It’s conference season in India, I guess. With the XI Conference of the Parties of the CBD off the ground, that makes two major global talk-fests happening in Hyderabad this week. And we’re just sitting here waiting for you to tell us what’s going down.
Nibbles: Ames genebank, G20 meet, European bison, Genomics training, Old words, Roadside Salvia
- Yet another USDA genebank in the news. This time it’s maize.
- G20 Agriculture vice-ministers recommend to “Support the development and promotion of a global information sharing system on plant and animal genetic resources.”
- Bison returns to Germany.
- Learn population genomics of crops and livestock.
- Ebony is a pretty old word.
- How Salvia got around.
Nibbles: Cacao breeding, Specialy crops, Taihu pigs
- Breeding cacao in Ecuador.
- Supporting specialty crops in the US.
- Tasty Chinese piglets.
Legume geneticists get down in Hyderabad
And off we go with the VIth International Conference on Legume Genetics and Genomics! Or rather, off you go, because we’re stuck here. If anything wildly exciting happens, let us know about it.
LATER: I’ve just been called a legume chauvinist pig for plugging the above genomics conference and not the equivalent Rosaceae one. All righty then, here it is.
LATER STILL: Finally, a hashtag!
2nd day of the 6th International Conference on Legume Genetics and Genomics #VI_ICLGGHYD
— ICRISAT (@ICRISAT) October 3, 2012
Featured: Perenniation
Cindy Cox, one of the authors of the article described in a recent IFPRI article, encourages us to look beyond groundnuts, and trees, in thinking about perenniation.
I admit the first thing I saw in the IFPRI article was the picture and caption and I immediately slapped my forehead (groundnuts, perennials? doh!). Also, it is a shame that most readers seem to stop at trees and think this is yet another agroforestry article. There are indeed three perenniation strategies presented in the article, only one of which includes trees. Yes, trees use water but if you look at the picture in the article, the tree roots are busting their way through a hard soil layer to access resources that the maize roots would never have on their own. And there is no denying the significant increase in maize yields presented in this article due to perennials.
Good advice.