Search Results (13)

Cassava/Yuca/Manioc: This staple of Indigenous Caribbean diets has gone from being decried for its danger and denigrated for its supposed inferiority to wheat by the early colonists, to being among the few foods that nourished slaves, to creolizing into postcolonial national dishes, and to being touted as a wonder food resistant to the climate disaster and dietary breakdowns that manifest the slow violence of the colonial project. Is the uplifting of cassava the rise of the Caribbean plot, the next step in neocolonial globalist expropriation of things Caribbean, or something of both? This paper traces discourses of cassava from the writings of early colonialists like Pere Labat through Caribbean cookbooks of the independence era where it was creolized with African, European, and Asian techniques and traditions and into postcolonial diasporic food writing and commercial projects from Carmeta’s Bajan food independence through contemporary global agriculture projects promoting cassava. Cassava/Yuca/Manioc, this paper argues, continues to be deterritorialized on a global scale at the same time as, in the Caribbean, it continues to nourish locally grounded persistence, adaptation, resistance, and thriving. Full article

Three types of starch with different amylose content were esterified and blended with polybutylene succinate (PBS) to obtain esterified manioc starch/PBS (EMS/PBS), esterified corn starch/PBS (ECS/PBS), and esterified waxy corn starch/PBS (EWS/PBS) composites. The EMS/PBS and ECS/PBS composites with high amylose content displayed typical V-type crystal structures. The original crystals of EWS, which had low amylose content, were disrupted during the esterification process. EWS exhibited the strongest interaction with PBS and the most favorable interface compatibility. The pyrolysis temperature was in order of EMS/PBS < ECS/PBS < EWS/PBS. The elongation at break of the three blends was higher than that of pure PBS. The esterification and plasticization of the EWS/PBS composite were the most comprehensive. The EWS/PBS composite showed the lowest storage modulus (G’) and complex viscosity (η*). The interfacial bonding force of the composite materials increased with more amylopectin, decreasing intermolecular forces and destroying crystal structures, which decreased G’ and η* and increased toughness. The EWS/PBS composite, with the least amylose content, had the best hydrophobicity and degradation performance. Full article

Yuca (Manihot esculenta esculenta; cassava, manioc) is a native Amazonian crop represented by myriad landraces. To investigate human influences on its diversification, we conducted field observations and analyzed 13 short tandem repeat (STR) loci in 43 landraces in the Peruvian Amazon. We found a different multilocus genotype (MLG) in every landrace. However, tests for Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium found a deficit of heterozygosity at every locus (p < 0.001 for 12 of 13 loci). Further, the fraction of genetic variance due to landrace differences was greater than expected (38.84%; p = 0.001). This suggested that landrace hybridization is restricted, a finding consistent with our field observations. However, we found an excess of within-landrace heterozygosity (p < 0.001) in 39 of 43 landraces, suggesting they originated through hybridization. Mantel tests identified associations between genetic and geographic distances (p < 0.001), but their correlation coefficients were low (Mantel’s r < 0.21). In addition, AMOVA analyses revealed that differences between landraces collected from five sampled rivers accounted for just 3.05% of observed genetic variance (p < 0.001). Neighbor joining and principal components analyses also revealed little evidence of differentiation between rivers. Finally, in a comparison with a secondary sample, we found that the closest relative of 27 of 28 specimens had a landrace name different from their own, suggesting that traditional nomenclature is a poor indicator of genetic relatedness. Full article

