- It’s 20 years of the Millennium Seed Bank. Happy birthday!
- CGIAR summarizes 20 years of impact in Ethiopia.
- In 20 years, half of Africa’s coffee land could be gone. Well, 30, but I need to keep this streak going.
- Must have been about 20 years ago that systematic research on African indigenous vegetables really took off, and now look.
Yes, we have lots of banana news
There’s recently been some interesting banana germplasm collecting in Papua New Guinea. ((No, I don’t mean the Bougainville expedition, do keep up.))
The results are summarized in two articles, one in Plants evaluating methods to ensure the viability of collected seeds, and the other in Crop Science summarizing the characterization of diverse phenotypes.
We’ve included both the papers in question in past Brainfoods, but this press release, from which the above quote is taken, does a really nice job of bringing them together. It might also have added an additional recent paper on the work of the International Musa Germplasm Transit Centre (ITC), but anyway.
There’s a whole bunch of summary statistics on the ITC, and lots of useful links, on the Genebank Platform webpage. And of course Genesys has a selection of accession-level data. But the place for all your banana information needs is ProMusa.
Brainfood: Diversification, Annona, Banana genebank, Sustainable livestock, One Health, Polyploidy, Breeding pipeline, Evolutionary breeding, Seed storage, European landraces, Governance, Virgin oil, Cereal nutrition, Spinach origins, Botany apps
- Agricultural diversification promotes multiple ecosystem services without compromising yield. Meta-meta-analysis shows diversification is good for biodiversity, pollination, pest control, nutrient cycling, soil fertility, and water regulation and not bad for crop yields either.
- Holocene land and sea‐trade routes explain complex patterns of pre‐Columbian crop dispersion. Cherimoya reached the Andes by boat.
- Safeguarding and using global banana diversity: a holistic approach. 1617 banana accessions from 38 countries maintained in an in vitro collection, backed-up in cryo; over 18,000 samples distributed to researchers and farmers in 113 countries in 35 years. And that’s just the basics.
- Designing sustainable pathways for the livestock sector: the example of Atsbi, Ethiopia and Bama, Burkina Faso. It’s not just a straight choice between intensive or extensive production, stop with the dichotomies.
- Moving health to the heart of agri-food policies; mitigating risk from our food systems. It’s difficult to separate food from health; and yet…
- Genes derived from ancient polyploidy have higher genetic diversity and are associated with domestication in Brassica rapa. Agriculture depends on polyploidy.
- Genetic diversity is indispensable for plant breeding to improve crops. Plant breeding from an industry perspective, using the Brassicaceae as a case study.
- Yield, yield stability and farmers’ preferences of evolutionary populations of bread wheat: A dynamic solution to climate change. A totally different perspective to the above, using a totally different crop. Compare and contrast.
- Enhancing seed conservation in rural communities of Guatemala by implementing the dry chain concept. Cool way for farmers to save their seeds so they can do the above.
- Landrace hotspots identification in Europe. Where to implement the above.
- Innovation and the commons: lessons from the governance of genetic resources in potato breeding. This is a tricky one. Near as I can figure it, the authors are trying to say that it’s difficult to govern genetic resources apart from the tools needed to develop and use them. But hey, you have a go.
- Conservation of Native Wild Ivory-White Olives from the MEDES Islands Natural Reserve to Maintain Virgin Olive Oil Diversity. I did not have an endemic insular wild albino olive on my bingo card.
- Agri-nutrition research: Revisiting the contribution of maize and wheat to human nutrition and health. Staple cereals are more nutritious than often thought.
- On the origin and dispersal of cultivated spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.). Spinach originated more eastward than often thought.
- What plant is that? Tests of automated image recognition apps for plant identification on plants from the British flora. Botanists shouldn’t give up their day jobs.
Nibbles: NordGen, Xylella, Finger millet, Indian genebanks, Seed saver
- NordGen genebank information system gets a boost.
- Uji for everyone in Kenya, thanks to genebank and breeding.
- Assam’s government supports a field genebank. One of many such efforts in India.
- Will Bonsall‘s genebank needs help. Maybe should move to India.
- Video on the Italian olive plague. This is why we need genebanks.
Brainfood: CGIAR genebanks, Sweet potato heat, Rice breeding, CWR gap trifecta, PES, Wild potatoes, Wild olives, Rare olives, Cryo veggies, Broccoli diversity, Crop switching, Cattle diversity, IK
- Germplasm Acquisition and Distribution by CGIAR Genebanks. A lot of stuff going in, a lot of stuff coming out, to everyone’s benefit. 35 years of data, with special focus on the last 10.
- Intraspecific diversity as a reservoir for heat-stress tolerance in sweet potato. 132 out of 1973 accessions tolerant of heat, though in different ways. A prime example of the above benefits.
- Identification and characterization of high‐yielding, short‐duration rice genotypes for tropical Asia. Short-duration varieties will need to be a bit taller and leafier to yield more. Another example of the above benefits.
- Modelled distributions and conservation priorities of wild sorghums (Sorghum Moench). More stuff needs to go into the above genebanks, though, for example from N. Australia.
- Ex situ and in situ conservation gap analysis of crop wild relative diversity in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East. Same from the Fertile Crescent.
- In situ and ex situ conservation gap analyses of crop wild relatives from Malawi. And not just the above genebanks either.
- The Potential of Payment for Ecosystem Services for Crop Wild Relative Conservation. Ok, we have the gaps (see above), and now here we have the method. What’s stopping us?
- Assessing under-Estimation of Genetic Diversity within Wild Potato (Solanum) Species Populations. Wild diploid species more diverse than previously thought. So providing more ecosystem services?
- Genetic diversity and differentiation of Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata (Wall. & G.Don) Cif. in the Hajar Mountains of Oman. No word on the ecosystem services being provided.
- The investigation of minor and rare Tunisian olive cultivars to enrich and diversify the olive genetic resources of the country. Rare + minor doesn’t mean bad. But maybe an influx of Omani genes would help?
- Biobanking of vegetable genetic resources by in vitro conservation and cryopreservation. Yes, even for vegetables.
- From landrace to modern hybrid broccoli: the genomic and morphological domestication syndrome within a diverse B. oleracea collection. Four subpopulations: Calabrese broccoli landraces, hybrids, sprouting broccoli, and violet cauliflower. Diversity in modern varieties decreasing with time.
- Crop switching reduces agricultural losses from climate change in the United States by half under RCP 8.5. But it will have to be a lot of switching. Hopefully out of broccoli.
- The mosaic genome of indigenous African cattle as a unique genetic resource for African pastoralism. An influx of zebu genes about a thousand years ago is responsible for the success of African pastoralism.
- Protection of traditional agricultural knowledge and rethinking agricultural research from farmers’ perspective: A case from Turkey. Against power imbalances the gods themselves contend in vain.