remote electric cars that comes down to the underground car park to pick you up. Just push a button and the little cars that are lined up to greet you whisk you away. It was a little unnerving being driven around in a car that drives itself around without a single steering wheel in sight. Upon arrival, there are live data displays of emissions coming out of Masdar. The name Masdar City is one that will apply in the future but for now, in reality, it is a campus for students. Every building there is futuristic and energy conscious. From massive solar panels that adorn the roofs to the double skinned wall full of compressed air to maximise insulation while minimising weight; all work toward energy savings. In fact, the building was putting more energy out than it required in. The sea water farming project that Masdar Institute were working on is only in it's infancy so there wasn't a whole lot to see. With Boeing and Honeywell UOP backing though, I dare say it will mature into a very interesting experimental farm. Currently, a suitable site has not been found to incorporate a fish farm that will provide their fertiliser and income. The UAE was a great place to visit and I just might come back again.

Broken birds and beautiful buildings

2011-04-12T05:11:00.000-07:00

On my return to Abu Dhabi, I made a visit to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, bit of an under statement really, a beautiful building capable of holding over 40,000 worshippers. I was struck by the detail of the tiled flowers that adorned every pillar and floor tile in this giant place of worship. I also paid a visit to the Abu Dhabi Falcon hospital which was an experience I would highly recommend to anyone, especially if you remotely find birds of prey interesting. Falcons are the only animal permitted to sit with passengers on a flight and all birds have there own passport. Falconry is very popular in the UAE. Some sheiks own up to 200 birds and all of them go through for a check up at the hospital. I watched as vets replaced broken feathers with new ones, treated wounds and damaged talons whilst the birds were under anaesthetic. Most birds were hybrids, usually a peregrine cross with a value of around $10,000 AUD depending on the bird. It was a great experience to get up close to these beautiful birds.

Camel tastes like mutton

2011-04-03T21:24:00.000-07:00

While in the Liwa Oasis I asked why they have the ground bare around the date palms I saw; minimising evaporation by putting mulch around them would surely be a good idea. I discovered there is a major pest to the date palms there. A giant grub as thick as your index finger just loves boring holes in palm trunks, so much so they will be cut down due to the appetite of these things. It has also developed resistance to many chemicals so treating them is problematic.

On the last night of my stay, I was very honoured to be invited to a local wedding. It was great, lots of music, dancing and food. The men are separated from the women, celebrating in totally different areas as is the custom. The bride and groom come together later in the course of the night. As the night drew to a close and I had my fill of camel meat (traditional served at wedding), it became obvious that there were people coming into the room not associated with the wedding. Wedding crashers is what they were, and food is what they were after. I stayed until a crowd had formed around us like vultures waiting for the lions to leave. When we did, a fight for the left overs ensued not unlike our fore mentioned feathered friends on a carcase in a scene from some wildlife documentary.

I was shocked until it was explained to me that it is tolerated so that the poor have something to eat and there is no waist of food after the wedding is over. It reminded me of some of the lessons I learnt in China, not everything is as it seems.

What a little moisture can do.

2011-03-29T03:26:00.000-07:00

How to apply urea the hard way

There are a lot of vegetables grown in the Liwa Grimace for a desert. The Abu Dhabi and Dubai government want to push more forage crops due to them importing almost all of their forage needs. Contradicting that, it is now illegal to grow Rhodes Grass and Alfalfa (lucerne) in the area. It was deemed to have too high a water requirement . This ties in with some of the work ICBA are doing looking for salt tolerant forage crops to be used throughout the UAE. I still struggle with the fact that forage crops could be considered more profitable than vegetables. A drive around the area proved to be an eye opening experience with lots of vegetables of all types growing happily and all irrigated with saline water. Everything is irrigated with drip systems sporting adjustable push on emitters. Capable of 1 to 100lt an hour they put out a lot of water. The problem is no one is calibrating them. This isn't good as far as efficiency goes but some over watering does help to prevent salt accumulation in the root zone. Their aquifer is enclosed with little to no recharge....a one way street really.

The Liwa Grimace

2011-03-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

I set out for Abu Dhabi to meet up with Rob Cauldwell from the Farmers' Services Centre. The Centre is a new project that the Abu Dhabi government have put in place to improve agriculture in the area. Rob and I went from Abu Dhabi down to Madiraa in the Liwa Oasis (also known as the Liwa Grimace - named for its appearance, looking like a down-turned mouth or grimace on a map).

Mohamed, Spoons and Veggie gardens

2011-03-22T06:49:00.000-07:00

A visit to Ibrahim's brother, Mohamed, was a highlight. We ate in Bedouin style, sitting on the floor at a low set table eating with our hands. I was encouraged to use my spoon after a while, no doubt due to my hopeless attempts to mimic my hosts. It turns out eating with your hand with some sort of refinement takes some practise.

