We’ve blogged here once or twice before about Focused Identification of Germplasm (FIGS). This is a GIS-based strategy pioneered at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas for choosing genebank accessions based on where they were collected, which in many cases seems to yields a significantly improved chance of landing the trait you want. Well, a new paper is out applying the method successfully to wheat stem rust resistance. But a press release on the ICARDA blog also tells us that “the FIGS team is now launching an international consultation to help spread this practice among the global scientific community, and to learn together to further improve the FIGS tool.” If you want to join in, contact Ken Street (k.street AT cgiar.org) at ICARDA.
Nibbles: Journalism, Conservation, IPRs in Uganda
- The Wall Street Journal tries to get its head around genebanks, climate change and plant breeding, with mixed success.
- Farming essential to threatened wildlife. Now there’s a turnup for the books.
- A Ugandan wants intellectual property laws for agricultural development. I think share and share alike would be good too.
Brainfood: Early farmers, Ecological restoration, IPRs, Soil bacterial diversity, Perenniality, Carrot diversity, Earthworm mapping
- Ancient DNA from an Early Neolithic Iberian population supports a pioneer colonization by first farmers. People, not just crops, moved.
- Genetic consequences of using seed mixtures in restoration: A case study of a wetland plant Lychnis flos-cuculi. After a few generations of use for seed production, it’s best to abandon ex situ stocks and go back to the wild populations.
- Creative Commons licenses and the non-commercial condition: Implications for the re-use of biodiversity information. It’s complicated. I wonder if the multi-headed hounds who guard the gates to GBDBH are aware of this. Here’s a blog post.
- Is diversification history of maize influencing selection of soil bacteria by roots? Kinda.
- A horizon scan of global conservation issues for 2012. Perennial cereals make the cut.
- How pristine are tropical forests? An ecological perspective on the pre-Columbian human footprint in Amazonia and implications for contemporary conservation. It doesn’t matter.
- Genetic diversity of carrot (Daucus carota L.) cultivars revealed by analysis of SSR loci. Western and Asian groups, the latter more diverse, because of landraces. But 88 accessions does seem a bit few. And no wilds.
- Mapping of earthworm distribution for the British Isles and Eire highlights the under-recording of an ecologically important group. 28 species! But many gaps. No diversity map. Will send them DIVA-GIS for Christmas.
Nepal refuses hybrid maize aid, blames International Treaty
Where’s a Treaty lawyer when you need one? SciDev.net reports that a joint USAID/Monsanto project to introduce farmers in Nepal to the benefits of hybrid maize varieties has run into a brick wall because civil society organizations in Nepal say it:
“could replace local varieties, increase Nepal’s dependence on imported seed and pave the way for the introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops later because of weak biotechnology regulation.”
As a result of a meeting in November, neither USAID nor the Government of Nepal will say whether the project is to go ahead. Fair enough, I reckon. Countries should be free to refuse “aid” if it doesn’t suit their other policy goals. But here’s the bit that doesn’t make sense, a quote from Hari Dahal, a spokesman for the Nepal Ministry of Agriculture.
“Mass importation of hybrid seed goes against our obligations under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture,” he told SciDev.Net. “If the partnership seeks to improve our own hybrid seeds, then an agreement is possible.”
A senior ministry official told SciDev.Net on the condition of anonymity: “If we import hybrid seed our local varieties will disappear. The rights of the farmers will be in the hands of private companies.”
Can that be right, that importing hybrid seeds goes against International Treaty obligations by putting the rights of the farmers “in the hands of private companies”? Or is that just a face-saving reason to turn down the generosity of USAID and Monsanto? I wish SciDev.net had asked someone.
Nibbles: Statuary, Confusion, Unheard from, Kava
- A statue of Norman Borlaug. Artists invited to submit ideas.
- A diversity of Junior Ministers of Agriculture in Italy.
- Feeling left out of the EU’s survey on the state of its biodiversity work? Join Patrick and make your voice heard. But not necessarily listened too.
- Fiji cracks down on yaqona, which we know as kava. Say it isn’t so!