Development cooperation in agriculture aims to contribute to the achieving of a large part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN 2030 Agenda, especially the first three, No Poverty (1), Zero Hunger (2), and Good Health and Well-being (3). Development cooperation in agriculture tries to help local communities to increase their awareness, participation, and skills about the management of land and environmental resources, in order to realize sustainable development. In this context, methods of participatory assessment of land suitability have been widely and successfully applied. The present research took place in the framework of a real development cooperation intervention in Nord Kivu (Democratic Republic of Congo) and aimed to implement a rapid participatory assessment of land suitability. In this context, where official and detailed data are not available, the study fostered the active involvement of local experts and used geographical information systems (GIS) to identify the most suitable crops to be supported in different zones of the study area. Toward this aim, the authors used a procedure based on the following steps: the identification of relevant land use types (LUTs), mapping capability factors, describing the responses of each LUT to the different capability factors, mapping potential land suitability for the LUTs, mapping accessibility, mapping land suitability for the LUTs. Resulting maps and tables were used to identify the most suitable areas for the different uses. Globally, forestry was the most suited use (99.6% of the study area is potentially highly suitable), followed by the cropping of manioc, sorghum, banana, oil palm, bean and cattle grazing in decreasing order (62.6% of the study area is potentially highly suitable for grazing). When accessibility is considered, forestry presents the largest decrease in the class of high potential suitability (−34.9% equal to a loss of 24,945.5 ha), while less adaptable uses, such as cattle grazing showed lower decreases in highly suitable class (−11.2%) and larger increases in scarcely suitable class (+9.5%). At a later stage, the comparison between computed suitability and actual land use helped with identifying the areas where forestry should be the only (or most) supported activity and the areas where to push integrated land uses. Our interpretation of the results allows us to recommend the adoption of agroforestry and intercropping as the main methodologies to integrate multiple aims such as the environmental conservation and the improvement of livelihoods. Full article

The present study characterizes Bemisia tabaci and Bemisia afer from cassava in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Mitochondrial COI sequencing revealed the occurrence of six cassava B. tabaci mitotypes, which were designated into four haplogroups (SSA-ECA, SSA-CA, SSA2, and SSA-ESA) using KASP SNP genotyping. SSA-ECA (72%) was the most prevalent and occurred in the northern part of the surveyed area, in the Ituri and Nord/Sud-Kivu provinces, whilst SSA-CA (21%) was present in the south, primarily in Haut-Katanga. SSA-ECA was predominant in the areas of north-eastern DRC most severely affected by cassava brown streak disease and was also reported in the new outbreak area in Pweto territory, Haut-Katanga, in the south. Bemisia afer comprised two major clusters with 85.5% of samples in cluster one, while the rest were in cluster two, which has no reference sequence in GenBank. This study provides important information on the genetic diversity of B. tabaci and B. afer in eastern DRC. This knowledge will be used as a basis for further studies to understand and to identify the role of whitefly haplogroups, their population densities and consequences for virus epidemics and spread as well as leading to improved vector and virus management strategies. Full article

Cassava is a key tropical crop that serves as a major source of nutrition throughout equatorial South America, Africa, and Asia. Genetic and paleoethnobotanical findings indicate that it was first domesticated on the southern margin of Amazonia ~10,000 years ago. However, anthropogenic processes underlying its subsequent diversification remain unclear. To shed light on them, we investigated agricultural practices and phenotypic variation in cassava on the upper Amazon River, in Loreto, Perú. We interviewed subsistence growers on five Amazon tributaries and collected data on the husbandry, morphology, and nutritional composition of their crops. We found 45 distinct cultivars. Many of their morphological features, such as stature and leaf dimensions, exhibited expected phenotype–phenotype associations. However, starch content showed no association with any other phenotype (mean p = 0.57), suggesting it has been under selective pressure exerted by growers. In addition, all cultivars’ tubers had cyanide content under 25 ppm, a low level of toxicity by global standards. Evidence of sexual reproduction and cultivar hybridization was common and a probable source of new variation. However, cultivars from different rivers showed little evidence of differentiation, possibly as the result of human transport. Thus, human influences in the region simultaneously enhance and constrain variability in the crop. Full article

