- Maintenance of Manioc Diversity by Traditional Farmers in the State of Mato Grosso, Brazil: A 20-Year Comparison. Overall diversity unchanged, but number of varieties per farmer down. Rare varieties now common, and vice versa.
- On-farm conservation of 12 cereal crops among 15 ethnic groups in Yunnan (PR China). Higher income means fewer crops and fewer varieties. Remoteness and farm fragmentation work the other way.
- Musa arunachalensis: a new species of Musa section Rhodochlamys (Musaceae) from Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India. It never ends.
- Identification of the Worldwide Olive Germplasm Bank of Córdoba (Spain) using SSR and morphological markers. 824 trees, 499 accessions, 332 cultivars, 200 authenticated.
- Genetic characterization and conservation priorities of chicken lines. Lose 4 of 7 chicken lines derived from the Plymouth Rock breed and you only lose a maximum of 4% of total genetic diversity.
- Conservation through Commodification? Well, maybe.
- Review of Sustainable Agriculture: Promotion, Its Challenges and Opportunities in Japan. Gotta involve the farmers. Even in Japan.
- Green Tourism in Japan: Opportunities for a GIAHS Pilot Site. Should probably be mashed up with the above. By someone other than me, though.
- An integrated agro-ecosystem and livelihood systems approach for the poor and vulnerable in dry areas. Must integrate multi-disciplinarily along the entire impact pathway. Funny though how genetic resources, which arguably lie at the source of many of these, get so little mention.
Brainfood: Asian American horticulture, Salt resistant Vigna, Rubber dandelion, Biofortifying wheat, US apple cores, Central European barley, Swedish peas, Alpine dairy, CAP crap, MVP
- Asian Germplasm in American Horticulture: New Thoughts on an Old Theme. The tap has sort of run dry.
- Identification of salt resistant wild relatives of mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek). From 22 accessions of 7 species to 2 accessions of 2 species. Now for the hard part.
- Available germplasm of the potential rubber crop belongs to a poor rubber producer, (Compositae–Crepidinae).
Cultivation of the Russian dandelion (Taraxacum koksaghyz) was no such thing, but taxonomy has the answer. - Biofortification strategies to increase grain zinc and iron concentrations in wheat. Not just about the breeding.
- Diversity Captured in the USDA-ARS National Plant Germplasm System Apple Core Collection. Apple core? Seriously.
- Genes for resistance to powdery mildew in European winter barley cultivars registered in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to 2010. There’s quite a few of them, some of them previously unknown. Oh those jammy breeders. And beer drinkers.
- Genetic diversity in local cultivars of garden pea (Pisum sativum L.) conserved ‘on farm’ and in historical collections. Little connection between historical and current material, and genetic erosion both in genebanks and on farms.
- Dairy systems in mountainous areas: Farm animal biodiversity, milk production and destination, and land use. The traditional, low-input systems are best for sustainability and biodiversity, but have low productivity, but geographic appellations for cheeses can make up for that.
- The contribution of the EU Common Agricultural Policy to protecting biodiversity and global climate in Europe. Is, ahem, limited.
- Can Big Push Interventions Take Small-Scale Farmers out of Poverty? Insights from the Sauri Millennium Village in Kenya. Greater productivity (due to seeds and fertilizers) compared to nearby villages does not translate into higher incomes. Well that’s awkward.
Brainfood: Mixtures and productivity, Pesticides and soil biota, Andean intensification, Turkish barley, Tomato size gene, Quinoa and environment, Banana improvement, Hybrid conservation, Allozymes
- Changes in the Abundance of Grassland Species in Monocultures versus Mixtures and Their Relation to Biodiversity Effects. Monocultures are ok for productivity, but only initially.
- Agricultural soils, pesticides and microbial diversity. mRNA and high-throughput sequencing show that pesticides affect nitrification rates and soil microbe community structure. Brave new world indeed.
- Making Sense of Agrobiodiversity, Diet, and Intensification of Smallholder Family Farming in the Highland Andes of Ecuador. Want sustainable intensification? Look at the smaller enterprises.
- Genetic variation of barley germplasm from Turkey assessed by chloroplast microsatellite markers. Little genetic similarity between wild relative and landraces in same geographic area.
- A cytochrome P450 regulates a domestication trait in cultivated tomato. Single polymorphism controls fruit size.
- Blossoming Treasures of Biodiversiy. 42. Quinoa – is the United Nations’ featured crop of 2013 bad for biodiversity? It can be.
- From crossbreeding to biotechnology-facilitated improvement of banana and plantain. Quite some progress, despite few breeding programmes. Will it all go GE? Big temptation. I would have made more of the genebank collections, personally.
- Perspectives on the conservation of wild hybrids. There’s more to it than science. Tell that to the banana breeders.
- Revisiting protein heterozygosity in plants — nucleotide diversity in allozyme coding genes of conifer Pinus sylvestris. Those pre-DNA days weren’t a complete waste of time. That mean we can measure genetic erosion?
Nibbles: Vilsack on ice, Genebank standards, Indigo, Sardinian food, Seeds of Time, Musa genome, Wild rice collecting, Palm oil, Markets
- Secretary of Agriculture tours Ft Collins genebank. With video goodness.
- Which genebank I’m sure follows the Genebank Standards for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. With video goodness.
- Prince of Wales sows organic rice. In white suit. With video goodness.
- The story of indigo. No video, but lots of photos.
- Sardinian blood soup. No video, but one photo. Which is more than enough.
- Wanna watch Seeds of Time? Here’s where. Includes much on Svalbard, of course. And a bit on USDA wild potato collecting. I plead the fifth.
- So there’s a second banana genome? Thankfully no video.
- “We are only using the tip of the iceberg.” Rice genetic resources, that is. Could easily have had a video.
- Face palm oil.
- Photo essay on the bazaars of Central Asia.
Nibbles: Fungi, Beer, Cupuaçu, Tearless onions, Melaleuca, Tomatillo, Seed takeover, Katy Perry’s seeds, Bruges fries, EU ag
- They got an awful lot of fungi in Norwegian wood.
- Waiter, there’s a mushroom in my beer.
- Kew seed scientist discovers the taste of the Amazon.
- That “tearless onion” is good for the heart story? The article is behind a paywall, so I don’t know how the boffins suppressed lachrymatory factor synthase. And frankly, I don’t really care.
- A new guide to Melaleuca species. Be still my beating heart.
- The world’s oldest tomatillo clocks in at 52.2 million years.
- French seed company Vilmorin buys 25% of Zimbabwe’s Seed Co. Ltd. What could possibly go wrong?
- “Katy Perry’s latest album, Prism, is Number One in Australia, but that hasn’t stopped the country from declaring it a potential biohazard.” Can anyone explain the significance of this story? Or who Katy Perry is?
- On the whole, I’d rather be at the frites museum in Bruges.
- “Clearly, when it comes to agriculture, productivity matters.” Here comes the science.