Genebanks

September 7, 2011September 7, 2011

The fate of the global jute collection

I think a brief follow-up to yesterday’s foray down Memory Lane might be in order, lest you all go away thinking that I’ve lost my marbles. So, yes, according to Ramnath’s comment I was right, the large, global collection of jute assembled at the Bangladesh Jute Research Institute starting in the 70s did indeed receive a sort of blessing from IBPGR (the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources) in the late 1980s when it became part of the Global Network of Base Collections. It wasn’t on the list in 1985. But it had made it by the time of the IBPGR Annual report for 1989. I know that because googling threw up a link to the paper “Plant Genetic Resources Activities: International Perspective” by R.K Arora, R.S. Paroda and J.M.M. Engels, and that includes a handy table. Alas, that link, which should take one to Bioversity International’s (that’s what IBPGR became) website, is broken. Fortunately, the cache is there, at least for a while, and I have been able to save the paper as a pdf for you.

We don’t hear much about the Global Network of Base Collections any more. It would be interesting to know if the Bangladesh Jute Research Institute still feels itself to be part of it. I suspect not. Of course, things have changed a lot since 1989. But what’s to stop BJRI proposing to place its collection under Article 15 of the International Treaty on PGRFA? Others have…

And as for that IBPGR-funded collecting for Corchorus in Kenya that I could find no evidence of before, that must have been because I was searching for it incorrectly. My mole at the Collecting Missions Files Repository was able to identify it pretty quickly. ((I, however, am unable to share something as simple as a URI that will take you to the reports of the collecting missions. You will have to go to the Search page yourself, and in the last field, the one marked Mission ID: insert the number 453. Then turn round widdershins three times, whistle, and tell them Luigi sent you. Pretty soon, guardians of GBDBH willing, you too will be able to access reports of the five collecting missions. No, I don’t know why. Please don’t ask me.)) For the record, the missions took place in 1987-1988, under the leadership of I.R Denton of the International Jute Organization. And the material is still being used, as searching for that name in Google Scholar can tell you. But here’s how the source of material from those expeditions is being described in a fairly recent paper:

All the materials were obtained through the courtesy of the Director, Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibers, Barrackpore, India, from the IJO world collection.

So people still recognize a “global jute collection,” but is it now located at the Central Research Institute for Jute and Allied Fibers, Barrackpore, India? Time for some further sleuthing, I guess.

September 6, 2011September 6, 2011

Nibbles: Drought tolerance, Cassava pests, Sorghum beer, Frankincense, Permaculture in Asia, RDA

“…drought-tolerant species are not necessarily following the general “stress-tolerator” syndrome.” Meaning?
More on that cassava-problems-will-get-worse-with-climate-change thing from CIAT.
More on that beer-will-save-East-African-agriculture-from-drought thing.
Two of the Wise Men to rescue “poverty-stricken Ethiopian communities.”
F. H. King’s Farmers of Forty Centuries or Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan: The backstory. Via.
Presenting South Korea’s genebank.

September 5, 2011September 5, 2011

Nibbles: IRRI, Palestinian genebanks, Non-dairy ice-cream, Community genebanks, Goat racing, Millions Fed, Seed relief, Gametophytic incompatibilityd, Seed relief, Beer

IRRI working to adapt rice to climate change, thanks to genebank.
Palestine gets a genebank. And genebankers, thanks to ICARDA.
Lupin ice-cream. Sounds yummie.
Ethio Organic Seed Action “trains farmers in the use of traditional seeds.” I doubt it, but the stuff on community genebanks is nice.
Goat racing in Uganda. Where are the photos?
IFPRI publishes companion volume to Millions Fed.
Vouching for seed vouchers.
Breeding anti-GMO maize. Well, kinda.
“Beer could provide lifeline for South Sudan’s small farmers.” I know how they feel.

September 1, 2011September 1, 2011

UK genebank on BBC Radio 4

Mike Ambrose manages the UK’s largest seed collection based at the John Innes Centre in Norwich.

With a collection of 25,000 seeds from around the world, he tells Caz how looking into the past helps meet the ‘wish-list’ criteria of plant breeders today.

That’s from the Programme Details for this morning’s Farming Today, on BBC Radio 4. I’m sure they have more than 25,000 seeds, but that’s just a quibble. ((The item is right at the start of the programme, so don’t worry about exploding with rage at the prospect of listening to plans to spend 2 million euros on homoeopathy for livestock.)) Did Mike Ambrose really say that the John Innes genebank has seen a 7% year-on-year increase in requests for seed? How much of that went to farmers, I wonder, rather than to breeders.

September 1, 2011September 1, 2011

Is it a trend yet?

May 23, 2011: “Each kit provides enough seed for one household to grow vegetables on 100 m2 of land to provide a balanced supply of protein and micronutrients during the initial months after a disaster.”

June 19, 2011: “…offers farmers the opportunity to buy different varieties of previously forgotten under-utilised seeds, more suitable for the area. They supply them in smaller quantities so farmers aren’t over reliant on one crop.”

June 21, 2011: “I think it could have an enormous impact if we could fill those seed packages with hundreds of different varieties to be tried by farmers, young and old. Now that would boost on-farm crop diversity.”

August 8, 2011: “Including seeds of local crop varieties in relief-seed packages distributed to smallscale farmers after natural calamities could help indigenous crop diversity rebound faster.”

August 17, 2011: “‘We tell farmers that diversifying to more drought resistant crops is key to cope with the changing climate,’ Leakey says. To encourage them, she offers a ‘Leldet Bouquet:’ Instead of 2kg maize seeds costing 300 Kenyan shillings ($3), the farmer can get a mix of five seed packets with an equivalent weight of cowpeas, sorghum, beans, pigeon pea, millet and maize. The mix of crops in the ‘bouquet’ is adapted to the farmer’s location.”