- Biogeographic Information System Spatial Ecological Analysis of Megavertebrate Populations. Not agrobiodiversity by any stretch but stunning all the same, and a clarion call to our community to sort out Genebank Database Hell, surely.
- Traditional paddies as ecosystems. Great ones, too.
- Title says “seed banks susceptible to sham samples,” text says not really, and maybe it doesn’t matter much anyway. Our take from a few days ago.
- China’s millet useful in Africa. Which millet? Your guess is as good as mine.
- Cherimoya going seedless.
- Annex 1 list of International Treaty on PGRFA to expand? Well, maybe. Whatever, wow.
- Lecture materials on conservation and use of animal genetic resources.
- The ancient fast foods of Greece.
- Conserving heirloom apples. Nice gig if you can get it.
Featured: PGR newsletter
Somewhat belatedly (but they have other things on their mind) a message from Vavilov’s institute supporting the rebirth of Plant Genetic Resources newsletter:
Scientists and curators from the N.I.Vavilov Institute fully support this initiative. PGR Newsletter very important valuable publication and source of information for PGR community.
So what’s the story, Theo and Robert? Is no news good news? Let us have an update.
African indigenous vegetables information published
Notice of the publication of the new book “African Indigenous Vegetables in Urban Agriculture” by Earthscan allows me to point out that Bioversity has also just published a study of the impact of its interventions in that area of agrobiodiversity.
Nibbles: Mead, Treaty, Zoonoses, Flowery margins, Post-doc, Sacred Groves, Posters, Maize in Africa.
- Mead, part 4. You can find 1-3 yourselves.
- Plant genetic resources key to food security. The Jakarta Post gets it.
- Long, complex post from ILRI on zoonoses; diseases that infect people and animals.
- What are all the flowers for? The Provincial Agricultural Chamber of East Flanders seeks answers. h/t PAR.
- Wanna do a post-doc on Comprehensive modelling of agro-biodiversity in relation to seed exchange networks?
- Sacred groves threatened, by Times of India.
- Fabulous botanical posters, many featuring useful species, and all useful information. Of course tomatoes are fruits.
- I meant to write in detail about how Untapped crop data from Africa predicts corn peril if temperatures rise, but you know, life intervened.
Cooperation in Bali, now and then
As the Fourth Regular Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture gets off the ground in Bali, Indonesia, it may be useful to reflect, as Steve Lansing does in a fascinating talk, on what modern agriculture can learn from Balinese rice production. It turns out to be a lesson about the benefits of cooperation. 1
Synchronised irrigation schedules improve harvest and also reduce variance in harvests. The reduction in variance is potentially significant, because large differences in harvest could discourage cooperation by farmers with suboptimal harvests.