Mohamed's garden growing with 5dSm water

Mohamed has some problems with saline water. 25 years ago, his water was 60 metres down; now it's over 300. He has lost a lot of mango trees that once covered his farm. There is an extensive vegetable garden and all manner of livestock. With ground water at a salinity level of 3000ppm tds (4.6dsm) I was surprised to see his veggies looking as good as they were. Making compost out of livestock manure is common here and I feel it's helping his veggies cope with the salt. I spoke with Dr Rao about this and he pointed out that most farmers have kept their own seed for years and have most likely built up a salt tolerance through natural selection.

Here is another amazing thing I learnt while out with Ibrahim, no one pays for water out here. At least not in the places I have been. This has lead to over watering. Land is also gifted and many land owners do not have anything to do with their land except receive payments from the UAE government to own it. There is talk of this changing in the future.

I'm very thankful to everyone at ICBA for making my time there a memorable and successful one.

Dibba experiment station

2011-03-20T07:42:00.000-07:00

Visiting the Dibba experiment station to see some trial work being done with thornless cactus for the first time.....I was surprised. I was expecting to see more cacti. In fact, it was the only time I saw a field of cacti throughout the entire time I was in the UAE.

The station runs many trials of local and imported crops.

We covered some country that day travelling to Masafi, Dhaid and Diba Al Hisn. It is a hard and unforgiving land with little to no water. The water they do have is all saline in one form or another. 100 millimetres of rain a year is as good as it gets. I don't think I'm going to complain about a lack of rain ever again.

Dates, Dishdash and Cowboy hats

2011-03-18T23:22:00.000-07:00

Ibrahim and some locals

During my time at ICBA, I was taken out to some of the farms and research stations in the area.

My guide for the day was the charismatic Ibrahim Ahmad Bin Taher. We would have been a site to see with Ibrahim, in a typical shumagg and dishdash that most Emirates men wear and me in my cowboy hat, pulling up at a roadside merchant in a car with UN number plates asking to buy some of the local dates. I bet there was some discussion after we left.

I learnt that there is no large scale farming here and most farms are only a couple of hectares at best. Some of the soil I saw had some stone in it but the majority was sandy.

Super Legumes

2011-03-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

Sespania sespan only 15months old

I was surprised to see asparagus growing quite happily out on these sandy soils. I've always associated asparagus with cool weather and premium soils. There are a lot of different species of asparagus and some of those can handle hot and salty conditions.

Cow peas (also known as black eyed peas) looked very good to me. Well adapted to sandy soils with good drought tolerance and the ability to fix nitrogen really got my interest.

The amazing Sespania sespan was the most amazing legume I have ever seen. Its height dwarfed me and then some, which isn't a big deal until I was told it was only 15months old. The thing looked like it had been growing there for years.It will handle some salinity and can be grazed.

Salty Sorghum

2011-03-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

Salt tolerant Sorghum

I have spent several days at ICBA learning a thing or two about the wide variety of crops that can be grown with saline water. Some are already available in Australia. Triticale was one such plant. I saw lots of varieties being trialled, all of which looked very good and showed no signs of salt damage even after 15 dsm water was applied to them. I was told that Cracker Jack (a Heritage Seeds line from Australia) was doing well. There was a very large sorghum trial there. Starting out as a mini core of 35,000 accessions it has been whittled down to 40 and these will be evaluated for their tolerance as well as other agronomic traits. It was interesting to see such variability in one species as the salinity of the irrigation water applied increased. There were some very good results and the future use of sorghum in a saline environment looked good.

2011-03-06T02:43:00.000-08:00

Dr Rao and some very salt tolerant tomatoes

All this sight seeing isn't why I'm here. I'm looking for some answers to using saline water as a viable alternative to fresh water. The International Centre for Biosaline Research (ICBA) in Dubai was the place I'd always intended to visit right from day one. With support from the Islamic Development Bank and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government, ICBA did indeed lived up to my expectations. I'm here to meet Dr Rao who is a Plants Genetics Scientist. He has been working on plant and variety selection for salt tolerance at ICBA for 4 years. I was very excited when we walked into one of ICBA's trial sheds to be greeted by a large tomato salinity trial. Salinity trials for vegetables isn't that common as many people believe vegetables cannot be grown with saline water. This isn't the case as Dr Rao had his trial going with water as high as 20dsm (half seawater) with some good potential. Although the tomatoes are not the only vegetable he plans to trial, it stood out to me that, for a vegetable that is classed as a moderately tolerant species, the tomato has shown the potential for very high levels of salt tolerance. There is plenty of genetic variation out there without modification, coming up with open pollinated varieties that can withstand some very salty water and soil conditions. When I told the researchers there that I was using water that was 4.2dsm they simply smiled and told me anything under 4dsm is considered fresh water here. Talk about bringing a bloke back to earth, it really brings home the fact that most untreated water in the area is highly saline and dealing with it is an every day thing.

Gold, gold, gold and gold

2011-02-21T21:56:00.000-08:00

A walk through the Souks of Dubai is a lot of fun if you are prepared to stop and talk to everyone who asks you to buy what they are selling. As a bald white guy I stand out like the proverbial.....so I have received my fair share of attention. I have learnt that for most of the traders here it's a game of sorts, a true form of negotiation and trade. I'm not good at it and they may have a laugh at my expense after I leave but good humour goes a long way here. A lot of the time they want to know who you are and where you come from as frankly as that, in return I have asked how business has been and how is trade tonight, with all that done you are free to go. I have been told by one local Arab it is tradition in a meeting to ask “how is every one there” meaning your family and homeland. It's a reflection on their culture and attitude in negotiations and the importance of relationships within that.