The Blood pressure control diet is well described; however, it has not been implemented in clinical care, possibly due to the impracticability of the diet assessment in these contexts. In order to facilitate the dietary assessment, we developed and assessed the validity and reproducibility of two food group-based food frequency questionnaires (FG-FFQs), with a one-week (7-day FG-FFQ) and a one-month (30-day FG-FFQ) period of coverage for patients with pre-hypertension or hypertension. In 2010, 155 men and women, 30–70 years old, were invited to participate in a prospective study in two outpatient clinics in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil. The participants responded to two 30-day, two 7-day FG-FFQ, four 24-h dietary recalls, and underwent demographic, anthropometric, and blood pressure assessments. The validity and reproducibility were assessed using partial correlation coefficients adjusted for sex and age, and the internal validity was tested using the intra-class correlation coefficient. The participants were aged 61 (±10) years and 60% were women. The validity correlation coefficient was higher than r = 0.80 in the 30-day FG-FFQ for whole bread (r = 0.81) and the 7-day FG-FFQ for diet/light/zero soda and industrialized juices (r = 0.84) in comparison to the 24-h dietary recalls. The global internal validity was α = 0.59, but it increased to α = 0.76 when 19 redundant food groups were excluded. The reproducibility was higher than r = 0.80 for pasta, potatoes and manioc, bakery goods, sugar and cocoa, and beans for both versions. The 30-day had a slightly higher validity, both had good internal validity, and the 7-day FG-FFQ had a higher reproducibility. Full article

The life of the indigenous Wiwa tribe in northeast Colombia is characterized by lacking access to clean drinking water and sanitary installations. Furthermore, free-roaming domestic animals and use of yucca and/or manioc as a primary food source favor the transmission of soil-transmitted helminths, e.g., Toxocara canis and Toxocara cati, the roundworms of dogs and cats. Infection may result in the clinical picture of toxocarosis, one of the most common zoonotic helminthoses worldwide. To estimate the Toxocara seroprevalence in four different villages of the Wiwa community, serum samples from 483 inhabitants were analyzed for anti-Toxocara-antibodies. Overall, 79.3% (383/483) of analyzed samples were seropositive. Statistically significant differences were observed between the four villages, as well as age groups (adults > adolescents > children), while sex had no effect. The high seropositivity rate demonstrates the risk of zoonotic roundworm infections and potential clinical disease in vulnerable indigenous inhabitants. Full article

Manioc is an important root crop in the tropics and the most important staple food in the Amazon. Manioc is diverse but its diversity has not yet been clearly associated with environmental or social factors. Our study evaluates how variation in edaphic environments and in social factors influences manioc diversity among five ethnic groups of the Amazon region of Colombia. Inventories of landraces, genetic analysis of manioc diversity, visits to farmers’ swiddens and interviews with farmers were carried out during two years of field work. Morphotypic and genotypic diversity of manioc were large. The different ethnic groups of our study cultivate different sweet and bitter manioc landraces which they select and maintain in accordance with their ancestral rules and norms. Differences in available environments among indigenous communities (such as the presence of different soils) did not markedly affect manioc morphotypic or genotypic diversity, while social factors considerably influenced observed manioc diversity. Manioc diversity was explained by two parallel processes of manioc diversification: volunteer seedling selection and manioc seed exchange. We argue that, for a full understanding of manioc diversity, indigenous knowledge, as well as morphological and genetic variation should be taken into account. Full article

Reciprocity is a vital feature of social networks, but relatively little is known about its temporal structure or the mechanisms underlying its persistence in real world behavior. In pursuit of these two questions, we study the stationary and dynamical signals of reciprocity in a network of manioc beer (Spanish: chicha; Tsimane’: shocdye’) drinking events in a Tsimane’ village in lowland Bolivia. At the stationary level, our analysis reveals that social exchange within the community is heterogeneously patterned according to kinship and spatial proximity. A positive relationship between the frequencies at which two families host each other, controlling for kinship and proximity, provides evidence for stationary reciprocity. Our analysis of the dynamical structure of this network presents a novel method for the study of conditional, or non-stationary, reciprocity effects. We find evidence that short-timescale reciprocity (within three days) is present among non- and distant-kin pairs; conversely, we find that levels of cooperation among close kin can be accounted for on the stationary hypothesis alone. Full article

