Posts Tagged: Africa
Conectándose con los granjeros a través de las prácticas de post cosecha de la piña
Al final de un largo año, a veces ayuda a reconectarse con aquello que motiva tu trabajo.
Para Karin Albornoz, estudiante de doctorado quien trabaja en biología molecular relacionada al daño que sufren, por frío, los tomates después de la cosecha, en el laboratorio Diane Beckles de UC Davis, esto significa salir al mundo a trabajar directamente con pequeños granjeros.
"Paso tanto tiempo en el laboratorio", dijo Albornoz. "Algunas veces paso todo el día en el laboratorio extrayendo ARN o escribiendo un reporte. Esto me recuerda la razón por la que estoy hacienda este trabajo: para tener un impacto real en el mundo".
Justo hace una semana, Albornoz regresó de un viaje a Uganda donde hizo exactamente eso. En cooperación con una organización local llamada Proyecto Ndibwami para un Rescate Integrado (Ndibwami Integrated Rescue Project) o NIRP, por sus siglas en inglés, compartió su experiencia con un grupo de granjeros a través de varios talleres prácticos sobre cómo mejorar las prácticas sobre el manejo de la piña, maracuyá y tomate durante la cosecha y post cosecha. Su trabajo fue apoyado por el Laboratorio de Innovación Hortícola (Horticulture Innovation Lab), un programa de investigación internacional dirigido por UC Davis con fondos de la Agencia para el Desarrollo Universal de EUA, como parte de Alimentemos al Futuro (Feed the Future), la iniciativa de EUA sobre la hambruna global y seguridad alimentaria.
Aunque Albornoz había trabajado con granjeros rurales antes, esta era la primera vez que lo hacía en África.
"Para dondequiera que miraba, había cosas creciendo. Había gente trabajando en el campo, mujeres cocinando y todos estaban trabajando con alimentos", mencionó la estudiante. "Sé que existe un gran estigma – cuando se habla sobre África, se ve el cambio en las caras de las personas y están pensando sobre cosas como la sequía y hambruna y niños hambrientos. Pero lo que vi no coincide con este estereotipo. Los retos a los que se enfrentan parece que tienen que ver con la falta de acceso a las oportunidades".
Los talleres que Albornoz dirigió son parte de los esfuerzos de la organización NIRP para conectar a los granjeros con más mercados lucrativos que pagan mejores precios por frutas y verduras de calidad.
Albornoz estuvo en contacto con NIRP durante meses y haciendo planes para los talleres para granjeros. Se preparó con manuales para el manejo post cosecha para cada cultivo — piña, maracuyá y tomate — e hizo preguntas para entender mejor los recursos locales y el conocimiento existente entre los granjeros.
Durante las dos semanas en Uganda, Albornoz visitó los campos agrícolas y llevó a cabo tres talleres de todo un día. El primer taller para cerca de 50 granjeros se enfocó en la piña — empezando por entender los parámetros locales de calidad para esta fruta, luego las mejores prácticas para la cosecha, saneamiento, almacenamiento y transportación. El segundo taller se enfocó en el tomate, con una estructura similar y el tercero en el maracuyá.
¿Su momento favorito? La primera oportunidad que tuvieron los granjeros de usar un refractómetro, para medir sólidos solubles y aprender sobre los niveles de azúcar en la fruta. Los refractómetros fueron parte de un pequeño estuche de herramientas que la organización seguirá usando.
"Estaban muy entusiasmados de usar este artefacto y ver, en números, cómo cambian los niveles de azúcar en la fruta dependiendo del estado de maduración", manifestó Albornoz. "Todos en la habitación tuvieron la oportunidad de usarlo".
La experiencia reforzó su compromiso de trabajar con granjeros y resolver problemas de agricultura.
"Un gran error es pensar que vas solo a capacitar o enseñar a otras personas porque esa gente siempre terminará ensenándole a uno”, indicó Albornoz. "Me hice una promesa a mí misma hace unos años, un compromiso personal para trabajar con personas en situaciones vulnerables. Tengo que hacerlo. Trabajar en agricultura puede ser una herramienta muy poderosa para tener un impacto en el mundo".
Como mentor de Karin y profesora asociada del Departamento de Botánica y la Estación de Experimentos Agrícolas de UC Davis, Diane Beckles apoyó el trabajo de Karin fuera del laboratorio y percibe esa experiencia como un importante desarrollo académico.
