- Genetic diversity of Brassica oleracea var. capitata gene bank accessions assessed by AFLP. Czech genebank; subgroups reflected place of origin.
- Optimizing the cropping mix in North Darfur State, Sudan. A study of Umkdada district. “…the results of the model were different from the real practices of the farmers.” Oh dear. To improve the fit, schoolboys should work in the fields more. And crops should fetch more. The dismal science indeed.
- Climate-driven simulation of global crop sowing dates. Ok, this model works. You can predict sowing dates under rainfed conditions for various annual crops from climatic conditions. Not entirely sure why you would want to, though.
- Exploring some of the myths of land use change: Can rural to urban migration drive declines in biodiversity? Yes, counter-intuitively, at least in the forests of Mexico’s southwestern highlands. More from Conservation Magazine.
- Pollination services in the UK: How important are honeybees? Quite a bit, but maybe not as much as previously thought. It’s the wild bees, stupid!
- Genetic diversity and symbiotic effectiveness of rhizobia isolated from root nodules of Phaseolus vulgaris L. grown in soils of Iran. It is high, and it varies, respectively.
- Interspecific hybridization of fig (Ficus carica L.) and Ficus erecta Thunb., a source of Ceratocystis canker resistance. It’s a breakthrough!
- Exploring the diversity of urban and peri-urban agricultural systems in Sudano-Sahelian West Africa: An attempt towards a regional typology. There are 6 types. Not 5; not 7. On this one, the journey is more interesting than the destination.
- Variability of wild olives (Olea europaea subsp. europaea var. sylvestris) analyzed by agro-morphological traits and SSR markers. There’s a lot of variabzzzzzzzzzz…
- Hemp in ancient rope and fabric from the Christmas Cave in Israel: Talmudic background and DNA sequence identification. Mainly flax, but some hemp, from both Roman and Chalcolithic periods. But can you smoke it?
- Modelling the distribution of domestic ducks in Monsoon Asia. Low resolution data, plus fancy modelling, can be used to get pretty good high resolution predictions.
- Gene flow between wheat and wild relatives: empirical evidence from Aegilops geniculata, Ae. neglecta and Ae. triuncialis. It happens, a lot.
- Toward food system sustainability through school food system change: Think&EatGreen@School and the making of a community-university research alliance. Food citizenship?
- Simulation of winter wheat yield and its variability in different climates of Europe: A comparison of eight crop growth models. Big differences among models, so best thing to do is to use the mean of all of them.
- The potential of plant viruses to promote genotypic diversity via genotype × environment interactions. The negative effect of White Clover Mosaic Virus (WCMV) infection on performance differs from white clover genotype to genotypes, which means differential selection, which means negative frequency-dependent selection in host populations, which means diversity. Via.
- Amplifying the benefits of agroecology by using the right cultivars. Why should we summarize, when an author has already done so?
Nibbles: Kew, Chickens, Sorghum, Romanian agriculture, Conferences, Tree conservation
- Kew video asks: Why does plant diversity matter? Not to feed people, obviously.
- An entire blog dedicated to the Origin of the Domestic Fowl! Wonder where he stands on the chickens of Chile?
- Benefits of beer sorghum in eastern Kenya.
- Traditional agriculture protects amphibians in Romania shock.
- Seeds for a sustainable future. Conference organized by European Greens for 31 May. Not much notice, I know.
- And another one, on geographical indications, in June.
- How to develop a genetic conservation strategy to safeguard an endangered tree species. Learning module from Bioversity International.
Nibbles: Genebank, Sweet wheat, Participatory Research, Land “grab”, Yampah, Vegetables, Tea, Chilling, Rainforest products, Asses, Climate proofing, Natural products
- A look inside the big USDA genebank at Fort Collins. Whatever next?
- Sweet wheat. Whatever next?
- Farmers must participate in agricultural research in Europe. Whatever next?
- “Come and farm our virgin lands, Ethiopia tells India.” Whatever.
