GIS – Page 10 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

October 27, 2021October 29, 2021

Questioning maps

As regular readers know all too well, I can’t resist a map mashup. So when I saw the latest data on deforestation in the Amazon, I fired up MapWarper and GoogleEarth and got to work.

And here’s a look at how recent deforestation in Brazil relates to the localities of past cassava collecting, at least as far as Genesys knows about it.

Now, I don’t know in what way deforestation (and associated disruptions) relates to loss of cassava diversity, but there’s a chance that it might. Could make an interesting PhD project for someone.

Anyway, encouraged by my pretty result, and remembering that I wanted to do something with some shiny new maps I had heard about, I next mashed up sorghum accessions and poverty in Burkina Faso. Here’s what I got.

What’s going on? Why are there relatively fewer sorghum accessions where poverty is higher (more red)? Are those places just harder to reach? Or do people there really grow less sorghum.

Again, I don’t know. But I think it would be interesting to find out.

All speculation welcome in the comments.

October 25, 2021October 25, 2021

Brainfood: RICA, AEGIS, CWR, Agrosavia, DSI, CRISPR, Tradition, SNS, Stability, Birds, Sparing, Genetic erosion

RICA: A rice crop calendar for Asia based on MODIS multi year data. RiceAtlas validated. Still trying to figure out how to mash it up with genebank accession locality data though. Any GIS geniuses out there to help me?
AEGIS, the Virtual European Genebank: Why It Is Such a Good Idea, Why It Is Not Working and How It Could Be Improved. Certify genebanks, that’s how.
Reap the crop wild relatives for breeding future crops. Needs good data and certified genebanks. Plus gene editing.
Opportunities and Challenges to Improve a Public Research Program in Plant Breeding and Enhance Underutilized Plant Genetic Resources in the Tropics. Needs better social networking. Plus better data and certified genebanks, presumably.
From seed to sequence: Dematerialization and the battle to (re)define genetic resources. Ah yes, data.
Current Advancements and Limitations of Gene Editing in Orphan Crops. Ah yes, gene editing.
Revitalizing Traditional Agricultural Practices: Conscious Efforts to Create a More Satisfying Culture. Meanwhile, in Sweden…
Sacred natural sites and biodiversity conservation: a systematic review. Of course sacred sites are good for biodiversity. But it’s always good to have the data.
Global relationships between crop diversity and nutritional stability. Sacred sites are not enough, alas.
Preserving local biodiversity through crop diversification. Crop diversity is even good for birds…
Concentrating vs. spreading our footprint: how to meet humanity’s needs at least cost to nature. …but, overall intensification of agriculture coupled with sparing land for conservation (maybe even in sacred sites) is the best approach for wildlife. And humanity, for that matter. So, back to needing better data from certified genebanks, so we can get that intensification done, right?
Quantifying the scale of genetic diversity extinction in the Anthropocene. Right!

October 11, 2021October 6, 2021

Brainfood: Cola trade, Amalfi terraces, Satoyama value, Burkinabe cattle, Tree planting, Chickpea adoption, Varietal diversification, Wheat diversity, Maize adaptation, Stress breeding, Root & tubers, Cropping data

Evidence of an Eleventh-Century AD Cola Nitida Trade into the Middle Niger Region. Before then, there was not much trade between the savannah and forest zones of West Africa, which is kind of remarkable.
Risk factors and plant management activities for the terraced agricultural systems on the Amalfi coast (Italy): an interdisciplinary approach. The terrace walls need agriculture just as much as agriculture needs the walls. Had me wondering whether those terraces were there when the cola trade started up in West Africa.
Nexus of the awareness of ecosystem services as a “public-benefit value” and “utility value for consumption”: an economic evaluation of the agricultural culture of Satoyama in Japan. Ecosystem services are hard to sell. Probably in Amalfi too, I bet.
Values and Beliefs That Shape Cattle Breeding in Southwestern Burkina Faso. Community-based breeding programmes need trusted leadership. Don’t we all.
Limited effects of tree planting on forest canopy cover and rural livelihoods in Northern India. Decades of tree planting wasted. If only there had been better leadership.
Unplanned but well prepared: A reinterpreted success story of international agricultural research, and its implications. Yeah, but even when an intervention is a success, as in this case, the reasons are beyond the control of researchers. The lesson: plan for the unplannable…
Smallholder farmer engagement in citizen science for varietal diversification enhances adaptive capacity and productivity in Bihar, India. …and bet on diversity, of course…
Introducing Beneficial Alleles from Plant Genetic Resources into the Wheat Germplasm. …like wheat breeders have been doing…
A B73 x Palomero Toluqueño mapping population reveals local adaptation in Mexican highland maize. …and maize farmers too for that matter.
Developing climate-resilient crops: improving plant tolerance to stress combination. And the need for diversity is only going to increase.
Suitability of root, tuber, and banana crops in Central Africa can be favoured under future climates. I wouldn’t plan on it though…
A review of global gridded cropping system data products. …but it’s good to finally know how all the different products that can be used to make these predictions stack up against each other.

October 6, 2021October 8, 2021

A very hot spot for agrobiodiversity

You probably heard about the eruption and lava flow on La Palma in the Canary Islands. What you may not know is that there’s an interactive map of it online. And what came as a further, very welcome, surprise to me is that it allows you to import your own data. That’s quite unusual. Genesys shows 442 georeferenced accessions from the island, and importing their locations suggests that two of them (a pepper and a watermelon) were originally collected from farms that are now in the vicinity of the lava flow.

Does that matter? Probably not, but it was nice to be able to do this sort of mashup quite easily for once. All too often combining spatial data is an almighty chore if you’re not a GIS specialist.

https://twitter.com/i_ameztoy/status/1446171506028032001

September 13, 2021August 31, 2021

Brainfood: Mapping double, Niche modelling, CGIAR impacts, Pathogen genebank, Data stewardship, Breeding tradeoffs, Organic vs conventional, Agronomic trials, Teff evaluation, Eggplant genetic resources, Quinoa phenotyping

Conservation needs to break free from global priority mapping. Couldn’t agree more. And less.
National climate and biodiversity strategies are hamstrung by a lack of maps. Wait, what?
The evolutionary genomics of species’ responses to climate change. You need to combine niche modelling with genetic adaptation to get the best maps.
Payoffs to a half century of CGIAR research. A benefit-to-cost ratio (BCR) of 10:1. Not counting the genebanks. And all the maps.
A case for conserving plant pathogens. But will it be worth it?
Poor data stewardship will hinder global genetic diversity surveillance. What’s the BCR for decent metadata?
Mitigating tradeoffs in plant breeding. Cutting out the cross-talk changes tradeoff to payoff.
Comparing Productivity of Organic and Conventional Farming Systems: A Quantitative Review. Conventional is more productive. But should yield be the only criterion?
Priority micronutrient density in foods. Right. Micronutrients are also important.
Reconciling yield gains in agronomic trials with returns under African smallholder conditions. And how was yield measured anyway?
Data-driven, participatory characterization of traditional farmer varieties discloses teff (Eragrostis tef) adaptive and breeding potential under current and future climates. This might well be an example of applying the lessons of the above.
Genetic Diversity and Utilization of Cultivated Eggplant Germplasm in Varietal Improvement. The wild relatives will save us.
Quinoa Phenotyping Methodologies: An International Consensus. But will it work for the wild relatives? Just kidding, this is an important development for another crop (with the above) which doesn’t have something like the CGIAR and its 10:1 BCR behind it…