"Algo mágico sucede cuando enseñamos y participamos en la divulgación (de información)", manifestó Beckles. "Con frecuencia profundizamos en nuestro entendimiento de lo que enseñamos e interactuar y participar con otros nos cambia en ese proceso. Altera la forma en la que vemos y pensamos sobre la ciencia en una forma positiva y gratificante, aun cuando no se puede cuantificar fácilmente".
Más información:
- Proyectos del Fondo Trellis (Trellis Fund) del Laboratorio de Innovación Hortícola (Horticulture Innovation Lab)
- Recomendación sobre la piña por parte del Centro de Post Cosecha de UC (Pineapple recommendations from the UC Postharvest Center)
Connecting with farmers over pineapple postharvest practices
At the end of a long year, sometimes it helps to reconnect with what motivates your work.
For Karin Albornoz — a Ph.D. student who works in the Diane Beckles Lab at UC Davis on molecular biology related to tomato postharvest chilling injury — that means getting out into the world to work directly with small-scale farmers.
"I spend so much time in the lab," she said. "Sometimes I spend a whole day in the lab extracting RNA or writing a paper. This reminds me why I am doing this work: to make a real-world impact."
Just over a week ago, she returned from a trip to Uganda where she did exactly that. In partnership with a local organization called Ndibwami Integrated Rescue Project (NIRP), Albornoz shared her expertise with farmers through several hands-on workshops about improving harvest practices and postharvest handling of pineapple, passion fruit and tomatoes. Her work was supported by the Horticulture Innovation Lab, an international agricultural research program led by UC Davis with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development as part of Feed the Future, the U.S. government's global hunger and food security initiative.
Though Albornoz has worked with rural farmers before, this was her first time working in Africa.
"Everywhere I looked, things were growing. There were people working in the field, women cooking, and everyone was working with food," she said. "I know there's a lot of stigma – when you talk about Africa, you see people's faces change and they're thinking about things like drought and famine and starving children. But what I saw doesn't fit that stereotype. The challenges they are facing seem to be about not having access to opportunities."
The workshops she led are part of the NIRP organization's efforts to connect farmers with more lucrative markets that pay higher prices for quality produce.
In this 2-minute video, Karin Albornoz visits a pineapple farm, leads a pineapple training and discusses next steps for this project led by NIRP in Uganda. The video clips and photos were taken by Karin while she was working and edited by Hallie Casey for the Horticulture Innovation Lab.
For months, Albornoz has been in contact with NIRP and making plans for the farmer workshops. She prepared postharvest handling manuals for each crop — pineapple, passion fruit and tomato — and asked questions to better understand local resources and the farmers' existing knowledge.
During her 2 weeks in Uganda, she visited farmers' fields and led three full-day workshops. The first workshop for about 50 farmers focused on pineapple — starting with understanding local quality parameters for this fruit, then best practices for harvesting, sanitation, storage and transportation. The second workshop was focused on tomato, with a similar structure, and the third workshop on passion fruit.
Her favorite moment? The farmers' first chance to use a refractometer, to measure soluble solids and learn about sugar levels in the fruit. The refractometers were part of a small toolkit the organization will continue to use.
"They were excited to handle this device and see, in numbers, how the sugar levels of the fruit changed depending on the stage of maturity," she said. "Everyone in the room had a chance to try it."
The experience reinforced her commitment to working with farmers and solving agricultural problems.
"A major mistake is to think that you are going just to train or teach other people because those people are always going to end up teaching you too," Albornoz said. "I made a promise to myself years ago, a personal commitment to working with people in vulnerable situations. I have to do this. Working in agriculture can be a very powerful tool to have an impact in the world."
As Karin's mentor and an Associate Professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences and Agricultural Experiment Station, Diane Beckles supported Karin's work outside of the lab and views such an experience as important to scholarly development.
"Something magical happens when we teach and engage in outreach," Beckles said. "We often deepen our understanding of what we are teaching, and interacting and engaging with others changes us in that process. It alters how we view and think about science in a way that is positive and rewarding, even though it is not easily quantified."
More information:
- More about Trellis Fund projects with the Horticulture Innovation Lab
- Pineapple recommendations from the UC Postharvest Center
thumbnail: Karin Albornoz leads a workshop in postharvest handling of pineapple in Uganda.
