- Indian academics voice some reservations about CBD ABS regime. Maybe a multilateral approach would be better?
- CIAT warns about climate change effect on crops. Kenyan farmers know all about that. And Koreans too. Oh, and speaking of kimchi…
- Beer proteome means better beer. Fundamental research indeed.
- Cattle breeds are real. And the gaur?
- Nepal inaugurates genebank.
- San benefit from bioprospecting license for medicinal plant.
- Ahmed Djoghlaf says…
- Weeds? Not weeds. Cities as biodiversity hotspots? Oh I give up.
- Orange cassava due to one amino acid.
Pavlovsk is not alone
Over at Vaviblog, Jeremy has a post explaining why Pavlovsk is not unique. Alas, it’s because it’s by no means the only genebank that’s in trouble.
Wellesbourne and Brogdale, the UK’s national collections of vegetable and fruit diversity, have both been through the wringer lately. On October 1 Wellesbourne and the Genetic Resources Unit were officially absorbed into the new Crop Centre at Warwick University. The UK’s national vegetable collection is probably safe, for the time being, but the future of the breeding work that used to be carried out at Wellesbourne, and the many lines resulting from various crosses, is by no means clear. Brogdale too has been placed under new management, and parts of the collection duplicated at other sites where they may be safe, but it’s long-term future too is by no means assured. One could cite many other examples where national collections, built up and maintained thanks to government, are also subject to government’s budgetary whims.
We’ve blogged about the Wellesbourne situation before, and we’ll continue to keep an eye on developments. One hopes that the decision-making process will be a little more transparent than at Pavlovsk, and of course for a positive result in both cases.
Rooting for Life
As promised a few days ago, the Roots for Life campaign was officially launched on 1 October. In a nutshell, it is looking for 4235 “heroes” to donate US$ 5,000 each. That will save every variety of the cultivated potato, plus its wild relatives, forever. The money will be “channeled” to the genebank of the International Potato Centre. So, get out your checkbook.
Nibbles: Melongena, Nutrition, Wheat, Pavlovsk, Farming, Phosphate, Lesotho, Almonds
- “Its flavor is like the saliva generously exchanged by lovers in kissing.” Yum!
- ECOWAS Nutrition Forum continues to sell “multi-sectoral approach to tackling under-nutrition” in West Africa.
- Six new varieties of wheat in Oman! Splitters rule.
- US scientists urged Russians to save Pavlovsk. Lotta continua.
- And here’s the Russian Housing Development Foundation’s take on the expert report. Lotta continua sempre.
- COPs may come and COPs may go — but will we be ready for the Peasant Olympics in 2012? h/t Miss Hathorn.
- Phosphates in China: waste ’em while you can?
- Book: Conservation agriculture and sustainable crop intensification in Lesotho.
- Australian almond variety not performing this year.
Cowpeas make the news
On the occasion of the World Cowpea Conference 2010 in Dakar, which is going on now and has resulted in some press interest, IITA have published an interview with the manager of their genebank. Which of course maintains the world’s largest cowpea collection on behalf of us all. Many of the points she makes are addressed in the global strategy for conservation and use of cowpea genetic resources, which I believe she’ll be presenting in Dakar. Dominique doesn’t mention core collections, but another IITA article does. We even have the results of a gap analysis for wild Vigna in Africa. And finally, also doing the rounds is a summary of the results of a survey of users of the collection. Though I wouldn’t bet the farm on those cost numbers turning out to be accurate. Do we have any readers in Dakar who’d like to tell us what’s going on?