Geneflow

Cultural savings in the memory bank

"Narrowing the genetic and cultural base of any population can destabilize it and make it more vulnerable to ecological and social stresses" says Virginia Nazarea-SandovaI, sociaI scientist at the International Potato Center (CIP), where a project in conjunction with User's Perspective with Agricultural Research and Development (UPWARD) is creating a 'memorybank'. Memory banks parallel and complement genebanks by preserving cultulal knowledge about the cultivation and uses of traditional crops. In Sandoval's opinion, gathering ethnobotanical information is as important as establishing genebanks because both act as prevention and cure for loss of genetic diversity. As subsistence farmers, women are excellent sources of both genetic and cultural information about species because each crop must meet multiple needs within their households. Concordia Gerong, a farmer in the Philippines interviewed for the memory bank project, explains, "There are many uses for sweet potatoes, in fact, all parts can be used. The leaves are good as vegetables, or leaves boiled and filtered with a net bag and then mixed with kalamansi (local lemon) and sugar make a good juice. Leaves can be used as medicine to heal skin diseases. As for the roots, we make snacks - sweetened, boiled, fried, or mashed - and roots are food staples during lean times. We feed the leaves and roots to our pigs."

Another farmer from the area, Elena Guyunan, says, "Even during the dry season when other crops refuse to grow or bear fruit, sweet potato can still thrive and bear roots. Thus, if we have nothing to eat, we can alwavs depend on this plant. In fact, we call it tambal sa gutom, or 'cure for hunger'."

In this part of Mindanao in the Philippines, some communities grow 29 varieties of sweet potato and farmers have knowledge of 26 more varieties, a total of 55. In communities where there is a greater degree of commercialization of sweet potato, farmers cultivate 20 varieties but only have knowledge about six more, a total of 26 varieties. This overall difference of 29 varieties demonstrates an alarming erosion of genetic diversity in both plant materials and associated knowledge.

This project seeks to point out that 'memory banking' is a necessary part of conserving genetic diversity, a valuable addition to genebanks, and that subsistence farmers are the logical source of this information.

Originally printed in Geneflow - A Publication About the Earth's Plant Genetic Resources, 1991 Issue

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