Genebanks

October 27, 2011October 30, 2011

AfricaRice’s African rice collection

Nice video. Note the reference, towards the end, to the systematic characterization of AfricaRice‘s collection of 2,500 Oryza glaberrima accessions. Interestingly, Genesys says the Centre has 3,796 accessions. I wonder what’s happened to the rest. Here’s a map of the 863 accessions from 129 sites with georeferences.

LATER: Compare with the map of African rice cultivation in Diana Buja’s post.

October 27, 2011October 27, 2011

Nibbles: Cuba gardens, Dual purpose pumpkins, GRIN-Global, Wheat belly, Agroforestry, Zambian malnutrition, Libyan agriculture, Certification

Visit Cuba with boffins of the University of Washington Botanic Gardens. Well that sounds like fun.
You liked naked oats? Get a load of naked pumpkins. Comments disabled for Manitoba farmers.
Psst, wanna genebank data management system? Only slightly used…
Something else you can blame your beer belly on: wheat.
Have your forest and eat it too.
Solving malnutrition in Zambia. I wanna know more about those “improved seed varieties.”
And about these too for that matter: “…ICARDA is urgently sending to Libya seeds of wheat, barley, legume and forage crops for the 2011-2012 cropping season…” Incidentally, any news about the Agricultural Research Centre in Tripoli?
Forest certification helps nearby Heritage Sites.

October 25, 2011October 25, 2011

Nibbles: Bioinformatics, Extension, Apples, Potatoes, Research, Cacao genebank, Cassava hope, Rice and Striga

Bioinformatics for Dummies. Not that anyone I know needs it.
Are there simpler ways to close the yield gaps in developing countries? Indeed, there are, but they’re not very sexy.
And speaking of low-hanging fruit: How the apple took over the planet.
Tuber diversity. Miss Hathorn is showing off the progeny of some true potato seed. And by true, I also mean truly potato.
USDA ARS ♥ CGIAR ♥ USDA ARS
And Trinidad & Tobago ♥ CFC, ICCO and Bioversity.
Nigeria pins green revolution hopes on cassava. Is it ever a good idea to pin your hopes on just one thing?
NERICA’s Striga problem deconstructed.

October 24, 2011October 19, 2011

Brainfood: Football nutrition, Sorghum markers, Alpine herb, Gap analysis, Evolutionary breeding, Aphids, Birds and farmland, Cameroon forests

Nutrition and culture in professional football: A mixed method approach. Footballers need a more diverse diet. Well, kinda. I just wanted to get this paper in here because wouldn’t it be cool if we could get Lionel Messi to talk about agrobiodiversity-rich diets?
Diversity analysis using ISSR markers for resistance to shoot pests in sorghum. There may be a diversity of resistance mechanisms.
Domestication of Alpine blue-sow-thistle (Cicerbita alpina (L.) Wallr.): six year trial results. I know. Why would you want to, right? Takes all sorts to make a diverse diet, I guess. Maybe we can get Lionel Messi to eat it?
Improving representativeness of genebank collections through species distribution models, gap analysis and ecogeographical maps. Fancy GIS-based prioritization results in more, better germplasm collecting. Nice to have the data.
Evolutionary Plant Breeding in Cereals—Into a New Era. Martin Wolfe and colleagues lay it on the line; why it is a good idea, and what the obstacles are.
Genetic interactions influence host preference and performance in a plant-insect system. Aphids and barleys have genetic preferences for one another.
Pasture area and landscape heterogeneity are key determinants of bird diversity in intensively managed farmland. As in the northern hemisphere, so too in Argentina.
Tree diversity and conservation value of Ngovayang’s lowland forests, Cameroon. Both high, and I’m betting some economically important trees are among them.

October 21, 2011

The Smithsonian serves spuds

Charles Mann of 1491 and 1493 fame takes on the potato in the Smithsonian Magazine. So far as I can tell, all of the photographs are indeed of potatoes. It is kind of fun that one of the people who contributed to the amassing of the thousands of varieties in the germplasm collection maintained on behalf of the world by the International Potato Center has commented on CIP’s link to the article on Facebook.