I am fascinated by the varieties and yield potentials of many perennial

staple crops that are available to be utilized in an agroforestry system,

as described by Toensmeier in perennialsolutions.org. Many I have
known for years but some of them are disappearing from the market.
In Indonesia, yucca and sago palm are still prominent staple food for
certain ethnic groups, but their consumptions are declining. Many of
the yam family and high protein leaf crops such as moringa and katuk,
which were once on my familys diet, are difficult to find in the market.
It is unfortunate that the wide varieties of those carbohydrates,
protein, and oil producing plants are under-utilized. Toensmeier lists
these barriers of adoption that include difficulty to obtain propagating
materials, longer time to obtain yield, difficulty to change consumers
diet, and the need for special handling equipment.
In the case of developing countries, I want to highlight cultural barrier
as the main barrier to adopt perennial crops. Many of these perennial
crops originate from these countries, yet their productions in these
parts of the world keep declining. FAO records declining trends of
production and consumption of tubers and starchy roots all over the
world, and major producers of these commodities come from
developing countries (www.faostat.fao.org). I observe that in many
developing countries, preference for grains and cereals are increasing.
People who traditionally eat tubers and starchy roots are consistently
changing their diets to grains and cereals as their livelihoods improve. I
think livelihood improvement urges people to adopt eating habits of
more affluent societies.
Unpopularity of perennial crops in the world is unfortunate because
perennial crops are better than annual crops for the environment.
Toensmeier asserts the importance of these crops to prevent
catastrophic climate change. Indeed, as discussed in the previous
class that the longer plant biomass stays in the field the higher is their
capacity to sequester carbon. Other benefits may include ecosystem
services such as water retention and erosion control. Genetic
biodiversity may improve as well, as most of them do not need to be
cultivated as monocultures.
I would argue for climate change mitigation potential of perennial
staple crops through land-use change. If people change their diets to
perennial staple crops, the trend of monoculture expansion can be
stopped or reversed. In addition, in many countries whose major
staple is rice, the halt of rice-field expansion will be beneficial for
climate change mitigation through decreasing rate of methane
production from wetland cultivation.
If world preference for grains and cereals still continue, Cox et al.
(2010) offers alternative solution through perennial grains. Perennial
grains are less detrimental to the environment than annual grains as
they can sequester carbon and prevent soil erosion and water

contamination. However, I would argue that perennial staple crops are

better solutions for future world food provision. Toensmeier shows
many perennial staple crops have very high productivity, while
perennial grains in their experimental stages still show low
productivity. Moreover, perennial staple crops can sequester more
carbon, especially in agroforestry systems. Still, Research on perennial
grains that have many environmental benefits - such as perennial
wheat cultivation that retains ecological function of a prairie (Cox et al.
2010) - needs to be encouraged.