- Crowdsourcing the Global Nutrition Report.
- Which will not cover the Neanderthals.
- Azolla genome project meets crowdfunding target, gets love from BGI.
- Would that contribute to Evergreen Agriculture?
- I bet breadfruit would, but New Scientist has put an article about that interesting tree behind a paywall. But, see this teaser…
- Some people think the potato bean will.
- Another genebank in Canada. Not crops, though, I suspect.
- Saving the camel in Rajasthan.
- ICRISAT gets a new DG.
- Podcast on the history of American beer. Perfect note on which to wish you all a good rest of the weekend.
Nibbles: Agave pollination, Sanjaya Rajaram, PGR policy history, Ex situ conifers, Botanic garden theft, Kyrgyz forests, Home nurseries, American chestnut, South Pacific action
- Tequila and bats. Two of my favourite things.
- Continuing the Mexican theme, we have a World Food Prize 2014 winner.
- I wonder what he thinks of the changes he’s seen during his illustrious career in the international system for PGR conservation and use.
- I bet there’s a few endangered conifers, and maybe some ex situ collections, in Mexico.
- I hope there weren’t any among the plants stolen from the RBG Edinburgh recently.
- But perhaps there were some fruits and nuts from Kyrgyzstan?
- Well, the way to go is home nurseries, clearly.
- Maybe even with the GM chestnut, why not?
- Meanwhile, in the South Pacific, CePaCT has been really busy.
Brainfood: Open sesame, Turkish buffalo, Crops & diets, Tuberous-rooted chervil, Pine breeding, Pigeonpea diversity, Sorghum adoption, Slumdog trees, Regenerating wild sunflower
- Sesame Crop: An Underexploited Oilseed Holds Tremendous Potential for Enhanced Food Value. Nice overview of diversity conservation and use. Lots of scope for improvement.
- Microsatellite based genetic diversity among the three water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) populations in Turkey. No great evidence of differentiation among populations into breeds, unlike in India, say.
- Crop diversification, dietary diversity and agricultural income: empirical evidence from eight developing countries. More crops grown, more dietary diversity.
- Temporal evolution of the genetic diversity of Chaerophyllum bulbosum: Consequences on the genetic resources management. French article on the lack of hydrographic structuring, or erosion, in the genetic diversity of largely forgotten apiaceous root vegetable in Germany.
- Merging applied gene conservation activities with advanced generation breeding initiatives: a case study of Pinus radiata D. Don. Because introduction of new diversity from native areas is difficult, foresters in non-native areas should better understand and use the diversity in existing provenance/progeny trials.
- Comparative Analysis of Genetic Diversity among Cultivated Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L) Millsp.) and Its Wild Relatives (C. albicans and C. lineatus) Using Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR Fingerprinting. 16 Indian accessions classified in 3 clusters, with the stress resistant material mostly together. More diversity in the wilds.
- The role of varietal attributes on adoption of improved seed varieties: the case of sorghum in Kenya. Not just about yield.
- Vegetation in Bangalore’s Slums: Boosting Livelihoods, Well-Being and Social Capital. What’s needed is trees with short stature, narrow trunks, medium canopy, high value. How many species like that can you think of?
- Comparison of fatty acid composition of oil from original and regenerated populations of wild Helianthus species. It’s not the same.
Nibbles: Colombian chocolate, Urban ag, Subaks, GM debate, Taxonomy online, Genebank tools online, BBC on Kew, Australian seed bank, Cedar of Lebanon, Pizza philosophy, Feijoada
- Move over Juan Valdez. Cacao farmers want to emulate a marketing icon.
- Urban agriculture not all it’s cracked up to be. Living up to that urban ag icon, Cuba, is hard.
- Bali’s iconic, traditional subaks are a complex adaptive system, and much better than modern rice farming alternatives. Makes you wonder why they need protecting, though.
- GM bananas will save us. Not by themselves they wont. I don’t know why I keep linking to this stuff. Nothing at all iconic about it.
- Iconic taxonomic revision tools online.
- Something else that’s online is a bunch of tools for analyzing genebank data. Soon to be iconic, no doubt. As soon as people use them. So get cracking.
- Huge BBC documentary on Kew coming up. I bet the iconic Millennium Seed Bank will feature.
- Speaking of iconic genebank buildings, today’s one comes from Australia.
- The history of an iconic Middle Easter tree?
- The philosophy of an iconic Italian delicacy. Well, Neapolitan, really.
- And in honour of the World Cup (I refuse to put FIFA in front, let them sue me), an iconic Brazilian dish. And don’t worry, those beans are safe. Somewhere iconic.
Nibbles: Climate change & yields, Eucalyptus genome, Pacific breeders, Iranian barley breeders, Food Policy Report 2013, Titan, Gluten allergy, FGR podcast, Rice culture, NERICA and gender, WCC2014, CWR article, Malnutrition myths, Halophytes
- Yeah, on this climate change thing? We’re doomed.
- Oh crap, there’s another genome: eucalyptus this time. Here’s the paper, you geeks. Great news for koalas, whose genome we still await, incidentally. Yeah, where are we with that?
- SPC trains some breeders with Treaty money.
- I wonder if they were told about Evolutionary Plant Breeding.
- IFPRI has its new food policy report out. More on this later from us, I suspect.
- The Bonn Titan Arum blooms! Well, I’m calling it a crop wild relative.
- That gluten allergy? Don’t blame modern wheat varieties.
- Podcast on the importance of genetic resources to sustainable forests.
- Why rice? The Filipino view.
- And the African view. NERICA’s good for women. And bad.
- Bioversity blogs about World Cocoa Conference 2014, gets dates wrong. It’s on now.
- Crop wild relatives in The Scientist. But I’m biased…
- Busting malnutrition myths. Because they’re there.
- There’s probably a few myths out there about halophytes too.