- Indian plant germplasm on the global platter: an analysis. There’s a lot of it out there. But there could be more. And the total number of accessions in Genesys is mis-quoted by an order of magnitude. The message obviously resonates back home, though.
- Signal-processing tools for core-collection selection from genetic-resource collections. Fancy maths lets you combine data types to make better core collections.
- Impact of nutritional perceptions of traditional African vegetables on farm household production decisions: A case study of smallholders in Tanzania. People grow them because they think they’re nutritious.
- Can the Global Adoption of Genetically Improved Farmed Fish Increase Beyond 10%, and How? Through more public breeding, training and benefit-sharing. Well that sounds familiar.
- Phenotypic or Molecular Diversity Screening for Conservation of Genetic Resources? An Example from a Genebank Collection of the Temperate Forage Grass Timothy. Both.
- The alignment of agricultural and nature conservation policies in the European Union. It “remains a challenge.” Which means there isn’t any.
- Mapping opportunities and challenges for rewilding in Europe. Yeah, but see above.
Ground-truthing rice in Kazakhstan, from the air
We’re great fans here of featuring maps of the distribution of different crops around the world. You may have noticed that. And, perhaps inevitably, when we do, we more often than not succumb to the temptation of making some comment or other about the ecogeographic limits of said distribution. It’s rare, however, that we get to ground-truth our observations. So imagine my joy when the following tweet appeared a few days back:
Once were rice paddies on arid land close to Aral Sea boundaries: tremendous helicopter flight over region. @UNDPKAZ pic.twitter.com/AQtXQHlObc
— Helen Clark (@HelenClarkNZ) May 24, 2015
Because we had commented some years ago on rice cultivation in Kazakhstan, in particular how it seems to be hanging on just on the edge of the northern limit of the crop. Well, as the photo in the tweet suggests, maybe “hanging on” is too strong a phrase, though being at the northern limit of its range is perhaps not the main reason for that, at least around the Aral Sea. Although FAOStat records an overall decrease in area harvested since 1992, yields do seem to be holding up.
Incidentally, Genesys knows of almost 300 accessions from Kazakhstan, mainly, but not entirely, from VIR. I’m reliably informed material from Kazakhstan is among the most cold tolerant in the world, which you’d probably expect.
Brainfood: Agrobiodiversity & nutrition, Solanaceae, Pepper resistance, Fenugreek erosion, Wild grapes double, CC & mountains
- Improving diets with wild and cultivated biodiversity from across the landscape. Only 12 papers on the link between agrobiodiversity or crop diversity and nutrition included nutritionally relevant information, so perhaps not surprising that we still don’t really know how agrobiodiversity or wild biodiversity contribute to overall diet quality.
- Biodiversity of Food Species of the Solanaceae Family: A Preliminary Taxonomic Inventory of Subfamily Solanoideae. 15 genera used as food, 4 have economic crops, but then one of them is Solanum.
- Diversity of genetic backgrounds modulating the durability of a major resistance gene. Analysis of a core collection of pepper landraces resistant to Potato virus Y. Breakdown of resistance conferred by given allele depends a lot on the background it finds itself in.
- Brief but alarming reminder about the need for reintroducing ‘Greek hay’ (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) in Mediterranean agricultures. Why don’t people like this thing? Is it the smell?
- Crop Wild Relatives as Genetic Resources – the Case of the European Wild Grape. Introgression from American wild species in S. German wild grapes. Still probably valuable for various disease resistances, though.
- Mining new resources for grape resistance against Botryosphaeriaceae: a focus on Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris. See what I mean?
- Global mountain topography and the fate of montane species under climate change. Some plants may have more land available to them as they migrate upwards.
Nibbles: Lovely bunch of coconuts, Svalbard backlash backlash, ADAPTS, British food history, Artisanal backlash, NASA maps soils, Rock bee art
- Kinda random SciDevNet piece about threats to coconut germplasm collections in Asia which doesn’t even mention Bogia. Star of the piece is the Philippines collection, which nobody suggests is threatened.
- Speaking of threatened collections, Mike Jackson rounds up comments on the recent Guardian piece on Svalbard.
- Native Seed/SEARCH gets a new interface.
- How the war changed British agriculture. Fish and chips has always been there though, right?
- The farm-to-table backlash begins. And more along the same lines: “eating natural and artisanal is ahistorical.”
- Mapping soil moisture from space.
- Rocking African bee art.
Brainfood: Prunus hybrids, Wild potato gaps, Agroecology & CC, German orchard loss, Downy mildew in millet, Googling birds, Legume genetic resources
- Development of a New Hybrid Between Prunus tomentosa Thunb. and Prunus salicina Lindl.. Prunus just keeps on giving.
- Ex Situ Conservation Priorities for the Wild Relatives of Potato (Solanum L. Section Petota). 32 out of 73 species, mostly in Peru.
- Agroecology and the design of climate change-resilient farming systems. Forget monocultures, go for “…crop diversification, maintaining local genetic diversity, animal integration, soil organic management, water conservation and harvesting…”
- Patterns and Drivers of Scattered Tree Loss in Agricultural Landscapes: Orchard Meadows in Germany (1968-2009). It’s all about the bottom line.
- New Sources of Resistance to Multiple Pathotypes of Sclerospora graminicola in the Pearl Millet Mini Core Germplasm Collection. 62 of 238 accessions resistant to at least 2 of 8 pathotypes tested.
- Searching for backyard birds in virtual worlds: Internet queries mirror real species distributions.
Searches for common names of birds correlated with bird population densities. Wonder if same applies to (some) plants. - Legume Crops Phylogeny and Genetic Diversity for Science and Breeding. 6 tribes, 13 genera, a million accessions. But are we making the most of them?