- Some fabulous photos of maize diversity from CIMMYT. (IRRI says, I see your diverse maize, and raise you diverse rice.)
- Hope neither goes the way of that of some Andean roots and tubers in Bolivia. Or fruits in Central Asia. Though neither is doing terribly, in truth.
- And too bad you can’t monitor that the way you can forests. Or land use in general for that matter.
- World Agroforestry Centre calls for more, er, agroforestry. Will Defra listen?
- Maybe it’s too busy consulting on the Nagoya Protocol. Wonder how good that will be for agroforestry.
- I don’t care what anyone says, I like microwaves.
- Wait, we missed Hug a Taxonomist Day?
- And Persian New Year?
- De Schutter’s final report. Main message not lost on the Pacific island countries.
Nibbles: Genebanks trifecta, Marley Coffee, Sorghum noodles, Biofortification Q&A, African oils, Cow diversity, Coffee course, Fructose deconstructed, Vanuatu chocolate, Candy bar phylogenies, Japanese copycats, Charger beer
- CIP’s genebank in the limelight.
- Egypt’s genebank in the limelight.
- Australia’s genebank in the limelight. Limelight fast running out…
- Ah, but genebanks not the only ones with cool videos: farmers in the limelight.
- Yeah, it’s not just about the genebanks. Markets can help, I suppose. Especially if you have a famous name.
- As with coffee, so with sorghum. Biofortified or not. All we need now is an agribusiness incubator, and here it is, courtesy of ICRISAT. But what will Japanese farmers think?
- Same again for assorted African oils?
- The diversity of cows has been driven by markets too.
- Coffee 101 at UCDavis. Maybe they’ll invite Mr Marley to teach.
- You want fructose in that coffee? No, probably not.
- Maybe you prefer chocolate. From Vanuatu, natch. Looks like high quality stuff too, but even crap chocolate has its uses, like teaching taxonomy for instance.
- No, you’re more a Japanese bourbon person, aren’t you? Wait, do you need barley for that? I’m sure those young Japanese farmers will be all over this.
Nibbles: Mango, Money, Holy guacamole
- “Top 8 Wonderful Things You Can Do With A Mango.” Kenyan clickbait. I bought it.
- “Third Call for Project Proposals under the Treaty’s Benefit-sharing Fund.” Seed Treaty clickbait. I’m not qualified.
- “Guacapocalypse” — a headline to reckon with. Here’s the back story to climate change and avocados.
Grapes or rootstocks
One item of agricultural biodiversity interest from my visit to Bologna last weekend, this rather charming 1926 poster. 1 It offers, as you can see, American vines. And here’s my question: varieties, or Phylloxera-resistant rootstocks?
Nibbles: Plant Guardians, Peruvian Solanum, Sunflower genomics, California drought, Brazil drought, Sri Lankan tea, Minnesota wine, Seed of Hope, Sugarcane engineering, King Cotton, Rubber boom
- Do you want to be a Plant Guardian?
- Some people are already getting busy guarding Solanum in Peru.
- The sunflower family gets a molecular makeover.
- What the California drought means for food.
- And the one in Brazil for coffee.
- And tea in Sri Lanka is also in trouble, though for once drought is not to blame.
- Minnesota has a wine industry thanks to wild relatives. But I won’t hold that against them.
- In today’s Seeds of X story, X=hope and the place is Aceh.
- If sugarcane was a cold-tolerant oil-producing crop, would it still be sugarcane?
- Cotton has a lot to answer for. Or rather, the people who grew it do. Or did. Oh crap.
- Rubber too. Though not as much. I guess. Oh crap.