A course on genetic resources for plant breeding is being organized at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Alnarp, Sweden. The person responsible is Prof. Rodomiro Ortíz, who has a huge amount of experience in the field, with a wide variety of crops. It’ll be in August, and the deadline for applications is April 30.
UC Davis Plant Breeding Symposium coming soon
The 2015 UC Davis Plant Breeding Symposium will take place on April 10. The topic is “Challenges in Plant Breeding: Past, Present, and Future.” There’s an interesting lineup of invited speakers, and “[t]his year is the first time that students have the chance of presenting their research during the symposium.” We’ve been promised a summary post when it’s done. But that shouldn’t stop you going, if you can, or following the webinar.
Australia’s very valuable new pastures genebank
A video has just surfaced about the Australian Pastures Genebank, courtesy of the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), starring my mate Steve Hughes. Here are the headline numbers: 70K accessions, 2K species, collected over 60 years, ROI 119:1. Say what? Return on investment in a genebank of over 100 to 1? How come I’ve never come across this before? Well, it’s from a 2007 report to the Steering Committee of Australia’s National Genetic Resource Centre entitled “Benefit-cost analysis of the proposed National Genetic Resources Centre.” And I can’t find it online. But Steve has promised to send it. Stay tuned…
Nibbles: Wine & CC, Native American food, Olives in Crete & Palestine, Adopt-an-Alpine-Cow, Landscape terms, Gates investments, African smallholder advice
- Grape-ocalypse now.
- Take the Healthy Roots Indigenous Wellness Challenge.
- A Kickstarter to map Crete’s ancient olive trees. And why not? Maybe Palestine next?
- Different sort of crowdfunding for Italian cheese.
- Please, sir, what’s a ujleer.
- Gates Foundation throws Big Fast Food under the bus.
- African smallholders told to diversify. Like they don’t know already.
- African smallholders told to link up with markets. African smallholders tired of getting advice.
Confused? You will be!
There is a nice set of presentations online on what it means in practical terms for a plant germplasm collection to be Nagoya and International Treaty compliant, in this particular case in the UK. I especially like the one by Penny Maplestone, Chief Executive of the British Society of Plant Breeders:
If you’re still confused, you might like to turn to Carolina Roa’s post on the SMTA.