Author: Luigi Guarino

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Finnish genebank attacked

Something else to add to the long list of problems that can afflict field genebanks:

Hordes of moles have penetrated into the MTT Agrifood Research Finland plant gene bank in Laukaa during the winter.

A lot of damage was done to fruit tree saplings in particular. Fortunately, there is a back-up site, but not all material is safety duplicated. More protective measures are to be introduced. Also, there seems to be a lot of cryopreservation work going on at Laukaa, so maybe in time there will be an added level of protection. MTT Agrifood research have a nice pamphlet on Finnish agrobiodiversity and its conservation.

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Nibbles: Perenniality, Very minor millet, Red rice, Market, Cacao et al.

  • Aussies test perennial wheat. Luigi asks: should they be growing wheat at all?
  • What is the world’s most obscure crop? The Archaeobotanist makes his case: Spodiopogon formosanus Rendle.
  • Tourism does for “red rice.”
  • “The Wonjoku family in Muea was renowned for the manufacture of hoes, cutlasses, knives, chisels, spears, axes, brass bangles, brass spindles and tools for uprooting stumps of elephant grass.”
  • Nestlé says its new R&D centre in Abidjan will help it source high-quality raw materials of cocoa, coffee and cassava locally, “which in turn will raise the income and the quality of life of local farmers.” Hope conservation gets a look-in.
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Agricultural biodiversity weblogger awarded prize

Our friend, colleague and occasional contributor Andy Jarvis has just won GBIF’s prestigious Ebbe Nielsen Prize for 2009 for “combining biosystematics and biodiversity informatics research in an exciting and novel way”. A lot of his work has been on the spatial analysis of the geographic distributions of crop wild relatives, with a view to developing strategies and priorities for their conservation, in particular in the context of climate change. A lot, but far from all: Andy is nothing if not versatile, and his interests extend to the whole of agrobiodiversity. A recent interview with Andy, and others, tries to answer the question “why maps?”. Congratulations to Andy!