History

July 28, 2011July 29, 2011

Unlocking a presentation on unlocking agriculture’s past

The talk that Jacob is planning to give later today at the National Geographic store in Madrid (and you can follow online) is now available on Slideshare.

Unlocking Agriculture's Past

View more presentations from Jacob van Etten

LATER: I forgot to use a hashtag, but you can see my live-tweeting of Jacob’s talk by searching for his name. Maybe Jacob can tell us if the video will be available in due course. And no, he didn’t answer my online question about the difference between oca and potato. Wimp.

July 25, 2011July 22, 2011

Brainfood: Chinese landscapes, Agroforestry seed, Italian lentils, Carrot heterosis, Taro in islands, Indian wheat, AnGR ex situ, Woodland shrines, Vitamin A, Caraway, Adansonia, Neotropical blueberries, Yeast genetics, Rotations

Agricultural landscapes and biodiversity in China. Traditional farming practices good for biodiversity, modern bad. Therefore need intensification, to take pressure off natural habitats. But no, wait, that usually means monocultures and chemicals, which are bad. Oh crap. No mention of genebanks.
Innovation in input supply systems in smallholder agroforestry: seed sources, supply chains and support systems. Decentralized commercial system probably best for getting quality agroforestry seed to smallholders. Unfortunately, nobody listening.
Characterization of Italian lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) germplasm by agronomic traits, biochemical and molecular markers. I object in principle to any paper that says a particular landrace is “the best.”
The relationship between heterosis and genetic distances based on RAPD and AFLP markers in carrot. It is positive. Was this really not known before in carrots? What am I missing?
Genetic diversity of taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) in Vanuatu (Oceania): an appraisal of the distribution of allelic diversity (DAD) with SSR markers. 10 villages, 344 landraces, 324 distinct multilocus genotypes, genetic pattern reflects social networks. Situation in Andaman Islands not quite so interesting.
A study of genetic diversity among Indian bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars released during last 100 years. More diversity after Green Revolution than before, but steadily decreasing.
Ex situ conservation genetics: a review of molecular studies on the genetic consequences of captive breeding programmes for endangered animal species. Restricted access, and you know what? I couldn’t care less.
Consequences of wooded shrine rituals on vegetation conservation in West Africa: a case study from the Bwaba cultural area (West Burkina Faso). I expect there are some, but with restricted access, what’s the point of even linking?
Evaluating sweet potato as an intervention food to prevent Vitamin A deficiency. To have an effect, you’d have to replace all the other types with orange-fleshed ones. Well, almost. Wonder whether it will be presented at the “International Scientific Symposium on Food & Nutrition Security Information: From valid measurement to effective decision-making” early next year.
Evaluation of variability of morphological traits of selected caraway (Carum carvi L.) genotypes. They’re actually breeding this stuff in Poland. But they had to get their germplasm from botanical gardens around Europe.
Variation in baobab seedling morphology and its implications for selecting superior planting material. There is some.
Edible Neotropical blueberries: antioxidant and compositional fingerprint analysis. The 5 species involved have different ones.
Population genomics and speciation in yeasts. There’s a question as to whether yeast species in fact exist in any meaningful sense.
Cereal–forage rotations effect on biochemical characteristics of topsoil and productivity of the crops in Mediterranean environment. Continuous cereal stressed the soil.

July 21, 2011July 21, 2011

Ollas Per Persson

Ollas Per Persson, Almo, Dalarna, Sweden, a photo by Swedish National Heritage Board on Flickr.

Just a great photo from the Swedish National Heritage Board, taken ca 1944, that I found on Flickr’s Economic Botany Pool.

July 21, 2011July 21, 2011

Nibbles: CGRFA13, Kuroiler chicken, CGIAR, God, Mozambique

Three days down, one to go in Rome.
Indian hybrid chickens set to take over Uganda.
Latest from CGIAR restructuring: the 6 research programmes agreed thus far. So how you like our latest toy?
60-tonne God of Rain unearthed; drought continues.
Mozambique Raises Production of Staple Foods by 22% a Year. Amazing. How? And for how long?

July 16, 2011July 15, 2011

More on those Azeri buffaloes

Thanks to Elli from the Save Foundation for this comment on our recent post on water buffalo in Azerbaijan.

They were crossed with Murrah in Soviet times, just like in the Ukraine and Bulgaria. I’m just preparing a report on Buffalo in SE Europe and we’ve been looking at the situation in Georgia too.

Good to know. Incidentally, I should have mentioned another source of livestock information on the previous post: Gridded Livestock of the World (GLW). If you squint, ¹ you can just about make out that it does show some buffaloes in Azerbaijan and other countries in the southern Caucasus.