Future Food: Hunting Rare Plant Species in Kenya

June 12, 2012 from Al Jazeera English

Paul Kirika is the son of the famous Kenyan botanist, the late Mzee Kajui, and is now himself considered one of the most knowledgeable field botanists in East Africa. His work has taken him from the coastal forests to the mountaintops, from the humid lake region to the dry and remote northern areas and the dwindling forests around Nairobi. Together with Tim Pearce, a botanist from the UK, he has been struggling to find rare plant species in the mountains of Kenya that he believes could hold the key to human food security in a changing climate.

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Food security

Food security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it. A household is considered food-secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. The USDA estimates the nearly 9 out of 10 U.S households were food secure throughout 2005. It is a mea... Explore this topic

Seed bank

A seedbank stores seeds as a source for planting in case seed reserves elsewhere are destroyed. It is a type of gene bank. The seeds stored may be food crops, or those of rare species to protect biodiversity. The reasons for storing seeds may be varied. In the case of food cro... Explore this topic

Crop wild relative

A crop wild relative is a wild plant closely related to a domesticated plant, whose geographic origins can be traced to regions known as Vavilov Centers. It may be a wild ancestor of the domesticated plant, or another closely related taxon. Explore this topic

Kenya

Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a sovereign state in East Africa. The capital and largest city is Nairobi. Kenya lies on the equator with the Indian Ocean to the south-east, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, South Sudan to the north-west, Ethiopia to the n... Explore this topic

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology, is a discipline of biology and the science of plant life. Traditionally, the science of botany included the study of fungi, algae, and viruses, but this has become less common. A person engaged in the study of botany is called a botanis... Explore this topic

Aberdare National Park

The Aberdare National Park covers the higher areas of the Aberdare Mountain Range of central Kenya and the Aberdare Salient to their east. Rhino Ark is a charity devoted to the protection of this critical habitat area. Explore this topic

Crop diversity

Crop diversity is the variance in genetic and phenotypic characteristics of plants used in agriculture. Crops may vary in seed size, branching pattern, in height, flower color, fruiting time, or flavor. They may also vary in less obvious characteristics such as their response ... Explore this topic

Endangered species

An endangered species is a species of organisms facing a very high risk of extinction. The phrase is used vaguely in common parlance for any species fitting this description, but its use by conservation biologists typically refers to those designated Endangered in the IUCN Red... Explore this topic

Climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions, or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions. Cli... Explore this topic

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to as Kew Gardens, comprises 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in Richmond upon Thames in southwest London, England. "The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" and the brand name "Kew" are also use... Explore this topic

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Food security

Seed bank

Crop wild relative

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