Nibbles: Public breeding, Millet Man, Strampelli museum, Ghana community seedbanks, genebank trifecta, CWR, Illegal Canadian potatoes, Açaí GI, Mayocoba bean, Spartan Actinidia, Bitters

  1. Public sector plant breeders are disappearing.
  2. The Millet Man of India is still there though. And why he’s important.
  3. A museum to public sector breeder Nazareno Strampelli appears in Italy.
  4. Another couple of community genebanks appear in Ghana.
  5. We can never have too many discussions on the importance of genebanks, so here’s another one. Not much on the community sort, though. Here’s another example: Ireland. Even the Arab States of Asia want one!
  6. And a deep dive on crop wild relatives in genebanks to round things off.
  7. A community saves illegal potatoes in Canada. Yeah, I know, there’s a lot to unpack there.
  8. Maybe that humble illegal potato needs a geographic indication, like that superfood, açaí.
  9. The Mayocoba bean as a superfood is a bit of a stretch, but there’s plenty of other pulses out there making waves.
  10. The Michigan State kiwi could probably do with a geographic indication too, come to think of it. Cold-hardy and smooth-skinned? Super!
  11. Ok, this is probably the last Nibbles before Christmas, so let’s celebrate with a drink: with bitters of course.

Nibbles: USDA germplasm plan, Millet CoP, Seed system resources, Kenyan sorghum Scottish crab apples, Heirloom maize, Yak cheese, Indian mangoes

  1. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a new National Strategic Germplasm and Cultivar Collection Assessment and Utilization Plan. Quite the tour de force. Now to get it funded.
  2. Yes, there’s now a community of practice on millets. Joined!
  3. The Seed System Lab at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences has lots of interesting resources on its new website.
  4. The latest on the Kenyan genebank’s sorghum work.
  5. Why wouldn’t Scotland have a crab apple genebank?
  6. Why Jimmy Red maize is worth saving, despite its faults.
  7. Yak cheese? Yes, please.
  8. And nice pics of Indian mangoes to close.

Nibbles: Seed system, Food system, Coffee infographic, African agroecology, ENRICH, Land Institute citizen science

  1. Do you want to describe and analyze seed systems? Let the Norwegian University of Life Sciences show you how.
  2. Do you think there should be a, well, systemic approach to the food system? So does the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Hope they include seed systems. And genebanks.
  3. Want a rather beautiful way to remember the complicated history of coffee? Let Chris Kornman sell you one. A time when botanic gardens acted as genebanks.
  4. Looking for an African take on African agricultural development? Million Belay has you covered. Wish he had mentioned African genebanks though.
  5. Would you like to celebrate 20 years of HarvestPlus? IFPRI to the rescue.
  6. Want to grow perennial crops for the Land Institute? Well now you can.

Nibbles: Fonio beer, ICRISAT seed kits, Dark Emu, China potatoes, 3D genebank, Bioculture, Microbiome genebank, Nutrition, Michigan kiwi

  1. You can make beer from fonio.
  2. ICRISAT providing Niger and Chad with sorghum and pearl millet seed kits. Fonio next?
  3. No, Echinochloa turneriana next. In Australia. I love the Dark Emu Hypothesis, and not least for its name.
  4. CIP is helping China improve its potato crop.
  5. Won’t be long before China’s genebank has 3D images of all its holdings. I’d love to see the potatoes.
  6. Want to see the earliest known site of domestication of teosinte?
  7. UK builds first crop biome cryobank.
  8. How the private sector can help with a more nutrition-sensitive agriculture. Should it want to.
  9. You can grow kiwi in Michigan. Should you want to.