- 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.
Nibbles: Genebanks, PNG Forests, Peruvian potatoes, Haitian extension, Mungbeans
- The Santa Barbara Independent does genebanks. You heard me.
- Papua New Guinea suspends Special Agricultural and Business Leases. Maybe they’ll now use the land for special agriculture and business?
- Native Peruvian potato chips prized in Europe (Spanish).
- US opens new centre to train Haitian farmers. Because, y’know, they’ve done such a fine job in the past.
- Australia taps World Vegetable Center for mungbean genes.