Forests & trees

Nibbles: Gene, Database, Climate Change, Nutrition, Archaeology, Website, Prices, Svalbard

Today’s maybe we’ll get some coverage if we link it to hunger and famine press release. Petunia gene.
Today’s there’s a database for that announcement. FAO’s Horticulture Cultivars Performance Database.
Today’s impact of climate change on X report. Forest resources in the Caribbean.
Today’s debunking a crappy piece of nutrition research killjoys. Experts respond to nutrition claims.
The Archaeobotanist has been going great guns; new book on domestication and millet domestication. We’ll pass on the museum post till we can firm it up.
IFPRI says let two flowers bloom. Here’s the super-groovy new policy kid on the block for non-policy wonks.
I’ll see your evil speculators and raise you a rising secular trend in food prices. (See what I did there?)
With a heavy clunk, The Economist gave Svalbard’s Doomsday Seed Vault a fine 4th birthday present.

Modern Chinese agronomist praises ancient Chinese agriculture, possibly gets in trouble.
Domesticating trees is still the next big thing.
Transform agriculture for a greener economy, says SciDev.net.
VoA on genebanks, including Svalbard.
Gerbil enthusiasts tackle millets. Yes, gerbils.

Modelling chestnut biogeography for American chestnut restoration. As all 7 species have very similar climatic niches, if you could get a blight-resistant hybrid, it would probably be adapted to North American conditions.
Ex situ conservation programmes in European zoological gardens: Can we afford to lose them? No, and therefore the EU needs to step in. Whoa, talk about a non sequitur.
The Fine Scale Ethnotaxa Classification of Millets in Southern India. Malayali farmers can consistently recognize more phenotypes than DNA analysis, and some of the cryptic landraces might be really useful.
Diversity of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) cultivars and its management in the department of Bouenza in the Republic of Congo. High, but decreasing, at least in some villages. But overall? Any collections made?
Indigenous agroforestry in a changing context: The case of the Erumanen ne Menuvu in Southern Philippines. Despite being divinely-sanctioned, the pengegnewiran swidden system is changing, in response to socio-economic changes. It needs to, and blaming the people because you don’t like the result is not very helpful.
Variation in biochemical composition of baobab (Adansonia digitata) pulp, leaves and seeds in relation to soil types and tree provenances. Soil has a big effect. At least in Benin.
Comparing silvopastoral systems and prospects in eight regions of the world. They’re all going to need more active management.

Seven forest myths exposed. And more on the work debunking one of them. Yeah I know we already Nibbled it, get over it.
And you know what, here’s another one we already Nibbled, on collecting seeds in Central Asia. But I just read it again in the hardcopy version and it’s really cool and I like seeing people I know in funny shorts. Incidentally, the dead tree version has a link to Vaviblog that is unaccountably missing online.
Will no one buy me this fabulous banana book? (Not if you keep being rude to your reader. Ed.)
Second installment of that we-farm-because-we-like-beer thing. I’m not sure about the theory, but I like the way this guy writes. Yes, it’s a little look at me, look at me. But sometimes you need that.
Tales of the cucumber. Does anyone remember if we blogged about this paper?
More to myrrh than meets the eye. And more than most folk need to know.
Oxford boffins say a pox on both your houses: “environmentally friendly” farms better than conventional and organic.
National Geographic tackles the dog. Amazingly, all the photos are of, ahem, dogs.
What’s with all this stuff about cacao lately? Has someone sequenced another variety or something?

IFPRI and ILRI put out new free tool on documenting gender and assets data for programme evaluations. Apparently, crop diversity not considered much of an asset.
The pendulum swings on slash-and-burn? One can hope.
Different goats sound different. Well there’s a thing.
Denver Botanic Gardens explains how to share herbarium information. CWRs, take note.
The ITPGRFA gets itself some RSS feeds.
And WorldFish a podcast.
Farming for booze? Start of a series at Scientific American blogs. Can you say “contentious”?