Category: Funding

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Proposals wanted to host Harlan III International Symposium on Domestication, Evolution, and Uses of Biological Diversity

The International Committee is seeking proposals to host Harlan III and requests that interested groups consider the above factors in preparing a prospectus for the symposium, giving special attention to the potential financial requirements and sources of funding. For consideration for a symposium to be held in 2017, the prospectus should be received at UC Davis by April 15, 2016.

The Harlan Symposium is a very prestigious, not to say blog-worthy, event, and I’m sure people will be falling over themselves to host it.

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Citrus is well-endowed

Givaudan, “a Swiss-based company that is the global leader in the creation of fragrances and flavors” has provided a $1 million endowment towards maintaining the Citrus Variety Collection at the University of California, Riverside. Both that collection and a famous tomato collection are owned and managed by the University of California, and affiliated with the USDA/ARS National Plant Germplasm System, which does not have the flexibility itself to explore unusual funding mechanisms. It’s not clear from the article in URC Today what the cool million buys exactly, but at least part of the proceeds must go on on the Givaudan Citrus Variety Collection Endowed Chair. And Tracy Kahn, curator of the collection, has just been appointed to it. But surely a $1 million endowment can’t cover all the costs of maintaining multiple trees of a thousand different citrus accessions? There must be other revenue streams. Interesting to speculate whether a similar model could cover the costs of a more global effort, such as is being proposed in a recent strategy document.

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Nibbles: Canadian genebank, Indian women farmers, Coconut videos, Willow catalog, Crop models & CC, Next GR, Caviar of Cantaloupes, Wild Bactrian, Dog history, Top 100 development questions

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Genebank questions in Parliament

So I spent yesterday afternoon in somewhat unusual surroundings, at least for me. I was in the House of Lords, of all places, helping to make the case for genebanks to a joint meeting of All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development together with All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agroecology.

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Sitting under the painting are the chairs, Ewen Cameron, Baron Cameron of Dillington and Jeremy Lefroy MP, who both seemed very receptive to the arguments. ((But who can name the two former CGIAR centre DGs in the photo?)) It was actually a very knowledgeable and engaged audience all round, with astute questions on how genebanks can help farmers directly, on whether breeders are ever satisfied with the service they’re getting, and on the role of the private sector in ensuring the conservation of crop diversity, among others. Let’s see to what extent the interest, of which there is plenty at the highest level in the UK, translates into financial support for the cause of genebanks.

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Nibbles: Tomato rhythm, Pumpkin poop, Domestic olive, Papaya deforestation, Orphan crops, Perennial wheat, Apple grafting, Australian genebanks, CIMMYT seeds, French genebank, Ethnic markets, Rice breeding impact, Biodiversity & services