Breeding

Nibbles: Coffee rust, PECS, Agrofuels, Israel, Mayan farming, Cannabis breeding, Drought resistance

Resistance to coffee rust found in India, though not clear where. Now for the hard part …
Arguments for Payments for Ecosystem Services. Matt points to a conference in 2013, but where are the actual payments?
“Rather than decrying development in India and China we should be strenuously objecting to agrofuels.” So lets distinguish agrofuels from biofuels.
Today’s new genebank is in Israel. Bet there are some crop wild relatives in there.
Those Mayans were boffo agricultural engineers.
“Alcohol-free” cannabis. I don’t understand any of this.
A gene associated with flowering time has alleles associated with a rainfall gradient. h/t Jacob. Cool.

A view from Papua New Guinea on a project to prepare PNG agriculture for climate change.
How to grow a properly biodiverse pasture. Hint: money isn’t enough.
Another Nagoya round-up. And another.
Sesamum monographed.
Award for CIMMYT genebank.
African rice domestication deconstructed.
Traditional practices bad for Nigerian children, good for Chinese fish.

ILRI slideshow on adapting South Asian livestock systems to climate change. And some background.
Latest on Nepal’s new genebank.
Salicornia 101.
GENERA: a database of published, peer-reviewed scientific papers that are related to the risks and safety of genetic engineering in agriculture. Courtesy of Biofortified.

Sierra Leone gets back to (rural) work.
Rachel Laudan not keen on UNESCO protecting culinary traditions.
Value chains are hard.
Dual-purpose sorghum in the CGIAR spotlight.
Andy does cassava. Looks like he may need to buy a house in Bellagio.
Latest Animal Genetic Resources is out. In other news, there’s an international journal called Animal Genetic Resources.

African data centre planned.
“…genetic variability and phenotypic plasticity of plant anti-herbivore defences allow plant populations to rapidly respond to changing environmental conditions.” In a crop wild relative, no less.
The genetics of chicken domestication. I’d like to see the results of those crosses.
Do you have these heirloom tomatoes?
Getting increased heat tolerance from a wild relative into wheat.