Genetic diversity

December 3, 2013December 3, 2013

Scaling up everything except communications

Scale is very much on the agenda today in Africa, though a little bit under the radar, for some reason. We’ve seen no advance publicity, for example, for the launching of the the African Plant Breeding Academy by the African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC). We were insufficiently attentive, no doubt. Here’s the press release. And you can follow the proceedings live from the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi. There is also tweeting:

Cabinet Secretary Kosgei: Scientists should take advantage of the academy for improved food security #orphancrops http://t.co/ORHbRpu4wX

— CIFOR-ICRAF (@CIFOR_ICRAF) December 3, 2013

You’ll remember that the African Orphan Crops Consortium plans to use next-generation technologies to sequence dozens of heretofore neglected crops and use the resulting megadata to improve them. Good luck to them.

Meanwhile, a little further north, another CGIAR Centre is hosting a meeting of Feed the Future’s Agriculture & Nutrition Global Learning and Evidence Exchange, a meeting which is apparently focusing on scaling up technology adoption. I found out about it via the redoubtable comms people at ILRI:

@ILRI Addis today hosts @FeedtheFuture GLEE on scaling up adoption and use of agricultural technologies. http://t.co/5kuVH3UXZd @agrilinks

— peterballantyne (@peterballantyne) December 3, 2013

But further information is very scarce. Maybe a participant will fill us in. In particular, of course, we’d be very interested in what is being said about the use of agricultural biodiversity in scaling up nutrition interventions.

December 2, 2013December 2, 2013

Brainfood: Latvian tomato heirlooms, Sinai desert gardens, Orange silkworms, Indian pony breeds, Korean radishes, Anthophagy, Hybrids and diversification, Oregano oils, Chinese peanuts, Ethiopian sorghum, Wild rice crosses

Latvia’s Tomato Rebellion: Nested Environmental Justice and Returning Eco-Sociality in the Post-Socialist Eu Countryside. The Man tries to enforce the European Common Catalogue, Latvians rebel.
Traditional agricultural gardens conserve wild plants and functional richness in arid South Sinai. Wild plants survive in gardens, which thus combine diversity and utility.
Analysis of a silkworm F1 hybrid with yellow cocoon generated by crossing two white-cocoon strains: Further evidences for the roles of Cameo2 and CBP in formation of yellow cocoon. What, are we expected to eat this thing now, what with its high carotenoid content and all?
Genetic diversity and bottleneck studies in endangered Bhutia and Manipuri pony breeds. Bottleneck? What bottleneck?
Analysis of the genetic diversity of radish germplasm through SSR markers derived from Chinese cabbage. New Korean radish varieties not same as old Korean radish varieties.
Ethnobotanical study of anthophagy culture in mountainous area of Wenzhou. It pays to eat flowers.
Enabling adaptation? Lessons from the new ‘Green Revolution’ in Malawi and Kenya. Adopting hybrids, and thereby escaping the “low maize productivity trap” is no guarantee that your thoughts will turn to crop diversification.
Phytomorphological and Essential-Oil Characterization in situ and ex situ of Wild Biotypes of Oregano Collected in the Campania Region (Southern Italy). Both nature and nurture play a role. Look for high glandular and stomatal density.
Diversity characterization and association analysis of agronomic traits in a Chinese peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) mini-core collection. Can it really be down to just 15 alleles?
Assessment of molecular diversity and population structure of the Ethiopian sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] germplasm collection maintained by the USDA–ARS National Plant Germplasm System using SSR markers. High diversity, no structure, much duplication, little passport data.
Crossability patterns within and among Oryza series Sativae species from Asia and Australia. Some easy, some difficult, all interesting.

November 30, 2013November 29, 2013

Rose Revolution

So one of the many new things I learned during my recent trip to India, and which I thought would make a nice piece here, was that Indian breeders are hard at work improving ornamental flowers in general, and the rose in particular. Now, as luck would have it, ICAR has just posted something about this on its Facebook page, so I don’t even need to think of anything clever to write about it. I love it when that happens.

November 29, 2013November 29, 2013

Nibbles: ICRISAT award, SIRGEALC awards, Food etymology, Black carrot, Bolivian potatoes, NASA weirdness, Mexican maize, Rice 2.0, Vaccinium

Dr Upadhyaya Goes to Tampa.
SIRGEALC participants get prizes too. Maybe one of them can tell us about it.
First uses of various food words.
Punjab Black Beauty set to take the carrot world by storm.
Bolivia conserves its potato relatives. When will it ratify the ITPGRFA and share the love?
NASA going to grow plants on the Moon. What could possibly go wrong.
Free trade apparently threatens maize and Mexican culture. I personally think both can take it. They’ve been going for a while.
You know, I just have no idea what this silly piece about rice in Africa is trying to tell me. Maybe you can figure it out and let me know.
Celebrating the cranberry.

November 26, 2013

Nibbles: Quinoa, Conference, Genebanks, Dietary diversity, Subsidies

Peruvian quinoa leaves Bolivia in the dust – so that’s good for Bolivians who want to eat the stuff, right?
At the forthcoming conference on Enhanced Genepool Utilization ‒ Capturing Wild Relative And Landrace Diversity For Crop Improvement “[a] book of abstracts will be provided on a flashdrive”. And here’s your jetpack …
Global Crop Diversity Trust speaks truth to power. Power replies: “Yeah, yeah, we know all that.”
Kids document traditional foodways of Kenya.
Do farm subsidies increase or decrease food prices? Yes.