Another adventure begins, this time the Middle East

2011-02-18T11:17:00.000-08:00

I'm always amazed by overseas travel, not that I like to be stuck on a plane in cattle class for more than ten hours mind you. My flight from Brisbane to Dubai via Singapore was well over my ten hour limit but it really is amazing to step off the plane into a new country. The sights, sounds and sometimes smells can be so different you realise all the reading or preconceived ideas you may have had are swept away in no time at all.

It was with some trepidation, I have to admit, that I took this trip to the Middle East. I was unsure of the reception a western man might receive in the Middle East, although it is early days, looking back I'm not sure why I had these fears. The people of Dubai have been very welcoming.

Dubai is a modern city full of beautifully designed buildings. The pace at which Dubai has developed in the last decade is amazing. Up until 2009 25% of the worlds supply of cranes resided in Dubai, although the locals tell me things have slowed down with the down turn in the economy. However, most buildings I have seen still sport a crane or two. Detailed designs both on the building that fill the city and the gold, silver and silk that fill the stores are all over. Narrow streets and ally ways lead to spices and perfumes, jewellery and gems. The home of the Souk - the traditional market place.

Philippines the last stop of our GFP tour

2011-02-18T11:03:00.000-08:00

IRRI's rice trials

Our arrival into the Philippines and drive to IRRI, the International Rice Research Institute where we stayed for a few days, occurred only twenty-four hours after a cyclone had passed through the area. I wondered what we were in for as we drove through the middle of the night passing check points with guards armed with machine guns.

The morning revealed a beautiful tropical landscape. There were signs of storm damage as we made our way down to IRRI's main base. Many Nuffield Scholars have visited the institute over the years as part of their global focus tour. With a great set up for researchers and visitors alike, it's no wonder. Hundreds of small trial plots of green crop framed by mountains rising up in the distance greeted us on our first day making a great first impression. IRRI was established in the sixties for the benefit of growers and researchers and remains steadfast in its commitment. Their seed bank of rice from around the world was extensive. Hundreds of varieties existed and we were informed the collection was far from complete.

I noted as we went through the institute there were new varieties being developed to tolerate submergence for several days. This is a major problem in many countries that are hit by flooding due to storm events. It turns out that rice doesn't like swimming, at least not in the deep end. Like many crops they like to keep their head above water. Concurrently, there are varieties also being developed for drought tolerance to lessen the amount of water required to grow a crop. It takes 500 litres to produce a bowl of rice so in a world forecast to be drier the race is on to get more from less.

More from less could be the one thing that all the countries I visited have in common. As farmers we are not dissimilar to each other. It is only the way we deal with the problems of production that set us apart. My Nuffield global focus tour has proven to me the value in seeing how things are done differently to your own business and having access to people that can show you some of the best practise and innovation in their field opens your eyes to greater possibilities for yourself and your industry. I consider myself very fortunate to be given such an opportunity and I thank Nuffield Australia and my sponsors, Horticulture Australia and the Australian Processing Tomato Growers for what is a once in a lifetime experience.

2011-02-16T10:15:00.000-08:00

Farmed eels

A visit to a local eel farm prompted some questions from Ben Tyley (our Nuffield craw fisherman) about sustainability after finding out that all of their eel stock are caught as wild young in the local rivers. It is not understood how they breed and little, if any, of their life cycle. The company release some of their mature stock back into the wild to try to avoid depleting their numbers. Over eighty percent of there market goes to Japan.

As our time was drawing to a close, we moved down to Shenzhen. We met with Wallace Chang of CBH who showed us through a malt house where I learnt that a lot of Chinese beer may have up to thirty percent rice added to the malt process to suit their markets. Beer is a popular drink in China (as it is almost anywhere else) and despite my initial apprehension, we all enjoyed the various beers we tried during our time in China.

There was a lot going on in Shenzhen with shipping coming in and out of the harbour with all manner of product. A visit to Shenzhen Southseas Grains Industries Ltd at their port side mill was a case in point, with the capacity to mill 800 tonnes a day and a feed mill capacity of 400 tonnes per day. You can imagine the number of shipping containers with grain coming in from around the world to be processed. ASW type wheat made up the bulk of the mills grain consumption turning this into various forms of flour for breads. We were informed they were looking to expand their mill further which is good news for Aussie wheat as AWB are investors in this mill.

My time in China was very interesting and although my understanding of this culture is very small it's a lot bigger than when I started.

