- Population and Environmental Correlates of Maize Yields in Mesoamerica: a Test of Boserup’s Hypothesis in the Milpa. Fallows don’t really reduce much with increasing population density. Yields, on the other hand, do.
- If They Grow It, Will They Eat and Grow? Evidence from Zambia on Agricultural Diversity and Child Undernutrition. Unlike other recent studies, this one finds positive correlations among production diversity, dietary diversity and nutritional outcomes.
- Community agro biodiversity conservation continuum: an integrated approach to achieve food and nutrition security. Provides the theoretical underpinning of the finding in the previous paper: conservation, cultivation, consumption and commerce.
- Home Garden Agrobiodiversity Differentiates Along a Rural—Peri–Urban Gradient in Campeche, México. Different species in urban homegardens compared to rural, but same overall diversity levels.
- Does certification improve biodiversity conservation in Brazilian coffee farms? Meh.
- Crop Species Diversity Changes in the United States: 1978–2012. It’s gone down.
- Mediterranean basin Ficus carica L.: from genetic diversity and structure to authentication of a Protected Designation of Origin cultivar using microsatellite markers. Microsatellites can recognize the protected ‘Kymis’ cultivar. Rejoice.
- Population genetic structure of Oryza rufipogon and O. nivara: implications for the origin of O. nivara. Multiple origins of nivara from rufipogon, and climatic differentiation.
- Complex tritrophic interactions in response to crop domestication: predictions from the wild. What’s good for humans is (generally) good for herbivores.
Nibbles: Pig landrace, Campbell’s Soup tomato, HarvestPlus, CG & SDGs, Georgian wine, American vegetables, Kenya & nutrition, Equator Prize, Wheat breeding
- So there’s a “celebrity pork expert.” No, not David Cameron, Carl Blake.
- Nevermind about resurrecting pig breeds, how about resurrecting “America’s best tomato“?
- Mapping biofortification outreach.
- CG writes letter to heads of state on SDGs. But will they listen?
- How they store wine in Georgia.
- US needs more veggies. Don’t we all.
- Kenya is a nutrition star.
- The Equator Prize 2015 winners are in.
- Article on wheat illustrated with picture of millet labelled sorghum
Nibbles: Nepal earthquake, Vavilov visit, Conservation strategies, Insects & markets, Hydrid breeding, Women & agrobiodiversity, Indian minor crops, Wes Jackson, Drought tolerance, Wheat shindig, Industry support
- Getting the right seeds to Nepali farmers.
- An organic farmer visits the Vavilov Institute.
- Conservation: beyond hotspots, beyond markets.
- Letting the market deal with insect foods.
- Hybrids 101.
- Tamil Nadu women millet farmers show us all how it’s done. In Milan.
- Climate change? Let them eat rice bean.
- End of an era at the Land Institute.
- And the biggest environmental footprint goes to…lamb.
- Drought tolerance: a geneticist explains.
- International wheat meeting in the news.
- How does the European seed industry support crop diversity conservation and use? Let me map that for you.
Brainfood: Cowpea evaluation, Varietal mixtures, Eragrostis core, Nigerian cassava diversity, Turkish alfalfa, Italian wild grapes, Cleome veggie, AnGR history
- Genotypic difference in salinity tolerance during early vegetative growth of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) from Myanmar. 3 out of 21 seems a pretty good proportion.
- Epidemiological and evolutionary management of plant resistance: optimizing the deployment of cultivar mixtures in time and space in agricultural landscapes. Best to combine with rotations.
- Barnyard millet global core collection evaluation in the submontane Himalayan region of India using multivariate analysis. Three groups: India, Japan, and everything else.
- Determinants of on-farm cassava biodiversity in Ogun State, Nigeria. Experience and size of farm.
- Historical Alfalfa Landraces Perform Higher Yield Under Dry Farming in Turkey. At least at these two locations in Kars. One does wonder why breeders bother, though.
- Identification and characterization of Vitis vinifera subsp. sylvestris populations in north-western Italy. Was thought to be lost in Piedmont, but 5 small wild populations found, in danger of contamination from the crop.
- Cleome viscosa: a promising underutilized minor crop. Worth a try, though the name is hardly promising.
- Changing values of Farm Animal Genomic Resources. From historical breeds to the Nagoya Protocol. Everything is political now. Welcome to my world.
Innovating in the Andes
Transferring the Potato Park’s potato collection to the Svalbard International Seed Vault (collaborative innovation). The transfer to the International Seed Vault in Norway, near the North Pole will protect the varieties in the event of a global crisis. While this is seen as a largely symbolic action, the transfer serves also to strengthen the Potato Park’s membership of the FAO Treaty multilateral system, raise international awareness of the growing concerns of Peru’s potato farmers and promote a balanced relationship between in situ and ex situ conservation strategies. ANDES and CIP have supported the application and the production of botanical seeds by the farmers (as opposed to seed potatoes).
Coudn’t have put it better myself. So I’m glad IIED did, together with lots more on other biocultural innovations coming out of the Parque de la Papa.