Genetic diversity

July 24, 2022

Documenting agricultural biodiversity everywhere

Nice to see a couple of examples of agrobiodiversity catalogues, albeit of very different kinds, available online.

The Catàleg de varietats locals de Catalunya (from that autonomous community of Spain’s Department d’Acció Climàtita, Alimentació i Agenda Rural) can be searched online by either cultivated species (hint: “mongueta” is Phaseolus vulgaris) or the “entitat” that is managing the landrace.

On the other hand, the Field Guide to the Cultivated Plants of the Philippines (Volume 1: Commonly cultivated species) from the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) can be downloaded as a beautifully produced PDF.

And since I’m here, I might as well point to a nice infographic summarizing the cultivated Citrus family tree. I may have shared this (or something similar) before, but I’m hoping that if I keep doing so some of the details will eventually stick in my brain.

July 18, 2022July 18, 2022

Brainfood: Organic tradeoffs, Yield gap, Genebank impact, Rice in Madagascar, Trees & diets, Trees & food system, Global tree diversity, Restoration & emissions

Biodiversity and yield trade‐offs for organic farming. Switch to organic agriculture if the surrounding land that will need to be converted to farming to make up for production shortfalls is less than 2.4 times more biodiverse than the farmed land. But that’s an average that will depend on the crop.
Global wheat production could benefit from closing the genetic yield gap. Customize improved wheat varieties to local conditions by using the diversity in genebanks. No word on whether that includes organic conditions.
The impact of the international rice genebank (IRG) on rice farming in Bangladesh. Someone mention genebanks? 1% increase in genebank contribution to new variety means 1% increase in yield. No word on what happens under organic conditions.
Constraints on Rice Cultivation in Eastern Madagascar: Which Factors Matter to Smallholders, and Which Influence Food Security? Does swidden cultivation count as organic?
What are the links between tree-based farming and dietary quality for rural households? A review of emerging evidence in low- and middle-income countries. It’s generally a good idea to keep trees around your farm. But how to make sure that it happens?
Transforming food systems with trees and forests. Here’s how: scale up tree food production, reorient research towards trees foods, repurposing production incentives towards tree foods, and integrate nutrition with conservation. Got it? No word on whether the whole thing needs to be organic though.
High exposure of global tree diversity to human pressure. But what about the diversity of trees on farms? Well I guess if we do the above properly it will be ok.
Carbon removals from nature restoration are no substitute for steep emission reductions. Trees are not enough.

July 5, 2022July 5, 2022

Returning to recollecting

We’ve referred to Project Baseline here a couple of times, but always somewhat desultorily. But I think that needs to end now that the project hit the big time with a shoutout in Gizmodo.

Based at the University of Minnesota Duluth, Project Baseline re-collects seeds multiple times from the same sites to see how populations change genetically and phenotypically.

In the Resurrection Approach, dormant ancestors are reared in a common garden with contemporary descendants. The Project Baseline collections are designed to maintain the genetic structure of populations to facilitate researchers utilizing the resurrection approach. Seeds are collected and stored separately by maternal plant from up to 200 individuals per population. After collection, seeds were cleaned and [conserved] at the NLGRP.

That phrase “reared in a common garden” is doing a lot of work, as the flowchart in a 2017 paper describing the Resurrection Approach shows.

Turns out we blogged about this too, almost 15 years ago, though there didn’t seem to be a Project Baseline yet at the time. I was maybe a bit hard on that press release, but more because of the misconceptions about genebanks that it revealed rather than the concept of re-collecting from the same site or population to monitor genetic change. That of course is extremely valuable, as our recent review of genetic erosion showed.

