In situ

May 10, 2013May 17, 2013

Suha Ashtar RIP

Dr Devra Jarvis of Bioversity International, formerly the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, reminisces about her late friend and colleague, Dr Suha Ashtar, on behalf of the global on-farm team.

Suha It is with great sadness that we heard of the passing of Suha Ashtar on 17 April 2013 in Aleppo. Suha was one of the first members of the “in situ family” that over the years worked at Bioversity International to establish a scientific basis for on farm conservation of crop biodiversity, together with colleagues from Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Hungary, Mexico, Morocco, Peru and Vietnam. I remember my first meeting with Suha, when we were interviewing for the various regional staff to help me coordinate the global in situ programme, and being impressed by her lively and bright manner and her ability to forcefully express her own ideas and opinions. I still remember a short trip into the Italian countryside the core in situ project group took in a mini-bus, together with our donor, and the heated discussions about how the project should go, not to mention the calls for me to drive more slowly, as the back of the bus was shaking back and forth! Going through some old photos, I found a lovely one of Suha at the group dinner of a global meeting we had in Pokhara, Nepal in 1999 with colleagues from over 20 countries about working to support farmers in the assessment, management and gaining benefits from the conservation and use of traditional crop varieties. The dinner had followed long discussions and a hike up the hills nearby to meet with some local women and men farmers’ groups. Suha will be sorely missed by her colleagues and friends, and by myself especially as one of her first supervisors, when she was just setting out, young, intelligent and full of energy to start her career.

May 3, 2013May 7, 2013

Conserving Prunus africana?

I’ve been sitting on it for a while, but a paper which AoB Blog discussed back in January led me to uncover a whole load of stuff on Prunus africana. The African Cherry Tree does not rate a leaflet in the African Food Tree Species series, perhaps because it’s not a, well, food tree, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important.

Chemicals extracted from the tree’s bark are used in a range of pharmaceutical products to treat enlarged prostate (benign prostatic hyperplasia), an extremely common condition that affects up to half of men aged over 50.

Hence various efforts to develop sustainable harvesting methods. And also an interesting series of diversity and demographic studies:

Phylogeography of the Afromontane Prunus africana reveals a former migration corridor between East and West African highlands: “The high genetic similarity found between western Uganda and west African populations indicates that a former Afromontane migration corridor may have existed through Equatorial Africa.”
Structural diversity and regeneration of the endangered Prunus africana (Rosaceae) in Zimbabwe: “…poor regeneration, fewer P. africana trees in small and large size classes, dominance of positive height and diameter differentiation and high mingling.”
Divergent pattern of nuclear genetic diversity across the range of the Afromontane Prunus africana mirrors variable climate of African highlands: “The observed patterns indicate divergent population history across the continent most likely associated to Pleistocene changes in climatic conditions. The high genetic similarity between populations of West Africa with population of East Africa west of the Eastern Rift Valley … provides further evidence for a historical migration route. Contrasting estimates of recent and historical gene flow indicate a shift of the main barrier to gene flow from the Lake Victoria basin to the Eastern Rift Valley…”
Modelling the potential distribution of endangered Prunus africana (Hook.f.) Kalkm. in East Africa: “Prunus africana distribution is thus highly vulnerable to a warming climate and highlights the fact that both in-situ and ex-situ conservation will be a solution to global warming.”

Maybe we could do with some more seed behaviour data. But it would seem there is now plenty of diversity, demographic and sustainable harvesting information on which to base a comprehensive conservation strategy. Is someone coming up with one?

April 29, 2013April 29, 2013

Brainfood: Gender and agrobiodiversity, Insect diversity, Contests and agrobiodiversity, Chinese rice breeding, Wheat origins, Historic abundance, History and conservation

Governance of seed and food security through participatory plant breeding: Empirical evidence and gender analysis from Syria. Women are important.
Comparison of pollinators and natural enemies: a meta-analysis of landscape and local effects on abundance and richness in crops. Both can be managed at the same time.
Biodiversity and recipe contests: Innovative socioecological approaches to capture ecological knowledge and conserve biodiversity in Arunachal Pradesh. Women are important.
Rice breeding in the post-genomics era: from concept to practice. China is where it’s at.
SNPing Aegilops tauschii genetic diversity and the birthplace of bread wheat. Caspian Iran is where it’s at.
Inferring recent historic abundance from current genetic diversity. It might actually be possible to infer historic abundance from the genetics of contemporary samples only, which seems kinda awesome.
Europe’s other debt crisis caused by the long legacy of future extinctions. The current conservation status of vascular plants in Europe reflects the situation in 1900. Can’t help thinking this should be mashed up with the one above.
Low genetic diversity and significant structuring in the endangered Mentha cervina populations and its implications for conservation. Low only at population level, so must conserve multiple populations. Which one would probably have done anyway, but now at least we know which.

April 22, 2013April 18, 2013

Brainfood: Viruses, Allium genomic size, Acacia adaptation, Local carp, Chinese onions, Bull genetic info, Ecosystem services, Sahelian ag

New threats to endangered Cook’s scurvy grass (Lepidium oleraceum; Brassicaceae): introduced crop viruses and the extent of their spread. Introduced crop virus threatens endemic.
Role of adaptive and non-adaptive mechanisms forming complex patterns of genome size variation in six cytotypes of polyploid Allium oleraceum (Amaryllidaceae) on a continental scale. It’s not the environment.
Evolution and ecology meet molecular genetics: adaptive phenotypic plasticity in two isolated Negev desert populations of Acacia raddiana at either end of a rainfall gradient. It’s the environment.
Using biodiversity to valorise local food products: the case of fish ponds in a cultural landscape, their biodiversity, and carp production. It could work, if only people liked to eat carp and knew what biodiversity was.
Phenotype and genetic diversity in potato onion cultivars from three provinces of northeast China. In other news, there’s something called a potato onion. Otherwise, this is actually a deeply boring paper.
The value of genetic information to livestock buyers: a combined revealed, stated preference approach. Low to none, for now.
Ecosystem Services. Latest issue includes a bunch of interesting reviews, and an editorial summarizing each in like a paragraph. Great service, great value. See what I did there?
Scientific documentation of crop land changes in the Sahel: A half empty box of knowledge to support policy? There is no data, not really.

April 19, 2013April 19, 2013

Nibbles: DIY plantains, Poppies, Fruit portions, EU seed law workshop, Sustainable intensification, Nutrition & ag, Traditional medicine, Soil maps, US biodiversity maps, Genomics & genebanks, Indian seed film, Food preservation

Someone needs to tell the Los Angeles Times that plantains are not the “tropical cousin of the banana”.
Someone else needs to tell “British and American agricultural advisers” that poppies are generally going to be a better bet than cotton in Helmland Province. Like they were in Ghazipur.
Is there anyone who can tell schools not to serve whole fruit, when children prefer bite-sized pieces?
And who will tell us what happens at the Workshop in the EU Seed Law, in Vienna today and tomorrow?
In which we are once again told that sustainable intensification is the answer, but not how to do it.
A tool for helping agricultural development types figure out what to do about nutrition.
Let the Times of India tell you about how wild fruits and seeds are used in traditional medicine.
ISRIC tells the world about its new soil maps of Africa.
And the US government about its biodiversity, also in maps.
Lots of people recently told their stories of how genomics is going to revolutionize genetic resources use to a meeting in ICRISAT, and now ICRISAT tells us.
A new film tells the story of rice savers in India. Not, presumably, though, Bihar.
Are you really telling me Genghis Khan was a food waste champion?