Food security and sustainable development are a high priority for scientists around the globe and this summer a multidisciplinary team from the UK travelled to Malaysia to help build collective research partnerships between various government and non-government organisations (NGOs). Here Diriba Kumssa, a PhD student working on geospatial aspects of food security (pictured right) tells us more about the trip.The team I'll be travelling with for this one week mission to Malaysia comprised of staff from the Centre for Environmental Geochemistry: including a plant nutritionist (Professor Martin Broadley) and soil chemist (Dr Scott Young) from the University of Nottingham (UoN) and a geochemist from the BGS.
We visited the Crops for the
Future Research Centre (CFFRC), which is a non-profit research Organisation
that was established in 2011 and currently based at the UoN Malaysia Campus, in Semenyih near
to Kuala Lumpur. They presented the
activities in their various research programs to provide us with the bird’s eye
view of what they are planning to implement both in the short run and long-term.
Besides, we visited their ongoing research activities at their research site on
Napier grass adaptation and propagation experiment, Bambara ground nut
adaptation trials, the research site (geochemical) problems, and substantial
idle land under power pylon throughout Malaysia that makes up to 80,000
hectares.
My PhD research is sponsored by the CFFRC and I presented my
research progress on spatial aspects of mineral nutrient deficiency in Asia.
After discussing outcomes from my research, a research plan was agreed. The
future plan included understanding the role of soil geochemistry and land-use
in constraining the adoption of underutilized crops, and improving nutritional
intake and income.
On 24 April 2014, we visited the Malaysia Rubber Board (MRB) where we were taken
to see the International Rubber Products Exhibition Centre (right);
The Material Characterization Laboratory; a Jatropha adaptation trial site; Rubber
grafting and seedlings nursery (below left);
and a rubber plantation, and even engaged in practical rubber tapping sessions!
The Material Characterization Unit conducts plant and soil samples analyses for
internal and external clients with a standardized equipment, procedure and
global recognition from the International Standards Organization.
The MRB Agronomy research staff described ongoing research
and extension activities to integrate small holder rubber plantation and crop
production to optimize land use and increase farmers’ income per unit area.
This is done in two ways: intercropping by making use of the rubber inter row
space at the early stage of a future mono-crop rubber plantation establishment before
canopy closure (a.k.a., Taungya system); and intercropping by increasing the
inter row spacing between rubber trees so that farmers are able to grow some
food crops in that space all the time.
Overall, there is a great sense of motivation and fertile
ground for collaboration among this group which will span soil geochemistry,
agronomy, food security, and human nutrition. I will return to CFFRC Malaysia
for a more extended visit later in summer 2014.
by Diriba Kumssa
PhD student Nottingham-BGS Centre for Environmental
Geochemistry.
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