Genebanks

February 25, 2022

Millet, anyone?

…But millet, a major crop in both Africa and Asia and one of the world’s most nutritious cereals, is now under threat. Production is decreasing and many families have flattened the wooden granaries where they used to store the crop, using them as firewood. A dish of millet bread and pigeon peas-groundnut stew is no longer a common traditional meal in many households.

That’s from a recent BBC Follow the Food feature by Pascal Kwesiga entitled Why we need to expand our crop menu. In addition to finger and pearl millet in Uganda and Kenya, the piece looks at the diversity of grapevine in Portugal, cacao in Brazil and avocado in the USA. There’s also a bit on coffee cryo at the National Laboratory for Genetic Research Preservation at Ft Collins.

Follow the Food is a multimedia series by BBC Future and BBC World News that investigates how agriculture is responding to the profound challenges of climate change, environmental degradation and rapidly growing populations that face our global food supply chains. Follow the Food traces emerging answers to these problems – both high-tech and low-tech, local and global – from farmers, growers and researchers across six continents.

All in association with Corteva (sic).

February 24, 2022February 24, 2022

Nibbles: Wild coffee, Humble potato, Banana seeds video, Citizen Bean, Svalbard, Microlivestock, Transhumance, Exotic tea, BIPOC heirlooms

The Food Programme does coffee wild relatives.
Potatoes are not that bad nutritionally.
Getting banana seeds.
Want to do citizen science with beans?
The latest from Svalbard.
Bugs again?
Counting sheep.
Weird tea is the best tea. But any tea will do in a pinch.
BIPOC communities saving heirloom seeds.

February 21, 2022February 16, 2022

Brainfood: Aspen mapping, Biodiversity & ag, Mining forages, China forages, China groundnuts, Soil microbes, Agroecology messaging, Old wood, Ugandan sorghum, New wild sweetpotato, Tasty fruits

Remote sensing of cytotype and its consequences for canopy damage in quaking aspen. You can tell diploid from triploid trees from space.
Future global conflict risk hotspots between biodiversity conservation and food security: 10 countries and 7 Biodiversity Hotspots. Fancy maths tells us biodiversity and agriculture are most in conflict in DRC, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Togo, Zambia, Angola, Guinea, Nigeria, Laos, and Cambodia.
Allele mining in diverse accessions of tropical grasses to improve forage quality and reduce environmental impact. A draft reference genome from a single species tells us about 7 potentially useful alleles among 104 clearly very well chosen accessions of Urochloa spp and Megathyrsus maximus.
Research Status of Forage Seed Industry in China. I wonder how many of the above alleles can be found in the Chinese forage collection. Might be easier to eventually find out if the website supposedly serving up the national forage germplasm resource management system actually worked.
Safe conservation and utilization of peanut germplasm resources in the Oil Crops Middle-term Genebank of China. We are even told about some individual interesting accessions, though not how to get hold of them.
The impact of crop diversification, tillage and fertilization type on soil total microbial, fungal and bacterial abundance: A worldwide meta-analysis of agricultural sites. Meta-analysis tells us that use of organic fertilisers and reduced tillage are associated with more microbes, fungi and bacteria in the soil.
Detecting the linkage between arable land use and poverty using machine learning methods at global perspective. Machines tells us that higher crop yields and more fertilisers are associated with lower poverty levels. Non-machines are shocked. No word on soil microbial abundance.
The 10 Elements of Agroecology: enabling transitions towards sustainable agriculture and food systems through visual narratives. Well, these 10 are not only the elements of agroecology, so they could tell us about other messaging too.
Regional Patterns of Late Medieval and Early Modern European Building Activity Revealed by Felling Dates. Tree rings in old buildings tells us more felling where and when grain prices were low and mining activity high. No machines involed.
Genetic diversity analysis and characterization of Ugandan sorghum. A tropical genebank collection can tell us about temperate-adapted germplasm, if we know how to ask.
Discovery and characterization of sweetpotato’s closest tetraploid relative. Meet Ipomoea aequatoriensis T. Wells & P. Muñoz sp. nov. from, well, Ecuador.
Metabolomic selection for enhanced fruit flavor. Another machine tells us how to pick tasty tomatoes and blueberries from chemical profiles. No word on when it will be able to describe new species.

February 14, 2022February 8, 2022

Brainfood: Neodomestication, Millet diets, OFSP, Fruits, Okra core, Floating gardens, Quinoa evaluation, Bean cooking, Neolithic, Lychee genome, Climate change, European maize double

Scaling up neodomestication for climate-ready crops. Ok, but when is enough enough?
Can Feeding a Millet-Based Diet Improve the Growth of Children? — A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Yes. So maybe make the most of the crops we already have?
Does vitamin A rich orange-fleshed sweetpotato adoption improve household level diet diversity? Evidence from Ghana and Nigeria. Sometimes. So maybe make the most of the crops we already have?
Global interdependence for fruit genetic resources: status and challenges in India. So many crops out there.
DATASET: The World Vegetable Center okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) core collection as a source for flooding stress tolerance traits for breeding. This is one way of making the most of the crops we already have.
The floating garden agricultural system of the Inle lake (Myanmar) as an example of equilibrium between food production and biodiversity maintenance. This is another way of making the most of the crops we already have.
Phenotyping a diversity panel of quinoa using UAV-retrieved leaf area index, SPAD-based chlorophyll and a random forest approach. Oh look, here’s another, and all you need is a drone and fancy maths.
The Phaseolus vulgaris L. Yellow Bean Collection: genetic diversity and characterization for cooking time. For this one you don’t even need a drone.
Prehistoric Farming Settlements in Western Anatolia. What, only 5 crops?
Two divergent haplotypes from a highly heterozygous lychee genome suggest independent domestication events for early and late-maturing cultivars. Ancient farmers knew what they were doing after all, eh?
Expected global suitability of coffee, cashew and avocado due to climate change. Millennials could be in trouble if new crops don’t come along.
Traditional Foods From Maize (Zea mays L.) in Europe. Maybe European millennials could eat more maize.
Growing maize landraces in industrialized countries: from the search for seeds to the emergence of new practices and values. Nah, let’s domesticate something else instead.

February 9, 2022February 9, 2022

Shake up of PGRFA in Russia?

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree establishing the National Center for Plant Genetic Resources.

Wait, isn’t there one already?

The President decided to establish such a center on the basis of the Federal Research Center “All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources named after N. I. Vavilov.”

Wait, what does “on the basis” mean?

In order to ensure coordination of the activities of the National Center for Plant Genetic Resources, I decide:

1. Establish an Interdepartmental Commission on the Formation, Preservation and Use of Collections of Plant Genetic Resources…

Ah, ok.

The Interdepartmental Commission on the Formation, Preservation and Use of Collections of Plant Genetic Resources (hereinafter referred to as the Commission) was established to ensure coordination of the activities of the National Center for Plant Genetic Resources (hereinafter referred to as the National Center).

So what is this National Centre though?

The Chairman of the Commission is the director of the federal state budgetary scientific institution “Federal Research Center All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources named after N.I. Vavilov”.

Fair enough.

Stay tuned. Thanks to Isby for digging all this up.