Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
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.
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. ((Added on 23 July 2015: Yeah, it’s a drag when links don’t work, isn’t it? Try here. Because this.)) 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!
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.
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?