Luigi Guarino

September 6, 2011September 6, 2011

Yet more information on the food trees of Africa

A new series of booklets ‘African Priority Food Tree Species’ offers an important step in gathering existing information together, offering a synthesis of 11 priority food tree species native to sub-Saharan Africa, such as the Baobab and the Shea Butter tree. The series also includes recommendations for their conservation and sustainable use.

And very nice the results look too. But what the series of booklets also offers is a bit of an overlap with the Agroforestree Database. See for yourself for Blighia sapida: the SAFORGEN booklet vs the pdf you get from the Agroforestree database.

One does wonder to what extent Bioversity and ICRAF worked together on this, in the spirit of the shiny new CGIAR.

September 6, 2011

A jute renaissance?

According to the BBC, there’s a resurgence of jute cultivation in Bangladesh.

It’s not that long ago that the International Jute Organization could think it worthwhile to support, of all things, a herbarium survey of the wild relatives of the crop. I also seem to remember a very comprehensive germplasm collecting mission in Kenya in the 1980s, organized by the then IBPGR and funded by the IJO, though I can find no evidence of it. There is some germplasm in the international system, though not nearly as much as in national genebanks in Bangladesh and India. In fact, I seem to remember that the collection at the Bangladesh Jute Research Institute had some kind of international status at one point. I wonder if those heady days will now return?

September 6, 2011September 6, 2011

Nibbles: Drought tolerance, Cassava pests, Sorghum beer, Frankincense, Permaculture in Asia, RDA

“…drought-tolerant species are not necessarily following the general “stress-tolerator” syndrome.” Meaning?
More on that cassava-problems-will-get-worse-with-climate-change thing from CIAT.
More on that beer-will-save-East-African-agriculture-from-drought thing.
Two of the Wise Men to rescue “poverty-stricken Ethiopian communities.”
F. H. King’s Farmers of Forty Centuries or Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan: The backstory. Via.
Presenting South Korea’s genebank.

September 5, 2011September 5, 2011

Nibbles: IRRI, Palestinian genebanks, Non-dairy ice-cream, Community genebanks, Goat racing, Millions Fed, Seed relief, Gametophytic incompatibilityd, Seed relief, Beer

IRRI working to adapt rice to climate change, thanks to genebank.
Palestine gets a genebank. And genebankers, thanks to ICARDA.
Lupin ice-cream. Sounds yummie.
Ethio Organic Seed Action “trains farmers in the use of traditional seeds.” I doubt it, but the stuff on community genebanks is nice.
Goat racing in Uganda. Where are the photos?
IFPRI publishes companion volume to Millions Fed.
Vouching for seed vouchers.
Breeding anti-GMO maize. Well, kinda.
“Beer could provide lifeline for South Sudan’s small farmers.” I know how they feel.

September 5, 2011January 22, 2014

Brainfood: Community forestry, Chinese Paleolithic, Peanut wild relatives, Pepper taxonomy, Fruit tree domestication, Allelopathy, Olive evaluation

Back to basics: Considerations in evaluating the outcomes of community forestry. You don’t need fancy indicators.
Plant exploitation of the last foragers at Shizitan in the Middle Yellow River Valley China: Evidence from grinding stones. Remains of starch and patterns of wear on grinding stones show that Paleolithic people in China used a lot of plants, in a lot of ways.
Phenotypic diversity and identification of wild Arachis accessions with useful agronomic and nutritional traits. Our friends at ICRISAT identify the top 20 wild peanut accessions.
Taxonomy and genetic diversity of domesticated Capsicum species in the Andean region. AFLPs and SSRs clarify some taxonomic issues, but show high diversity not just in Bolivia, the putative centre of origin. No top 20 though.
From forest to field: Perennial fruit crop domestication. They’re like annuals in some respects, different in others. Perhaps most interestingly, their domestication bottleneck wasn’t so much of one.
Allelopathic potential of Triticum spp., Secale spp. and Triticosecale spp. and use of chromosome substitutions and translocations to improve weed suppression ability in winter wheat. Low in wheat, but high in some rye accessions, and transferrable.
Genotyping and evaluation of local olive varieties of a climatically disfavoured region through molecular, morphological and oil quality parameters. Eight minor varieties could be less so.