Brainfood: Glaucous wheat, Iranian barley, Pigeonpea breeding, Automated peas, Bavarian crop diversity, Bean micronutrients, Wheat & CC, Introgression, Crossover, Decriminalizing landraces, Rationalizing Spain, Polish wheat

Genetic Control of Glaucousness in Wheat Plants. Ok, good to know. Now what?
Potential of Iranian wild barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum) in breeding for drought tolerance. Potential, potential, potential. Enough with the potential.
Pigeonpea improvement: An amalgam of breeding and genomic research. “…very few genomic inputs…currently employed at ICRISAT.” Well, why not?
Automated phenotyping for early vigour of field pea seedlings in controlled environment by colour imaging technology. How much money will be saved?
Crop diversity and stability of revenue on farms in Central Europe: An analysis of big data from a comprehensive agricultural census in Bavaria. High prices for a few crops working against the effect of diversity on income stability.
Screening common bean (P. vulgaris L.) germplasm for Fe and Zn biofortication. Almost there with the candidate genes. Almost. Compare and contrast with wheat.
Climate change impact and adaptation for wheat protein. We’ll need better adapted varieties, but even they will not keep pace with grain quality demands.
The extent of adaptive wild introgression in crops. Wild relatives are more than just crop ancestors.
Unleashing meiotic crossovers in crops. It’s all in the RECQ4 gene.
Decentralization and liberalization of seeds and plant genetic resources regulations in Europe: a Danish case study. If you want to grow and trade landraces, Denmark is your place.
Plant genebanks: present situation and proposals for their improvement. The case of the Spanish Network. If you want to have a well-running national genebank system, on the other hand…
Triticum polonicum L. as potential source material for the biofortification of wheat with essential micronutrients. Low strontium too.

Fresh Nibbles

A paean to diverse diets is just what we all need.
And another one, from the MIT Technology Review of all places.
Menawhile, there’s only one reference to dietary diversity in the World Bank’s investment framework for nutrition.
Maybe you have to quantify that diversity before you can save it? Now where have I heard that before?
Meanwhile, Europe reports on biodiversity-friendly farming practices. Does that include the biodiversity of the actual crops? Perhaps surprisingly, yes!
You want biodiversity-friendly farming practices? Talk to Indigenous people. The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has launched an e-consultation on “Preserving, strengthening and promoting Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems and traditional practices for sustainable food systems.”
There’s diversity in asparagus too.
Genebanks can help with those biodiversity-friendly practices, diverse diets and rops and Indigenous practices.
Even big international genebanks.
Even the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
But some are in trouble.
Though others are coming back.

Published on November 7, 2024

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