Category: Breeding

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Jigawa experiments with cattle diversity

About 30,000 cows drawn from different species will be used in Jigawa state for artificial insemination experiment before the end of May this year, the state commissioner of agriculture, Alhaji Nasidi Ali has said.

Ok, I suppose he meant breeds rather than species. Although a follow up quote from the commissioner adds that: “We want to change the species and varieties of cows in Jigawa state.” Anyway, one has to wonder what this will do to whatever local breeds ((There are also lists of local breeds from ILRI and FAO.)) roam around Jigawa State, Nigeria. The recent State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture did not paint a rosy global picture, you’ll recall.

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Good news for wheat

Two studies out in the past week in Science are going to help wheat breeders fight diseases. One identified a DNA sequence — for a product known as the Lr34 transporter protein — which seems to confer protection against no fewer than three fungal diseases. And another study showed that a (different) DNA segment (called Yr36), which had previously been introgressed into durum wheat from wild emmer, also conferred rust resistance in the field (via). Gene discovery strikes again.

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Using wild rice to fight pests

Well, maybe. The article in The Monitor is a bit confused. Yes, there are wild rices in Uganda. I know because I was (marginally) involved in the 1997 Sida-IRRI project which collected wild Oryza in Eastern and Southern Africa. The material has been conserved since then in the National Genetic Plant Resources Centre for Crops in Entebbe, and has now been evaluated — successfully, it would seem — for resistance to Yellow Mottle Virus. Which is great. But the crossing with cultivated rice has not started in Uganda, I don’t think. The crosses that are alluded to in the article seem rather to have been between Asian rice and cultivated African rice (Oryza glaberrima), presumably aiming to replicate the success of Nerica in West Africa. Anyway, good luck to Drs John Mulumba Wasswa and Jimmy Lamo with the breeding programme.

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Nibbles: Indigenous knowledge, Buffalo, Wheat rust, Cassava, New Green Revolution, Environmentalism, Millennium Seedbank, USDA, Pig

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Professional Plant Breeders for Tomorrow

The International Centre for Plant Breeding Education and Research (ICPBER) at the University of Western Australia (UWA) provides advanced education and research in plant breeding to enhance the world’s future supply of plant-based food, fibre and industrial raw materials in an era of changing climates.

ICPBER has only recently started work (August 2008), so it may be too early to tell what strategic directions it will take, but I hope it will cover both conventional and biotech approaches, and live up to its name by addressing the needs of all regions and crops. Will it compete with, say, similar Africa-based initiatives? I suspect there’s enough room — enough need — for both. Anyway, good to see it link up with the Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building (GIPB). That should minimize the chances of duplication of efforts.