IF YOU like potatoes, chances are you will one day owe some measure of thanks to the Quechua Indians of Peru. That's because they will be making sure that potatoes continue to be available whatever the vagaries of future climate change. The Quechua (pictured) are among the first recipients of a new global fund, established last week, to make poor farmers the custodians of all the world's threatened crops.
Importantly, the move could provide valuable options should the world find itself in another food crisis.
The Peruvian farmers will be paid to look after the most diverse collection of potatoes in the world. They will try growing varieties at different altitudes and in different climatic conditions so that if today's commercially available potato varieties start to fail anywhere in the world, replacement varieties will be ready and waiting.
The aim of the new fund is to achieve ...
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