- “You may already know that yampah (Perideridia gairdneri) is a North American umbellifer.” Er, no. Tell me more.
- After cloves, vegetables? Zanzibar’s farmers increase productivity.
- More news for Luigi’s MIL: Future Climate Scenarios for Kenya’s Tea Growing Areas.
- Is this the end of trail mix?
- Body Shop uses wins award for using Cameroonian rainforest honey and wax from CIFOR-supported beekeeping project.
- Fancy a glass of ass’s milk? Totally SFW.
- Everybody is climate-proofing crops.
- The BBC looks at medicinal plants.
What is and is not going to happen with antimalarial trees
ICRAF’s project and publication on trees with antimalarial properties has made it into the prestigious medical journal The Lancet. Kudos indeed. UnLike that article, fortunately, the ICRAF publication is not behind a paywall. The project has been much in the news, and rightly so, but at least one report is inaccurate in suggesting that ICRAF are planning a major effort on ex situ conservation of antimalarial trees. This is how The Star entitled its article when the book was launched: “ICRAF starts trees gene bank project in Nairobi.” And this was their lede:
A project to document genetic properties of more than 3,000 forest trees across the continent has started in Nairobi.
In fact, ICRAF already has a genebank, of about 200 species, and there are no plans to either expand that to 3000 species or specifically focus on collecting antimalarials in the future. According to our sources, The Star correspondent may simply have conflated the malaria book project with the results of a recent meeting at ICRAF on the State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources.
LATER: My sincere apologies to The Lancet. That paper is NOT behind a paywall. You just need to register. Which takes a bit of time and effort but does not involve the exchange of currency. Sorry!
Brainfood: Millet biscuits, Wheat micronutrients, Diversification and C footprint, Agroforestry, Epazote, Grape history, Belgian farmers, Millet phenology, Species migration, Barley domestication, Sheep genetics
- Quality characteristics of biscuits prepared from finger millet seed coat based composite flour. They’re nutritious. Crocodile Dundee on the tastiness of the iguana may, however, apply.
- Minerals and trace elements in a collection of wheat landraces from the Canary Islands. There are differences, but environment and agronomic practices could affect them.
- Lowering carbon footprint of durum wheat by diversifying cropping systems. Yes, by 7-34%, depending on how the diversification was done.
- Effect of shading by baobab (Adansonia digitata) and néré (Parkia biglobosa) on yields of millet (Pennisetum glaucum) and taro (Colocasia esculenta) in parkland systems in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Taro is a shade lover; grow it under néré, and vice versa.
- Ethnobotanical, morphological, phytochemical and molecular evidence for the incipient domestication of Epazote (Chenopodium ambrosioides L.: Chenopodiaceae) in a semi-arid region of Mexico. Good to know; I love epazote.
- Grape varieties (Vitis vinifera L.) from the Balearic Islands: genetic characterization and relationship with Iberian Peninsula and Mediterranean Basin. See the grand sweep of European history unfold.
- Microsatellite characterization of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) genetic diversity in Asturias (Northern Spain). No evidence of communication with the previous group.
- Plant economy of the first farmers of central Belgium (Linearbandkeramik, 5200–5000 b.c.). They were dope fiends.
- Selection for earlier flowering crop associated with climatic variations in the Sahel. Compared to 1976 millet samples, samples collected in 2003 had shorter lifecycle (due to an early flowering allele at the PHYC locus increasing in frequency), and a reduction in plant and spike size. So you don’t need new varieties, the old ones will adapt to climate change. Oh, and BTW, there’s been no genetic erosion.
- Do species’ traits predict recent shifts at expanding range edges? No.
- The domestication syndrome genes responsible for the major changes in plant form in the Triticeae crops. Failure to disarticulate and 6-rows in barley, in detail. Part of a Special Issue on Barley.
- The genetics of colour in fat-tailed sheep: a review. I didn’t know karakul had fat tails.