A trip to Taishan

2011-02-16T10:09:00.000-08:00

A visit to Sarite Li's family farm was a great day

Driving around in China it was not uncommon to see vegetables being grown on what could best be described as the nature strip. The Chinese love fresh food. With very little to no refrigeration food has to be prepared and eaten relatively quickly. You can order fish or chicken in a market and see the animal killed, prepared and cooked all in a matter of minutes. If you like scorpions you can get them still alive impaled on a skewer ready to cook - you don't get fresher than that! The food we ate in China from north to south was great; all sorts of things prepared in all sorts of ways. Markets proved to be fascinating with some of the most diverse produce observed on the trip. A walk through the Taishan wet markets was an eye opener with everything from pigs to fish and frogs to snakes for sale. There were many types of vegetables, nuts and fruit in any market we went to, some produce familiar, some not. A lot of melons are grown and used in cooking there but one of the most common vegetables used was eggplant. It was in a large proportion of everything we ate, prepared in all manner of ways and was beautiful to eat every time. It was nice to see tomatoes featuring on more than one occasion in some of the dishes as well.

Taishan wet market

Flying south from Hoh Hot to Taishan, we found ourselves in a totally different world of a lush green tropical environment with many rice fields. Taishan claims to be the home of the overseas Chinese. In the late eighties, seventy percent of Chinese Americans claimed ancestry to Taishan.

We were honoured to visit Sarite Li's family farm and village and see what rural life in this area is like. Sarite's father grows vegetables and melons for market. We learnt that most farms are only around one fifteenth of a hectare. No one owns land there and every 5 years farmers have to surrender their plots and are allocated new land through a ballot system. Rice plays a big part in farming there and it is common to see rice drying on the road, sometimes spread over half of it. Rain is common so drying a crop is problematic. The rice is gathered up at the end of every day. Until 2003, all farms paid a rice tax in rice. Now farmers are not forced to grow rice, opening up opportunities for them to grow other things to make an income.

A walk through some rice fields up to a local fish farm and piggery was an eye opening experience. Open effluent running into ponds full of fish had me questioning if I should order fish again for dinner but the fish seemed to be enjoying eating the stuff. I saw a lot of peanuts being stripped and laid out to dry there as well. We noticed a lot of very small rice harvesters (no longer than four metres) being moved around, tiny machines on tracks that most of the grain growers in the group found very interesting. Though I will not be rushing out to buy one, it was a good reflection of the scale of farming in the Taishan area.

Milking China

2011-02-10T22:16:00.000-08:00

Angus had us in Hoh Hot to see the centre of milk production in China. It turned out to be the centre geographically so it was where most of the milk processing plants are located. Fresh milk is not common in China with UHT being the mainstay of production.

After the melamine scandal, China's milk industry will take decades to recover, although the current government seems committed to elevating milk consumption. It would be unfair to make too many assumptions with the limited number of dairies I visited in the area, however, I was not struck by the viability of its herds. One company had a bounty, of sorts, on heifers offering to pay high prices over a three year term with interest in order to get their herd numbers up. We were shown before and after photos of these animals with an obvious improvement in their condition once they came under their care. There was no open grazing there. Instead, it is mainly a feedlot set up with a lot of corn grown in and around these dairies. Ed Cox (one of our Nuffield dairy farmers) was excited to see a line up of a dozen Claas silage harvesters owned by one dairy company. They manage the harvest of their silage, contracting out the growing of it to local farmers. One dairy we visited was all but abandoned after a foot and mouth outbreak.

Hoh Hot city

2011-02-08T12:07:00.000-08:00

Half of the total production of poultry and pigs on earth are in China, almost all of them coming from small family farms. Conti Asia have found some success in supplying premixed livestock feeds to this giant market. There is very little bulk handling in China so the company move stock by hand in bags everywhere. I witnessed shipping containers of corn meal in Shenzing being shovelled out and bagged by hand. Every truck I saw carrying freight of one type or another in China was loaded to the the point of breaking. If it's a ten ton truck you can bet on it having a twenty ton load; one way to cut down on those food miles I guess.

This will not change for a long time to come. I was surprised to hear a lot of large western businesses come to China and introduce their systems of handling only to fail such as in the feed market where some companies tried to move large volumes of product only to find they are selling to farmers who may have only a half dozen pigs and simply cannot afford to buy a bag of feed let alone bulk. Most feed outlets sell by the cup.

Potatoes on drip in china

After some sightseeing in Beijing (the Great Wall was a stand out), we caught a flight out to Hoh Hot city to see a little of Inner Mongolia. Construction was everywhere we went in China but in Hoh Hot and the drive out to the research site at Si Zi Wang it was off the chart. From road construction to wind turbines it was happening. It was interesting to see honey being sold on the side of the road on more than one occasion and Ben Hooper (our Nuffield apiarist) was busting to get out and sample some of the local product. It was a hot, dry and barren landscape with failing wheat crops the norm. I was stunned to see potatoes being grown with a drip system out there. There was no one to talk to about it. On inspection they had the tape above ground with a clear film of plastic covering the beds holding the tape in place and providing some weed control. The tape was fed by above ground soft sub mains. I can only guess groundwater was the main source of irrigation for the crop as a channel to provide water was nowhere to be seen.

Out at the research station we were shown some trials of dryland pasture. The aim is to extend the grazing there and help farmers with their production.

