- Psst, wanna breed a cucumber? With video goodness.
- Hudson Valley Seed Library.
- “One duck creates boundless treasure.â€
- Potato spindle tuber viroids go back to the beginning of life on Earth. Kinda.
- AGCommons’ Quick Wins: geospatial technology for smallholder farmers. Via.
New open access breeding journal calls for papers
The Journal of Plant Breeding and Crop Science (JPBCS) is a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal published monthly by Academic Journals dedicated to increasing the depth of Crop Science across disciplines with the ultimate aim of improving plant research.
Cowpea farmers profit
A press release from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (we picked it up at Modern Ghana.com) says that improved varieties of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) are giving farmers 55% greater profits. The new varieties produce high quality grains and are resistant to the parasitic weed Striga. That’s great, and I have some questions.
What do we know about the heritage and breeding of the new varieties? Are they going to need replacement themselves, as pests and diseases adapt to them?
At least one was trialled in 1998 in California, and found to be possibly the best choice as a cover crop or green manure there. I wonder whether it was taken up?
Most interesting, to my mind, can we please get the full story? A quick poke around the intertubes reveals that one of these varieties — IT89KD-288 — has been around in the wild, as it were, since at least 1993, the year of “its accidental release to one farmer”. What happened? And what does it’s subsequent spread tell us about informal seed systems, farmer preferences, the role of extension services, etc. etc?
Critically endangered cassava wild relative delays rotting
Here’s something else I learned at this workshop I’m attending on the state of plant genetic resources conservation and use in Latin America:
Dramatically delayed PPD [postharvest physiological deterioration] was found in Manihot walkerae, a wild relative of cassava found in Mexico and USA (state of Texas) (Fregene and Mba 2004). An accession of M. walkerae (MWal 001) was crossed extensively to elite cassava varieties. A single successful genotype was found with delayed PPD. The storage roots of the hybrid remained intact a month after harvest. Backcrosses of this hybrid to elite progenitors of the CIAT cassava gene pools and selfed (S1) populations were made for genetic mapping of the delayed PPD traits.
This came up during a discussion of the importance of collecting and conserving crop wild relatives. I had no idea the Manihot genus went as far north as Texas. Walker’s manioc turns out to be extremely endangered:
Until recently, it was believed that this species was represented in the U. S. by a single plant in the wild, discovered in Hidalgo County in 1990. In 1995, Walker’s manioc was located in three different areas on the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge in Starr and Hidalgo Counties.
It is known from only a couple of populations in Mexico. I don’t give much for its chances in the wild. But there is material in the San Antonio Botanical Garden. And some of its genes are now in some cultivated varieties.
Making breeding illegal
“When the disease comes in here, it’s going to wipe you out and you’ll have nothing left.”
That’s Ching Yuan Hu, associate dean for the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, talking about legislation that would outlaw genetic modification of taro in Hawaii. Not sure which disease he’s talking about. Maybe our Pacific readers will tell us. Or Danny. Taro Leaf Blight is already in Hawaii, but others aren’t, of course.