History

January 14, 2021January 14, 2021

Agrobiodiversity events roundup

There’s a few things going on that readers may be interested in, so here goes, real quick:

The Culinary Breeding Network’s 2020-21 Variety Showcase + Winter Vegetable Sagra. Incidentally, if you’re interested int he whole “sagra” thing, you might like to check out the recent book by Michele Filippo Fontefrancesco. ((Spoiler alert: authenticity isn’t vital to success, but hyper-locality is.))
The Museum of Food and Drink has a packed schedule of events. GROWING RICE: A Migration Story from Seed to Plate stood out for me, but check out the whole calendar.
The Oxford Food Symposium will be celebrating its 40th anniversary on July 9-11.
Alas, the Oxford Real Farming Conference has finished, but you may be able to a flavour from tweets and the YouTube channel.

January 13, 2021January 15, 2021

Brainfood: Topical forages, Ne, Pearl millet nutrition, Sorghum strategy, Tillering rice, Exchanging wheat, Recollecting wheat, Yeast domestication, Amazonian maize, Synthesizing groundnut, Strawberry dispersal, Soya structure, Remote change, Green Revolution, Unintended consequences

Tropical forage technologies can deliver multiple benefits in Sub-Saharan Africa. A meta-analysis. Including improved germplasm, which had on average 2.6 times higher herbage productivity than local controls.
Effective population size remains a suitable, pragmatic indicator of genetic diversity for all species, including forest trees. Which is good because you can estimate it fairly easily. Well, kinda. It’s important because it’s one of the Genetic diversity targets and indicators proposed for the CBD post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
Exploring the genetic variability and diversity of pearl millet core collection germplasm for grain nutritional traits improvement. 15 of 212 accessions are good for multiple nutrients.
Global Status of Sorghum Genetic Resources Conservation. The two biggest collections are updating their data.
Genomic basis of geographical adaptation to soil nitrogen in rice. Rice lost high tillering in high N conditions, but can get it back to cope with low N conditions.
The Economic Impact of Exchanging Breeding Material: Assessing Winter Wheat Production in Germany. It really pays for breeders to exchange material.
Comparative analysis of the gene pool structure of Triticum aethiopicum wheat accessions conserved ex situ and recollected in fields after 85 years. Vavilov’s collections are more diverse.
Evidence for Two Main Domestication Trajectories in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Linked to Distinct Bread-Making Processes. Being adapted for industrial and artisanal baking respectively.
Entrelaçado, a rare maize race conserved in Southwestern Amazonia. Gap-filling pays off. Hope we can re-collect it in 85 years’ time.
ValSten: a new wild species derived allotetraploid for increasing genetic diversity of the peanut crop (Arachis hypogaea L.). Playing God with peanuts.
Long-distance dispersal of the beach strawberry, Fragaria chiloensis, from North America to Chile and Hawaii. For the birds.
Genetic architecture of wild soybean (Glycine soja Sieb. and Zucc.) populations originating from different East Asian regions. At least 3 separate groups, and the collection stored in Korea is pretty representative.
Supporting habitat conservation with automated change detection in Google Earth Engine. Fancy math can detect land use change quickly and accurately.
Health Impacts of the Green Revolution: Evidence from 600,000 births across the Developing World. Modern varieties reduced infant mortality by 2.4–5.3 percentage points (from 18%), with stronger effects for male infants and among poor households. Why we do all of the above?
Articulating the effect of food systems innovation on the Sustainable Development Goals. Yeah, not so fast…

January 4, 2021December 23, 2020

Brainfood: Perennial staples, Mainstreaming NUS, African veggies, Domestication, Gut microbiota, Yam domestication, Breeding strategies, Breeding history, Coffee diversity, Social networks, Vanuatu diets, Milpa, Decolonizing ABS, Restoration, Soil biodiversity double, Bambara groundnut seeds

Perennial Staple Crops: Yields, Distribution, and Nutrition in the Global Food System. Most perennial staple crops are not as well known or widely grown as annual staple crops, but maybe should be.
Determining appropriate interventions to mainstream nutritious orphan crops into African food systems. Look to the supply of seeds.
Diversity and conservation of traditional African vegetables: Priorities for action. Focus on conserving diversity West Tropical Africa and southern Cameroon. And then look to the supply of seeds everywhere, presumably.
The origins of agriculture: Intentions and consequences. Domestication happened pretty much all by itself, through co-evolution.
The role of the microbiota in human genetic adaptation. Co-evolution happened with the gut microbiota as well as with plants.
Genome analyses reveal the hybrid origin of the staple crop white Guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata). Unclear if people were involved.
Crop adaptation to climate change as a consequence of long‑term breeding. Better to focus on the slow but steady accumulation of small effects. By people, presumably.
Trends of genetic changes uncovered by Env- and Eigen-GWAS in wheat and barley. Maybe you don’t even need to measure the results of those small effects.
Genetic Diversity of Coffea arabica. We need to catalogue all germplasm collections, together with their marker profiles, and make material and data easily available. Easier said than done.
Farmers’ social networks and the diffusion of modern crop varieties in India. Caste affects adoption of new varieties.
From garden to store: local perspectives of changing food and nutrition security in a Pacific Island country. Those that have access to stores, and therefore enough food, don’t have a well balanced diet, and those that don’t have store have a better balanced diet but occasionally not enough food. No word on modern varieties.
The role of the milpa in food and nutritional security in households of Ocotal Texizapan, Veracruz, Mexico. Who needs stores?
Dilemmas of protection: decolonising the regulation of genetic resources as cultural heritage. But are the above natural or cultural resources?
A meta-analysis contrasting active versus passive restoration practices in dryland agricultural ecosystems. Just add water.
Soil biodiversity enhances the persistence of legumes under climate change. If you want to keep legumes, and thus diversity, in your vegetation under climate change, better maintain soil biodiversity. Or add water, presumably.
Soil microbial legacy drives crop diversity advantage: linking ecological plant‐soil feedback with agricultural intercropping. Same as above, but for intercropping.
Effect of high temperature drying on seed longevity of Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) accessions. Initial drying at 45°C/35% RH for 8 days before moving to a more conventional 17°C/15% RH can be good for some accessions, but which?

December 10, 2020December 10, 2020

Nibbles: Svalbard, Amazon fires, China genebank, Gardening, CPVO

Nice genebanks mashup from the always-excellent Mongabay.
Analyzing social media to understand how forest governance is perceived. I want to do it for genebanks now…
…Genebanks such as China’s wild plants genebank, for example.
Thomas Fairchild was a genebanker of sorts 300 years ago.
Once genebanks have been used by breeders, and varieties released (at least in Europe), you’ll be able to find them in the CPVO Variety Finder. I’m sure Fairchild would be impressed.

December 8, 2020December 8, 2020

Nibbles: Soil day, Gold Rush orchards, Bogota heirlooms, Geographical indications, Coffee industry, Plant Treaty

Soil diversity is important too, FAO says.
There’s (agricultural) gold in them thar hills.
Even the hills of Bogotá.
Using collective IP rights to protect agricultural and other biodiversity.
Coffee is 40 years behind other crops, but will business step up?
More $$$ for the Benefit Sharing Fund.