Jeremy Cherfas

Nibbles: Veggies, Livestock, Micronutrients, Scurvy, Hemp

Grow what the market wants, African veggie growers told.
Develop the markets for what you grow, Vietnamese farmers told.
You need diverse animal breeds to graze on diverse landscapes shock.
Why, then, are pastoralists abandoning pastoralism?
The Micronutrient Forum is being revived with a gabfest in Addis, 2-6 June. Be still my beating heart.
They’re obviously not going to be too worried about scurvy.
It’s cannabis, Jim, but not as we know it. Hemp Is Coming Back As A Farm Crop. Oh yeah it is.
Whatever, I just hope the seed goes to Svalbard.

“Will Increased Food Production Devour Tropical Forest Lands?” A long condensed version of an even longer answer.
Baobabs hybridise rather freely. Time to edit all those factsheets?

The moment he (and we) have been waiting for: #luigigoestosvalbard.

Let’s get that #hashtag trending.

Liberation: Proof, if proof were needed, that what you really need to snaffle EU funding is an acronym.
Not just yields but nutritional value of staple crop threatened by climate change.
Bee crisis still bad news for agriculture.
Bee crisis still good news for researchers.

Kurdistan inaugurates a new genebank in Sulaymaniyah, which Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani calls one of Kurdistan and Iraq’s most important national projects.
Ghana complements its national collection at Bunso. The new facility further north will improve drying, processing and conservation, while giving northern farmers and breeders closer access to crop diversity.
Three decades of African bean research partnerships and networking have helped turn a staple crop into a vehicle for improved nutrition, livelihoods and climate resilience.
In the Philippines, eight promising purple-yam accessions combine yield, sensory quality and market appeal, with Villasis 2 producing up to 60 tonnes per hectare in trials. Does it need a network next?
However, executive director of Seed Savers Exchange Mike Bollinger’s call in Food Tank’s to carry seed diversity forward extends stewardship beyond formal institutions: Indigenous communities, farmers, gardeners and seed libraries all have a role in keeping crop diversity alive and used.