Genebanks

June 1, 2011

Ethiopian Agriculture Portal misplaces crop diversity

The Ethiopian Agriculture Portal (EAP) is a gateway to agricultural information relevant to development of Ethiopian agriculture. EAP makes access to information easier because it uses a simple, logically laid-out web interface from which users can access documents on agricultural commodities important to Ethiopia. The collection includes many documents in local languages mainly Amharic…

The intended audiences of the portal are all those engaged in public or private agricultural development endeavors in Ethiopia; including extension, research, higher education, private sector, and other government and non-government stakeholders. In short, it serves national and international entities interested in Ethiopian agriculture as partners in trade, investment, or development.

A very worthy effort, and not badly done. But one is sorry not to see any mention of the Institute of Biodiversity Conservation in Addis Ababa, with it’s storied genebank housing a unique collection of local crop germplasm. And although it is welcome to see, under “Other Resources”, reference to the Domestic Animal Diversity Information System and the Domestic Animal Genetic Resources Information System, one longs for similar exposure for international databases on plant genetic resources, in particular those of the CGIAR Centres, whose data is of course also now available through Genesys.

May 27, 2011May 27, 2011

Collecting germplasm in the Iraqi desert

You may remember the story of Mrs Sanaa Abdul Wahab Al-Sheikh of the Iraqi genebank. Well, she’s still collecting away, most recently in the deserts of southern Iraq. Here are a couple of the photographs she recently sent me.

May 27, 2011October 8, 2011

Nibbles: Genebank, Sweet wheat, Participatory Research, Land “grab”, Yampah, Vegetables, Tea, Chilling, Rainforest products, Asses, Climate proofing, Natural products

A look inside the big USDA genebank at Fort Collins. Whatever next?
Sweet wheat. Whatever next?
Farmers must participate in agricultural research in Europe. Whatever next?
“Come and farm our virgin lands, Ethiopia tells India.” Whatever.
“You may already know that yampah (Perideridia gairdneri) is a North American umbellifer.” Er, no. Tell me more.
After cloves, vegetables? Zanzibar’s farmers increase productivity.
More news for Luigi’s MIL: Future Climate Scenarios for Kenya’s Tea Growing Areas.
Is this the end of trail mix?
Body Shop uses wins award for using Cameroonian rainforest honey and wax from CIFOR-supported beekeeping project.
Fancy a glass of ass’s milk? Totally SFW.
Everybody is climate-proofing crops.
The BBC looks at medicinal plants.

May 26, 2011May 26, 2011

What is and is not going to happen with antimalarial trees

ICRAF’s project and publication on trees with antimalarial properties has made it into the prestigious medical journal The Lancet. Kudos indeed. UnLike that article, ~~fortunately,~~ the ICRAF publication is not behind a paywall. The project has been much in the news, and rightly so, but at least one report is inaccurate in suggesting that ICRAF are planning a major effort on ex situ conservation of antimalarial trees. This is how The Star entitled its article when the book was launched: “ICRAF starts trees gene bank project in Nairobi.” And this was their lede:

A project to document genetic properties of more than 3,000 forest trees across the continent has started in Nairobi.

In fact, ICRAF already has a genebank, of about 200 species, and there are no plans to either expand that to 3000 species or specifically focus on collecting antimalarials in the future. According to our sources, The Star correspondent may simply have conflated the malaria book project with the results of a recent meeting at ICRAF on the State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources.

LATER: My sincere apologies to The Lancet. That paper is NOT behind a paywall. You just need to register. Which takes a bit of time and effort but does not involve the exchange of currency. Sorry!

May 26, 2011May 26, 2011

Veggie genebank gets its seeds out

The University of California Davis (UC Davis) leads an international effort to help developing countries through improved marketing and production of high-value horticultural crops. Established by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Horticulture Collaborative Research Support Program (HortCRSP) supports projects to improve the livelihoods of the world’s poor and builds on their needs highlighted in the Global Horticulture Assessment.

Oh hum, right? Not so fast. One of the projects being supported is this:

Dr. Ricky Bates, Horticulture Department of Penn State University has received a one-year exploratory grant from HortCRSP to look at methodologies for strengthening informal indigenous seed systems in Northern Thailand and Cambodia.

And it gets better. A genebank is involved. My cup runneth over.

The ECHO seed bank partnership is a very important integral part of this project. Dr. Bates states that, “ECHO has been around for awhile. ECHO is located in Ft. Myers Florida and has been around for at least 20 years. They see themselves more or less as an extension service where they are there to resource and support NGOs and people working all around the world with poor farmers. It is a little like an extension system where they provide information and printed material via online or telephone calls to people who may find themselves perhaps in India with World Vision. ECHO is there as a resource for NGOs that do not have an agricultural background. What grew up with the development of ECHO has been the development of a vey innovative seed bank in Ft. Myers Florida where they sort of specialize in tropical fruits and vegetables. They make these seeds available at low cost or no cost to individuals and NGOs working around the globe in development.