In situ

May 6, 2014May 6, 2014

Resilience of indicators of resilience being discussed

The Third International Science and Policy Conference on the Resilience of Social & Ecological Systems is taking place in Montpellier, France. And yes, there’s a hashtag, settle down. Agricultural biodiversity features, thankfully, not least in the indicators of resilience (here’s the presentation). This just in:

Eyzaguirre: Communities embedded in a landscape mosaic can shift focus according to context and reinforce resilience #Resilience2014

— Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (@BiovIntCIAT_eng) May 6, 2014

May 5, 2014May 5, 2014

Brainfood: Grasspea genomics, Eggplant genomics, Snakegourd hybrids, Bean drought resistance, Wild pear diversity, CNN 51 deconstructed, Sicilian grape diversity, Cash in the Usambaras, Kenyan sorghum diversity, Chinese sesame diversity, Chinese millet breeding

Large-scale microsatellite development in grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.), an orphan legume of the arid areas. Let the Grasspea Revolution begin.
High resolution map of eggplant (Solanum melongena) reveals extensive chromosome rearrangement in domesticated members of the Solanaceae. Let the Eggplant Revolution begin.
Genetic variability in snakegourd (Tricosanthes cucurminata). The Hybrid Snakegourd Revolution is one I’d really like to see.
Differentially Expressed Genes during Flowering and Grain Filling in Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) Grown under Drought Stress Conditions. We know the drought resistance genes.
Chloroplast DNA-based genetic diversity and phylogeography of Pyrus betulaefolia (Rosaceae) in Northern China. 3 particularly diverse populations, probably refugia, plus 3 others, identified for conservation.
Genetic Characterization of the Cacao Cultivar CCN 51: Its Impact and Significance on Global Cacao Improvement and Production. It’s high yielding, resistant to lots of stuff, variable, and an important breeding resource. But it tastes like shit.
Genotyping of Sicilian grapevine germplasm resources (V. vinifera L.) and their relationships with Sangiovese. Wait, Sangiovese was originally from Sicily?
Allanblackia, butterflies and cardamom: sustaining livelihoods alongside biodiversity conservation on the forest–agroforestry interface in the East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania. My money is on the butterflies.
Influence of Ethnolinguistic Diversity on the Sorghum Genetic Patterns in Subsistence Farming Systems in Eastern Kenya. Pattern of sorghum diversity correlates with language groups, not morphology. Improved varieties get given local names and slowly merge with landraces.
Genetic analysis and molecular characterization of Chinese sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) cultivars using Insertion-Deletion (InDel) and Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers. Improved varieties have narrower genetic base than landraces. Move along there, nothing to see here.
Innovation of the New Superior Quality Foxtail Millet [Setaria italica (L.) P.Beauv] Variety-Jigu32 with Characteristics of Stress Resistance, Stable and High Yield and Its Physiological Mechanism. This looks like a really dodgy journal. Apologies to them if they’re not, but those ads at the bottom are weird. Anyway, this paper seems to describe the canonical genebank success story: assemble a diverse germplasm collection, evaluate the hell out of it, pick the best, fiddle with them, evaluate the hell out of the results, end up with something better than you started with. Maybe those sesame breeders could learn something…

May 4, 2014May 6, 2014

Nibbles: Food future, Bean breeding 101, Yield gaps, Mitigation strategies, Sparing vs sharing, Diverse diets, Open seeds, Fake seeds, Florida citrus threat, Hot chicks, Nutrition nuggets

Food? We don’t need no stinking food.
Bean breeder begs to differ.
Where we could do with more food.
Nobody’s talking about mitigation any more. Oh yes they are.
Land shparing is the answer.
ICRAF decides to gather evidence for the benefits of agroforestry for nutrition.
More on those open source seeds. Which I hope nobody will counterfeit.
Florida needs new grapefruits, whether open source or not.
Naked neck chickens look weird, but they may be really heat resistant, so get over it. Ghana has.
Canadian grad students summarize nutrition research in a pithy sentence. Sound familiar?

May 1, 2014May 1, 2014

Nibbles: Extreme aquaculture, GMO ver. 2.0, Wheat genebank, Infrared coffee spectroscopy, Farmer photos, Land grab, Reindeer herder photos, Mapping blight, Food security software, Fragaria moschata

Farming cobia off Panama. Look it up.
Gene editing is the future. But is it GM?
More on the CIMMYT genebank from the Australian press. Get a room already.
Fancy machine can tell fancy Yemeni coffee from lesser stuff. No, not DNA. Producers of lesser stuff unavailable for comment.
Some of them may end up being photographed by National Geographic though.
Before being forced off their land.
Different sort of land grab in the Gran Chaco. Pity those poor wild Arachis. And here’s a meta-analysis of the drivers of the problem.
Feeling left out, herders get fancy photos too.
“The data indicates a broad distribution of this clone from Spain to Russia and Scotland to Cypress.” Good grief. Potato blight, if you’re still interested.
From household survey data to food security assessment: The software.
The bubbleberry is increasingly a thing.

April 30, 2014

Nibbles: New plant journal, Randomized trials under fire, WB to the rescue, Spirit in the sky, Please sir may I have some more, Flour powerless, Tom Payneless, Collecting for CIP, Regen redux, Cultivating my garden, Animal Crackers, Ethnomycology

Nature has new Plants journal. With blog.
More from the randomized trials backlash frontlines.
World Bank sets up internal task force on climate smart agriculture. Oh good.
No word on whether spiritual values on agenda.
Hacking the school lunch.
Indian flour mills winding down. Implications for crop diversity unknown.
Big Australian writeup of CIMMYT genebank.
Big CIP writeup of CIP genebank. And other collections, to be fair.
It’s the regeneration, stupid.
Gardens save plants.
Sustainable diets defined to within an inch of their lives. Common factor is less animal products. But, as Susan McMillan of ILRI points out, for whom, and where?
Traditional Maori use of weird fungus.