Mapping free fruit

Free-fruit enthusiasts have put together a Google Maps application to help them forage. Only has a few sites around Britain and Germany at the moment, but I bet it will grow.

fruits

Would it be so difficult to have something similar to report threats of genetic erosion, for example? I know Jacob thinks that would be useless, as a threat is only really a threat if it is likely to have an effect on overall genetic diversity, not just on what is available locally. But I’m not so sure. And it would be fun to do.

Mapping banana diseases by phone

…Grameen Foundation, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Uganda’s National Agriculture Research Organization (NARO) designed a pilot project to test if data collection and transmission through the use of mobile phones (and GPS units) is a viable alternative to tradition[al] agriculture extension. The project team used identifying, mapping, monitoring and controlling banana disease as a case study to model this new agriculture extension system.

Interesting, no? And, it seems, quite effective. You can read about some of the results at AGCommons. Who’s going to be the first to use mobile phones to map and monitor crop (or crop wild relatives) diversity?

LATER: The BBC has a piece on software for mobiles that will support this kind of application.