- Moche bean writing.
- “For Liberia’s subsistence farmers like Jeanet Gay, however, the Nerica may not offer such a ready solution to their annual hunger gap – indeed it may ultimately threaten their livelihoods.”
- AVRDC commits to the South Pacific.
- “The Victorians threw Apis mellifera mellifera out of hives in favour of more industrious foreign species.” Now this native British bee is coming back.
Press alerted as to importance of agrobiodiversity
USDA had a nice press release out yesterday about the importance of conserving crop diversity. The example used is the Russian wheat aphid threat to the United States back in 1986. But why do this just now? In preparation for the Third Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture? But that’s two weeks away. Maybe for the International Day of Biodiversity? That’s still a week away, though. I don’t get it. I like it: the time is always right to bang on about plant genetic resources conservation. But I don’t get it.
Nibbles: Perenniality, Very minor millet, Red rice, Market, Cacao et al.
- Aussies test perennial wheat. Luigi asks: should they be growing wheat at all?
- What is the world’s most obscure crop? The Archaeobotanist makes his case: Spodiopogon formosanus Rendle.
- Tourism does for “red rice.”
- “The Wonjoku family in Muea was renowned for the manufacture of hoes, cutlasses, knives, chisels, spears, axes, brass bangles, brass spindles and tools for uprooting stumps of elephant grass.”
- Nestlé says its new R&D centre in Abidjan will help it source high-quality raw materials of cocoa, coffee and cassava locally, “which in turn will raise the income and the quality of life of local farmers.” Hope conservation gets a look-in.
Nibbles: Tsetse, Warty pumpkins, Cattle origins, Crop mobs
- Tripping up trypanosomiasis: “It is a poverty fly.”
- Pumpkin patent squashed: “This is like trying to patent all trees with twisted limbs.”
- Indonesian bovines fingerprinted: “…the famous ‘racing bulls‘ from Madura descended from banteng cows.”
- Cropmobbing. Sounds like fun. Via.
Nibbles: CCD, Organic breeding, Bioprospecting
- “The growing consensus among researchers is that multiple factors such as poor nutrition and exposure to pesticides can interact to weaken colonies and make them susceptible to a virus-mediated collapse.”
- “…breeding spring wheat specific to organic agriculture should be conducted on organically managed land.”
- “A project developing medicinal products from plants found in Kakamega forest, western Kenya, has transformed the livelihoods of nearby communities…”