Breeding

August 10, 2018

Too good to be perennial?

There’s news of the release of a perennial sorghum variety in Ethiopia:

“The benefit of this new variety is … that once you sow it, you don’t need to till the land for up to five years,” said Loul, adding that growing sorghum preserves the environment and prevents erosion by providing vegetation cover throughout the year.

It was apparently developed by Re-nature Eternal Life Agro Processing SC, but there are few details on its website. I’m trying to find out more. Anyone out there know anything about this?

August 10, 2018August 10, 2018

Speaking of cool threads, there’s also this from the indefatigable Megan Lynch from the annual meeting of the National Association of Plant Breeders, on a crop that’s responsible for the livelihoods of increasing numbers of people in places like California, and some people think for civilization itself.

Thread by @may_gun: “This will be a purely clinical talk because all the potheads will still be in bed at this hour. ;-) “Breeding for a budding industry” by Gre […]” #NAPB2018

August 6, 2018August 6, 2018

Brainfood: Ecology of domestication, Citizen soybeans, Silkworm domestication, Barley spread, Indigenous management, Maize domestication, Temperate maize, Nutrient yields, Amazon history double, Women & diets, Online classification, Charred breadcrumbs, Wheat drought

Crop domestication: anthropogenic effects on insect–plant interactions in agroecosystems. Domestication can upset trophic webs. Poor dears.
The soybean experiment ‘1000 Gardens’: a case study of citizen science for research, education, and beyond. 2492 gardens, in fact.
The evolutionary road from wild moth to domestic silkworm. Domestication in China, followed by multiple independent spreads and differentiation.
Barley heads east: Genetic analyses reveal routes of spread through diverse Eurasian landscapes. 3 taxa, 8 genepools, multiple routes for spread. A bit like silkworm but in the opposite direction.
A spatial overview of the global importance of Indigenous lands for conservation. 40% of all terrestrial protected areas.
Maize domestication and gene interaction. More than just the headline 5 genes.
Hallauer’s Tusón: a decade of selection for tropical-to-temperate phenological adaptation in maize. Need to go back to tropical germplasm for adaptation to temperate conditions.
Moving beyond calories and protein: Micronutrient assessment of UK diets and land use. Roots, tubers and vegetables are the most land-efficient producers of 23 nutrients.
The legacy of 4,500 years of polyculture agroforestry in the eastern Amazon. It is still with us.
Direct archaeological evidence for Southwestern Amazonia as an early plant domestication and food production centre. And not just in the east.
Does women’s time in domestic work and agriculture affect women’s and children’s dietary diversity? Evidence from Bangladesh, Nepal, Cambodia, Ghana, and Mozambique. Yes, but varies with socioeconomic status.
Remap: An online remote sensing application for land cover classification and monitoring. Use your training set to detect habitat type(s) in Google Earth.
Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan. Before domestication.
Drought tolerance during reproductive development is important for increasing wheat yield potential under climate change in Europe. The good news is that germplasm close to the optimized ideotype for 2050 is already out there.

August 2, 2018August 2, 2018

Speeding up genetic gains

Gary Atlin, “plant breeder, quantitative geneticist, and consultant,” according to his Linkedin profile, has an interesting series of posts on that social network trying to figure out why varietal turnover is so slow in much of the developing world, and what can be done about it.

Public sector plant breeding programs develop the crop varieties that feed most of the world. These programs need support to modernize and accelerate the rate of genetic gains they deliver to farmers in the developing world. In much of the world, these farmers are using cultivars that are 20, 30, and even 40 years old. These farmers are inadequately protected from the effects of climate change and are not being provided with the tools they need to adapt to intensifying and commercializing cropping systems.

The discussion started about a week ago, and is well worth following. I thought there might be a way to post a thread here, but it looks like you have to actually go to Linkedin to see the posts.

July 31, 2018July 31, 2018

Nibbles: Carrot breeding, BIEN, Protected areas databases, Brazilian genebanks, Endangered coconut genebank, DSI, ABS, Climate pix, Botanical pix double, Potatoes galore, Pandanus language, Archaeological double, Palestinian seed saving

Putting the polyacetylene back into carrots.
The Botanical Information and Ecology Network gets an upgrade. Any CWRs among its 18,844,855 more observations?
And any is protected areas? This will tell how well they’re managed. Mash up with this spatial database on indigenous lands?
Otherwise, there are genebanks, though not enough in Brazil, apparently.
And not always safe.
What to do with Digital Sequence Information? Would be nice to be clear on what it is.
ABS broken down by ISF. And the CGIAR. Not DSI though.
Need climate visuals? Well, who doesn’t.
The Columbian Exchange has visuals also.
And the Royal Horticultural Society too.
Speaking of Columbian Exchange: frites. And Vavilov, chefs, etc.
Speaking about nuts in PNG. Comment by Jim Croft, who would know: “Except the species illustrated is the widespread oceanic strand species, Pandanus tectorius, not the endemic highland crop ‘karuka’, Pandanus julianettii.”
5000-year-old brewery in Egypt.
14,000-year-old bread.
Fast forward 14,000 years.

Category: Breeding

Too good to be perennial?

Down to seeds and stems

Brainfood: Ecology of domestication, Citizen soybeans, Silkworm domestication, Barley spread, Indigenous management, Maize domestication, Temperate maize, Nutrient yields, Amazon history double, Women & diets, Online classification, Charred breadcrumbs, Wheat drought

Speeding up genetic gains

Nibbles: Carrot breeding, BIEN, Protected areas databases, Brazilian genebanks, Endangered coconut genebank, DSI, ABS, Climate pix, Botanical pix double, Potatoes galore, Pandanus language, Archaeological double, Palestinian seed saving