Due to overwhelming popular demand, 1 here’s the next instalment of Luigi’s tour of Caucasus genebanks. Below is the site of the Scientific Center of Agrobiotechnology of the Ministry of Agriculture, which houses the Armenian national genebank, and is one of the key stakeholders in the national plant genetic resources programme. It is located in Echmiadzin (Էջմիածին), about a half hour drive to the west of Yerevan. A couple hundred meters north of the institute is the Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin, the central cathedral of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The national genebank boasts something like 450 wheat, 300 chickpea and 100 capsicum accessions, among others. The Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin boasts three pieces of the True Cross and a bit of Noah’s Ark.
Featured: Enough with the factsheets already
Michael says what Luigi was too much of a wuss to do more than imply:
These factsheets can be nice corporate/project hand-outs, if well done, but otherwise a waste of time. When I need information on baobab or other useful plants, I certainly will not go to an institutional website to look for factsheets. I google, and what usually comes up is a Wikipedia article (as for baobab) with oftentimes far better information.
Nibbles: Vigna umbellata, Afghanistan wheat catalogue, Pingali, Camptotheca, Water stress, Organic Farming for Health and Prosperity
- Crops for the Future finds a nice ricebean project.
- The wheats of Afghanistan.
- A former ICRISAT intern speaks. The world listens.
- Collecting the Happy Tree of China.
- Global water stress maps. Does CCAFS know? Or care?
- Rodale hearts organic.
Can one ever have too many factsheets on the baobab?
Fresh on the heels of Bioversity’s ‘African Priority Food Tree Species’ factsheet on the baobab, which was itself fresh on the heels of the Agroforestree database factsheet on the baobab, we now have, again from Bioversity, another, ahem, factsheet on the baobab. Well, this is different. I think. It’s part of a series on neglected and underutilized species. Or maybe nutritious and underutilized, as they are also described on the website. Maybe because it’s becoming difficult to call the baobab neglected. In fact, with the recent update of a review of the use of the species, perhaps the time has come for a meta-factsheet on the baobab.
Where the hell is Luigi?
For all those 2 who asked me where the Genetic Resources Institute is in Baku, here it is:
It’s a veritable oasis in the middle of urban sprawl, what with its various fruit tree collections all around the newly expanded building. The circular structure is where the regional conference on “Diversity, characterization and utilization of plant genetic resources for enhanced resilience to climate change” was just held.