Nibbles: Farm size, Evidence-based policy, Priority sites, Tibetan grasslands, Sustainable intensification, Lipid improvement, Medicinal plants, Local fish, Wheat access, Purple yam,

  • Small is beautiful. No, wait… And more from where that came, ahem, from.
  • Evidence? We don’t need no stinking evidence.
  • CIAT blogs about a workshop about a model about prioritization about populations about breeding about beans. While its peach palm thing gets picked up.
  • Tibetan grasslands feel the heat. Not entirely certain why ICRAF should care, but it’s good to know.
  • Peaches compatible with maize in Bolivian agrobiodiversity hotspot. Not nearly enough info in this release, will need to chase it up. And here it is.
  • Rothamstead engineers lipids. But it’s for better nutrition, so that’s ok.
  • Trad med in RSA.
  • Fish as an ingredient of complementary foods. Nutritious, I’m sure, but I suspect Crocodile Dundee’s comment on the iguana applies.
  • US wheat breeders worried about access. Maybe if the country ratified the ITPGRFA?
  • Filipinos really like purple sweets, apparently. Here are some made of purple yam, ube, Dioscorea alata, call it what you will.

3 Replies to “Nibbles: Farm size, Evidence-based policy, Priority sites, Tibetan grasslands, Sustainable intensification, Lipid improvement, Medicinal plants, Local fish, Wheat access, Purple yam,”

  1. US wheat breeders

    Luigi: The US may not ratify the ITPGRFA because of its embargo rules – see RAFI Communique of October 1988. The US still may not be able to send germplasm freely – as required by the ITPGRFA – to nations on its black list (Cuba and others). I remember one embargo on Amaranthus seed not being allowed to a post-revolution Nicaragua. It stuck in my mind as, sitting near a prominent NGO-person in a meeting, he accused CIAT of not sending bean seed to Nicaragua (normal NGO inflation of evidence). Bad luck for him getting it wrong: he did not know that I just been in charge of the CIAT bean collection and rather liked Nicaragua and knew he was talking rot and told everyone so. But I don’t know the present US policy – it was confused in 1988.

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