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I am fascinated by the varieties and yield potentials of many perennialstaple crops that are available to be utilized in an agroforestry system,as described by Toensmeier in perennialsolutions.org. Many I haveknown 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 family’s diet, are dicult to nd in the market.

It is unfortunate that the wide varieties of those carbohydrates,protein, and oil producing plants are under!utilized. Toensmeier liststhese barriers of adoption that include diculty to obtain propagatingmaterials, longer time to obtain yield, diculty to change consumers’diet, and the need for special handling e"uipment.

In the case of developing countries, I want to highlight cultural barrieras the main barrier to adopt perennial crops. Many of these perennial

crops originate from these countries, yet their productions in theseparts of the world keep declining. #$% records declining trends of production and consumption of tubers and starchy roots all over theworld, and ma&or producers of these commodities come fromdeveloping countries 'www.faostat.fao.org(. I observe that in manydeveloping countries, preference for grains and cereals are increasing.)eople who traditionally eat tubers and starchy roots are consistentlychanging their diets to grains and cereals as their livelihoods improve. Ithink livelihood improvement urges people to adopt eating habits of more a*uent societies.

+npopularity 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 preventcatastrophic climate change-. Indeed, as discussed in the previousclass that the longer plant biomass stays in the eld the higher is theircapacity to se"uester carbon. %ther benets may include ecosystemservices such as water retention and erosion control. eneticbiodiversity may improve as well, as most of them do not need to becultivated as monocultures.

I would argue for climate change mitigation potential of perennialstaple crops through land!use change. If people change their diets to

perennial staple crops, the trend of monoculture e/pansion can bestopped or reversed. In addition, in many countries whose ma&orstaple is rice, the halt of rice!eld e/pansion will be benecial forclimate change mitigation through decreasing rate of methaneproduction from wetland cultivation.

If world preference for grains and cereals still continue, 0o/ et al.'1232( o4ers alternative solution through perennial grains. )erennialgrains are less detrimental to the environment than annual grains asthey can se"uester carbon and prevent soil erosion and water

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contamination. 5owever, I would argue that perennial staple crops arebetter solutions for future world food provision. Toensmeier showsmany perennial staple crops have very high productivity, whileperennial grains in their e/perimental stages still show lowproductivity. Moreover, perennial staple crops can se"uester morecarbon, especially in agroforestry systems. 6till, 7esearch on perennialgrains that have many environmental benets ! such as perennialwheat cultivation that retains ecological function of a prairie '0o/ et al.1232( ! needs to be encouraged.