- Important job opening at USDA running the Ames Plant Introduction Station. 50,000 accessions, people.
- Online database on the effectiveness of protected areas.
- 100-year seed experiment kicks off.
- Towards more sustainable sugarcane in India. Spoiler alert: juice, not molasses.
- The Neolithic temples of Malta were used to worship food.
- The “fish pepper” of Black Chesapeake homegardens lost, and found..
- News clip on the USDA central genebank at Ft Collins.
- Invest 50 mins in learning about eucalypts.
Questionnaire on seed conservation and security
Do you conserve crop diversity or contribute to seed security at the local or national levels? If so, the DIVERSIFARM project would like to hear from you.
The questionnaire survey is carried out as part of the research project Pathways to food security, poverty alleviation and livelihoods through the implementation of farmers rights to crop genetic diversity (DIVERSIFARM), carried out by the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway, in collaboration with University of Cape Town, South Africa; Mekelle University, Ethiopia; The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT; German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture; and Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Following this survey, further research and case-studies will be carried out, with the ultimate goal of identifying a roadmap to scale up successful models.
Please complete, and pass on…
Nibbles: UN training, Genebanks double, CG spatial data, Fruit IPR, Citrus greening, Sikkim diversity, Bulgarian lavender, Biogenetic Paradoxes, Heroin, Palestinian eggplant
- Training courses on multilateral environmental agreements, including CBD and Plant Treaty.
- CGIAR dashboard on the Genebank Platform. More data here.
- Some of the above are included in this list of the world’s most high profile genebanks.
- The latest spatial crop data from CGIAR. Useful for genebanks, among other things.
- Protecting fruit intellectual property. Wait, that didn’t come out right.
- I guess this fruit is next.
- Sikkim’s agricultural diversity as colours on a palette.
- Lavender is a nice colour, whether in France or Bulgaria.
- Book on nation-building through agricultural biodiversity. Bulgarians unavailable for comment.
- Poppy diversity being helped by solar panels to build something or other in Afghanistan.
- Palestinian paean to the bitinjan. Jeremy goes to town on it in his latest newsletter.
Nibbles: Data storage, CG reform, Tequila, Seed saving trifecta, ROI, Jeremy
- A Svalbard for data, in Svalbard.
- IPES-Food critiques OneCGIAR as being insufficiently decentralized, context-specific, agroecological, and power-equitable.
- Tequila FAQ. Probably need a shot after the above.
- Seed saving made easy; maybe too easy.
- The above, applied, in the Pacific.
- The above, applied, everywhere.
- The ROI of conservation. In situ only, alas.
- Jeremy’s latest newsletter: Brazilian agribusiness, boycotts & slavery, cashew boom, peanut crash, Jay Rayner’s suggestions. Do subscribe.
In situ conservation practitioners in Europe getting serious
The latest from the Farmer’s Pride project, which as you may remember focuses on the in situ conservation of landraces and crop wild relatives in Europe:
- “This tool is for landrace maintainers or those considering the cultivation of landraces to diversify their crop production system. It provides access to evidence-based information on the benefits, opportunities and practices of landrace cultivation to help in decision-making and to promote their in situ maintenance as a means of conserving and diversifying plant genetic resources for food, nutrition and livelihood security.”
- “Are you taking care of plant diversity in situ (in cultivation and in the wild) and interested in joining forces to support future food security?” Yes? Then please take this survey.
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