- IFAD and Bioversity, sitting in a tree …
- Don’t mimic nature on the farm.
- But don’t ignore it either. Learn from nature.
- Costa Rican farmers have done both, to adapt to climate change.
- There’s no imitating pollinators though.
Featured: Similarity groups
An item in Monday’s Brainfood prompted Brian Ford-Lloyd to revisit the concept of core collections. The paper looked at “similarity groups” in genebank holdings.
One important question they addressed was ‘why identify similarity groups?’ (not to be confused with duplicates), and only time will tell whether their expectations will be met.
However, there are other issues that occurred to me. One is the relationship with ‘core collections’ (which are not mentioned in the article) of which there are now many, even for a single crop such as rice, and which are proven to be of considerable use (see: Genetic resources and conservation challenges under the threat of climate change, Ford-Lloyd, Engels and Jackson – in Plant genetic resources and climate change – Jackson, Ford-Lloyd and Parry, 2014) (sorry for the plug!). So, having identified similarity groups, is it now necessary to go back and redesign core collections? This seems unlikely, but it would perhaps be worthwhile checking core collections to see the extent of occurrence of ‘similar’ accessions. This might have particular value, not necessarily to ensure maximised diversity within core collections. It might be useful to look for similar accessions to those that have already proved to be of value within core collections, possibly revealing similarly adapted accessions of even greater value.
Nibbles: Resilience conference, Farmer conservation, Goat smell, grape genes
- If you were thinking of registering for Resilience 2014 in Montpellier, you better get your skates on. It closes on 10 March.
- UK pays farmers to conserve biodiversity – but not crop biodiversity.
- Eau de goat is “citrus-scented” shock.
- A web-based resource to understand the 30,000 genes that make grapes.
Nibbles: Sorghum beer, No beer, Malaysian rice, Soil diversity, World Food Prize, Photo prize
- Brewery opens sorghum demonstration farm in Tanzania.
- Maybe California’s barley barons need to get into sorghum.
- Paddy Gene Bank nothing to do with Guinness.
- I really dislike the US habit of calling soil dirt, even when that allows alliteration about diversity and dirt.
- Who do you know worthy of the Word Food Prize?
- And the prize for jolting a dead cliché back to life goes to CIAT, for this stunner: International Photo Competition ‘Forest-Agriculture Interface: Gender Lens’.
Featured: Seed law
So I asked whether James Ming Chen “would actually prevent seed saving,” and Clem rapidly shot back more questions.
If you mean “Will seed saving (legal or otherwise) actually be prevented” then I can’t say from skimming Chen’s paper cited here. However, if the question amounts to “Is he serious”, then I’d have to say – very much so.
I’m not finding any mention of publicly available germplasm in the piece, perhaps I’ve not looked closely enough. All the argument seems to be in favor of breeder’s rights and indeed there is plenty of disgust with the opportunity cost borne by breeding businesses that must invest in protection schemes so as to capitalize on their investment in breeding.
What I’m curious about in the seed law discussion on your side of the pond is how public domain germplasm will be treated… would seed of an heirloom variety be only available through gifting and non-commercial exchange? If someone grows a public domain seed and subsequently offers the same for commercial sale, will a purchaser have any recourse or claim if said seed is found to be other than described?
Ooops. I’ve just bitten the end of my tongue off, not rising to the bait of the “opportunity costs” borne by the poor beleaguered seed industry.