We hit the Wall

2011-01-31T00:46:00.000-08:00

Landing in Beijing, China, was a stark contrast to Texas. Our guide and interpreter, Angus Christian, met us at the airport and helped us to our motel for an eagerly anticipated tour. It would be fair to say China is busy, no matter what city we were in there was a lot going on. Street life here is no different in tempo to any city around the world, it's the culture of it's people that makes the place so interesting. A lot of businesses will have one of the 9 sons of the dragon guarding the entrance to it, protecting it from harm. Wishes above the doors of homes on red cards are common as red is an important colour for the Chinese. Red is believed to be a colour of wealth and good luck and it appears on almost everything.

Angus had meetings set up for us throughout our stay. He had arranged two interpreters to be with him to help us in our communications. Both interpreters had English sounding names, Tears and Sarite. I learnt that these names were not their true names and that a lot of Chinese pick an English name for themselves while learning English at school, which they use for most of their working life.

A meeting with Conti Asia was a very interesting meeting and Nick Rosa took us through some of the fascinating aspects of doing business in China. Many large businesses have come to China and not found success as expected. McDonald's and KFC are interesting examples of this. KFC are the most successful large foreign owned fast food outlet in China, McDonalds are not. Why? The Chinese hold the elderly in high regard and the Colonel fits that bill nicely, a clown as a mascot does not. Red is the most predominate colour scheme for KFC and they are cooking a food item they are very familiar with. It is not a place the Chinese go for a cheap meal as they can get that anywhere on the street. There is some status in being able to afford to eat there. Quite different to Australia. It shows that even something as familiar as these two businesses are not what they may appear in China.

I love Texas

2011-01-24T10:26:00.000-08:00

Texas - the most organised and generous trip we experienced during the duration of our tour. We landed in Amarillo inside the Texas pan handle and were met by Don Gohmert and Deanna Littlefield from NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service). With a full sized coach waiting, a large sign in the foyer welcoming us and gifts including a leather bag and diary, I was taken aback by the generosity shown to us. It remained this way everywhere we went. As hosts, the Texans take a lot of beating. The media followed us for a large part of our trip and made the evening news with various interviews. Like Alberta, most nights finished with a meal at a local farm or business.

The farmers in the Texas pan handle face the same pressures as farmers in Australia; water, or the lack of it. Groundwater is the main supply of water in the pan handle so irrigators rely heavily on it. This will prove problematic in the long term as the aquifer they draw from has a very slow recharge. It's worthy of note that their pumps are not metered. There were also quite a few gas driven pump sites abandoned due to aquifers drying up.

A visit to Greg Methvin's property, who was growing cotton and maize in rotation on a buried drip system in light soils, was just what I'd hoped for. Fifty percent of the cost of the system was financed by NRCS. Finding efficient water systems for farmers in the Texas pan handle is high on NRCS' agenda.

Farming practices vary greatly from country to country and even state to state and Methvin farm was no exception. One case in point was the use of deep corrugations in a raised bed layout. These were about thirty centimetres long along the entire length of a furrow, excluding the furrows that take the most traffic. Greg told us they were put there to do the dual roll of stopping water running down the furrow and eroding the sandy soil out in the event of heavy rain and catching as much water as possible allowing it time to infiltrate through the profile evenly across the field rather than running to the lowest point in the field. A simple yet effective idea on light soils. The other practice I found interesting was the use of Sand Fighters (a cultivator) to work up sandy soil before strong winds were forecast. I found this somewhat puzzling as you would think this would have a devastating effect on a crop in sandy soils with high winds. Apparently, if it isn't done the wind will do more damage. Just one of those little idiosyncrasies in agriculture that I have come across travelling around the world. Texas is a windy state and the pan handle is no exception. This is why it has the greatest number of wind generators in America.

That little red thing is a train !

Everything is big in Texas, at least that's what they say. At High Plains Dairy this was true. Harry De Witt owns and operates a ten thousand head dairy herd with four and a half thousand milking cows going through a seventy-five head rotary dairy. With ten acres of air conditioned shed, it was a very large and clever set up. Harry has used his well travelled experience from working in dairies in Holland to Canada to create a very efficient large scale dairy. The shed is laid out on an inward two percent slope meeting in the middle and draining across a sand trap tapering away from the milking parlour. The slope of the shed allows water to flush down the bedding lane way, cleaning the manure and bedding sand away as it flows down hill. He has created a very simple effluent system that recycles the sand lost out of the cows bedding stalls. It falls out of suspension as the manure is flushed out to settling ponds and is collected in the trap by a bobcat periodically. It is cleaned and spread out to let the hot Texas sun, given time, sterilise it for reuse.

I loved the sign painted on the side of his shed in giant letters “Farmers feed the world”.

The Nuffield GFP allowed me to see a lot of different farm set ups, although a few too many dairies for a tomato grower to take. The High Plains Dairy, however, remains the most impressive dairy I had the opportunity to see throughout my entire tour.

