Neglected species

March 3, 2026March 2, 2026

Crowdsourcing crop diversity, and information

A couple of crowd-sourcing initiatives caught my eye.

First, the good people at the COUSIN project want to expand genebank collections of wild relatives of wheat, barley, lettuce, brassica, and peas in Europe. And they have a pretty good idea where the collecting needs to be done. Think you can help? Check out the call for proposals.

And from a bit further south comes a plea on LinkedIn from Chris Jones of the ILRI genebank. He needs help getting stuff out of the genebank rather than into it.

As part of the ‘low-methane forages’ project, funded by the Gates Foundation and the Bezos Earth Fund, we have been screening the methane emission intensity of a range of forage accessions, in vitro, from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) genebank. The aim is to screen approximately 10% of the accessions held in our genebank and, to date, we have assessed 155 herbaceous legumes towards this goal, including several of our lablab accessions. From these, we have identified two accessions of interest. The methane emission intensity of accession #14447 was 27.7 ml/g total digestible dry matter (TDDM), 43% lower than the highest ten legumes measured so far, and methane emission intensity of accession #14458 was 33.8 ml/g TDDM, 30% lower. So, assuming that similar differences in methane emission intensity are realised in vivo (and that is no guarantee), the preferred candidate seems obvious. However, in our field plots #14458 produced 60% more biomass than #14447, which was an ‘average’ yielder. This higher level of production should be attractive to farmers who currently struggle to incorporate much in the way of legumes in their feed rations. So, which one would you prioritise?

I’ve added the links to the Genesys entries for the accessions in questions for people who want a bit more data to base their decision on. You can provide your input on Chris’ post, or right here and I promise to pass it on.

March 2, 2026March 2, 2026

Brainfood: Genetic erosion edition

Crop diversity trends captured by Indigenous and local knowledge: introduction to the symposium. A whole symposium on how Indigenous knowledge reveals widespread loss of traditional crops and landraces, and the increasing adoption of high-yielding varieties, driven by economic, political, climatic, and sociocultural forces.
Landraces and climate change: global trends through the lens of political agroecology. Structural forces (markets, policies) and unequal power in seed systems drive the decline of traditional varieties and marginalize Indigenous and local knowledge about crop diversity; climate change not so much.
Smallholders farmers defying global genetic erosion: documenting 60 years of peanut landrace conservation in a South American diversity center. Well, not everywhere. I wonder why…
Farmers hold diverse and connected values towards crops. The global literature shows that farmers value crops not just for yield and profit, but for a wide range of interconnected economic, agronomic, ecological, social, and cultural reasons that vary across farming systems, and recognizing these diverse values can improve research and policy on agricultural sustainability and crop diversity. So that’s why.
Towards a holistic framework: Exploring the relationship between seed security and food security dynamics among smallholder farmers in Chimanimani, Zimbabwe. The link between smallholder seed and food security is complex, non-linear, and shaped by socio-economic, environmental, and policy factors, showing that having secure access to seed does not automatically translate into food security and that context-specific, systemic approaches are needed to understand and strengthen both.
The local crop varieties (farmers’ varieties) registration system in Nepal: Past, present and future. It may all be very complex, but legally recognizing and protecting farmer-developed landraces within a formal seed regime can empower farmers, conserve agrobiodiversity, and strengthen seed system resilience.
Leveraging Earth Observation Technologies to Monitor Essential Genetic Diversity. Nah, we can do it from space.

February 24, 2026

Nibbles: German genebank, Bambara groundnut, Community seedbanks, Atacama genebank, Georgian traditional crops

Seed saving at IPK handed over.
Why Bambara groundnut needs saving.
Kenyan women get together to save seeds.
Saving seeds in the Atacama Desert.
Saving wheat and vines in Georgia.