July 4, 2022June 30, 2022

Brainfood: Ecological intensification, Green Revolution narrative, Agroecology, Livelihood diversification, Eating wild species, Seed systems, Improved peanuts, PGRFA school curriculum

Long-term evidence for ecological intensification as a pathway to sustainable agriculture. Meta-analysis of 30 long-term experiments from Europe and Africa comprising 25,565 data points shows that increasing crop diversity and adding fertility crops and organic matter are as good for the yield of staple crops as N fertilization, but don’t add much if you already have the latter, and vice versa.
Revisiting the adequacy of the economic policy narrative underpinning the Green Revolution. If only the Green Revolutionaries had know the above, eh? Anyway, remember institutions, people.
Agroecological practices increase farmers’ well-being in an agricultural growth corridor in Tanzania. Higher awareness of the benefits of nature plus more engagement with extension services mean more adoption of agroecological practices means farmers are better off. Green Revolutionaries unavailable for comment. Institutions rejoice.
Intangible links between household livelihoods and food security in Solomon Islands: implications for rural development. Diversifying livelihoods isn’t always associated with better food security.
Access to and Utilization of Wild Species for Food and Nutrition Security in Teso and Acholi Sub-regions of Uganda. Wait, does the above mean that decreasing access to wild foods may not necessarily matter? Why does this stuff have to be so hard?
Climate Change and Seed System Interventions Impact on Food Security and Incomes in East Africa. More crop diversity on farms “helps farmers cope with climate change and increases productivity, food availability, incomes and food security.” Not so hard after all.
Welfare impacts of improved groundnut varieties adoption and food security implications in the semi-arid areas of West Africa. Adopting new peanut varieties is good for farmers. Wait, so the opposite of more crop diversity? Why does this stuff have to be so hard?
Situating Plant Genetic Resource in the K-12 Curriculum: A Critical Review. Maybe we should all go back to school.

June 27, 2022June 24, 2022

Brainfood: Russian PGRFA, Afghanistan wheat, Nepal wheat, Food miles & emissions, Agroecology and nutrition, European ag transition, Agrobiodiversity index, Sicilian durum, Indian fruits, Wild apples, Cider,

Genetic resources in Russia: from collections to bioresource centers. Ok, but why can’t they be both?
Sowing the wheat seeds of Afghanistan’s future. Breed, fortify, irrigate, rebuild the knowledge base, invest in seed systems, engage farmers, include women, have the right policies. And hope for the best. No sign of bioresource centers, alas.
Variation in Grain Zinc and Iron Concentrations, Grain Yield and Associated Traits of Biofortified Bread Wheat Genotypes in Nepal. Maybe Nepal can help Afghanistan, wheat-wise?
Global food-miles account for nearly 20% of total food-systems emissions. Not a worry for Afghanistan or Russia, I suspect.
Can agroecology improve food security and nutrition? A review. Yes. Afghanistan and Russia to be alerted.
The geography of megatrends affecting European agriculture. Climate change, demographic change, (post-) productivism, and increasingly stringent environmental regulations mainly work together to destabilize the current system. Russia unavailable for comment.
Agrobiodiversity Index Report 2021: Assessing Mediterranean food systems. Conservation of agricultural biodiversity doesn’t automatically translate into diversity in diets. I’d like to see the data for Russia and Afghanistan.
Intra- and Inter-Population Genetic Diversity of “Russello” and “Timilia” Landraces from Sicily: A Proxy towards the Identification of Favorable Alleles in Durum Wheat. Lots of interesting variation in Sicilian wheat landraces. Now to get Sicilians to eat more diverse pasta.
Global interdependence for fruit genetic resources: status and challenges in India. Maybe India could help Afghanistan. And vice versa. Wouldn’t that be a thing. Meanwhile, no word on the diversity of Indian fruit consumption.
Wild Apples Are Not That Wild: Conservation Status and Potential Threats of Malus sieversii in the Mountains of Central Asia Biodiversity Hotspot. Climate change is coming for wild apples, and there’s only so much that protected areas can do. I believe Russia knows a thing or two about apple genebanks.
Cider and dessert apples: What is the difference? Not much, as it turns out. But all I can think of now is wild apple cider.