6666 ranch drafting

The highlight of the Texas leg of the trip for me was lunch at the 6666 ranch dining out of a chuck wagon set on the side of a hill overlooking some of the ranch's vast landscape. Under a large canvas marquee there were smiles all round as we watched the rain tumble down and enjoyed some of the best cooked beef and vegetables I ate on the trip - campfire meals just have that “something”. With a heritage going back over a hundred years, this famous ranch has retained it's historic past without becoming a tourist attraction and has remained a true working farm. 6666 is a place where a true cowboy can still be found. A man's horse is his own and no other rider will use it. Everything to do with their cattle is still done on horse back and the ranch has a well respected blood line of Angus cattle that Joe Leathers, the Ranch Manager, has worked hard at achieving. 6666 ranch also have a blood line of quarter horses that is widely respected and well known. The equine centre based on the property was very impressive and reflects their commitment to the welfare of their horses and heritage. A long list of applicants waiting to get the opportunity to work at the 6666 ranch exists with good reason as the staff are well looked after with a local store house providing most of what a cowboy may need. Housing is also provided.

We covered a lot of country and farming businesses during our stay including ethanol plants, wind powered cotton gins, large scale feed lots, cotton under pivots, visits to the quarter horse museum and historic Fort Worth saleyards. It was a great experience and a message to come out of this leg of the trip would be that we share very common problems with the Texans in the pan handle and most of them are centred around water and making it go further.

Alberta 2010 I can see for miles

2011-01-23T12:44:00.000-08:00

After DC, we flew into Alberta, Canada, where we were warmly greeted by Steve Larocque (Beyond Agronomy) and Karen Daynard, both fellow Scholars. Steve had organised this leg of our tour and I was looking forward to it.

Alberta is a land full of rolling hills of crop after crop devoid of any tree of consequence. A population of pick ups on steroids that the US would envy was the norm.

Once again, the talk of too much rain was on the agenda. So much so that wheat planting had been delayed and in some cases abandoned leading up to our arrival. Yellowing of flooded crop was apparent and common (which is uncommon for the area).

A highlight of the trip for me was a farm stay with John Mills, a young farmer who's approach to farming was as interesting as it was innovative. His approach to running his business (Eagle Creek Farms) is diverse, with a “U pick” (you pick the produce yourself) garden, a seasonal maize and sunflower maze that would be best described as agritourism and Seed Potato business. John is also selling the shares in a “season” and whatever is produced in it. He drops off the produce to all his shareholders at a predetermined sight. A little different to just waiting until harvest and taking a price.

A visit and lunch with Ben Wooley of Sunterra was also noteworthy. This is a farm business that has become vertically integrated and is now taking market share from the large supermarket chains. With a base in livestock production focused on beef, sheep and pigs this business butchers and then markets its own product in it's 9, soon to be 10, retail outlets. Their strength lies not in cheap produce, but in the stores themselves. Just walking in to one will fill your senses with the aroma of food being cooked and prepared. Glass cabinets full of inviting treats from cheese to coffee scrolls fill the store. Chefs preparing and cooking food in clear view, willing to give advice freely to the customer all add to their stores appeal. I would best describe it as a hybrid supermarket. You can sit down for a meal or shop for the ingredients that make up that meal.

Manson farm was also an interesting visit with cows worth over a million dollars in their possession. The blood stock of milking cows was not unlike race horses in their ownership. I was surprised at the fact that some were syndicated and worth larger sums of money than I ever thought. We were all amazed when they escorted out the largest cow I have ever seen in my life. Standing one and a half metres at the shoulder she dwarfed every other Holstein I saw on our entire trip.

Steve did a great job on this leg of our trip and I have only covered a small fraction of what he showed us. His knowledge and contacts proved to be varied and valuable. Our time went all too quickly in Alberta.

Back in DC

2011-01-23T12:30:00.000-08:00

Washington DC was another world on our return.

Gone were the odd pieces of snow that dotted the landscape three months earlier; in it's place a hot and humid environment greeted us as we stepped out the door to catch yet another taxi.

The group enjoyed a day of rest before heading up to Capital Hill for a series of meetings with various staff members and lobbyists involved with agripolitics. It made for some very frank and sometimes direct questions about imports and exports, tariffs and subsidies.

My view of agriculture is changing and I'm starting to question why developed countries base most of their focus toward production at the cost of nutrition and ultimately our value in the market place. It goes against the principle of business, to devalue your product by over supply. The more I hear we have to feed the world, the more I question why it is that our markets fluctuate so much if food is in such demand. There are more than just farmers who have a stake in food production and it's cost. Those who have their interest in the status quo of cheap food far outweigh those who do not. After being told by the Assistant U.S Trade Representative for Agricultural Affairs that there are many farmers out there who farm at any cost simply because they love it, struck me as some what true. Most of us (farmers) feel a sense of honour in feeding families. While the cold reality of the almighty dollar drives us to be more efficient at using up our resources at the cost of sustainability, it is somewhat ironic that if a larger number of farmers didn't care as much as they do about their production, the cost of living would rise dramatically.

June 2010 Nuffields GFP

2011-01-21T23:22:00.000-08:00

My “Global Focus Group” left Australia on the 6^th of June 2010. A GFP is a six week global odyssey around the world looking at agriculture in all its forms. Nuffield Australia make it part of their Scholarship to promote contacts and a better understanding of world agriculture.

