- UAE date palms to get FAO recognition. So they’ll be ok then. Phew!
- Unlike African agriculture, according to the IPCC.
- Or Israel’s wild plants. Though what they intend to do about that is hidden behind a paywall. Can anyone tell me the answer?
- The Australians know what to do. Build a new genebank…
- …and grown ginarmous brassicas.
- Pat Heslop-Harrison for his part thinks we should collect more wild Panicum. And who are we to argue with him?
- Hey, worst comes to worst, we can always build our own beer yeast.
Nibbles: Fiji lab, World Economic Plants, USDA garlic, Breeding conference, Borlaug Summit, Alex Morrell, Hayden Flour
- Fiji commissions tissue culture lab to get clean planting materials out to farmers.
- World Economic Plants: A Standard Reference finally out. But farmers probably knew all about them already.
- Speaking of USDA, here’s what they do to conserve garlic.
- Big conference in the UK on Breeding Plants for the Future. Seems like there’s one of these every week these days.
- Like at CIMMYT, for example, in remembrance of Dr Norman Borlaug.
- “Our germplasm – our genetic base here – is the best in the world. We dominate genetics in the industry.” I’d like to meet a seed industry guy who didn’t say that.
- Meanwhile, in Arizona: “We’re not trying to go back in time, but capturing an authentic time.” I’d like to meet this guy. And put him together with the guy above.
Nibbles: Agavins, Women in Ag, Teacup shattered, Quinoa, Rice, PGR course, Seeds for Africa, Tomato, Global cookbook, Cover crops, Sheep
- Tequila plant is possible sweetener for diabetics. Talk about a waste of raw material.
- Would you Adam and Eve it? Women do not own 2% of the land. What next for the killer factcheck?
- In related news, teacup pigs are a fraud.
- Quinoa to feed the world, in Spanish.
- The rice warrior! Isn’t that overegging the pudding just a smidgen?
- Learn about plant genetic resources and seeds at Wageningen University.
- African Agriculture Technology Foundation “to avail adequate quality seeds at the right time and affordable price”. You might think some of the folks at the AATF should avail themselves of Wageningen’s course.
- Tough, flavoursome and bug resistant. Not Richard Markham, but a tomato bred specially for the Solomon Islands he’s talking about.
- Kew’s new global kitchen cookbook narrowly avoids being crushed by bandwagon trundling by.
- Cover crops are even more valuable than previously thought shock.
- Indigenous sheep breeds even more valuable than previously thought shock.
Wild peanuts hotspot visited
The light blogging during the past couple of weeks has been due to me travelling and Jeremy being submerged in work. We’re trying to get back into it, but things are still going to be a bit slow as we catch up. Just to tide you over for a while, though, here’s a quick taste of where I went. The guy on the right is Dr José Valls of Cenargen, which is part of Embrapa and houses the national plant genetic resources collection of Brazil. He’s showing us (that would be myself and Nora Castañeda of CIAT, who took the photo, which you can see better by clicking on it) the entire range of colour diversity in wild peanut flowers. He should know about that, because he is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on these plants, and manages one of the world’s most important collections of Arachis diversity. And here’s a quick view of only part of it, in which you can probably see about 50 (out of a total of maybe 80) different wild relatives of the peanut.
It is efforts such as those of José and a small band of like-minded peanut taxonomists, geneticists and breeders around the world that have led to the success of the peanut from the American South to East Timor, by way of Africa.
Incidentally, though I call, rather facetiously, José greenhouse a hotspot of agrobiodiversity in my title here, he pointed out to me that he thinks the centroid of wild Arachis species diversity is probably within walking distance of his desk in Brasilia. I think we have the data to test that…
Brainfood: Carpathian landuse, Yield & biodiversity, Cajanus @ICRISAT, Wheat meddling, Grape acne, Safflower diversity, Mangosteen origins, Agroforestry and SDGs, Brazilian Gir
- Forest and agricultural land change in the Carpathian region—A meta-analysis of long-term patterns and drivers of change. Collapse of socialism bad for agriculture, good for forests. At the level of cover anyway, who knows what’s happened to diversity.
- Closing yield gaps: perils and possibilities for biodiversity conservation. Better yields potentially good for birds, but everyone needs to work together.
- The Wild Genepool of Pigeonpea at ICRISAT Genebank-Status and Distribution. There are still some gaps.
- Meddling Wheat Germplasm to Augment Grain Protein Content and Grain Yield. I just love that title.
- Interkingdom transfer of the acne causing agent, Propionibacterium acnes, from human to grapevine. First time ever, apparently, that a human pathogen attacks a crop. But do I have to start worrying about wine?
- Discrimination and genetic diversity of cultivated and wild safflowers (Carthamus spp.) using EST-microsatellites markers. C. palestinus is the closest.
- New evidence on the origin of mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) based on morphology and ITS sequence. Not an interspecific hybrid after all.
- Knowledge gaps and research needs concerning agroforestry’s contribution to Sustainable Development Goals in Africa. Can agroforestry concepts and practices form an effective, efficient and fair pathway towards the achievement of many Sustainable Development Goals? Yes, but only if governance of food production is multi-sectoral and system-based.
- History, structure, and genetic diversity of Brazilian Gir cattle. Diversity is not as restricted as might be feared, so it can probably take a breeding programme with high selection intensity.