- The Arid Lands Information Network has published a briefing on Climate change and the threat to African food security.
- Free Seeds, Not Free Beer. A paper on intellectual property rights. Luigi asks: Why not both?
- Urban farming around the world, a slideshow. No wonder Back40 thinks its all hobby or hack.
- More urban farms in the US. Enough already!
- See the spud behind the Irish Potato Famine. Today. In Guelph. That’s Canada.
- Napier Stunt Disease threat to Ugandan milk production.
- The Ecosystems Map of the Northern and Central Andes is out.
Mo’ better modeling
Two papers in the Journal of Biogeography suggest ways of improving ecological niche modeling, by including soil data and by recognizing that the range of a species may not be in “equilibrium with its climatic niche.” May need to blog in more details about these…
Incidentally, modeling species responses to climate change is no longer just an academic exercise, it’s a policy tool:
Brazil has shown the way with extensive modelling, leading to zoning schemes where farmers can obtain cheap credit for planting crops recommended by the models. It is now among the top three exporters for ten global commodities, including coffee.
Nibbles: Cacao, Soil mapping, Rice terraces, Maize, Cereus
- “USDA’s Bourlaug International Science Fellows Program has partnered with non-profit and for-profit organizations to identify new agricultural techniques for cocoa cultivation and to control cocoa diseases.” And do some conservation and breeding, surely.
- Big shots call for a decent global digital soil map. Seconded.
- Cool photos of rice agricultural landscapes.
- Roasting maize, Mexico style. Oh yeah, there’s also a nifty new maize mapping population out.
- Peruvian apple cactus doing just fine in Israel.
Mobile phones track invasives
Smart phones are being used to map invasive plants. Why not crop wild relatives? Or other agrobiodiversity for that matter.
Nibbles: Camel sweets, UG99, British woods, Rice, India and climate change, Soay sheep, Fish, Seed fair, Barn owls, Food maps, Earthworms
- Chocolate made from camel milk for the first time. And last?
- “Slow rusting” genes from Ethiopian wheat landraces.
- Brits (and Yanks, for that matter) look for ancient trees in woodlands becoming ever less distinctive.
- The world needs GM rice, but alas “the environment for accepting genetically modified crops is not as good as it should be.” Meanwhile, IRRI keeps hammering away at drought tolerance and resistance to other assorted stresses. It’s hard being rice.
- ICAR looks at the likely effects of climate change on crops and what can be done about it.
- Climate change making Soay sheep (and, incidentally, European fish too) not just smaller, also darker. Speaking of fish, there’s trouble in the Zambezi too, but not necessarily due to climate change. Although…
- A Greek seed bazaar.
- FAO turns to barn owls to stop Laotian rodent plague.
- US food policy destinations on Google Maps.
- Vermicomposting is good news for the Indian textile industry. Vermicomposting: I like saying that word.