African students breeding Striga-resistant cowpea at US uni.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites and agricultural biodiversity
Two of the newly-inscribed sites in the UNESCO World Heritage List caught my eye because of their agricultural biodiversity connections: both, interestingly, are in Europe. The first is the Lavaux vineyard terraces, 30 km of 1000-year-old agricultural landscape around Lake Geneva. The second is the primeval beech forest of the Carpathians, in Slovakia and Ukraine. However, I must admit that this second one only caught me eye by mistake, as it were. I thought it was in these forests that the last aurochs lived, but that was ignorance, pure ignorance on my part. It is the wisent that lives there, still. The last recorded aurochs died in 1627 in the royal forest of Jaktorow in Masovia, central Poland. Somewhere else entirely. But I wonder if there are any other wild relatives — of either livestock or crops — in the primeval Carpathian beech forest.
Stover quality
A couple of papers today on stover quality, and how to get it. Stover is just the dried stalks and leaves of a crop, left in the field after the grain has been harvested. In many places around the world, it is almost as important as the grain itself, because it is used as animal forage or fodder. Sheep and goats and other animals are often allowed to roam around the harvested fields and eat their fill of the dried remains of the crop as well as any weeds and other volunteer plants they may find.
How to get the best quality stover, in terms of its digestibility and nutrient compositions? Well, as in so many things, genetics and management, according to work by three CG Centres. A paper on pearl millet in India by ICRISAT and ILRI researchers points to the importance of genetics: landraces had better quality stover than hybrids, though it came at the expense of yield. On the other hand, a paper from ICARDA in Syria found that rotations involving growing legumes such as medics or vetch in alternate years improved the protein content of both the grain and stubble of durum wheat. Now, I wonder, is there an interaction between the two? Do some varieties respond better than others to management in terms of their nutritional quality?
Low sugar watermelon
USDA boffins breed watermelon for diabetics.
It’s hot!
Quick roundup of the diversity of Italian summer drinks.