Nibbles: Crop diversity, Coloured rice, Saudi genebank, WorldVeg genebank, Mango genebank, USDA apple genebank, Green Revolution, Organic agriculture

IFAD says we need diverse crops. KAUST says we need coloured rice. I hope it will go into Saudi Arabia’s new genebank. Genebank scientists says we need more collaboration. Goa thinks they need a new mango genebank. The USA already has an apple genebank. But will all these genebanks lead to a new Green Revolution… …

Brainfood: Ecological intensification, Green Revolution narrative, Agroecology, Livelihood diversification, Eating wild species, Seed systems, Improved peanuts, PGRFA school curriculum

Long-term evidence for ecological intensification as a pathway to sustainable agriculture. Meta-analysis of 30 long-term experiments from Europe and Africa comprising 25,565 data points shows that increasing crop diversity and adding fertility crops and organic matter are as good for the yield of staple crops as N fertilization, but don’t add much if you already …

Brainfood: Green Revolution narratives, Soybean diversity, Wild barley diversity, Maize and bean breeding, Rice breeding, Apple pedigrees, Trees and diets, ICRISAT genebank, IITA genebank, GHUs, CGIAR policy, Diverse farming, De novo domestication

Epic narratives of the Green Revolution in Brazil, China, and India. Symbols, heroes, heritage-making and we-will-do-it-even-better-next-time in the service of self-preservation and self-assertion. But, as we shall see below, not everything needs to be an epic success to be interesting, and useful. Using landscape genomics to infer genomic regions involved in environmental adaptation of soybean …

Brainfood: Food system, Transformation of, Climate change effects on, Pandemic and, Future of, Effect of Green Revolution on, Mesoamerican CWR, Moroccan crop diversity, USA crop diversity, GM, Environmental behaviours

Food systems: seven priorities to end hunger and protect the planet. Oh good, includes “Biodiversity and genetic bases need to be protected. Seed varieties must be preserved, and their phenotypes and genotypes explored in the contexts of climate change and nutrition. Traditional food and forest systems, including those of Indigenous peoples, need to be better …

Brainfood: Green Revolution, Hybrid wheat, Pacific PGRFA, Temperate maize, Maize seed, Yemeni coffee, Nutrition agriculture, Vanilla breeding, Cultivar mixture, Meta-analysis, Algerian forages

Health Impacts of the Green Revolution: Evidence from 600,000 births across the Developing World. Modern varieties reduced infant mortality from 18% to 12-15% across 21,604 locations in 37 developing countries between 1961–2000. Wide adaptation of Green Revolution wheat: International roots and the Indian context of a new plant breeding ideal, 1960–1970. Thank goodness for photoperiod …