Fruits and nuts

July 24, 2022

Documenting agricultural biodiversity everywhere

Nice to see a couple of examples of agrobiodiversity catalogues, albeit of very different kinds, available online.

The Catàleg de varietats locals de Catalunya (from that autonomous community of Spain’s Department d’Acció Climàtita, Alimentació i Agenda Rural) can be searched online by either cultivated species (hint: “mongueta” is Phaseolus vulgaris) or the “entitat” that is managing the landrace.

On the other hand, the Field Guide to the Cultivated Plants of the Philippines (Volume 1: Commonly cultivated species) from the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) can be downloaded as a beautifully produced PDF.

And since I’m here, I might as well point to a nice infographic summarizing the cultivated Citrus family tree. I may have shared this (or something similar) before, but I’m hoping that if I keep doing so some of the details will eventually stick in my brain.

July 19, 2022July 19, 2022

Nibbles: Algal genebank, Baking, Distilling, Ft Collins genebank, Community genebanks, Trinidad genebank, Agriculture & climate change, Nigerian coconuts, Organic agriculture

Saving an algal germplasm collection in the US.
Saving ancient grains via baking in Israel and distilling in Minnesota.
Saving seeds (and more) in a famous genebank in Ft Collins, Colorado.
Saving seeds in community genebanks in Nepal.
Saving seeds for the community in Trinidad & Tobago.
Saving agriculture from climate change in Hainan. Someone tell India.
Saving the Nigerian coconut sector.
Saving organic agriculture from politicians.

July 18, 2022July 18, 2022

Brainfood: Organic tradeoffs, Yield gap, Genebank impact, Rice in Madagascar, Trees & diets, Trees & food system, Global tree diversity, Restoration & emissions

Biodiversity and yield trade‐offs for organic farming. Switch to organic agriculture if the surrounding land that will need to be converted to farming to make up for production shortfalls is less than 2.4 times more biodiverse than the farmed land. But that’s an average that will depend on the crop.
Global wheat production could benefit from closing the genetic yield gap. Customize improved wheat varieties to local conditions by using the diversity in genebanks. No word on whether that includes organic conditions.
The impact of the international rice genebank (IRG) on rice farming in Bangladesh. Someone mention genebanks? 1% increase in genebank contribution to new variety means 1% increase in yield. No word on what happens under organic conditions.
Constraints on Rice Cultivation in Eastern Madagascar: Which Factors Matter to Smallholders, and Which Influence Food Security? Does swidden cultivation count as organic?
What are the links between tree-based farming and dietary quality for rural households? A review of emerging evidence in low- and middle-income countries. It’s generally a good idea to keep trees around your farm. But how to make sure that it happens?
Transforming food systems with trees and forests. Here’s how: scale up tree food production, reorient research towards trees foods, repurposing production incentives towards tree foods, and integrate nutrition with conservation. Got it? No word on whether the whole thing needs to be organic though.
High exposure of global tree diversity to human pressure. But what about the diversity of trees on farms? Well I guess if we do the above properly it will be ok.
Carbon removals from nature restoration are no substitute for steep emission reductions. Trees are not enough.

July 12, 2022July 12, 2022

Nibbles: Pacific genebank, IPBES report, New mangoes, British apples, Greek landraces, Fonio, Space seeds, Macadamia cryo

New Zealand supports SPC regional crops and trees genebank in a big way.
Some of those trees are wild species that contribute to food security, and more must be done to conserve them.
Some trees are crops of course, like mangoes, and scientists are doing their bit for them in the Philippines.
Wait, isn’t it too early for the usual BBC saving-the-apple story? Usually comes in the autumn.
Who needs genebanks when you can inscribe landraces in a National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Maybe try it with fonio next?
Or just send seeds into space?
Maybe including macadamia, or is space not cold enough for them?

July 11, 2022July 12, 2022

Brainfood: Rice domestication, Roman wine, Dog domestication, Earth ovens, Forest orchards, Saffron origins

The Fits and Starts of Indian Rice Domestication: How the Movement of Rice Across Northwest India Impacted Domestication Pathways and Agricultural Stories. While cultivation of (indica) rice in South Asia began in the Ganges around 6500 BC, its domestication really speeded up 3000 years later in the Indus.
Archaeobotanical and chemical investigations on wine amphorae from San Felice Circeo (Italy) shed light on grape beverages at the Roman time. In the second century BC the ancient Romans may have traded a medicinal wine made from wild or semi-domesticated grapevines. I wonder how it would have gone with a nice risotto.
Grey wolf genomic history reveals a dual ancestry of dogs. Either dogs were domesticated independently in E and W Eurasia and then the two lineages merged, or they were domesticated in the E and then there was geneflow from wild dogs. Sounds a bit like rice actually. ((No, really, check it out. Japonica gets domesticated in one place, then taken to another place where it gets into geneflow with indica, which is being domesticated elsewhere. Only difference is that 2 different wild species are involved, rather than just a single wild wolf species. Also maybe echoes of what happened in tomato too?))
Bulbs and Biographies, Pine Nuts and Palimpsests: Exploring Plant Diversity and Earth Oven Reuse at a Late Period Plateau Site. For 2000 years Native Americans returned to specific food processing sites dug into the soil to cook up a storm. No word on the use of wild grapevines.
Coupled archaeological and ecological analyses reveal ancient cultivation and land use in Nuchatlaht (Nuu-chah-nulth) territories, Pacific Northwest. Native Americans nurtured forest gardens to enrich them with edible species. Including wild apples though again not wild grapevines apparently.
Ancient Artworks and Crocus Genetics Both Support Saffron’s Origin in Early Greece. Ok now everything is in place for a nice risotto alla Milanese with a Falanghina at the House of the Tragic Poet.