The group I was in had a good mix of ag. industries from bee keeping and wild catch crayfishing to your stock standard cropping and livestock businesses. Not forgetting myself in the horticulture category.

We had two New Zealanders in our group, Paul McGill and Desiree Reid, with the balance consisting of six Aussies; Ed Cox, Helen Thomas, Ben Tyley, Ben Hooper, Alan Redfern and myself.

The flight to London via Sydney from Canberra was without drama, albeit a long one.

We lodged at the Farmers Club which is right in the heart of London, a short distance from Trafalgar square. Nuffield has its perks.

It wasn't long before we met up with some of the UK Scholars and together we set out for France to tour the Western Front and attended the service at Menin Gate in Ypres where the names of the lost and fallen line the walls. Every night, traffic is stopped so the service can be held. It is of some significance that the names of Australian soldiers fill these walls and the original lions that once adorned the gate now stand at the entrance to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

A little R&R for the group

We made our way to Brussels for briefings on the EU for a better understanding of their farming subsidies and structure. Our speaker from Ireland really drilled us with some very frank discussions claiming most of the people running the EU are morons!

After Brussels, we returned to England by train. That thing can really move - it was great.

The stay with James Peck (Nuffield UK 2010 Scholar) on his farm was excellent. James runs a cropping and haulage business and manages a grain warehouse on farm.

The UK scholars set out our agenda for the week with trips to Cereals (a large field day) and Rothamsted Research (oldest long term wheat trial in the world, over 160 years).

Farm visits to Jo Paterson's (Nuffield UK 2010 Scholar) and James Peck's were very good value and I enjoyed talking to them about their businesses and the whole thing ended sooner than we would have all liked.

We had a busy time with something on every day. Ireland was no exception and the five 2010 Irish Nuffield Scholars worked hard at maintaining that as soon as we touched down in Dublin.

Ireland's beautiful country side

I now understand why it is called the Emerald Isle. Green, green, green. The farmers here complain about too much rain. If only they could export the stuff. How different their world is to mine.

Brewing, distilling, potatoes and dairy play a big part in this country. Most cereal crops I saw looked great and if they continue to have the great weather we had on our stay they should finish well.

Potato crops looked good and I discovered the Irish prefer a waxy potato over what I would describe as a common potato that we in Australia are familiar with. Rooster was the most commonly grown variety; preferred by the consumer and grower alike. Eating fresh carrots straight out of the ground at O'Shea's farm was as fresh as it gets.

A balloon ride over Kilkenny was a highlight. From the air it was beautiful. We landed in a farmer's field and he and his family got a kick out of having a group of farmers from Australia and New Zealand drop in on them.

Sadly our week in Ireland ended with the scholars - a plane to Washington, DC awaited.

March 2010 The Nuffield journey continues

2011-01-16T05:47:00.000-08:00

Like some salt with those Onions

With over 3000 miles (4828 Km ) of canals and drains, delivering 3.1 million acre/feet (3.8 million/mega litres) it is no wonder that the Imperial valley is the largest irrigation district in the United States. There is a great mix of farming practices there dealing with salinity . It is quite striking to see salt white on the ground beside healthy crops. In fact, without irrigation the land will gradually form a salt crust.
Dean Currie and Khaled Bali looked after me down there and I was given the opportunity to meet several growers in the area.
Spreckels Sugar Mill was very interesting. The factory processes sugar beet and are the only ones in California remaining viable to do so. Ron Tharp is the Ag. Manager there and showed me some of the land they are trying to recover. He has 2 million tons of "Beet Lime" that he is hoping to find a home for. "Beet Lime" is what is left after they use lime in the process for extracting sugar from the beet pulp. He is trying to prove that adding "Beet Lime" to their salt effected land will not raise the Ph any further. Soil Ph in the area is quite high. With 13% organic matter in the "Beet Lime", I would love that stuff on my acidic soils.
On the side of the factory silos half way up, there is a line marking sea level. A reminder that the whole area was once under water and the salinity they have there is indigenous and not imported.
I took the drive past the Salton Sea, this is where all of the drainage water from the Imperial valley ends up and is very controversial is the salinity there is basically sea water. It is one of the largest bodies of water by surface area in the US. I continued to Palm Springs and through to Yucca Valley making my way to Barstow. I've never seen so many wind generators in one place, all squeezed into the valley. It was an amazing sight.
From Barstow, I went past Edward Air Force Base (not that you can see anything it's all hidden from the road) and the grave yard for aeroplanes in the Mojave dessert. It's something to see all sorts of passenger planes parked in one spot mothballed, awaiting there fate. I made the climb out of Mojave and over to Bakersfield where I had arranged to stay with Blake Sanden. Blake is the Farm Advisor for Kern County and was instrumental in getting Pistachios established in the area after seeing them growing in salt effected land in Syria. His trial work irrigating them with 5 d/sm water and also working with composts containing human waste on lucerne proved very interesting. Blake's knowledge on all things salty was outstanding and he is a credit to the farmers in his area.
After Bakersfield, I moved north to Fresno where I met with Sharon Benes (Soil science), Jeff Mitchell (Cropping Systems Specialist), John Diener (Red Rock Ranch) and Chaim Schneider. Chaim was installing a wireless irrigation controller for Worth Farms which operates 8000ac. Chaim was responsible for the development of automated irrigation when he worked for Motorola over 30 years ago. Chuck Herrins Jr is a partner in the operation of Worth Farms and told me they will have 100% drip with full automation on their farm by the end of 2010. Tomatoes and chick peas on beds were the bulk of the crop rotation I saw.
As I drove around the area, it stood out how many new drip systems are going in all throughout the region. The local water district providers are covering 25% of the cost of a new system. San Juan Ranch near Firebaugh, managed by Daniel Burns, was doing the same thing. Their contract for processing tomatoes this year is 250,000 ton, nearly the total Australian crop!
As I headed North to Stockton I spent an enjoyable day with Chuck Rivara (Tomato Research Institute) looking at some bed forming equipment made by Wilcox. Wilcox is not unfamiliar with Aussie Tomato growers, Dennis Moon (Nuffield scholar) imported one some time ago. It allows you to bed form into almost any soil and trash with one pass.

