- There’s a Facebook group for that: unusual root crops, sponsored by the inimitable Rhizowen.
- ILRI says herders are important to identify disease outbreaks in livestock. Makes sense to me.
- ILRI also says local breeds should be included in Indian pig-breeding programmes. Again, no argument.
- More on livestock: what Mongolia’s harsh winter has wrought. BTW, there’s also a discussion at DAD-Net of the effect of Pakistan’s floods on livestock.
- Aspen trees need occasional sex. Don’t we all.
- Climate change not good for rice. I knew that, I think.
Court decides against Pavlovsk but hope remains
We’ve just learned that the court has decided in favour of the federal housing authority to permit the destruction of the Pavlovsk Experiment Station’s field collection of fruit diversity. Some hope remains, however. The N.I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR) says it will today lodge an appeal with the High Arbitration Court against the Supreme Arbitration Court’s decision. This gains campaigners another month to save Pavlovsk.
A spokesman for VIR also said that they had received further confirmation that the Court’s decision can be revoked by the President or Prime Minister.
We don’t know whether either Mr Medvedev or Mr Putin is actually listening, but if you haven’t already done so, it can’t hurt to let them know how you feel.
Dog diversity decoded
Look at the extraordinary photos by Tim Flach in the slide gallery here. ((From which I took the Puli photo.)) Then read this account of a new paper that examines relatively simple genetic diversity that underlies the extraordinary morphological diversity of dogs. Or do it the other way. Then marvel.
Nibbles: Bent, Rice, Cheez, Pavlovsk, Millennium Seed Bank, Livestock, EUCARPIA
- Fine memoir of Sir Bent Skovmand. Thanks Dag.
- Rice yields falling — and not just in experimental stations. The paper.
- In all the eulogies to the inventor of the Cheez Doodle, a note of truth.
- You could buy the Pavlovsk genebank site for just USD3.3 million, it says here. Is that even doable?
- Meanwhile, over in England, Researchers Rush to Fill Noah’s Ark Seed Bank While Politicians Bicker.
- Meanwhile, in Australia, worries about declines in livestock diversity.
- EUCARPIA’s meetings calendar. Handy.
Vegetable varieties of “no intrinsic value”
In England, the government is asking for views on vegetable varieties of ‘no intrinsic value for crop production but developed for growing under particular conditions’. They mean heritage and heirloom varieties, which could be promoted through Commission Directive 2009/145/EC on conservation and amateur varieties of vegetables, but we advise caution. Can worthless be far behind?
Seriously, let them know what you think.