Nibbles: COUSIN project, Breeding chat, Aardaker, Alternative beans, Grain amaranth, Iraqi seeds, Genebanks in peril

  1. The COUSIN project aims to conserve (trans situ, no less) and use crop wild relatives in Europe.
  2. That “use” part can be tough.
  3. But that doesn’t stop the fine people at Aardaia. At least where aardaker (Lathyrus tuberosus) is concerned.
  4. From alternative potatoes in the Netherlands to alternative beans in Indonesia. All in the cause of diversification.
  5. No need to find an alternative to amaranth in the American SW. Not with devoted chefs on the job.
  6. The Iraqi Seed Collective is taking seeds from American genebanks to that country’s diaspora in the US, and eventually back to Iraq itself. Maybe chefs will help.
  7. Good thing there are genebank backups, eh?

Brainfood: EcoregionsTreeFinder, Microbe niches, Herbarium phenology, Green Status Index of Species Recovery, Feral pigs, Trade & biodiversity, African cereal self-sufficiency, Plant protection, Ugandan seed systems, Grasspea breeding, Indigenous knowledge

Noah? No way!

In the latest GROW webinar, Prof. Stef de Haan, of the International Potato Centre and more recently Wageningen University and Research, explains how genebanks alone won’t preserve crop diversity adequately unless linked with farmer custodians, local seed systems, and policy spaces. Sounds like he also falls squarely in the middle in the old Erna vs Otto bunfight.

To save you googling, the Rikuy Agrobio website he mentions, with the community-level tools for monitoring crop diversity, is here. And you can explore potato diversity in on-farm hotspots on wikiPapa here. Both only in Spanish so far, but well worth looking into. Fascinating stuff, and obviously valuable, but I do wonder how to scale up this sort of thing to all crops, everywhere.

Nibbles: Cherokee Three Sisters, Australian native grains, Ancient Peruvian irrigation, Indian apples, IFOAM Seed Platform, MSB, Chinese conservation, Protected areas, Soybeans breeding, Funding cuts

  1. Three Sisters rematriated to historical Cherokee Nation.
  2. Native grains returning to Indigenous land in Australia too.
  3. May need to bring back agricultural practices too, like in Peru.
  4. Meanwhile, in India, farmers are trying to grow apples in new places. Go figure.
  5. Anyway, seems like the IFOAM Seeds Platform might be able to help.
  6. And genebanks too of course, like the Millennium Seed Bank.
  7. As part of a comprehensive conservation systems, goes without saying, like in China.
  8. Which also include climate-proof protected areas.
  9. It worked for soybeans, after all.
  10. Well, for now anyway…

Brainfood: Rice breeding, Sorghum parents, Cowpea diversity, Sweet potato double, Lesser yam uses, Tomato breeding, Peanut hybrids, Rice wild relatives, Sorghum genetic erosion