- “…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.
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.
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. 1 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.
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.”
Knowing your onions
Occasionally — just occasionally — Genebank Database Hell doesn’t live up to its fearsome reputation. Or maybe it’s just diminished expectations on my part, I’m not sure. Anyway, Eurisco confirms that the Irish onion called Buan Jeremy blogged about yesterday is found in the genebanks at Warwick and VIR. Interestingly, a grand total of 7 onions of Irish origin are in existence in the world’s genebanks, most of them at VIR. Thank goodness for Europe’s amateur heirloom gardeners, eh?
