Got any information on the effect of climate change on heritage apples? Barbara Tremain-Howard over at Fruit Forum would like to hear from you.
Input subsidies to the rescue
Input Subsidies to Improve Smallholder Maize Productivity in Malawi: Toward an African Green Revolution. Denning G, Kabambe P, Sanchez P, Malik A, Flor R, et al. PLoS Biology Vol. 7, No. 1, e23.
Silver bullet, or propaganda?
Nibbles: China, Coconut, Sheep, Water, Plums, Kew
- “These young people can’t farm.”
- Let the people tap!
- Wolf sighted in Massif Central. France surrenders.
- Fascinating discussion of how much water farmers “use”.
- “Blueberries have some stiff competition”. From plums.
- Millennium Seed Bank hit by credit crunch.
Sick, but good
Eat plants because they are disesased? You gotta be kidding, right? Well, no, as we’ve talked about here before. And as Jeremy goes into in some detail over at Vaviblog. Know any more examples? Leave him a comment.
Seed Systems and Agrobiodiversity: The Book
The Dutch ambassador to Ethiopia in his opening speech stressed that a well functioning seed system is crucial for improving food security, increasing agricultural export, and conserving agrobiodiversity.
That’s one enlightened ambassador. He was launching a book, which you can download in its entirety: Farmers, seeds and varieties. Supporting informal seed supply in Ethiopia, edited by Thijssen, M.H., Zewdie Bishaw, Abdurahman Beshir, Walter S. de Boef.