Off set planting with salt wicking to the right

I moved up to Woodland next. I had made contact with Derek Chamberlain to take me through the Morning Star tomato processing plant at William. This is the world's largest tomato processing plant and churned out 1.26 million short ton of paste. The plant will consume 617 ton of tomatoes an hour with an average of 14,000 ton a day. It would be quite something to see in operation and I'd love to see it working in season.
From Woodland, I took the drive down to the very pretty town of Davis. I had a meeting with Steven Grattan, my last contact for the trip. I was keen to meet Steve as he and Blaine Hanson helped me out with a list of who's who in California salinity. I have found all my contacts to be very forth coming in their knowledge, helpful and generous with their time and some have become good friends.

Napa Valley

On the road again from Davis, I made my way to Napa. Beautiful is a good word for this valley. World famous for it's wines it was another interesting form of agriculture. Most wines have to contain over 80% Napa Valley grapes to qualify as a "Napa Valley Wine". The road from Napa north to Yountville and Saint Helena is wall to wall Winery outlets with most owning small parcels of land right on the main road with the bulk of their crop production located elsewhere in the valley.
After Napa, I travelled along the winding roads of the west coast to San Francisco where I will fly out of the country.
It has been a great learning experience for me on many levels. I'm beginning to understand some of the 2009 scholars who claim the Nuffield experience is a life changing one.

March 2010 The Nuffield journey begins

2011-01-10T06:15:00.000-08:00

The 2010 Nuffield tour group

The trip started out at Washington, DC, where we met all the 2010 scholars from around the world.
It was great to meet farmers from other countries and spend time with them learning about their industries.
Nuffield had a great line up of things to see and do as we travelled to Gettysburg and Pennsylvania. Seeing advanced farming systems and the people who run them was informative and insightful. Mason Dixon farms was a great example of innovation driving a family farm forward.

Our trip to Gettysburg battle field was really enjoyable. Our guide, retired military Colonel Tom Vossler, did a great job of setting the scene on the battle field for us. His knowledge and passion for military history stood out and helped us all to gain an appreciation of the importance of this site to all Americans.

Hand Harvesting Lettuce near El Centro

Studying some of the important characters on that historic day was also an insight into what makes a good leader, I found it to be a rewarding and interesting day.
The last day of the conference was some what daunting. We were given the task of presenting some answers to the problems agriculture faces now and in to the future. With only a few hours to put together a report on supply and the production chain, it was a baptism under fire!! I found working with the group I was in very rewarding and I got a lot more out of the experience than I first thought.
After the conference we all went our separate ways. I made my way to Riverside, California, after a quick trip to Niagara Falls (so much freshwater it would make an Aussie farmer cry). I met up with Donald Suarez, the director of the U.S.Salinity Lab, and he was kind enough to show me around and talk to me about the salinity work they are doing there.
The International Drought Symposium coincided with my visit and I took the opportunity to attend the three day event. Some of my contacts for this leg of my trip were in attendance so it gave me the chance to speak with them face to face. I got to hear about the problems of drought not only in America but Spain, Mexico, South Africa and, of course, Australia. It was with some surprise that agriculture didn't rate too highly on the policies of drought in any Australian presentation; it was quite the reverse for all other countries, particularly Spain.
There is no doubt that the environment and returning water to the river Murray are high on the agenda for the current Australian Government. I did feel Australian agriculture was poorly represented and the decoupling of land in the water market was held up as being a shining example of free trade, widely welcomed by all irrigators.
After the Symposium, I have made my way down to San Diego then across to the Imperial Valley where I will meet up with two contacts I have in the area. I plan to have some farm visits with them looking at salinity issues in the district.
I have already visited a lettuce farm just out of El Centro. Security was tight and I was not permitted to take close up photos of the harvester working in the field. The company responsible for harvest closely guard their designs. I was also given a hair net that had to be worn once I was in the field. The lettuce was cut by hand, top and tailed then loaded into bulk bins on tandem trailer. The whole thing reminded me of process tomato harvesting to some degree.