ADVANCES IN THE AGRICULTURE SECTOR
GENETIC ENGINEERING IN CROP SEEDS - THE MIELIE PLANT POTENTIAL COMBOS
A mielie plant has very light green leaves; almost a powdery green, which means that there is not alot of photosynthesis that occurs in the plant; as a dark green pigmentation of the leaves is indicative of a high chlorophyll content and a high incidence of #photosynthesis.
The powdery lime-coloured of mielie plant
This can account for the low nutritional value of mielies; and the various products manufactured from mielies - such as mielie meel - as can the low nutrient level in the soil, which is one of a complex myriad of factors which has lowered the photosynthesis effigacy of crop plants over a period, spanning eons, of organised agriculture.
The leaves of an Agapanthus plant
By isolating a gene in the Agapanthus praecox responsible for a) the long, sharp and dark green leaves and then inserting it into the mielie plant, the lack of photosynthesis will no longer be a problem as the plant will have the much needed chlorophyll. Also, though, if genetic engineers can b) isolate the fruiting/flowering gene and insert it into the mielie plant, one can have the photosynthesis benefit of a clump of lower dark green leaves and also the stalk of flowers which grow out of a clump of Agapanthus leaves. This stalk produces flowers or in this case, if inserted into a mielie plant, the mielies, meaning clumps of mielie, thereby making better use of space.
Agapanthus: frost durable
The Agapanthus is frost durable and whilst the leaves are evergreen, the flowers bloom in high summer and are perrenial, which means that if conditions can be kept at a summer climate, the mielie plant, which has the Agapanthus leaves and fruiting stalk, it can produce all year round, being impervious to outdoor frost, which could get in through the underfoot soil, if mielie plants are not planted from their own soil growing pods.
Agapanthus are easy to grow on most terrains and have a clingy root system that can even be planted even on declines. It is also apt to fighting soil and wind erosion.
Perhaps, if grown in an indoor food-growing greenhouse and a frame held individual plants at a steep slanting incline, the plant could grow a node of Agapathus leaves, then a node of flowering fruit or mielies and then a repeat of this on and on as far as the plant will allow but that having been said, an Agapanthus' leaves on a mielie plant would cure the lack of leaf material for photosynthesis.
An indoor food-growing operation. The pink/red L.E.D. growing lights have been found to be harm-free, unlike UV lights.
Another plant which could solve the farmer's problem with tilling soil, burning last year's crop and having to replant new seeds every year would be the Arum Lily.
The Arum Lily with it's dark green leaves needed by lagging crop plants for photosynthesis
One of the problems we face, though, in agriculture, is farmers using this year's seeds for next year's crop. Buying new seeds is imperative. The seed-sharing amongst farmers when one's crop was not successful is counter-productive and using every year's dying crop plant seeds? for the next year planting, is completely without merit.
The Arum lily, as a plant which has a rhyzhome root system; similar to an above ground creeper, except that it is the root system which sprouts new plant bulbs as it creeps along; mitigating the need for groundcover in between crop plants, growing so closely together that it would automatically lower surface and atmospheric temperature, due to increased plant material above and below ground. It would also mean that replanting seeds each year would be unnecessary.
The rhyzome root system of an Arum Lily, propagatebest when grown in containers and need to kept in a moist soil or wetlands type of soil moisture level. Undercover fields or fields with an origami-inspired dome would be necessary to avoid too much evaporation and a dry soil developing.
Written by Simone Slade
Source
Own working experience from a few months working at a nursery. Also, my mother is a green-fingered expert. I also grew up on a small-holding in the Free State, which had an extensive food and flower garden.
