- The pros and cons of biofortified cassava rehearsed for the nth time.
- Scientists accused of biopiracy for the nth time.
- nth genetic study of ancient farmers. Men moved, in a nutshell, women not so much.
- Traditional healers: nth example of a group hard hit by climate change.
- In all above cases, n is a large positive integer.
- Potatoes responsible for about 25% of Old World population increase between 1700 and 1900. Nice maths.
- Learn how to conserve pollinators. If you’re in Rhode Island. But there is an online Pollinator Conservation Resource Center with lots of resources.
Nibbles: Date palm sex, Heirlooms congress, World Camel Day, Latino livestock, Coconut craft, Hybridizing Alocasia, Sami reindeer, Serbian agri-environments, Honey, Feidherbia
- Qataris work out how to sex date palms.
- The National Heirloom Exposition revs its engine.
- World Camel Day is coming up. No, really.
- Latin Americans planning their next congress on the biodiversity of domestic animals. Cuy, anyone?
- The Art of Coconut Craft. Wonderfully kitschy.
- So, you want to breed Alocasia, do you?
- Sweden stops oppressing its main minority.
- High Nature Value farming in Serbia.
- Non-wood forest products are all very well, but…
- Yes, yes, Feidherbia will solve all the problems of the Sahel, now can I go back to sleep?
Nibbles: CWR, ICRISAT, Fruits, Maize, Symbionts, Tissue culture, Vegetables, Med diet
- ICARDA saves the world.
- No, ICRISAT saves the world.
- You’re both wrong, it’s CIAT.
- No, wait, maybe it’s CIMMYT. Oh I give up.
- Actually it’s fungi.
- Or maybe tissue culture?
- Surely it can’t be five unknown vegetables?
- Could it be that it’s the Mediterranean diet? And that UNESCO will screw it up for all of us?
Nibbles: SEARICE, R&D, Sustainable intensification, Biofortification, Chillies, Safe movement, Mangoes, Weeds, Berries, Blueberries, Cerrado
- SEARICE explains its approach to seed sovereignty and farmer participation.
- Nature on IFPRI’s report on agricultural R&D in Africa. Not pretty.
- Resilience Science on the UN Special Rapporteur’s sustainable intensification thing.
- The Gates Foundation is on a nutritional roll; most of yesterday’s posts are available from this round-up.
- New Mexico gets all protectionist about its chillies.
- IITA explains how it provides healthy germplasm. Various different interesting stories in there, stick with it.
- Farmer conservation power in India.
- How to control invasive species. Eat more weeds.
- Presentation on Trends in global nutrition and health: Local fruits and their potential importance for nutrition and health as seen at Pavlovsk berry meeting.
- Speaking of berries…
- The cerrado (and its crop wild relatives) is in trouble. We talked about this, weren’t you paying attention?
The VIR Department of Biotechnology, Pushkin
The VIR Department of Biotechnology, Pushkin, a set on Flickr.
You may remember a post a few months back at Vaviblog describing a paper on the Vavilov’s Institute’s potato collection. I recently had the pleasure of meeting one of the authors, Dr Tatjana Gavrilenko, for the first time, and in her natural habitat to boot. Here are the results.