GIS – Page 107 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

February 4, 2011February 4, 2011

Gaps in cassava collection in Africa highlighted

A request from MapSpaM for people to help them in mapping the distribution of cassava cultivation in Africa ¹ forced me into some more playing with Google Earth. I just took MapSpaM’s draft cassava map…

…and plonked on top of it the germplasm provenance data from Genesys. Here’s the result (right click to save the kmz file):

Which highlights — not for the first time, but very powerfully — the lack of material from eastern and southern Africa in the international genebanks. It is definitely important to think about safety duplicating national collections from those countries.

Here’s a close-up for West Africa:

Pretty good representation overall, but even here there are some definite gaps. Time to get collecting again in Africa too. Though of course a geographic gap is not necessarily a genetic gap…

January 21, 2011June 20, 2011

Uncontacted agrobiodiversity

Survival International has a new website on Uncontacted Tribes:

More than 100 tribes around the world reject contact with outsiders. This is their story.

Somewhat weirdly, the website includes a map, although it is pointed out that it “won’t help anyone make ‘first contact.’ But it will help to stop oil companies and loggers from invading the lands of uncontacted tribes.”

Be that as it may, I could not resist mashing it up in Google Earth ² with the data in Genesys on the world’s holdings of agrobiodiversity. This is the result for an area comprising the Brazilian state of Rondonia and some surrounding regions.

Not surprisingly, there’s not much in the way of germplasm accessions from the general areas occupied by uncontacted tribes. Oil and logging companies may not be the only things that these tribes should be worried about.

January 19, 2011January 19, 2011

Nibbles: IK, Fragaria, Citrus, Millet breeding, Vitis, Agricultural biodiversity, Satellite imagery, Subsistence

Indigenous knowledge of agrobiodiversity makes the news in Indonesia.
Reconstructing the strawberry.
And reconstructing the history of cultivated citrus fruits.
ICRISAT millet breeders get an a new toy.
Plenty of diversity in the cultivated grape still. And it’s going to need it.
Biodiversity (and agrobiodiversity?) needed for farm productivity. Well I never! But more mixed results available too. What’s a poor boy to think?
SPOT 5 imagery can be used to identify crops. In Texas. But in Tanzania?
Agricultural biodiversity and subsistence traditions, Part 2. In the Ozarks. But in Omo? (And here’s Part 1.)

January 14, 2011January 14, 2011

Nibbles: Mongolian asses

It’s always good to be able nibble a paper with “wild asses” in the title. Especially since there’s nothing else on the internet today.

December 17, 2010December 17, 2010

Nibbles: Yemen, Seed moisture, Irish fruits, Indian genetic erosion, Goji, Sustainable Ag, Green Revolution,

Probably way more than you want to know about food security in Yemen, but stunning nonetheless.
NordGen tells us how to measure seed moisture content. In Russian.
The Irish have benefited from at least one bank. Alas, that bank is Pavlovsk.
Indian farmers turning their back on traditional crops because of climate change. Hope NBPGR is on the case.
Goji berries only as good as other fruit and veg, with “significant placebo effect”.
[W]e are in the midst of shaping a new perspective on sustainable agriculture, it says here. Right.
All you ever wanted to know about Green Revolution 2.0, thanks to Anastasia.
Speaking of which .. sustainable ag under discussion.