Luigi Guarino

February 1, 2009February 1, 2009

Nibbles: Vanilla, Bhutan, Oca, Satoyama

Vanilla domestication 101.
Bhutan ponders biodiversity database. We say: Don’t forget the crops, people.
“Crap crops of the Incas.” One man’s on-off relationship with oca.

Satoyama: Japan’s Secret Water Garden. A different approach to rice.

January 30, 2009January 31, 2009

Confusion at New Scientist

The New Scientist’s blogger manages to confuse the Svalbard Global Seed Vault with the Millennium Seed Bank. I guess it was inevitable.

LATER: No, it wasn’t me that left that first, rude comment! And I’m offended that you think it might have been.

January 30, 2009

Indigenous Tourism and Biodiversity Website Award

Don’t forget to vote!

January 30, 2009

Call for info

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.

January 29, 2009

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?

Fresh Nibbles

A North Macedonian professor’s 15-year rescue mission for landraces and crops surviving only in remote villages. Why bother? Stay tuned…
Ancient grapevines in Tigray represent a unique genetic lineage with potential value for breeding varieties adapted to dryland conditions.
Hawai’i Public Radio checks in on Maui’s coconut genebank. Useful to breed varieties adapted to really wet conditions, presumably.
The Cayman Islands are also hoarding coconuts, along with lots of tasty fruits.
A USD 400,000 boost from Taiwan for the Eswatini national genebank. Indigenous vegetables get much-needed love.
A regional survey of 25 orphan crops across 13 Latin American countries finds quinoa and amaranth well-catalogued, but characterization budgets are the real bottleneck. Collecting and conserving in genebanks is great, but not enough.
South Korea puts 330,000 seed accessions under “double lock”, hedging against both climate change and war. Conserving in one place is not enough.
FAO warns that nearly a third of the world can’t afford the USD 4.28 a day that a healthy diet costs — nearly three billion people, and rising. That’s why we need al the above, I guess.

Published on July 28, 2026