- Animal domestication is murder. Will someone tell ILRI? And the Maasai.
- Indian home remedies at risk from nasty patents. I guess someone has been reading the Washington Post.
- Agriculture started as a response to the need for large amounts of beer for feasts. Can’t think of a better reason. All the more weird that it seemed to go pear-shaped in Britain, then, after a good start. Maybe everybody was drunk?
- The UK’s National Fruit Collection in the spotlight. So after that dodgy period, British agriculture did manage to get a grip, thank goodness. Probably for the cider.
- Multiple copies of a gene needed for nematode resistance in soybeans.
- PETting plants.
- “Ten principles to apply at the nexus of agriculture, conservation, and other land uses.” And almost anything else for that matter.
- Those ICRAF spatial databases explained.
- Bhoo Chetana in India and, admittedly under another name, in Peru. Transformation often means reviving old ways.
- Free posters of Top 10 plant-attacking nasties.
Nibbles: Crop mapping, GBIF brochure, Cassava books, Agroforestry and yield, Seed Savers
- Wanna help rogue cartographers map food?
- GBIF sorts out biodiversity informatics in 20 steps.
- CIAT compares cassava to Jesus.
- Long-term ICRAF study says legume tree intercrop stabilizes maize yields.
- “Every seed has a story to tell.”
The hues of the opal, the light of the diamond, are not to be seen if the eye is too near
There’s quite a lot of metaphor coming out of ICRISAT lately, for some reason. First we had Genes of Gold, referring to the use that the centre has made of the biodiversity within its crops in developing new, improved varieties. Then today we have a video on the Jewels of ICRISAT, which includes a couple of the aforementioned new varieties, plus the genebank itself.
The genebanks of the CGIAR, of which ICRISAT is one, have of course on occasion been described as the crown jewels of the system. They cost $21 million a year or thereabouts. Which seems cheap for crown jewels. Especially compared to the sort of price tag people are putting on saving the whole of biodiversity, rather than just that part of it which feeds us all.
Nibbles: 300, Linux seeds, Reef protection, Cold turkeys, Forest atlas, Perennials, Potato King, Apple art
- If you liked our piece of a couple years back on a remarkable Indian mango tree, you’ll love Bhuwon’s latest, fuller write-up.
- Open-source seeds? Isn’t that what the ITPGRFA was supposed to be ensuring?
- How fisherfolk in Indonesia protect the reef.
- Going wild turkey.
- Mapping Cameroon’s forests. Interactively, of course.
- A perennial roundup.
- Old Fritz and the potato. Maybe genebanks should take a leaf (or tuber) out of his book?
- “What constituted beauty, she wondered, in the scientist’s eye?”
Nibbles: Online portals, Hops, EU craziness, Turfgrass breeder, Seed rental, Swaminatham, CG genebanks
- Do you really need that portal?
- Brits say local hops are best. And who am I to argue?
- Weird statement on genetic resources from EU Commission. Clarifications gladly received.
- Even turfgrass has its heroes.
- Want to rent some seeds?
- A reminder from someone who should know that crops have biodiversity too.
- CGIAR Consortium talks up its crown jewels.