Month: July 2010

July 26, 2010

Spore on agricultural biodiversity

CTA’s newly redesigned Spore has a special section on agrobiodiversity, highlighting work going on in Kenya and the Pacific, among other things, that we have mentioned here in the past. One is, however, disappointed to see the dreaded 75% figure flourished yet again. We also talked here about how many species feed the world.

July 26, 2010July 26, 2010

Nibbles: Beer and fungus, Maize breeding, Coconut on the Salalah plain, Zen, Camel, Grazing, Berries

Beer with shrooms. Well, not quite, but one can hope.
No more corn detasseling? Say it ain’t so.
“Oman to Plant 100,000 Coconut Trees in Dhofar.” That’s in the south of the country, a fascinating area. And one asks, as ever: What varieties, and what’s going to happen to the local material?
Be like the bamboo, man.
From DAD-Net, news of a mini-conference on the camel. And an article on same.
The struggle for forest grazing rights in India.
Dump blueberries, eat local berries, Brits told. Pavlovsk still in trouble.

July 26, 2010June 22, 2015

Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter: dead but maybe not yet buried

We are happy to publicize this request by Robert Koebner and Theo van Hintum, and wish them luck with their important initiative.

There has not been an issue of the Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter (PGRN) for a year. ¹ Its loss means that there is no longer a sensible outlet for “grey” literature on PRG -– such as reports of collecting expeditions, genebank updates, preliminary testing of new characterization protocols etc. A new intiative is currently being launched by Robert Koebner and Theo van Hintum (WUR) to bring PGRN back from the dead. The idea is to resume publication as a web-only English language journal housed at WUR, and to provide authors with linguistic support if needed. We are currently looking for the necessary financial sponsorship, and to achieve this we need to demonstrate that there is appreciable community support for the revival of PGRN.

So if you think that this is a worthwhile goal and that you would like to see PGRN back as a freely available, web-based journal, please email a message of support to Robert Koebner at mockbeggars(at)gmail.com, and leave a comment here.

We hope to hear from as many of you as possible!

July 25, 2010July 24, 2010

Visualizating the spread of agriculture

A lengthy post over at The Archaeobotanist on the mapping of human-affected vegetation — anthromes — has reminded me that I never did link to a great visualization of the last 300 years’ worth of agricultural intensification and spread. The common link between the two seems to be Prof. Navin Ramankutty of McGill University, who had a hand in the building of both datasets.

July 25, 2010

Feedback on the CGIAR’s megaprogrammes

Speaking of the CGIAR’s change process and its mageprogrammes, they’re now soliciting comments on the one on Agriculture for Improved Nutrition and Health, having previously done so for the one focused on “improving the productivity of livestock and farmed fish by and for the poor.” Not a bad idea, of course. Are we going to get an opportunity to do so for the “nixed” megaprogramme on agricultural biodiversity too? And why are we hearing about these consultations via FARA rather than more directly from the CGIAR? What CGIAR RSS feed am I missing?