I heard about this last week when I was at NBPGR in New Delhi, but it’s quite surprising to see it in the popular press. Just goes to show how important mango is in India. With funding from the Sultanate of Oman, the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) is going to produce a catalogue of all the mango varieties of the world. Sounds like a monumental enterprise. But, given the news lately about loss of varieties, very timely. Hope the wild relatives will be included.
Nibbles: Grains, Cuba, Wine, Raspberries, Film, Bio-char, European market regulations
- Perennial grains need your help.
- “In Cuba no one is helpless or dying of hunger.”
- Biodiversity in wine champion. But what about other cultivated species?
- “It’s called Ukee and it is a very special red raspberry“. Jeremy says “BTDTGTTS.”
- A sceptic evaluates “Food, Inc.”. Jeremy says “we shall see”.
- “I hope that the charcoal fever passes and the zealots and rent seekers move on to the next big fantasy”. May they pyrolize in Hell.
- Welcome, “curly cucumbers, crooked carrots and mottled mushrooms“!
Good news from Trinidad & Tobago
While many newspaper readers and television viewers overseas are, repeatedly, exposed to negative news about this country, particularly with respect to the uncomfortable rise in the level of murders, it would be a plus for the image of the twin island State if these people could be apprised as well of the contribution of Trinidad and Tobago’s International Cocoa Gene Bank.
Go get ’em, George Alleyne, who writes to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Cocoa Gene Bank. We all share the problem of interesting people in news about agricultural biodiversity, when what they really want is murder and mayhem.
Rice breeding gets a boost … and needs it
The Hindu reports that the Tamil Nadu Rice Research Institute (TRRI) is now involved in the Cereal System Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), a project funded by USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and launched in January. One of the interesting, but arcane, aspects of The Hindu’s coverage is the use of the phrase “mega collaborative project” to describe CSISA. That phrase may resonate with people involved in the CGIAR’s latest effort to reinvent itself. The other is that “proven technologies will be delivered to the farmers and the pipeline technologies will be evaluated in Adaptive Research Trials for fine tuning and delivery”.
Will those proven technologies include the use of biodiversity other than as a source of interesting traits for the pipeline technologists?
We said originally that CSISA “deserves to be a success” but we’re still wondering how innovative the approach will be.
Rice is clearly going to need all the help it can get to continue to feed people in the next few decades. SciDev.net reports on a recent publication from scientists in Bangladesh predicting a 20% drop in yields to 2050 and a 50% drop to 2075. I can’t speak to the accuracy of the figures, but I can say that the world needs to wake up to the fact that changes are coming, that they are going to require flexibility and adaptability, and that it is not too late to start preparing.
Nibbles: Eels, Learning, Taro
- Norway protects eels.
- 3d interactive training materials for beekeeping and sorghum cultivation.
- More on the Hawaiian GM taro story.