In situ

May 14, 2018

Farmer’s Pride’s survey

If you are involved in conserving wild or cultivated plant genetic resources in situ or if continued access to plant genetic diversity is important to you, please take 10–15 minutes to complete our survey.

That’s from Farmer’s Pride, a new EU-funded project coordinated by, ironically, the University of Birmingham.

May 14, 2018May 14, 2018

Brainfood: Spanish livestock, IPK forage & wheat, USDA soybean diversity, NERICA/ARICA, Nagoya, Intensification, Greek lentil, Zulu sheep, Kola vs cocoa, African rice farming, Wild foods

Human and ecological determinants of the spatial structure of local breed diversity. The closer Spanish provinces are in demography, ecology, history and geography, the more similar in their livestock breeds.
Enhancing the Sustainable Use of Lolium perenne Genetic Resources from Genebanks in Plant Breeding and Research. The importance of international collaboration illustrated yet again. Material best at different things comes from different countries.
Leveraging the use of historical data gathered during seed regeneration of an ex situ genebank collection of wheat. Accessions should be regenerated at random. From same genebank as above.
Population and quantitative genomic properties of the USDA soybean germplasm collection. 8 major clusters.
Assessment of Genetic Variation and Population Structure of Diverse Rice Genotypes Adapted to Lowland and Upland Ecologies in Africa Using SNPs. Lowland NERICA close to indica, highland NERICA close to japonica.
Do You Conduct International Research? What You Need to Know About Access, Benefit‐Sharing, and the Nagoya Protocol. Quite a lot.
Pasture intensification is insufficient to relieve pressure on conservation priority areas in open agricultural markets. Intensification relieves pressure on land in Africa, but not in Latin America, where it stimulates increased trade.
Genetic diversity analysis of the Greek lentil (Lens culinaris) landrace ‘Eglouvis’ using morphological and molecular markers. 400 years old, quite distinct, and with some variation.
Genetic structure of South African Nguni (Zulu) sheep populations reveals admixture with exotic breeds. Quite variable and not much inbreeding, but gotta watch out the admixture with exotics.
Is kola Tree the Enemy of Cocoa? A Critical Analysis of Agroforestry Recommendations Made to Ivorian Cocoa Farmers. No, but you wouldn’t think it from Big Chocolate recommendations.
‘The Tides Rhyme with the Moon’: The Impacts of Knowledge Transmission and Strong Spring Tides on Rice Farming in Guinea-Bissau. The youth resist.
Wild Foods: Safety Net or Poverty Trap? A South African Case Study. Depends on the season.

May 1, 2018April 30, 2018

Nibbles: Garlic history, Collecting, GMO course, Rice genebank, Mango diversity, Chilli diversity, Virtual plant breeding, Navel orange, LA tree, Cotton sustainability, Saudi agritourism

Trying to promote a “poor person’s crop”? Try the garlic trick, ennobling.
A Reference Manual for Expedition Plant Collectors, courtesy of the The Arnold Arboretum.
Cornell runs a MOOC on GMOs. How about one on genebanks, eh?
Maharashtra could maybe use it.
You can never have too many mangoes.
Or dried chillies.
Next generation plant breeding.
Riverside protects its famous citrus tree.
But not all famous California trees are so lucky.
Making cotton sustainable. Hard row to hoe.
Saudi farm tourism. Even harder.

April 23, 2018April 28, 2018

Brainfood: Seed libraries, Nepali veggie seeds, Agricultural ES, Zn rice, Sub rice core, SoD, D2N, Root crops knowledge, Horse diversity

Civic seeds: new institutions for seed systems and communities—a 2016 survey of California seed libraries. 6456 seed packets borrowed annually, by 4776 people, from >100 seed libraries, with a 6% return rate.
Vegetables production and marketing: practice and perception of vegetable seed producers and fresh growers in Nepal. Producers like hybrids, consumers prefer open pollinated varieties. Oh, and drying is a problem. No word on whether seed libraries might help.
Exploiting ecosystem services in agriculture for increased food security. Services don’t include crop diversity, apparently.
Molecular Diversity Analysis for Zinc Deficiency Tolerance under Aerobic Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Ecosystem. Two major groups.
Developing Mini Core of Rice Germplasm for Submergence Tolerance. Really mini. Maybe too mini?
CIMMYT’s Seeds of Discovery Initiative: Harnessing Biodiversity for Food Security and Sustainable Development. A “visionary investment.”
Temporal change of Distance to Nature index for anthropogenic influence monitoring in a protected area and its buffer zone. I want a Distance to Genebank index.
Indigenous knowledge and household food security: the role of root and tuber crops among indigenous peoples in the Northern Philippines. The youth are losing it.
Decline of genetic diversity in ancient domestic stallions in Europe. It was artificial selection during the Iron Age.

April 19, 2018

Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems take a bow

Missed today’s forum on Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems over at FAO? Don’t worry, the video will be up soon. And you can read an article, or a whole book on the subject, in the meantime. Surprised there isn’t one of those Google Earth photo-essays like Kew did for its Tropical Important Plant Areas programme.