Changes in breast milk sugars impact babies’ health and growth
When it comes to nursing moms and their babies, an elegant web of cause and effect connects climate, breast milk, gut microbes and infant health.
That web was clearly illustrated by a recently published study involving 33 women and their babies in the West African nation of The Gambia. The research team, including scientists from UC Davis and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, found that complex breast milk sugars called oligosaccharides helped protect nursing babies from illness and also influenced the mixture of microbes in the infants' guts.
The researchers also showed that changes in food availability from season to season could affect the composition of the women's breast milk and the protective quality of the babies' gut microbiota. And those changes, in turn, impacted the health and growth of the breastfed infants.
Composition of breast-milk sugars and infant health
Oligosaccharides occur abundantly as more than 200 different chemical structures in human breast milk. It's been known for some time that these complex sugars contribute to infant health by supporting the growth of beneficial bacteria in the baby's gut. And these gut bacteria have been shown to play a key role in fending off infectious illnesses.
But little has been known about how changes in the composition of the breast milk sugars might affect the health and growth of infants, especially those living in areas where infection rates are high.
To explore that relationship, the researchers monitored the composition of the oligosaccharides in the mothers' milk and examined the infants' gut microbiota at 4 weeks, 16 weeks and 20 weeks after the babies were born. Then they analyzed the data, looking for possible relationships to the health and growth of the babies and the status of their gut microbes.
They found that two of the oligosaccharides, lacto-N-fucopentaose and 3′-sialyllactose, had a direct relationship to the babies' health and growth. High levels of the former were associated with a decrease in infant illness and with improved growth, measured as height for age, while the latter proved to be a good indicator of infant growth, measured by weight per age.
“Our findings provide evidence that specific human milk oligosaccharides can alter the composition of breast milk, making it more protective against infection and allowing the infant to invest energy in growth rather than fending off disease,” said the study's corresponding author Angela Zivkovic, an assistant professor of nutrition at UC Davis.
Influence of wet and dry seasons
The researchers also were curious how seasonal shifts in food availability, which significantly impact the mothers' diets, might be reflected in breast milk composition and infant health.
The Gambia has two distinct seasons, the wet season from July to October and the dry season from November to June.
The wet season is also known as the “hungry” season because it is the time of year when food supplies tend to be depleted, infection rates rise and the farming workload is highest. In contrast, the dry, or “harvest,” season is characterized by plentiful food supplies as well as significantly higher energy stores and less illness among the local people.
The researchers found that mothers who were nursing during the wet or “hungry” season produced significantly less oligosaccharide in their milk than did those nursing during the dry season.
In examining the makeup of the babies' gut microbiota, the researchers noted that most of the bacteria belonged to the Bifidobacteria genus. They also discovered that higher levels of Dialister and Prevotella bacteria were accompanied by lower levels of infection.
In addition, higher levels of Bacteroides bacteria were present in the infants' guts that had abnormal “calprotectin” – a biomarker associated with intestinal infections.
“We are very interested in which specific dietary factors influence the oligosaccharide composition of mother's milk,” Zivkovic said. “If we can find the mechanisms that change the composition of breast milk sugars, we may have a new approach for modifying the infant microbiota and ultimately influencing the health and vigor of the nursing baby.”
The study by Zivkovic and colleagues appears online in the journal Scientific Reports. The research is part of a long-running, cross-disciplinary project at UC Davis examining milk and its role in nutrition.
Funding for the study was provided by the National Institutes of Health, UK Medical Research Council, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Peter J. Shields Endowed Chair in Dairy Food Science at UC Davis.
Cuando las malezas resultan ser un buen alimento
La idea de que las malezas puedan ser comestibles surge periódicamente, con artículos que mencionan que las malezas de una persona son ensaladas de otra, destacando a chefs que “tienen buena mano con las malezas” (“have a way with weeds,”), debatiendo las formas en que los jardineros medievales alentaron las maleza (gardeners encouraged weeds) y hasta sugiriendo maneras de eliminar las especies invasivas comiéndolas (eat away at invasive species). ¿Pero es esto algo que debemos tomar en serio?
“Le llamamos malezas a estas plantas debido a la forma en que interactuamos con ellas. Están presentes en nuestros jardines, céspedes y compiten con las plantas que preferimos comer”, señala Lynn Sosnoskie, científica de malezas de la Universidad de California en Davis. “Pero muchas de las plantas que son malezas aquí en los Estados Unidos fueron traídas con un propósito, ser comidas”.
