- 40 years of AVRDC celebrated. Lots more stuff on vegetables below, so stick around if that grabbed you.
- Breeding with farmers, an ICARDA manual. Are there any examples with vegetables, I wonder?
- Let’s Go Local! See the ABC piece before it disappears from the front page. But it’s not just karat bananas that you need, of course.
- Going local in Philippines too. And India for that matter. And, ahem, Arkansas. Oh and Amazonia.
- Another use for baobab. I feel a factsheet coming on.
- And here are some utterly different fruits.
- Talking AnGR in Latin America.
- GIFT tilapia in India! Look it up, we did a Brainfood on it.
- A Belgian milestone. Put out more flags.
- Is it Cinco de Mayo yet? Well, break out the tequila anyway.
- Is it World Donkey Day yet?
- “Farmer associations hope TME 419 will soon spread across the whole country.” That would be a fancy new cassava in DRC. Anybody worried about that at all?
- Plant diversity key to zzzzzzzzzz…
- Well this will wake you up.
Genebank database hell goes mobile
With a mighty leap, the ICARDA genebank has just landed squarely in the 21st century. You can now download an app and search the international collection managed by the centre from your Android phone. iPhone version coming soon. If you test it out, leave your comments here and they will reach the relevant ICARDA geek.
Nibbles: Acorn harvest video, NordGen news, Kolkata Seed Festival, Peopling the Planet, Rye, Ancient Roman diet
- From little acorns…
- Thanks for sharing, NordGen!
- Thanks for sharing, Kolkata!
- Nature special issue on Peopling the Planet.
- Rye soundbites.
- How to eat like a Roman.
- Videos on India’s pastoralists.
Brainfood: Alfalfa, Date palm, Apricot, Collecting, Reintroduction, Ribes, Payments
- Assessment of genetic diversity among alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) genotypes by morphometry, seed storage proteins and RAPD analysis. Morphology fits with geography, the others don’t.
- Insights into the historical biogeography of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) using geometric morphometry of modern and ancient seeds. Analysis of seed outlines using fancy maths identifies centres of diversity and migration routes.
- Loss of genetic diversity as a signature of apricot domestication and diffusion into the Mediterranean Basin. Or you could use microsatellites. Result: an Irano-Caucasian centre of domestication and two migration routes, N and S of the Mediterranean.
- Big hitting collectors make massive and disproportionate contribution to the discovery of plant species. Therefore, fund a small number of expert collectors in the right places. Luigi stands ready.
- Success Rates for Reintroductions of Eight Perennial Plant Species after 15 Years. Are pretty pathetic. Makes you wonder if all that collecting is worth it.
- Conservation of endemic insular plants: the genus Ribes L. (Grossulariaceae) in Sardinia. Seems rather a fuss for 1 species and 1 subspecies, crop wild relatives or not.
- Indicator-based agri-environmental payments: A payment-by-result model for public goods with a Swedish application. Hang on a minute, why is crop diversity not there?
Nibbles: Urban cows, Nutrition conference, Island conservation, Chaffey, Uganda rice collecting, Heirloom prize tomato, Metrics, Investing
- Breeding cows for cities. What about the ones that are already there? Oh and happy birthday, Susan!
- Nutritionists meet. Will they discuss diversity?
- Conservation on islands: Bermuda and Malta.
- Plant Cuttings. Rejoice.
- Rice collected in Uganda to be in the ITPGRFA’s Multilateral System. Was there ever a doubt?
- ‘Amish Destor’ tomato wins big.
- Metrics for Biodiversity is not about what you imagine it ought to be about. (So why link to it? To keep ’em honest.)
- Investing in natural alternatives offers excellent returns … and for agriculture?