Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
Daniel Debouck, a world expert on Phaseolus and the manager of CIAT’s genebank, ((Which didn’t make this list yesterday, but should have.)) is to be awarded the Frank N. Meyer Medal for Plant Genetic Resources. This is well-deserved recognition of three decades of painstaking work on the conservation and use of agrobiodiversity. Daniel’s latest paper in on Lima beans.
On 31st of August 2010 Pavlovsk Experiment Station of VIR had an unscheduled inspection. The station was visited by representatives of the Public Chamber, the Accounts Chamber as well as representatives of the Russian Housing Development Foundation. This inspection was a result of instruction given by Dmitry Medvedev for this situation to be scrutinized. After visiting two plots the commission was convinced that, indeed, the disputed plots harbor plants that make a part of the Vavilov collection of plant genetic resources. As a result of field inspection — Nadezhda Shkolkina reports — representatives of the RZhS Fund stated they will postpone an auction for an uncertain period.
Hot off the press. A light at the end of the tunnel? Fingers crossed. But let’s keep up the pressure!
There’s a very good report from Pavlovsk on Al Jazeera’s youtube channel.
My only objection is to the reference to Pavlovsk as “one of only two botanical repositories on the planet.” And since we’re being all multimedia and social networky, I’ll also mention the photos on the Global Crop Diversity Trust’s Facebook page, which could do with — and are in fact receiving — some user-provided value-added.