- Ethiopia rehabilitating more than 100 wheats and barleys in anticipation of climate change.
- MS Swaminathan Research Foundation makes images available.
- Minor delays on the road to Nagoya Protocol and CBD COP 12 in India.
- Placing ecosystems thinking at the heart of global food security. ILRI prepares for climate gabfest in The Hague.
Your Sunday chicken
There’s an interesting little film from the Ecologist Film Unit over at The Guardian, about the Giriraja chicken breed. 1 It’s an interesting take on an old story; that a little improvement to local resources can make a huge difference to the lives of poor rural families.
Not a lot of detail in the film; essentially it seems that a local breed of chicken known as the Giriraja, or Forest King, has been worked on by veterinarians at Bangalore University of Agricultural Sciences. They’re giving (selling?) chicks and advice to poor villagers, who are eating better and earning more.
Nothing wrong with that, except that the film puts all this in contrast to the industrialised chicken operations that are blooming in India, while at the same time seeming to suggest that this one breed could be the answer for poor people everywhere. That would be no better than industrial chickens. What poor people need, of course, is help to make better use of their own local chickens. And that is happening in all sorts of places: Uganda, Italy and Indonesia, for example
Nibbles: African data, Wild beans, Wild chickens, Heirloom tomatoes, Wild wheat
- African data centre planned.
- “…genetic variability and phenotypic plasticity of plant anti-herbivore defences allow plant populations to rapidly respond to changing environmental conditions.” In a crop wild relative, no less.
- The genetics of chicken domestication. I’d like to see the results of those crosses.
- Do you have these heirloom tomatoes?
- Getting increased heat tolerance from a wild relative into wheat.
Nibbles: Solanum nigrum, Blue tomato, Chickpea, COP10, Phosphates
- Leafy vegetable cures cancer! Well, nearly.
- Blue tomato seeds available. Well, nearly.
- Everything you ever wanted to know about chickpeas. Well, nearly.
- COP10 all over bar the shouting. Well, nearly.
- Phosphate supplies assured. Well, nearly.
MEPs to save bees
Bee pollination accounts for 76 per cent of food production and 84 per cent of plant species.
OK, I know it is Friday and I am tired, but what on earth does that sentence mean? Quite apart from the spurious accuracy of 76 2 and 84. I’m glad to know that MEPs back plans to combat decreasing bee numbers, as reported by The Parliament, and that “the European parliament’s agriculture and rural development committee voted through a resolution on the issue on Thursday”. Alas, the report tells me nothing about the resolution and how it will actually help bees and beekeepers, nor where I can find out more.