- Eating Bushmeat Improves Food Security in a Biodiversity and Infectious Disease “Hotspot”. What could possibly go wrong.
- Potential of multi-species livestock farming to improve the sustainability of livestock farms: A review. Depends on management, in particular stocking rate.
- Genotyping on the ark: A synthesis of genetic resources available for species in zoos. Use genomics to improve conservation.
- Dairy cows: in the age of the genotype, #phenotypeisking. “If I were a dairy or beef farmer, I would genotype all my animals and farm phenotypes for sale.”
- Enhancing African orphan crops with genomics. Use genomics to improve use.
- Strategies for Effective Use of Genomic Information in Crop Breeding Programs Serving Africa and South Asia. Use genomic selection to use genomics to improve use.
- The Vavilov Institute’s (VIR) contribution to the survey and study of Vavilovia formosa (Fabaceae). More seeds needed.
- ‘Gabreta’ saved from the ruins of oblivion. That’s a forgotten red currant from the Sudetenland.
- Genetic and genomic analysis for cocoon yield traits in silkworm. Even the wild species could contribute to higher yields.
- Propagation of lusala (Dioscorea hirtiflora), a wild yam, for in situ and ex situ conservation and potential domestication. Lots of options.
Nibbles: Coronavirus, Fungal masks, Cannabis, Coconut posters, Conservation evidence
- IFPRI reflects on COVID-19.
- CGIAR reflects on COVID-19.
- GAIN reflects on COVID-19.
- Masks made out of medicinal fungi from all over the world. Nothing to do with the above.
- We need better dope genomes. Do we ever.
- Cool high definition coconut posters to take your mind off the above.
- Course materials for evidence-based conservation. Because science.
Brainfood: Rotations, Sunflower conservation, Wild lentils, Iranian sheep, Crispy rice, Macrotyloma preferences, Cenchrus diversity, Livestock systems, Morning glories, Freezing nuts, SOTW-AB, ABS
- Long-Term Evidence Shows that Crop-Rotation Diversification Increases Agricultural Resilience to Adverse Growing Conditions in North America. Meaning higher maize yields in droughts.
- Gene banks for wild and cultivated sunflower genetic resources. Details from the US, France and Serbia, summary info from Argentina, Bulgaria, Germany, India, Romania, Russia, Spain. Reference genomes and high throughput phenotyping for the wild relatives on the horizon.
- Evaluation and identification of wild lentil accessions for enhancing genetic gains of cultivated varieties. About 10% of 96 wild lentil accessions conserved in India are good for something.
- Genetic structure of Iranian indigenous sheep breeds: insights for conservation. 8 breeds should be the focus of conservation efforts, as the trend is towards homogenization.
- CRISPR-mediated accelerated domestication of African rice landraces. Started with well-known African sativa landrace Kabre and messed with total of 4 loci for plant height, seed size and yield, resulting in mutants with better grain yield.
- Farmers’ Preferences for Genetic Resources of Kersting’s Groundnut [Macrotyloma geocarpum (Harms) Maréchal and Baudet] in the Production Systems of Burkina Faso and Ghana. They depend on the ethnic group.
- Genotyping-By-Sequencing Reveals Population Structure and Genetic Diversity of a Buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris L.) Collection. Structure in the ILRI collection is not straightforwardly geographical. My guess is that rainfall is involved. Oh, and we have a core collection now.
- Improved feeding and forages at a crossroads: Farming systems approaches for sustainable livestock development in East Africa. We need the above, and more, at scale.
- A foundation monograph of Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae) in the New World. 425 spp, many of them, in different clades, with storage roots, and little known.
- Morpho-Physiological and Genomic Evaluation of Juglans Species Reveals Regional Maladaptation to Cold Stress. Gonna need a bigger collection.
- Declining biodiversity for food and agriculture needs urgent global action. The The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture summarized: it’s essential, it’s declining, we’re not doing enough.
- Rethink the expansion of access and benefit sharing. Just maybe this is a/the reason?
Nibbles: Home brewing, Pathology, Sharing vs sparing, Chilling, Cognac, Flower breeding, Algerian sheep, COVID-19, Data
- Going hyper-local with your brewing yeast.
- Protecting sweet potato the Colombian way.
- Land sharing is good for you. The paper is in a Brainfood, see if you can find it…
- Fooling trees into chilling. Until the breeders do their stuff anyway.
- Maybe they’re all working on Ugni blanc.
- A rose is a rose is a mutant.
- Sheep combat. You heard me.
- COVID-19 and food security: no need for panic yet.
- But if you’re stuck at home, these online museum tours might come in useful. And remember you can do the same with genebanks.
Nibbles: Simran on Svalbard, Egyptian cotton, AgroecologyNow, Breeding trifecta, Rum, Potato double, Banana map, Climbing beans, Vegetable relatives, Cashew industry, Mongolian herders
- Simran Sethi’s Svalbard speech. See everything below for other examples of the importance of agricultural biodiversity.
- Egypt did not take good care of its cotton germplasm, and it went badly for them.
- AgroecologyNow has regular updates. Great name, by the way.
- Breeding for salt tolerance.
- Breeding for photosynthetic rate.
- Breeding as both science and art? Not entirely convincing, but ok.
- Making the most of sugarcane. Yeah, you guessed it, rum. There’s certainly an art to that.
- Not sure what brought on another humble-bragging potato piece, but I’m not complaining. Two pieces, in fact.
- Hey, we’re going to have a world banana map soon. Yes, another one. But this one will be different…
- Beans are climbing the list of important African crops. See what I did there?
- Vegetables have wild relatives too.
- Arizona has some interesting foods, old and new. Including vegetables.
- Cashew is the new avocado.
- Blockchain for Mongolian cashmere? I can’t rule it out.
- Sorghum is set to take over the South. Of the US, that is.