Bio-diversity

Discouraged by regular crop loss during the rainy seasons by heavy flooding waters, tired of reinstating their soil medium following severe soil erosion, many onion growers from the narrow coastal trip regions of Petit Sable, Grand sable and Bamboux Virieux have ceased the Local Red onion (Onion Toupie) production during the last twenty years to seek their livelihood elsewhere. Furthermore remaining farmers have been trying very hard during the last five years to maintain production and are unconsciously protecting this local variety considered as a Patrimoine Agricole de Maurice from disappearing from Mauritian cuisine. Marginalised by the authority, the South East onion farmers have strived hard to face the odds for more than one hundred years of their existence to maintain onion production as their only source of livelihoods. As main producers and suppliers of Local red onion seeds and setts to the rest of planters community over the island, they strategically controlled this variety of onion production in Mauritius. However seeds and setts production have been on the diminishing trend due to crop damage, soil fertility and irrigation problems, and a subsequent reduction of onion farmers. In order to reverse the decreasing trend in seeds yield and to revamp setts production for transformation, the project seeks to address both production and environmental factors that have restrained crops production on the South East coast for years. Mouvement Pour L Autosuffsance Alimentaire (MAA) came to the support of the South East coast Farmers following the May 1998 major flooding which resulted in total crop damage, heavy soil erosion and their subsequent impoverishment. Two years later in April 2000, another severe flood disaster hit the South East region which devastated all crops down the mountain slopes and took farmers soil medium to the sea. At this critical juncture, it was crucial for MAA to lift farmers morals against abandoning production and to advocate on their behalf for a financial compensation from the authority for total crop loss. In the same move MAA entreated Government for the urgent planning and implementation of an Amenagement du Territoire du Sud Est . Unfortunately government responded through piecemeal actions such as the dredging of rivers on mountain slopes and the reinforcement of river bank/cross drains at specific sites considered to be only temporary corrective solutions to the flooding problems. Government non-compliance for sustainable long-term solutions to the flooding problems is in fact a political issue and is embedded in financial priorities rather than the security of the South East communities. The dread of heavy flooding risks is a real psychological burden for farmers during the rainy seasons. During the last four years farmers have been spared from the devastating floods of summer rains but a recent mild flood in October 2007, which caused 10% loss of onion seedlings, gave us a strong warning of existing flooding risks. The region is characterised by having small well-defined watersheds of between 100 to 200 ha. Each watershed has several drainage lines that join together into main drains that finally open into the sea. The strategy to mitigate flooding problems rests on improving existing natural drainage system and to supplement these with new appropriate drainage infrastructure from the mountain slopes downwards that can channel voluminous excess rushing water through main evacuation canals to the sea. Moreover the improvement and consolidation of the main and lateral drains of farmers plots would additionally facilitate the fast evacuation of water to avoid crop loss and manage the land sustainability. The 1998, 2003 and 2005 MAA workshops at Petit Sable set new objectives and actions to improve the livelihood of farmers, to mitigate the massive loss of topsoil to the sea and the continuous destruction of the S.E fragile ecosystem. Regrouping and structuring the South East farmers were among the main priorities. The Association des Planteurs du Sud Est (APSE), was registered in 2001. However the 2005 MAA/APSE workshop report recommended that in order to reverse the decreasing trend in production and to maintain the onion growers into business it was crucial that the drainage, irrigation, soil fertility, and seed production problems be addressed. It also stressed out on the necessity for farmers to go for the exploitation of the value addition of their produce. The Local Red onion variety is native to the area. There are two types of onion in Mauritius: the open pollinated (OP) one including the local Red, Veronique and Novelise and the Hybrid Varieties. Among the OP, the local red is the most appreciated by Mauritian for its pungency, shape, colour and shelf life compared to hybrid varieties which is characterised by relatively poor storability leading to high percentage of post harvest loses. The high storability of the local red is governed by its small size and its colour. Among its main characteristics the native Local Red is Toupee shape with closed neck, reddish-brown colour and its high soluble solids contribute to its high storability to 6 months with 6 to 9% losses. A. Lottoo in 2006 (MAA Secretary Cum social worker) pointed out in a research study on onion that Saxena et al (1974) reported that red cultivars have higher storage potential in comparison with yellow and white. She also pointed out that Local red is reputed to have high dry matter co

Mauritius