- Cattle Breeds: Extinction or Quasi-Extant? Many supposedly extinct breeds live on in the genome of others.
- Evaluation of the need and present potential of olive breeding indicating the nature of the available genetic resources involved. If you want to intensify olive production, and apparently you do, you need to breed for it.
- Characterization of Brazilian accessions of wild Arachis species of section Arachis (Fabaceae) using heterochromatin detection and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Cytogenetics still has something to contribute.
- Complementary Strategy for Conservation of Date Palm Germplasm. Sets out the options well enough, their pros and cons, but doesn’t give you what you really need, a clear idea of which germplasm to conserve how, where. Which I submit was not too much to ask for.
- Molecular and morphological diversity of on-farm hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) landraces from southern Europe and their role in the origin and diffusion of cultivated germplasm. 3 primary centres of diversity, plus a couple of secondary ones. Spain and Italy have one of each.
- Biodiversity priority areas and religions—a global analysis of spatial overlap. It’s all up to the Vatican. What could possibly go wrong?
- Situating In Situ: A Critical Geography of Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation in the Peruvian Andes and Beyond. In other news, the Parque de la Papa has epistemological implications.
- Adaptation of Maize to Temperate Climates: Mid-Density Genome-Wide Association Genetics and Diversity Patterns Reveal Key Genomic Regions, with a Major Contribution of the Vgt2 (ZCN8) Locus. It takes a lot of genes.
- Genetic differentiation of watermelon landraces in Mozambique using microsatellite markers. Type of use is more important than geography in explaining genetic diversity.
- Extending the use of an underutilised tuber I: Physicochemical and pasting properties of cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) flour and its suitability for making biscuits. Let them eat cocoyam biscuits.
Nibbles: Rice terrace photos, Street food, Book
- Flickr shows off its best photos of the rice terraces of China. No idea how to embed these on our site. You’ll just have to go see for yourself.
- UK diplomats embrace street food giveaways.
- A book: Cultivate Diversity! That’s an order, obviously. Order it from here.
Nibbles: Lathyrism, Ancient maize, Sustainable cacao, Bioversity on agrobiodiversity, Weird fruits, Carrot seed, Palm wine, Buckwheat, Halophytes issue, Weird(ish) crops, Urban malnutrition, Old oranges, Molasses, Indian tree institute
- An ODAP detective story.
- Ancient maize gets a map.
- Diversity is the key to sustainable cacao.
- New Bioversity DG answers the tough questions.
- Be the first on your block with an unusual fruit tree.
- How to grow awesome carrot seed.
- The hard life of Nigerian wine tappers.
- Bringing back buckwheat in Bhutan.
- Annals of Botany to do halophytes.
- Come down to earth with the realization that most people have never heard of cowpea and cassava. Would they have heard of black-eyed peas and tapioca, though?
- Big report on urban malnutrition. Maybe cassava (see above) can help?
- The last orange grove in the San Fernando Valley. No word on what the variety might be.
- All about molasses.
- Indian tree breeding institute, and accompanying genebank, get a write-up.
- Yes, I know that I could have done a better job of pointing out the connections among some of these things, but it’s been a long week.
Si huele a caña, tabaco y brea…
Our friend and colleague Colin Khoury knows a lot about crop wild relatives…
…but he’s a man of many parts, another one of which involves salsa dancing. I can’t locate a video of him strutting his stuff on a Cali dancefloor, but here’s the next best thing, his thoughts on the nexus of salsa and agrobiodiversity, courtesy one of CIAT’s myriad blogs.
Nibbles: ICRAF meet, Genome meet, Websites redux, Breadfruit video, Livestock project, Data, Kansas wheat, Chief scientists pontificate, Medieval melons, Peruvian foodiness, Whiskey
- ICRAF are having their Science Week. Follow it on Twitter. And let us know if you’re there and want to write about anything agrobiodiversity related that comes up.
- Plant Genome Evolution 2013 has been and gone, alas, but Chris Pires has storified the whole thing, pretty much. Lots of crops in there. But it’s disappeared now, of course.
- Bioversity and FAO redesign their websites. Tell them what you think.
- Diane Ragone talks breadfruit. With video goodness.
- Aussie researcher talks about landing Gates grant to improve African livestock. Hopefully some conservation in there somewhere.
- Decentralizing data: to empower communities; and to empower geeks.
- Data, you said? Here’s data on why Kansas needs wheat breeders.
- The world’s chief agriculture scientists want to share genetic resources. Good of them.
- Europe used to have more melons.
- Enough with the Peruvian superfoods meme, please.
- I may have said this before, but it’s still valid: I need a drink.