- Indian tiger park protects crop wild relatives and other useful plants. h/t Danny.
- CAPRi News highlights a book about Asian Aquaculture Successes.
- Precision breeding creates super potato. Yeah, if you want an industrial feedstock, not food.
- Maize moved from hand to hand, not with moving farmers. And that means … ?
- An African view of climate change. Complex.
- Zimbabwe’s advice on climate change: “Plant more sorghum, less maize“. Simple.
- Survival farming in Zimbabwe. Hard.
- Small farmers growing Piper pepper in Vietnam
- China has set up its first national seed bank as part of the country’s efforts to protect biodiversity. I’ve been there, says Jeremy, and it is stunning.
Hi-tech helps crop wild relatives
Our friend Andy Jarvis has been explaining to the readers of ICT Update not only how important crop wild relatives are, but also how geographic information systems can help conserve and make use of these important genetic resources. In the context of a longer article on Eco-efficient agriculture, Andy uses the peanut to point out that:
There are, for example, a total of 69 species of crop wild relatives that are in some way related to the cultivated peanut. Of these, 17 species are under significant threat of extinction from the expansion of the agriculture in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia. Our analyses have demonstrated that a further 15 species are significantly threatened with extinction from climate change.
Jarvis and his team at CIAT use GIS and data from existing specimens to predict where important species might be found.
Collectors can then use global positioning systems (GPS), loaded with the data, to locate the vulnerable species and collect their seed.
Will that be enough to preserve the crop wild relatives on which the future of agriculture depends? Who knows. But it is a start.
P.S. In the same issue, Kwesi Atta-Krah, Deputy Direcctor General of Bioversity International, answers some questions about biodiversity, “the richest natural resource“.
Diversity improves waste recycling
The stuff that comes out of olive mills after the oil has been extracted is difficult to deal with. It ought to be a good addition to soils, increasing organic matter and other good qualities. But because it is a rather slimy sludge, it doesn’t decompose well. It is often composed by mixing half and half with sheep litter, and in a recent experiment, grape stems were added too. The result was faster, better compost. Olio, pecorino e grappa. Good for you, good for the land.
Nibbles: Monsanto, Carnival, Recycling, Kelp, Land lease, Pinole
- Monsanto under anti-trust investigation in US. h/t Our man in the policy maelstrom, Michael.
- Scientia Pro Publica, latest edition.
- From the SPP carnival, a recycled doormat saves edible marine biodiversity.
- Kelp farming in Maine. h/t Sadie Jane.
- “Is there such a thing as Agro-Imperialism?” we’ll let you know when we’ve read this long article. h/t Resilience Science
- This is the jerky of the plant kingdom. For those who don’t know, this is the jerky of the animal kingdom.
Nibbles: Climate change, Blog, Language, Language Again, IT,
- Indigenous people take video evidence to Copenhagen. The big site. (Cool map.)
- Congratulations to Biofortified, winners of an interview with foodie god Michael Pollan (and $1500).
- What colour is a banana? Linguist understands diversity, everyone else fails.
- And an orange?
- Google rescued my potato harvest. Long, dull article about a short, sharp story.