- “Can corn be taught to fix its own nitrogen?” Probably not.
- Many saffron clones identical shock.
- New Agriculturist on agrobiodiversity conservation and use in the Pacific in general and Pohnpei in particular. Go Local!
- An idiosyncratic take on carrot diversity and history.
- The Indigenous Food Systems Network has a new website. h/t PAR
- Landscape of Quarantine, an exhibition that addresses, among other things, the spread of pests and diseases.
- Semillas Sagradas — Sacred Seeds.
Nibbles: Climate, Shitstorm, Fish, Food, Biotech, Talk, Drought, Bananas
- Community-based adaptation to climate change. A book from IIED.
- This really is outrageous. Manure is now a pollutant in the world’s most wasteful economy. h/t Ethicurean.
- Where have all the fishes gone, gone to flowers every one.
- Dept. of Uh-huh: Innovation in traditional foodstuffs could harm their image.
- Dept. of Uh-huh Pt 2: An over-dependence on genetically modified organisms to boost agricultural production eclipses other biotechnologies and their potential to benefit poor farmers in developing countries.
- Adam Forbes is giving a talk about his seed-searching travels, March 22, Princeton, NJ. Go! Report!
- Malawi’s miracle laid low by drought?
- IITA leads seven African nations against banana diseases.
Nibbles: Community genebank, Traditional medicine, Agarwood, Radish introgression, Kentucky bluegrass, Frison, Vavilov, Pollinators, Collecting strategy
- Bamboo microscope used to document rice varieties at Indian village genebank. Want one.
- And more documentation and conservation of traditional knowledge in India: this time it’s medicines.
- Nigel Chaffey’s latest botanical buffet table at the Annals of Botany has stuff on nomenclature and genomes. Always worth following.
- Latest on saving agarwood. And more. Thanks to twittering by @AsiaForestry.
- Biofortified blogs research on geneflow between crops and their wild relatives.
- Kentucky bluegrass pix. Botany Photo of the Day is also worth following. You guys all use Google Reader, right?
- “Any serious discussion of biodiversity conservation must include the diversity of crops and livestock…” Right on.
- Vavilov hits Abyssinia. Another one for Reader.
- Pollinator trends in Europe and the world. It ain’t good.
- Your botanic gardens needs at least 15 individuals of that palm.
Nibbles: Genomes, Sorghum squared, Tropical forests, UG99, Vanilla, Himalayan agriculture
- And today’s 500 genomes are … h/t OpenHelix.
- FAO uses sorghum to deliver food security in Matabeleland North.
- Meanwhile … science alert: sorghum’s family tree delineated, scope for breeding from wild relatives.
- Small family farms can provide lots of food and preserve tropical forest biodiversity, say researchers. Actual paper not yet available.
- Wired magazine does UG99 wheat rust. Read it and weep.
- And in other fungus news, Fusarium hits vanilla in Kerala.
- “Ladakh’s youth … are increasingly switching from backbreaking agriculture in the harsh terrain to more profitable jobs in the booming tourism industry.” Twas ever thus.
Nibbles: Cassava, fonio, apples, Salicornia, aurochs, seeds
- Nagib Nassar challenges the wisdom of GM cassava. Cultivate indigenous and wild varieties of the crop!
- Or fonio (Digitaria exilis). New paper on its diversity.
- And for dessert? Wild apple diversity?
- Need salad? How about Salicornia then?
- Nice aurochs steak to go with the salad?
- Not too soon to start planning a future harvest, if you’re in Ireland and want seeds.