Category: In situ

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Finding one’s way through the forest of forest resources databases

As well as the 3rd State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, the 2nd State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture was also launched at FAO Commission meeting the week before last. Some headline numbers? There are about 58,000 tree species worldwide, about 30% of whch are threatened and 1,400 and 1,100 species are included in in situ and ex situ conservation programs, respectively.

At least some of the data behind the forest report is to be found in FAO’s new global information system, SilvaGRIS, launched at the same time. SilvaGRIS joins a fairly crowded field — or perhaps I should forest — which includes various products from the World Agroforestry Centre, the restoration-focused Tree Diversity database, and Europe’s own portal EUFGIS. No doubt each does something different, but a guide through the thicket of resources might be useful.

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Nibbles: Agrobiodiversity, HealthyDiets4Africa, Warwick genebank, NPGS trifecta, Florida potatoes, On farm, Guatemalan community seed banks, Welsh black oats, WorldVeg genebank, Turkish olive genebank, Citrus genebank, Orchard of Flavours, Piper diversity, Ancient Egyptian food, Chocolate & world history, Ancient DNA & breeding

  1. What has agrobiodiversity ever done for us? Kent Nnadozie of the Plant Treaty lays it out.
  2. Michael Frei of the HealthyDiets4Africa project doesn’t need it laid out.
  3. Neither do the people who awarded a prize to Charlotte Allender of the UK Vegetable Genebank.
  4. What has the US National Plant Germplasm System ever done for anyone? The Guardian, the NY Times and NPR News lay it out. I guess someone in D.C. needs it laid out, but will it make any difference?
  5. Everyone: Potatoes in Florida! Breeders: No problem. NPGS: You called?
  6. Here’s The Guardian again, but this time thinking it is making the case for not putting seeds in the fridge, whereas in fact it’s making the case for the complementarity of ex situ and on-farm conservation.
  7. Speaking of on-farm conservation, here’s a couple of pieces on community seed banks in Guatemala.
  8. Speaking of on-farm conservation, here’s the heart-warming story of Welsh organic farmer Gerald Miles.
  9. Meanwhile, the World Vegetable Centre opens a new genebank.
  10. And Türkiye hosts an international, no less, olive genebank.
  11. And genebanks can be so beautiful, like works of art. Former Tate Modern director Vicente Todolí lays out his citrus samples. I wonder what he could do with olives.
  12. Botanic gardens are beautiful and often act a little bit like crop genebanks. Here’s an example from Portugal I stumbled onto recently, I forget how.
  13. You know what I’d like to see? An international pepper genebank, that’s what. No, not the kind that might be in those Guatemalan community seedbanks or the WorldVeg genebank. This sort of pepper. Piper pepper.
  14. I bet the ancient Egyptians had pepper. Egyptian archaeologist Mennat-Allah El Dorry lays out what else they had.
  15. Maybe you could lay out world history using pepper. You can definitely do so using cacao and chocolate.
  16. No, not using ancient DNA, but actually…
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Nibbles: Genebanks in the US, CIAT, Egypt, Cambridge Botanic Garden, Chilean wild tomato, Kenyan veggies, PNG diet, PGRFA course

  1. The USDA genebank is in the news. But will that save it?
  2. The CIAT genebank in on a podcast. Can’t hurt, I guess.
  3. The Egyptian genebank is in the news. And on a new website, apparently.
  4. Good to see botanic gardens in the news too.
  5. I wonder which genebank or botanic gardens this apparently re-discovered endemic Chilean wild tomato will end up in. If any.
  6. But genebanks are not enough. You need vegetable fairs too.
  7. Because vegetables are good for you. And not just in Kenya, also in Papua New Guinea.
  8. Want to learn about all of the above? Check out the resources from the Entry-Level Training School on Plant Genetic Resources in 2023.
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Brainfood: Micronutrients, Healthy Diet Basket, Meat alternatives, Chickpea polyphenols, African yam bean breeding, CC and nutrition, Biofortification, Mali diet diversity, Myanmar & Malawi agroforestry, African indigenous vegetables, Indian fruits

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Nibbles: Genebanks in South Africa, Ethiopia, Cherokee Nation, China, India, The Netherlands…

  1. South Africa ratifies the Plant Treaty. Hope its genebank goes from strength to strength.
  2. Ethiopia ratified a long time ago, and its genebank is going strong.
  3. Wouldn’t it be nice if the Cherokee Nation could ratify the Plant Treaty?
  4. Want to build a community genebank like the Cherokee Nation’s? Here’s a resource.
  5. China hasn’t ratified, but that hasn’t stopped it building genebanks.
  6. And using their contents, presumably.
  7. India has ratified, and is also building genebanks.
  8. The Netherlands ratified long ago, but I’m not sure if it has a water lentil (duckweed) collection, or if it does whether it’s in the Plant Treaty’s Multilateral System. But maybe it will, and it will be, soon. I hope so.
  9. The Dutch also have an animal genebank, BTW.
  10. Watermelons are not in the Plant Treaty’s Multilateral System, but maybe they should be.
  11. Neither is Trigonella, though many other temperate legume forages are, so who knows.