- Stefano Padulosi of Bioversity tweets from the IUCN conference in Korea. And here’s another way of following proceedings: The Twitter Hub.
- ICARDA forced to relocate.
- Results of survey of farmer adaptation strategies in East Africa. (And CIFOR has more examples.) So why do they need Climate Analogues then? I mean, given what we know about it and all… Oh come on, it’s not as bad as all that, look they’re even using it in Costa Rica. Nobody likes a whiny user. Ok, ok, fair enough.
- Branding not much use to farmers.
- Kenyan banker agrees with my mother-in-law on the usefulness of trees.
Jersey shored up
We have often pointed out on this blog that it would be advisable to collect and stick into genebanks the local varieties found in a particular locality, ((Assuming of course they are not conserved ex situ already. But that’s another story.)) especially the ones found only at that locality, before introducing new diversity, no matter how much “better” that new diversity might be considered to be just now. In fact, I kind of made that point just a couple of days ago for sweet potato. So it is gratifying to find an example of just that, and nevermind that it’s from the livestock world.
The story is from an article by Dr Harvey Blackburn in the July issue of Hoard’s Dairyman. It’s kind of difficult to access online, but Corey Geiger, Assistant Managing Editor at Hoard’s, kindly allowed us to publish some excerpts. Dr Blackburn is coordinator of the USDA’s National Animal Germplasm Program (NAGP), based at the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Ft. Collins, Colorado. His article is entitled “Isolated Jersey genetics are a treasure trove” and tells the story of how the Royal Jersey Agriculture and Horticultural Society entered into a partnership with NAGP to safegueard the genetic integrity of the Jersey cattle breed.
Jersey dairy cattle are found in at least 82 countries where they have made substantial contributions to animal agriculture. The progenitors of these cattle can still be found on Jersey Island. For over 219 years these cattle have been kept in genetic isolation from non-Jersey Island cattle — but this situation changed in 2008. The Royal Jersey Agriculture and Horticultural Society (RJA&HS) promoted and after evaluation by the States of Jersey parliament concluded that Jersey genetics could be imported and used on island Jersey cattle, with a proviso that they have an enhanced pedigree status of seven generations of recorded ancestry and no known other breed in the pedigree.
But that wasn’t the only proviso.
An important consideration in allowing the importation of Jersey genetics was the need to have semen safely cryopreserved and stored in a secure facility. By having such a reserve the RJA&HS could reintroduce the pre-importation genetic composition of Jersey cattle, if so desired. The RJA&HS found a secure facility and willing partner with the National Animal Germplasm Program (NAGP) located at the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Ft. Collins, Colorado and part of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. The NAGP has been developing germplasm collections for all livestock species for over 10 years and has amassed over 700,000 samples from more than 17,000 animals representing approximately 130 livestock breeds and over 100 commercial and research lines. Currently the collection has over 600 bulls from U. S. and Canadian Jersey populations. The program has also been used by researchers and industry alike to characterize and reestablish animal populations.
Samples from 400 Jersey bulls were sent in January 2012.
The States of Jersey and RJA&HS decision to allow importation while ensuring pre-importation genetics was safely preserved provides a model for how genetic variability can be preserved while enabling the livestock sector to make necessary changes to meet existing and future production challenges. In addition it is an example of how countries can be mutually supportive in conserving animal genetic resources through gene banking.
Amen to that.
Nibbles: Heirloom conference, Saving plants, Aquaculture benefits, Ancient Egyptian botany, Coffee blogs, ITPGRFA, GIAH
- National Heirloom Exposition coming up. Any of our readers going? Oh come on, one of our readers must be going!
- Kew head honcho calls for a botanical New Deal.
- WorldFish head honcho calls for an aquacultural New Deal.
- A papyrus of recent botanical literature on ancient Egypt.
- Coffee blogs to follow. Oh gosh, am I blushing?
- Participants “gain more knowledge” at policy workshop. Of the ITPGRFA, that would be.
- A couple of Chinese agricultural systems gain recognition as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage.
OFSP steal the show
What I read on my summer holidays
Yeah, summer is over and I’m back at work. Maybe you noticed I haven’t contributed much here in the past month or so. Or maybe you didn’t. Jeremy kept up a steady stream of agrobiodiversity nuggets pretty much all through August. But my lack of activity on the blog doesn’t mean I haven’t tried to keep up, as you would know if you followed us on Facebook, Twitter or Scoop.it. Anyway, for those that don’t, and would like to catch up on my summer reading, here is, in nibble form, what caught my eye during the past month or so:
- “The potato is a religious commodity in America.” Explaining the governance crisis in the US using the humble spud.
- Wait a minute though: “The sizzle seems to be gone from America’s long-term relationship with the potato.” Which apparently means it needs an extreme makeover, colour-wise. For which you’ll need a genebank.
- A tree’s leaves can be genetically different from its roots. Does that mean we have to re-think all molecular phylogenies?
- And speaking of a tree’s leaves, these ones are a thousand years old and give you a buzz.
- A toff with a passion for pigs. P.G. Wodehouse had something to say about this, didn’t he?
- Turns out WFP has a podcast. And ICIMOD has an RSS feed.
- A mathematician factchecks Michael Pollan.
- Pear with me please, while I tell you about another USDA fruit collection.
- 15 Africa-changing innovations include orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. As if they weren’t there before. Anyway, they were THE story for a couple of weeks in August.
- 12 food security innovations include increasing crop diversity. With orange-fleshed sweet potatoes?
- How to put that banana genome to some use.
- Getting the most out of your enumerators.
- IUCN’s Conservation Campus. Any ag? And on a similar topic, training materials in anthropology.
- Automating conservation assessment of plants. You’ll need provenance data from herbaria such as this one at CIP, of course. Oh, and speaking of CIP, they need a phylogeneticist.
- A market opportunity for the mother-in-law?
- Measuring the health of the oceans. Hey, but it’s not all bad for fish.
- Ten species which rely on ex situ conservation. And why that number will go up. How to pay for it all, though?
- Book on the recent history of agricultural research reviewed. I wonder if they looked at the private sector. Because it seems there may be a case to answer.
- Another big grant for taxonomic databases. Ah but this is all going to be community-driven.
- Looks like this Australian genebank could have done with a decent database, community-driven or not.