History

April 18, 2013

Nibbles: Vietnamese rice, Intensified rice, Photographed rice, No rice, Rice and beans, Ecosystem services

Vietnamese rice varieties get sequenced. What will IRRI think?
Well, they may be too busy cosying up to SRI to respond.
A rice farmer does feature in a nice Christensen Fund slideshow.
But no rice in these 12th century recipes.
You know what goes well with rice? Beans, that’s what.
And now, for something completely different: Ecosystem Service Valuation Toolkit.

April 15, 2013April 12, 2013

Brainfood: Wild pepper, Lettuce gene, Qat genetic structure, Date oases, Raised fields, Waxy sorghum, Striga resistant cowpea, Wild soybean, Kenaf diversity

Domestication, Conservation, and Livelihoods: A Case Study of Piper peepuloides Roxb. — An Important Nontimber Forest Product in South Meghalaya, Northeast India. Managed crop wild relative manages to turn a profit for Indian forest dwellers.
Expression of 9-cis-EPOXYCAROTENOID DIOXYGENASE4 Is Essential for Thermoinhibition of Lettuce Seed Germination but Not for Seed Development or Stress Tolerance. Managed crop wild relative gene could eventually turn a profit for commercial lettuce growers.
Evaluation of microsatellites of Catha edulis (qat; Celastraceae) identified using pyrosequencing. Can be used to trace origin. The Man exults.
Date palm as a keystone species in Baja California peninsula, Mexico oases. Jesuit-introduced exotics can be keystone species too. The Pope exults.
Ancient human agricultural practices can promote activities of contemporary non-human soil ecosystem engineers: A case study in coastal savannas of French Guiana. Formerly managed landscape now managed by soil organisms.
A novel waxy allele in sorghum landraces in East Asia. Out of East Asia…
Identification of new sources of resistance to Striga gesnerioides in cowpea germplasm. As ever, they are not the ones farmers actually like.
Development of EST-SSR markers for diversity and breeding studies in opium poppy. And, they work on the related species! Afghans exult.
Kunitz trypsin inhibitor polymorphism in the Korean wild soybean (Glycine soja Sieb. & Zucc.). In other news, there is wild soybean in Korea.
Genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationship of kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) accessions evaluated by SRAP and ISSR. Originated in Kenya-Tanzania area.

April 10, 2013April 10, 2013

The grapevines of Pompeii

Sign explaining the story behind a vineyard planted in the ruins of Pompeii — Sign explaining the story behind one of several vineyards planted among the ruins of Pompeii

Although I knew that grapevines were cultivated in Roman times in and around Pompeii, I had no idea, until I visited the place for the first time in decades last week, that they’re there again, and in force. Various varieties apparently dating back to the time of the eruption that destroyed the city in AD 79 were planted in the late 1990s, more or less where they were originally grown.

According to Mastroberardino, wine played a central role in the lives of the Vesuvian people. Archaeological excavations, botanical studies, and the discovery of casts of vine roots and their support stakes have confirmed that vines were grown within ancient Pompeii’s city walls, in the gardens and orchards which beautified villas, and especially in the quarters located on the outskirts of the city, near the amphitheatre.

And they seem to be doing very well, though you perhaps wouldn’t know it from my photos taken in early April. Fortunately, the internet can help with that.

April 8, 2013April 8, 2013

Brainfood: Moroccan almonds, MAS in potato, Mexican maize market, History of agronomy, Malian querns, Hani terraces, Conservation modelling, Wild Cucumis, Pathogens and CC

Moroccan almond is a distinct gene pool as revealed by SSR. Ok, now what?
Molecular markers for late blight resistance breeding of potato: an update. Ok, now what?
Reconstructing the Maize Market in Rural Mexico. Not so free after all.
Why agronomy in the developing world has become contentious. Neoliberalism, participation and environmentalism. The answer? Political agronomy.
Millet and sauce: The uses and functions of querns among the Minyanka (Mali). Form depends on more than just function.
Landscape pattern and sustainability of a 1300-year-old agricultural landscape in subtropical mountain areas, Southwestern China. If it ain’t broke, why fix it?
Mathematical optimization ideas for biodiversity conservation. Fancy math works sometimes but not always. Wonder if it would work on the Hani terraces above. Or on Mexican maize for that matter.
Mitochondrial genome is paternally inherited in Cucumis allotetraploid (C. × hytivus) derived by interspecific hybridization. Not the chlororoplast genome though. Weird. But now what?
Migrate or evolve: options for plant pathogens under climate change. Or, indeed, both. But we need better models, and a better handle on what human interventions can do. Interestingly, pathogen diversity may well increase in some places.

April 5, 2013

Nibbles: Pigs, Wheat, Urban agriculture, Nutrition, Sago cakes

A heart-warming tale of raising pigs the right way.
Another heart-warming tale of breeding better wheat in Colorado.
Urban agriculture goes intensive and corporate. Not very heart warming.
Cornell students to solve nutrition problems in Ghana after 10-day visit. Is that heart warming? I have my doubts.
Alfred Russel Wallace’s very own sago cakes preserved at Kew. If that isn’t heart warming, I don’t know what is.