- Learn urban aquaculture.
- Learn phylogenetics online.
- Learn about the CGIAR’s manifesto for agriculture and climate change from Andy’s new blog.
- Learn about the importance of hide processing in East Africa.
- Learn about the latest blow to British cooking.
- Learn about monastic gardening.
- Learn about the USDA’s microbial collections. They’re agrobiodiversity too.
- Learn what is the latest crop to get its genome sequenced.
- Learn about a private livestock genebank in the US.
- Learn about the effect of biofuel crop diversity on insect diversity.
Nibbles: School gardens, Nabhan, Reforestation, Swine flu, Boar, Nutrinomics, Medieval sheep, Market, Acacia, Livestock breeds, Bees, Buffalo breeding, Quinoa
- Resource list for setting up a school garden. Take that, Flanagan.
- Gary “Eco-gastronaut” Nabhan goes viral.
- Smithsonian goes native. Trees, that is.
- GRAIN video delves into origin of H1N1.
- There are boar farms of England?
- Nutrition advice needs to take genetics into account.
- Tracing the changing morphology of British post-medieval sheep. Well, someone has to do it.
- Thai floating market. A tourist trap, I know. But photogenic.
- Kew’s plant of the day is gum arabic. Wait, Kew has a plant of the day? Is there no end to their ingenuity?
- And GlobalDiv has a Breed of the Month. BTW, the same source has a thing on the XVIII Plant and Animal Genome Conference (Jan. 2010).
- Diverse diet for healthier bees, says BBC
- Breeding bovines in Asia.
- Cursed quinoa.
Amazonian agriculture analyzed
I don’t know about you, but in my laziness I sometimes catch myself making the assumption that a centre of crop origin is also one of crop diversity. That is of course sometimes the case, but by no means always, as Vavilov himself recognized. A recent open access paper in Diversity makes the point very clearly. ((Clement, C., de Cristo-Araújo, M., d’Eeckenbrugge, G., Alves Pereira, A., & Picanço-Rodrigues, D. (2010). Origin and Domestication of Native Amazonian Crops. Diversity, 2 (1), 72-106 DOI: 10.3390/d2010072))
The authors, led by Charles R. Clement of the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia in Manaus, review molecular studies and also bring in archaeological and other evidence in their discussion of the history of Amazonian crops. They come to the conclusion that these crops originated around the periphery of the region: “All but one of the species examined originated in the periphery of Amazonia (Figure 3), rather than along the major white water rivers where pre-conquest population densities were greatest.” Here’s that Fig. 3:
Now, in contrast, here’s where the pre-Columbian hotspots of diversity were to be found: “The major centers and regions of diversity are along the major white water rivers and in northwestern Amazonia, where ethnic diversity is extremely high.”
The explanation, according to the authors, is the length of time involved in the development of agriculture in the region.
Because crop domestication began thousands of years before food production systems became important, it is not at all surprising to see a dramatic contrast such as that in Amazonia.
Why was the Amazonian periphery such a focus of domestication?
It is possible that sufficient natural resources were available [in central Amazonia] so that the home gardens were such a small fraction of subsistence that they are difficult to find in the archaeological record. In contrast, in the headwaters of the same rivers in the periphery, less abundant aquatic resources may have increased the importance of home gardens.
Banana improvement at IITA explained
IITA has uploaded to youtube a longish interview with renowned banana expert Prof. Ivan Buddenhagen of UC Davis. Lots of fascinating insights, both technical and historical. What for me was the money quote comes at the beginning of the second installment (of five). Asked about what direction banana improvement should take at IITA, he says: “The first thing is to get more germplasm.” Thanks to Jacob for the tip.
Nibbles: Vavilov on couscous, Molecular studentships, Goat genetics, Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Sweet potato, New Agriculturist, Vietnam and CC, Liberian ag research, Cuisine
- Couscous deconstructed.
- China and Bioversity collaborate on molecular marker training.
- Neolithic legging helps unravel the history of the goat in Europe.
- Dag’s cool Svalbard pix.
- CIP launches Sweetpotato Action for Security and Health in Africa (SASHA).
- The new New Agriculturist does markets.
- Climate change and rice cultivation in the Mekong Delta.
- The perils of agricultural research in Liberia: one trial up in smoke, another stolen. Bummer.
- Ok, I had no idea there was a Tasting Cultures Foundation. Thanks, Facebook.