- Why tenure matters. And why it doesn’t.
- Book on alternative crops for dry areas. Not that alternative, settle down. And anyway, how do they do in mixtures?
- And the award for Best New Variety of the Year goes to…
- CGIAR Consortium hires private sector biotech expert to oversee genebanks et al.
- US set to grow more quinoa. Shame on you, taking the bread out of the mouths of Andean peasants!
- Save our figs!
- Malanga and cassava important on Mayan menu. And maize maybe not so much on Pueblan one as thought.
- New onion wild relative spotted in Central Asia.
- GRAIN objects to new one-size-fits-all SADC seed law.
- Ecological Society of America discovers agriculture.
- Indian institute trains first female coconut pollinators.
Brainfood: Farming systems, Connectivity, Neolithic China, Paleolithic China, Wheat genomes, Litter domestication, Arabian relatives, Pepper composition, GMOs vs agrobiodiversity
- Using biodiversity to link agricultural productivity with environmental quality: Results from three field experiments in Iowa. Diversify any way you can. Even in Iowa.
- Improving conservation planning for semi-natural grasslands: Integrating connectivity into agri-environment schemes. Connect any way you can. Even in Europe.
- Early millet use in northern China. Very early. Starch grains push broomcorn millet use in China back 1,000 years, and foxtail millet 2,000.
- Paleolithic human exploitation of plant foods during the last glacial maximum in North China. And ten thousand years before millets, there were wild grasses, roots, tubers and gourds.
- Draft genome of the wheat A-genome progenitor Triticum urartu. Can be used to find agronomically important genes. But settle down, it’s only one of the 3 wheat genomes, after all.
- Aegilops tauschii draft genome sequence reveals a gene repertoire for wheat adaptation. Not so fast, here comes the D genome too…
- Side-effects of plant domestication: ecosystem impacts of changes in litter quality. Domestication led to higher quality, more easily decomposed litter.
- Crop wild relatives from the Arabian Peninsula. 400 of them.
- Compositional Characterization of Native Peruvian Chili Peppers (Capsicum spp.). There’s much variation, but not that much.
- Feeding the world: genetically modified crops versus agricultural biodiversity. Guess which one is drinking the other’s milkshake. And a similar blast from the past.
Nibbles: Roman gardens, Gwich’in video, Medicinals, Crowdsourcing, Genomics in general, Genomics in particular, ICARDA strategy, Growing plantains, Fonio, Fancy chocolate
- All nice and rested, we are resolutely back. With the peaceful gardens of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
- With the very different lifeways of the Gwich’in.
- With Cassandra Quave and her quest for medicinal plants. Not among the Gwich’in, alas.
- With Jacob van Etten and his quest for crowdsourcing. Also not among the Gwich’in, who can’t buy a break, it seems.
- With Eve Emshwiller (and others) on the joys of genomics.
- With Mary Ndila and her efforts to get to the bottom of the good cow/bad cow dichotomy. Using genomics, natch.
- With ICARDA’s exhortation to be smart and systematic.
- With CTA’s instructions on how to plant better plantains. Presumably by being smart and systematic? Kinda. Not, apparently, by varietal mixing, though.
- With ICRISAT’s pean to fonio. And now I need another holiday.
- Or a piece of chocolate.
Nibbles: Agroforestry, Genomics conference, Weed propagation, Potato gene, Potato Bean, Seeds, Chilli breeding, University, Prize, Arroz etc, Sinai, Maple syrup, Raw milk, Cacao
It’s Easter. A bigger than usual haul to see you safely through the lean times ahead.
- Simons says, plant a tree. And here’s how.
- FAO had an e-conference on “Impacts of genomics and other ‘omics’ for the crop, forestry, livestock, fishery and agro-industry sectors in developing countries” and all I got was this pdf.
- I personally think The Dude would prefer seeds.
- That potato day-length gene paper deconstructed. A bit.
- Owen’s
Potato beanhopniss seeds have sprouted. Can a new variety be far away? - No doubt he’ll be contributing to a list of US seed suppliers for perennial veg.
- There are perennial peppers, you know. A new weapon as the pepper breeding wars heat up?
- And enthusiasm for Kerala Agricultural University cools down.
- “Attention responsible gene stewards!” You had me at Attention. (But you lost me at responsible gene stewards.) On the other hand, if you are “diligent about developing or releasing durable varieties that will ensure long-term global wheat security” stick with it.
- Arroz, trigo, maíz y patata. The usual story: Casi todos los esfuerzos de la Revolución Verde se han enfocado hacia la mejora de los denominados cultivos principales.
- Farming in the Sinai is 5000 years older than it used to be.
- How to get genuine maple syrup.
- Raw milk is fine. No it’s not.
- Nestle and Mars commit to equality for women cocoa farmers. Mondelēz has not yet responded to Oxfam-inspired consumer pressure. Perhaps because few people know they’re Cadbury and Suchard and Toberlone and … what’s with that stupid ē anyway?
Enjoy that Creme Egg!
Brainfood: Coconut and climate, Cereal biofortification, Ancient tuber oat grass, Grape diversity, Shade cacao, Ancient Central Asian ag, Diversity of knowledge, Edible canna
- Climate change and coconut plantations in India: Impacts and potential adaptation gains. Seems we don’t need to worry about coconut in India. Much. Overall.
- Biofortification of cereals to overcome hidden hunger. Need to understand mineral uptake and transport mechanisms better. But once we do…
- Evaluating prehistoric finds of Arrhenatherum elatius var. bulbosum in north-western and central Europe with an emphasis on the first Neolithic finds in Northern Germany. May just have had a ritual role.
- Genetic diversity and population structure assessed by SSR and SNP markers in a large germplasm collection of grape. High diversity despite duplication. Ecogeographic groupings within the cultivated material. Genetic core more genetically diverse than phenological core, though similarly phenotypically diverse. Information will revolutionize breeding. No, not really.
- Shade Tree Diversity, Cocoa Pest Damage, Yield Compensating Inputs and Farmers’ Net Returns in West Africa. Best thing is to have a diverse shade canopy, but under 50%.
- Agricultural production in the Central Asian mountains: Tuzusai, Kazakhstan (410‐150 b.c.). Yes, agriculture. Not just pastoralism.
- Diversity of Plant Knowledge as an Adaptive Asset: A Case Study with Standing Rock Elders. Differences among individuals may be just that, rather than “lack of cultural consensus” and may be adaptive as circumstances change.
- The Origin of Southeastern Asian Triploid Edible Canna (Canna discolor Lindl.) Revealed by Molecular Cytogenetical Study. C. indica var. indica and C. plurituberosa are the proud and newly-identified parents.