While bitter manioc has been one of the most important staple crops in the central Amazon for thousands of years, there have been few studies of its cultivation in the fertile whitewater landscapes of this region. Anthropological research on bitter manioc cultivation in the Amazon has focused almost exclusively on long-fallow shifting cultivation in marginal upland areas of low soil fertility. This has contributed to the persistence of the oversimplified notion that because bitter manioc is well adapted to infertile upland soils; it cannot yield well in alluvial and/or fertile soils. I hypothesized that bitter manioc cultivation would be well adapted to the fertile soils of the whitewater landscapes of the central Amazon because of the centrality of this crop to subsistence in this region. In this article, I examine one such whitewater landscape, the middle Madeira River, Amazonas, Brazil, where smallholders cultivate bitter manioc on fertile Amazonian Dark Earths (ADE) and floodplain soils, and on infertile Oxisols and Ultisols. In this region, cultivation on fertile soils tends to be short-cycled, characterised by short fallowing (0–6 years) and shorter cropping periods (5–12 months) with a predominance of low starch fast maturing “weak” landraces. By contrast, cultivation on infertile soils is normally long-cycled, characterised by longer fallows (>10 years) and longer cropping periods (1–3 years) with a predominance of high starch slow maturing “strong” landraces. This diversity in bitter manioc cultivation systems (landraces, fallow periods, soils) demonstrates that Amazonian farmers have adapted bitter manioc cultivation to the specific characteristics of the landscapes that they inhabit. I conclude that contrary to earlier claims, there are no ecological limitations on growing bitter manioc in fertile soils, and therefore the cultivation of this crop in floodplain and ADE soils would have been possible in the pre-Columbian period. Full article

The emergence of sedentism and agriculture in Amazonia continues to sit uncomfortably within accounts of South American pre-Columbian history. This is partially because deep-seated models were formulated when only ceramic evidence was known, partly because newer data continue to defy simple explanations, and partially because many discussions continue to ignore evidence of pre-Columbian anthropogenic landscape transformations. This paper presents the results of recent geoarchaeological research on Amazonian anthropogenic soils. It advances the argument that properties of two different types of soils, terras pretas and terras mulatas, support their interpretation as correlates of, respectively, past settlement areas and fields where spatially-intensive, organic amendment-reliant cultivation took place. This assessment identifies anthropogenic soil formation as a hallmark of the Amazonian Formative and prompts questions about when similar forms of enrichment first appear in the Amazon basin. The paper reviews evidence for embryonic anthrosol formation to highlight its significance for understanding the domestication of a key Amazonian crop: manioc (Manihot esculenta ssp. esculenta). A model for manioc domestication that incorporates anthropogenic soils outlines some scenarios which link the distribution of its two broader varieties—sweet and bitter manioc—with the widespread appearance of Amazonian anthropogenic dark earths during the first millennium AD. Full article

Molecular analyses are providing new elements to decipher the origin, domestication and dispersal of native Amazonian crops in an expanding archaeological context. Solid molecular data are available for manioc (Manihot esculenta), cacao (Theobroma cacao), pineapple (Ananas comosus), peach palm (Bactris gasipaes) and guaraná (Paullinia cupana), while hot peppers (Capsicum spp.), inga (Inga edulis), Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) and cupuassu (Theobroma grandiflorum) are being studied. Emergent patterns include the relationships among domestication, antiquity (terminal Pleistocene to early Holocene), origin in the periphery, ample pre-Columbian dispersal and clear phylogeographic population structure for manioc, pineapple, peach palm and, perhaps, Capsicum peppers. Cacao represents the special case of an Amazonian species possibly brought into domestication in Mesoamerica, but close scrutiny of molecular data suggests that it may also have some incipiently domesticated populations in Amazonia. Another pattern includes the relationships among species with incipiently domesticated populations or very recently domesticated populations, rapid pre- or post-conquest dispersal and lack of phylogeographic population structure, e.g., Brazil nut, cupuassu and guaraná. These patterns contrast the peripheral origin of most species with domesticated populations with the subsequent concentration of their genetic resources in the center of the basin, along the major white water rivers where high pre-conquest population densities developed. Additional molecular genetic analyses on these and other species will allow better examination of these processes and will enable us to relate them to other historical ecological patterns in Amazonia. Full article