Climate change

January 6, 2015

Nibbles: Eggplant, Potato seeds, Survey report

Let’s take this nice and slow …

A history of the eggplant, and its usurpation. Is that even a word?
The fun to be had from a few true ~~friends~~ potato seeds.
It’s out! “Lessons learned about ways and means to conserve and use genetic diversity to build resilience to climate change in food and agriculture systems survey report” (PDF)

December 12, 2014December 11, 2014

Nibbles: Svalbard recruitment, Barley breeding video, Orphan crops breeding, Agroforestry double, Afghan pomegranate, Australian hazlenut, DivSeek video, Raspberry breeding video, Strawberry fungi, OFSP, Genebanks, Old chiles, Mexican cuisine, Shakesperean sallat, Dietary diversity, Seed exchange, European wild animals, Dutch AnGR, UK indicators, Millets promotion, Wheat extravaganza, Deforestation map, Chickens & turkeys, Ancient horses, Kenyan grass, Olive pests, Penang anniversary

Sorry about the light blogging lately. I’m on leave and Jeremy is in the manure. Thankfully Robert has been picking up the slack lately, apparently because he has nothing better to do. Anyway, here’s a juicy roundup of Nibbles covering the past week and more. Starting with this stunner: Svalbard needs an adviser!
Breeding better barley: The video. No videos, however, on breeding Africa’s orphan crops. Yet.
Some of those are agroforestry species. Which is not confined to Africa, of course. But pomegranate is not included, alas for the Afghans. Nor the hazlenut, alas for the Australians, who will however admittedly probably sequence the thing themselves.)
DivSeek does have a video, though.
Even raspberry breeding has a video. But if this strawberry hack works for other plants, breeders might not be needed at all :)
Orange-fleshed sweet potato folks meet in Ghana for annual jamboree.
An insurance policy for agriculture? Yes, you guessed it.
Recovering the NM chile. Hot stuff from a cold place. Yes, you guessed it. Again. (BTW, not only important in New Mexico.
How to make a 17th century sallat. You heard me.
CIAT on getting ahead of dietary trends. No, not from the 17th century. This being the current situation, however. And more specifically for dietary diversity among women. Yes, it’s all about diversification. Including in homegardens. Which were the great love of the great, late Olga Linares.
The benefits would be so great to get nutrition right. And yet we haven’t. And without Olga it’s not going to be any easier. Maybe we could start by curing Indians of their pizza habit.
The largest seed exchange in the world. It says here. There I was thinking it was the CGIAR genebanks.
Rewilding Europe. Kinda sorta.
The Dutch have new policies on conserving livestock genetic resources. At least yaks are not an issue.
Meanwhile, the UK biodiversity indicators include one on crop genetic diversity.
Maybe all it needs is better marketing, like these millets?
Or perhaps a data portal, like wheat’s.
Which may soon be out of date for the Punjab. Or should be, anyway, according to this IFPRI study. And also for the US, according to this maverick breeder getting a writeup in the NY Times.
Be that as it may, help is on the way for wheat, in the form of its wild relatives. According to some people who should know.
Interactive global deforestation map. Because we can.
Black chicken? And why not? Not Icelandic, though, I’m willing to bet. Chickens? “…it was the forced opening of China by the West in the 1840s that made the modern [chicken] possible.” Not so the turkey, though.
Ancient horse breeders liked spots. And then they didn’t. And then they did…
Disease resistant Napier grass in Kenya. Must ask the mother-in-law whether she has some.
Oh dear, Italian olives are in trouble. Again. Ah, yes, the olive, symbol of peace.
Penang Botanic Gardens has a big birthday.
Hope that keeps you going for a while…

December 1, 2014November 18, 2014

Brainfood: Daniel Zohary, Blue dates, Crop diversification, Tunisian oases, Cranberry diversity, Drought breeding, Seed-use watermelon, Cattle history, Apple conservation

Daniel Zohary: Geneticist and Explorer of Plant Domestication. Nice profile of iconic explorer of agricultural biodiversity.
The date palm with blue dates Phoenix senegalensis André (Arecaceae): A horticultural enigma is solved. A variety of P. canariensis, as it turns out.
Crop diversification as a smallholder livelihood strategy within semi-arid agricultural systems near Mount Kenya. It will work better at higher elevations.
Change of oases farming systems and their effects on vegetable species diversity: Case of oasian agro-systems of Nefzaoua (South of Tunisia). Not working at all in oases.
Clonal diversity and genetic differentiation revealed by SSR markers in wild Vaccinium macrocarpon and Vaccinium oxycoccos. Cranberries have much more variation than previously thought.
Two decades of InterDrought conferences: are we bridging the genotype-to-phenotype gap? Yes, slowly, but genomics will help. Eventually.
Microsatellite Marker-based Genetic Diversity of Seed-use Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus ssp. vulgaris var. megalaspermus Lin et Chao) Collections. They’re all very similar.
On the History of Cattle Genetic Resources. The loss of breeds adapted to local conditions and extensive management are the main threats to the genetic diversity amassed over the past 12,000 years.
The vulnerability of US apple (Malus) genetic resources. Could be worse. Could be better.

November 28, 2014November 29, 2014

Nibbles: Quasilocavore, Returning potatoes, Singapore veggies, Floating gardens, Timber trees, Allanblackia, Cranberry glut, Wild turkeys

Sure, eat locally. But not too much.
Andean farmers don’t have much of a choice about eating locally, but at least now they have more potato varieties to choose from.
Growing your own is about as local as you can get in Singapore.
Maybe they should do it the Bangladeshi way.
A list of the world’s commercial timber trees (pdf). Can’t help thinking they should have made more of this.
Which doesn’t include Allanblackia.
Let them eat cranberries.
Wild turkey with that?

November 23, 2014November 23, 2014

CWR inventory of the United States wins prize

Congratulations to our friend and occasional contributor Colin Khoury and to his co-authors on the paper “An Inventory of Crop Wild Relatives of the United States.” The paper has been named “Outstanding Paper on Plant Genetic Resources in 2014″ by the Division C-8 Plant Genetic Resources of the Crop Science Society of America. Richly deserved. The data on which the paper is based can be found on the Crop Wild Relatives and Climate Change webpage.