- Long-term evidence for ecological intensification as a pathway to sustainable agriculture. Meta-analysis of 30 long-term experiments from Europe and Africa comprising 25,565 data points shows that increasing crop diversity and adding fertility crops and organic matter are as good for the yield of staple crops as N fertilization, but don’t add much if you already have the latter, and vice versa.
- Revisiting the adequacy of the economic policy narrative underpinning the Green Revolution. If only the Green Revolutionaries had know the above, eh? Anyway, remember institutions, people.
- Agroecological practices increase farmers’ well-being in an agricultural growth corridor in Tanzania. Higher awareness of the benefits of nature plus more engagement with extension services mean more adoption of agroecological practices means farmers are better off. Green Revolutionaries unavailable for comment. Institutions rejoice.
- Intangible links between household livelihoods and food security in Solomon Islands: implications for rural development. Diversifying livelihoods isn’t always associated with better food security.
- Access to and Utilization of Wild Species for Food and Nutrition Security in Teso and Acholi Sub-regions of Uganda. Wait, does the above mean that decreasing access to wild foods may not necessarily matter? Why does this stuff have to be so hard?
- Climate Change and Seed System Interventions Impact on Food Security and Incomes in East Africa. More crop diversity on farms “helps farmers cope with climate change and increases productivity, food availability, incomes and food security.” Not so hard after all.
- Welfare impacts of improved groundnut varieties adoption and food security implications in the semi-arid areas of West Africa. Adopting new peanut varieties is good for farmers. Wait, so the opposite of more crop diversity? Why does this stuff have to be so hard?
- Situating Plant Genetic Resource in the K-12 Curriculum: A Critical Review. Maybe we should all go back to school.
Brainfood: Russian PGRFA, Afghanistan wheat, Nepal wheat, Food miles & emissions, Agroecology and nutrition, European ag transition, Agrobiodiversity index, Sicilian durum, Indian fruits, Wild apples, Cider,
- Genetic resources in Russia: from collections to bioresource centers. Ok, but why can’t they be both?
- Sowing the wheat seeds of Afghanistan’s future. Breed, fortify, irrigate, rebuild the knowledge base, invest in seed systems, engage farmers, include women, have the right policies. And hope for the best. No sign of bioresource centers, alas.
- Variation in Grain Zinc and Iron Concentrations, Grain Yield and Associated Traits of Biofortified Bread Wheat Genotypes in Nepal. Maybe Nepal can help Afghanistan, wheat-wise?
- Global food-miles account for nearly 20% of total food-systems emissions. Not a worry for Afghanistan or Russia, I suspect.
- Can agroecology improve food security and nutrition? A review. Yes. Afghanistan and Russia to be alerted.
- The geography of megatrends affecting European agriculture. Climate change, demographic change, (post-) productivism, and increasingly stringent environmental regulations mainly work together to destabilize the current system. Russia unavailable for comment.
- Agrobiodiversity Index Report 2021: Assessing Mediterranean food systems. Conservation of agricultural biodiversity doesn’t automatically translate into diversity in diets. I’d like to see the data for Russia and Afghanistan.
- Intra- and Inter-Population Genetic Diversity of “Russello” and “Timilia” Landraces from Sicily: A Proxy towards the Identification of Favorable Alleles in Durum Wheat. Lots of interesting variation in Sicilian wheat landraces. Now to get Sicilians to eat more diverse pasta.
- Global interdependence for fruit genetic resources: status and challenges in India. Maybe India could help Afghanistan. And vice versa. Wouldn’t that be a thing. Meanwhile, no word on the diversity of Indian fruit consumption.
- Wild Apples Are Not That Wild: Conservation Status and Potential Threats of Malus sieversii in the Mountains of Central Asia Biodiversity Hotspot. Climate change is coming for wild apples, and there’s only so much that protected areas can do. I believe Russia knows a thing or two about apple genebanks.
- Cider and dessert apples: What is the difference? Not much, as it turns out. But all I can think of now is wild apple cider.
Nibbles: Seed quality, New rice, Australian seeds, New wheat, Ceramics genebank
- Video on a participative system for seed quality control in Colombia.
- Pushing out high quality new rice varieties in India.
- Collecting high quality seeds after fires in Australia.
- The road to high quality wheat starts in Obregón.
- China’s latest genebank conserves ancient ceramics. No word on quality.
Brainfood: Bonds, Agrobiodiversity, Subsidies, Orphan crops, Extension, Biodiversity tourism, Green farming
- Impact investing in biodiversity conservation with bonds: An analysis of financial and environmental risk. Need to show ’em the money, and that ain’t easy.
- The benefits and trade-offs of agricultural diversity for food security in low- and middle-income countries: A review of existing knowledge and evidence. Agrobiodiversity is positively connected with food security in two thirds of cases. Here comes the money…
- Repurposing agricultural support: Creating food systems incentives to address climate change. Less money for subsidies and trade barriers, more money for R&D.
- Orphan Crops: A Best Fit for Dietary Enrichment and Diversification in Highly Deteriorated Marginal Environments. More money for R&D you say? Document the evidence that orphan crops are good for you, link it to policy and communicate it to consumers.
- Extension services can promote pasture restoration: Evidence from Brazil’s low carbon agriculture plan. If only there were more money for extension too, eh?
- Linking livelihood and biodiversity conservation in protected areas: Community based tourism development perspective from developing country. People around protected areas don’t see much money from tourists, but that’s better than nothing.
- From boutique to mainstream: Upscaling wildlife-friendly farming through consumer premiums. Consumers are willing to fork over extra money for greener food.
Brainfood: First farmers, First dogs, First olives, Food sharing, Seed longevity, Seed germination, Conservation & climate change, Urban gardens, Seed movement, Machine learning, Web crawling, Imaging spectroscopy
- Ancient DNA maps ‘dawn of farming’. Hunter-gatherers from Europe and the Middle East mixed and settled down as farmers in Anatolia, then spread to Europe.
- The Australian dingo is an early offshoot of modern breed dogs. The dingo originated from grey wolves, and found itself isolated, much earlier than all other dog breeds.
- The first use of olives in Africa around 100,000 years ago. Hunter-gatherers used the wild olive long before they domesticated either it or the dog.
- Intestinal parasites in the Neolithic population who built Stonehenge (Durrington Walls, 2500 BCE). Neolithic people and their dogs ate the same things.
- Comparative seed longevity under genebank storage and artificial ageing: a case study in heteromorphic wheat wild relatives. Seeds of the same crop wild relatives species but with different shapes have different seed longevities.
- Stepping up to the thermogradient plate: a data framework for predicting seed germination under climate change. But do heteromorphic seeds have different germination requirements too? Here’s how to find out.
- Conservation interventions can benefit species impacted by climate change. Biodiversity was helped with the effects of climate change in 30% of cases, especially if interventions were targeted on specific species. Genebanks available for comment.
- Urban conservation gardening in the decade of restoration. Speaking of interventions…
- South and/or north: an indigenous seed movement in South Korea and the multiple bases of food sovereignty. Wait, what about the genebank though?
- Perspectives in machine learning for wildlife conservation. Surely if you can use fancy tech and maths to monitor cheetahs, monitoring crop wild relative populations and landraces should be a doddle.
- Quantifying an online wildlife trade using a web crawler. Surely if you can crawl the web for evidence of illicit wildlife trade, crawling it to evidence of genetic erosion of crop diversity should be a doddle.
- Plant beta-diversity across biomes captured by imaging spectroscopy. How about capturing beta-diversity within crop fields, though? A doddle, no? We’ve come a long way since those first Anatolian farmers and their dingoes.