Genebanks

February 22, 2012February 22, 2012

Luigi speaks! A way out of genebank database hell?

There’s nothing like being associated with manifest power to pique the interest of mainstream media. And so it was when The White House, no less, hosted a breakfast on Innovation for Global Development. Announced at the breakfast was a new version of “the Germplasm Resources Information Network-Global (GRIN-Global), a powerful but easy-to-use, Internet-based information management system for the world’s plant genebanks”. Journalists who normally wouldn’t give GBDBH the time of day were suddenly queuing to explain why this was such a good thing. And among the people they queued for was the Global Crop Diversity Trust’s Luigi Guarino. Here’s the BBC World Service’s story. Luigi speaks at 1’21”

GRIN Global on the BBC World Service, Feb 18 2012

Suitably enlightened, forgive my cynicism when I wonder what prompted a web page about the International Crop Information System to suddenly bleep on my horizon-scanning radar. At first blush it looks like it does much the same job as GRIN-Global, but that can’t possibly be correct. It must do something slightly different — powerful, undoubtedly, but by the look of things not easy to use and not internet based — which I welcome in the name of diversity and the resilience that promotes.

February 22, 2012

Who should we thank for Wita 9?

A tweet by the FAO Media Center alerted us to a feel-good story about women and rice in Côte d’Ivoire. unfortunately, I couldn’t catch the name of the variety, but the folks at FAO explained it was something called WITA 9. That turns out to be an oldish (1998) Oryza sativa variety that’s been tested quite a bit in West Africa, for example in comparison to NERICAs. With a little help, I looked it up in IRRI’s germplasm management system (see its pedigree at the side) and it turns out that those Ivorian ladies have researchers in three CGIAR Centres (IRRI, CIAT and AfricaRice), germplasm from half a dozen countries and of course the IRRI genebank to thank for their new livelihood option.

February 21, 2012February 23, 2012

Nibbles: Book, Nutrition, Etrogs, Horse in ancient Israel, Ocean access, Climate change, Mexican smallholders, Fruitpedia, Root crops meeting, Bayer wheat breeding, Old seeds, Viking barley, Cattle rock art, Safe meat & milk

1.24 kg of book about Biodiversity in Agriculture.
Everybody’s already linked to The Economist on The Nutrition Puzzle but we’re not proud.
And lots of people have linked to the biblical garden story; we’re proud to point out that one of the plants was a culturally important cultivated citrus.
And while we’re in biblical mood, here’s a culturally important animal to go with that citrus.
Biopirates plundering the oceans’ genetic resources must be stopped with international agreements, ‘cos that’ll work.
Big session on Food security, climate change and climate variability at big scientific meeting. Eventually we’ll hear more.
As when UK Chief Scientist tells Voice of America about agriculture and climate change.
Small farmers in Mexico are making a difference to agrobiodiversity and politics.
Fruitipedia! 433 fruits and counting.
16th Triennial Symposium of International Society for Tropical Root Crops in the works.
Bayer CropScience buys into the Texas A&M University wheat genebank?
Seeds survive in the permafrost. Good news for Svalbard.
Seeds don’t survive in the permafrost. Bad news for Vikings?
The connection between the the engravings found on ancient graves and current cattle brands in the same general area. Turkana, that is. Not much is the answer. Pity.
And how did they make all that meat and milk safe for use, I hear you ask.

February 20, 2012February 20, 2012

Prof. Clive Francis passes away

We unfortunately seem to be doing a lot of this lately. Dirk Enneking informs us on Facebook that Prof. Clive Francis, a famous Australian genetic resources scientist, has died. You can get an idea of his influence from a blog post by Ken Street dating back to 2008, but describing a situation that, alas, has not changed much. Sad to remember that one of the commenters to the post, my one-time collecting partner in Sicily Geoff Auricht, is also now deceased.

February 20, 2012January 16, 2014

Brainfood: Chestnut restoration, Zoo legislation, Millet landraces, Cassava in Congo, Agroforestry in Philippines, Baobab (again), Silvopastoral system taxonomy

Modelling chestnut biogeography for American chestnut restoration. As all 7 species have very similar climatic niches, if you could get a blight-resistant hybrid, it would probably be adapted to North American conditions.
Ex situ conservation programmes in European zoological gardens: Can we afford to lose them? No, and therefore the EU needs to step in. Whoa, talk about a non sequitur.
The Fine Scale Ethnotaxa Classification of Millets in Southern India. Malayali farmers can consistently recognize more phenotypes than DNA analysis, and some of the cryptic landraces might be really useful.
Diversity of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) cultivars and its management in the department of Bouenza in the Republic of Congo. High, but decreasing, at least in some villages. But overall? Any collections made?
Indigenous agroforestry in a changing context: The case of the Erumanen ne Menuvu in Southern Philippines. Despite being divinely-sanctioned, the pengegnewiran swidden system is changing, in response to socio-economic changes. It needs to, and blaming the people because you don’t like the result is not very helpful.
Variation in biochemical composition of baobab (Adansonia digitata) pulp, leaves and seeds in relation to soil types and tree provenances. Soil has a big effect. At least in Benin.
Comparing silvopastoral systems and prospects in eight regions of the world. They’re all going to need more active management.