Bioversity’s Michael Mackay was recently interviewed on Radio Australia about plans to lead us all out of genebank database hell. Good luck to him!
Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Crops, animals, wild relatives ...
Fresh Nibbles: February 13, 2012
: <- click to comment- GardenSearch just got way more complicated.
- Today’s silver bullet is an Australian grasspea variety. Actually the first Australian grasspea variety.
- Our friend Nik goes to town on IRRI’s wild relatives.
- How to breed sweet potatoes. The saga continues.
- Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
- ILRI uses the particular to make points about the general. Clever.
- Californian fine-foraging. I wonder if any of the diners will also read the following piece and be inspired to do their foraging further afield.
- Angelenos learn about Vavilov’s Principle.
- A forester argues for forests in the Rio+20 process. Mandy Rice-Davies applies.
- Tanzanian Regional Commissioner urges farmers to sow sorghum and millet. If necessary, they can learn from …
- Farmers in Tamil Nadu, who helped scientists learn lots more about local millets, and got a publication into the bargain.
- Who’s doing what in Kenya in climate change adaptation and mitigation. Genebank scrapes in, though not by name, under KARI.
Nibbles Archive: All that condensed goodness.
And easy access to the Brainfood Archive.
Featured Comment: February 11, 2012
SLNRao regrets the mistakes of the past, but sees a bright future ahead for grasspea, and its relatives:
Looking at the likely benefits of Homoarginine on the cardiovasculature and emerging concepts on ODAP itself I am of the firm belief that grass pea in coming years will turn into a rich man’s pulse.
- February 13, 2012: Gregory Vaughan commented on Not all Andean tubers are potatoes
- February 12, 2012: michael bennett commented on Erna Bennett: more on this unique person
- February 12, 2012: R Hardwick commented on Nibbles: Cover crops, Barley tempeh, Irish biodiversity, Veg research, Landwirtschaft in einer anderen Dimension, Farmers Markets
- February 11, 2012: Kenneth Welles commented on Giant swamp taro analyzed
- February 9, 2012: SLNRao commented on Debating the future of grasspea breeding
- February 8, 2012: Clare Trivedi commented on Nibbles: Mike Jackson blog, Philippines genebank fire, Ancient garden, USA maps, Horse domestication, Gnats, Livestock training, Chocolate, Epigenetics, Indian nutritional security, Kew fund, GM bananas, Reconciling databases
- February 7, 2012: Ola Westengen commented on Cotton doyen passes away
- February 7, 2012: Jacob commented on Nibbles: Musa taxonomy kerfuffle, Vouchers, Foodies, Aroid roundup, MAS is ok, Sierra Leone conservation
- February 7, 2012: David commented on Cotton doyen passes away
- February 6, 2012: Dave Wood commented on Nibbles: Mike Jackson blog, Philippines genebank fire, Ancient garden, USA maps, Horse domestication, Gnats, Livestock training, Chocolate, Epigenetics, Indian nutritional security, Kew fund, GM bananas, Reconciling databases
- Darwin Day 2012: b’lieve I’m fixing to live
- Are you a graduate student interested in organic plant breeding and seed systems?
- New Plant Hardiness Zone Map ready for prime time
- How to solve global hunger and malnutrition
- Online Biodiversity Heritage Library has agrobiodiversity too
- Next-generation sequencing and genebanks: a teaser
- Cotton doyen passes away
- Kermit sings the malnutrition blues
- Consolidation in the seed industry
- Brainfood: Falcons, Wild soybean squared, Horse domestication
- Germplasm documentation is a two way street
- How grafting a plum tree led to an obsession
- Using data to inform nutrition security policy
- The quinoa story: it’s complicated
- Forests at your service: lessons from Kibale
- Breadfruit roundup
- Not all Andean tubers are potatoes
- Yemen spatial data online, sort of
- CGIAR research on Cassava Brown Streak Disease
- Ground-truthing SPAM
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Thanks for the Radio Australia reference. Here’s a link directly to an MP3 of the interview with Michael on Breakfast Club.
Seed Banks: Armageddon seeds coming to a store near you.
12 January 2009
Seed banks have been built over the last few decades to ensure that if there was ever a cataclysm (flood, climate change or pestilence) then crops will still be able to be replanted. Now Michael Mackay from Bioversity in Rome wants these seeds made available. He tells the Breakfast Club why they’re needed right now.
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/ra/podcast/breakfastclub/20090112.mp3