La tesis doctoral de Sosnoskie fue sobre una planta de este tipo, con el sabroso nombre “mostaza de ajo”. También ha trabajado de cerca con el Amaranto Palmer, una maleza perniciosa que crece en los campos algodonales la cual puede ser resistente al glifosato. En respuesta a un granjero de Georgia que preguntaba con exasperación si debía comerse las plantas que se están apoderando de sus campos de cultivo, la experta llevó a cabo algunos estudios preliminares sobre las posibilidades comestibles del Amaranto Palmer.
“Probablemente no es algo viable que acabemos un problema serio de maleza comiéndonoslo”, dijo, “pero definitivamente siento que debemos investigarlo como una fuente potencial de alimento”.
“Creo que algunas de estas malezas tienen un gran potencial y están siendo infrautilizadas”, mencionó Stephen Weller, profesor de horticultura en la Universidad de Purdue, quien encabeza el proyecto de verduras indígenas. “En África oriental, estas verduras son muy populares. Y realmente creo que conforme llegan aquí más inmigrantes de esa región, va a crearse un mercado para algunas de esas verduras”.
Aunque cuenta con un doctorado en ciencias de las malezas, Weller está ahora tratando de encontrar las formas de cultivar amaranto y belladona negra, en lugar de eliminarlas. Antes de que empezara a trabajar en estas plantas, existía la suposición de que su cultivo sería algo fácil porque, bueno “crecen como malezas”.
“Pero nos dimos cuenta que cultivarlas es mucho más intenso de lo que llegamos a creer inicialmente; ya que es algo similar a cultivar cualquier otra verdura”, dijo Weller. “Necesitan agua, fertilizante y las plagas son un problema”.
A propio riesgo: Aunque cuando las plantas de malezas pueden ser una fuente de alimentos, ambos científicos advirtieron en contra de pensar que las malezas pueden resultar en “un buffet gratuito para todos”. Algunas plantas pueden ser tóxicas y las malezas en los campos de cultivo pueden haber sido fumigadas recientemente. Es importante tener conocimiento acerca de las plantas y cómo han sido cultivadas antes de intentar comerlas.
La belladona negra y otras verduras son cultivadas en una granja en el oeste de Kenia. (Fotografía del Laboratorio de Innovación Hortícola por Brenda Dawson)
When weeds make good eats
The idea that weeds can be edible pops up periodically, with articles suggesting one person's weeds are another person's salad bar, highlighting chefs who “have a way with weeds,” discussing ways medieval gardeners encouraged weeds, and even suggesting ways to eat away at invasive species. But is this something we should take seriously?
“We call these plants weeds because of the way we interact with them. They're in our gardens, they're in our lawns, and they're competing with plants that we prefer to eat,” said Lynn Sosnoskie, a weed scientist at UC Davis. “But a lot of the plants that are weeds here in the United States were brought here purposefully—to be eaten.”
Sosnoskie's doctoral thesis was on just such a plant, with the tasty name of “garlic mustard.” She has also worked at length on Palmer amaranth, a pernicious weed found in cotton fields that can be glyphosate-resistant. In response to one Georgia farmer asking in exasperation if he should just eat the plant taking over his fields, she did some preliminary research into eating Palmer amaranth.
“It's probably not feasible to eat our way out of a serious weed problem,” she said. “But I certainly feel like we can investigate them as other potential food sources.”
In fact, the Horticulture Innovation Lab at UC Davis has a project that is researching three “indigenous vegetables” in Africa, two of which — amaranth and black nightshade — are considered weeds in the United States. The vegetables can be nutritious and profitable options for small-scale farmers in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and elsewhere.
Though he holds a Ph.D. in weed science, Weller is now figuring out the best ways to cultivate amaranth and black nightshade — instead of to eliminate them. Before he started working with these plants, common assumptions held that they should be easy to grow because, well, they “grow like weeds.”
“But we found out that growing them is more intensive than we were initially led to believe — similar to growing any other vegetable,” Weller said. “They need water, they need fertilizer, and pests are a problem.”
Caveat emptor: Though weedy plants can indeed be a source of food, both scientists cautioned against thinking of weeds as a “free-for-all forage buffet.” Some plants may be toxic, and weeds in farm fields may have been sprayed recently. It is important to be knowledgeable of the plants and how they've been grown before trying to eat one.