February 23, 2026February 23, 2026

Brainfood: Genebanks edition

Seed collection and processing practices affect subsequent seed storage longevity in durum wheat and wild relatives. Immature seeds can still usefully be harvested for long-term storage of properly handled.
Two-step drying of soya bean seed germplasm often improves subsequent storage longevity. “Proper handling” includes drying at higher temperatures.
Seed-stored transcript integrity as a molecular indicator of viability in conserved common bean germplasm. mRNA degradation predicts loss of seed viability.
Developing a cryopreservation protocol for the conservation of coconut palm (Cocos nucifera L.) using a novel type of explant, meristematic clumps. Who needs seeds anyway?
Pollen cryobanking at the USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation. Well, who needs meristematic clumps?
Mapping pea seed composition through strategic selection of accessions from the Nordic gene bank. Image analysis can be used to maximise diversity in nutritional composition in pea seeds, thus facilitating use of genebank collections. Can’t do that with pollen, I suspect.
A small-scale assessment of the availability of EURISCO accessions. Facilitating use needs all the help it can get.
Strengthening national genebanks through genomics and regional collaboration: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean. I guess genomics capacity could help with use.
Enhancing farmers’ access and use of conserved germplasm for improved food security and climate resilience: The case of sorghum at Kenya’s national genebank. Genomics unavailable for comment. Farmers, on the other hand….
Linking the ICRISAT Genebank to Poverty Reduction and Welfare in Malawi. Facilitating use by farmers is important.
Farmers as breeders and seed producers: Insights from 30 years of scaling up seed clubs in Vietnam. It’s super cool when farmers organize. Including for genebanks.
Elephant ear yam Xanthosoma robustum Schott (Araceae), a neglected crop native to Central America. Needs more attention from genebanks. And farmers and their clubs for that matter.
Plant genebank of Sudan: Towards recovery from the wreckage of war to a new era of further capacity development based on lessons learnt from similar situations. We must de-risk genebanks. Wouldn’t want to lose all those elephant ear yam collections we’ll be making.

February 16, 2026February 16, 2026

Brainfood: Diversity of Sugarcane, Rice, Lentils, Olives, Sweetpotato, Cassava, Beans, Buckwheat, Pigeon pea, Landscapes

The genomic footprints of wild Saccharum species trace domestication, diversification, and modern breeding of sugarcane. The genome of modern sugarcane is a mosaic of wild introgressions, including one from an unknown source.
Evolutionary histories of functional mutations during the domestication and spread of japonica rice in Asia. Selection by biotic stresses acted differently on standing variation in rice across geographic regions. Colour me surprised.
Ancient DNA from lentils (Lens culinaris) illuminates human-plant-culture interactions in the Canary Islands. Local lentils trace back a thousand years in the Canaries.
An olive parentage atlas: founder cultivars, regional diversification, and implications for breeding programs. Modern cultivars derive from a surprisingly small set of founding genotypes…
Intraspecific variation and phenotypic plasticity of olive varieties in response to contrasting environmental conditions. …but cultivated olives maintain high within-species variation and plasticity, enabling adaptation across Mediterranean environments.
Deciphering the Origins of Commercial Sweetpotato Genotypes Using International Genebank Data. One Brazilian sweetpotato traced back to a CIP accession with a different name, but others did not match anything in the genebank.
Exploring genetic diversity and selective signatures, a journey through Colombian cassava’s landscape. Colombia’s farmers and environments have shaped its cassava diversity. No word on whether any of it traces back to the CIAT genebank.
Novel germplasm of tepary and other Phaseolus bean wild relatives from dry areas of southwestern USA. The available genepool for bean breeding gets a welcome boost.
Insight into root system architecture of buckwheat through genome-wide association mapping-first study. Want drought-resilient, high-yielding buckwheat varieties? Here are the genes — and genotypes — to play with. So the available genepool doesn’t need a boost?
Non-destructive prediction of nitrogen, iron and zinc content in diverse common bean seeds from a genebank using near-infrared spectroscopy. High-throughput, non-destructive phenotyping methods capture nutritional trait variation across a bean core collection. Wild teparies unavailable for comment.
Germplasm exploration and digital phenotyping reveal indigenous diversity and farmer preferences in pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) for climate-smart breeding. Not all phenotyping can be high-throughput, but that doesn’t mean it’s not useful, at least in pigeon peas.
Agricultural landscape genomics to increase crop resilience. Could have been applied to all of the above, I guess.