Funding

January 26, 2018

ITPGRFA Benefit-Sharing Fund sharing funds again

The Call for Proposals under the fourth cycle of projects to be funded through the Benefit-sharing Fund of the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is now open. All developing countries that are Contracting Parties to the International Treaty are eligible to apply for funding under the Benefit-sharing Fund (BSF), which will invest at least USD 5 million in projects over the next four years.

All the details are on the Treaty website. Good luck, everyone!

January 26, 2018January 26, 2018

Nibbles: Sustainable wheat, Bananacoin, Tuscan agrobiodiversity, Fig conservation, Foraging beer, Wizard vs Prophet, SDGs, Harlan Symposium

General Mills goes all sustainable. But the genebanks?
The future of bananas is banana futures. But the genebanks?
Agrobiodiversity in Tuscany: The App. Who needs genebanks.
“Correia, a 59-year-old third-generation Delta resident, has one of the most diverse collections of the common fig, Ficus carica, in the world.” Put that in an app.
The two approaches to feeding 10 billion people. Only two?
“Eradicating hunger and ensuring food security is a bottom-line requirement for achieving sustainable development and well-being.” Problem is, it’s not the top priority.
Otherwise orphan crops wouldn’t be orphans.
Foraged beer is a thing. A very cool thing, and you can probably use orphan crops too.
A place to discuss all of the above? The Third Jack R. Harlan International Symposium.

January 25, 2018January 25, 2018

Nibbles: Sequencing Davos, WPC 2018, German spuds, Martha’s Excellent Adventure, C4F video, Hawaiian varieties, Seed Book

Blockchain for ABS touted at Davos. The Economist is there.
But will it be at the World Potato Congress? I’m betting no.
But for sure some Germans will be.
Martha Stewart will be in Svalbard.
Crops for the Future was On the Menu.
Culinary Breeding Network is in Hawaii. Lucky them. But would it have killed them to provide a link?
I want to be in Lebanon.
There are a lot of pretty seeds in Paul Smith’s new book.

November 24, 2017November 23, 2017

Nibbles: Joanne Labate, Gebisa Ejeta, David Spooner, Strawberry 101, Mad honey, First figs, Agrobiodiversity maps, School project, Takesgiving, Private investment

USDA vegetable crop curator tells it like it is.
$5 million to find more Striga resistance genes in sorghum.
Wild potato herbarium specimens find good home.
How two New World strawberries got together in the Old World and then spread all over the world.
Hallucinogenic honey: what could possibly go wrong?
First farmers gave a fig.
The other of all agrobiodiversity map mashups.
Cool school project on crop diversity in Europe.
In other news, “Columbusing” is a thing.
Private sector investment in conservation: Turning “small and new” into “big and familiar.”

October 30, 2017October 26, 2017

Brainfood: Rice introgression, African rice cores, Cereal domestication rates, Power vegetables, Biodiversity services, Afrikaner cattle diversity, Conservation funding

Introgression from cultivated rice alters genetic structures of wild relative populations: implications for in situ conservation. Not totally wild any more.
Genetic Variation and Population Structure of Oryza glaberrima and Development of a Mini-Core Collection Using DArTseq. 2,179 accessions, 5 geographic groups, 16% recover >95% of polymorphisms.
Geographic mosaics and changing rates of cereal domestication. Applying fancy maths to archaeobotanical remains shows that selection pressures varied in time, and started slow.
Tapping the economic and nutritional power of vegetables. Eat your veggies, damn it!
To what extent can ecosystem services motivate protecting biodiversity? Not enough.
Genetic diversity of Afrikaner cattle in southern Africa. 3 groups, but not geographically determined, and lots of diversity despite recent declines in numbers.
Nominal 30-m Cropland Extent Map of Continental Africa by Integrating Pixel-Based and Object-Based Algorithms Using Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 Data on Google Earth Engine. Next level. But when will be be able to distinguish crops?
Reductions in global biodiversity loss predicted from conservation spending. But the impact of spending goes down with with increasing development pressure.