- Perennial grains need your help.
- “In Cuba no one is helpless or dying of hunger.”
- Biodiversity in wine champion. But what about other cultivated species?
- “It’s called Ukee and it is a very special red raspberry“. Jeremy says “BTDTGTTS.”
- A sceptic evaluates “Food, Inc.”. Jeremy says “we shall see”.
- “I hope that the charcoal fever passes and the zealots and rent seekers move on to the next big fantasy”. May they pyrolize in Hell.
- Welcome, “curly cucumbers, crooked carrots and mottled mushrooms“!
Rice breeding gets a boost … and needs it
The Hindu reports that the Tamil Nadu Rice Research Institute (TRRI) is now involved in the Cereal System Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), a project funded by USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and launched in January. One of the interesting, but arcane, aspects of The Hindu’s coverage is the use of the phrase “mega collaborative project” to describe CSISA. That phrase may resonate with people involved in the CGIAR’s latest effort to reinvent itself. The other is that “proven technologies will be delivered to the farmers and the pipeline technologies will be evaluated in Adaptive Research Trials for fine tuning and delivery”.
Will those proven technologies include the use of biodiversity other than as a source of interesting traits for the pipeline technologists?
We said originally that CSISA “deserves to be a success” but we’re still wondering how innovative the approach will be.
Rice is clearly going to need all the help it can get to continue to feed people in the next few decades. SciDev.net reports on a recent publication from scientists in Bangladesh predicting a 20% drop in yields to 2050 and a 50% drop to 2075. I can’t speak to the accuracy of the figures, but I can say that the world needs to wake up to the fact that changes are coming, that they are going to require flexibility and adaptability, and that it is not too late to start preparing.
Nibbles: Eels, Learning, Taro
- Norway protects eels.
- 3d interactive training materials for beekeeping and sorghum cultivation.
- More on the Hawaiian GM taro story.
Nibbles: Bats and bananas, Extension, Russian animal harvests, Rice improvement, Sacred groves
Bad news from Tehran
In addition to everything else, it seems that the Turkman horse is under threat of extinction. ((And, yes, I know that this is no joking matter. But still.)) The problem seems to be interbreeding with Throughbreds, and owners unwilling to risk pure-bred Turkmen horses, which are expensive, in races where there is a risk of injury and prize money is low. According to one expert:
Iranian horses have unique features such as smartness, nobility, special physical conditions and high endurance level which cannot be observed in any of the imported horses.
Among the proposals to save the Turkmen horse are a genebank (not sure how that would work) and a breed register, which would probably require DNA testing for individuals.
One thing puzzles me. In the very restricted genetic bottleneck that resulted in the English Thoroughbred is a fine animal known as The Byerly Turk. Was it really a Turk? Wikipedia thinks not. More to the point, one can only be grateful that the English did not decry all that messy genetic pollution that gave rise to the English Thoroughbred.