Indigenous knowledge systems

June 24, 2011June 22, 2011

British Library has online stuff on agrobiodiversity shock

This page is from the tractate Kilayim (which translates as ‘of two kinds’) which deals with the laws regarding forbidden mixtures of species in agriculture, breeding and clothing. It forms part of Zera’im (Seeds), one of the six divisions or orders of the Mishnah. Added to the text is Moses Maimonides’s commentary translated from the original Arabic. The diagrams show ways of dividing up plots of land to grow permitted types of seeds and mixed species. This book itself was printed in Naples in 1492 by Joshua Solomon Soncino, and was the first to contain the complete text of the Mishnah.

One of the many treasures awaiting you at the British Library, this one in the gallery section. And there’s more to come.

June 22, 2011June 22, 2011

Nibbles: Median strips, Vitamin A, Mapping in Kenya, Chaffey, Small farms, Rennell Island coconuts, Sweet potato breeding, Acacia nomenclature, Crop models, Pulque, Fruits

Planting roadsides with natives, including crop wild relatives. And here comes the database.
Orange Maize: The Movies.
VirtualKenya really here. Mother-in-law beside herself.
Plant Cuttings is out. And all of a sudden I’m in a much better place.
Small is beautiful, farm edition. And as chance would have it, coffee farm edition. And urban edition.
Dispute at iconic coconut plantation resolved. Apparently there are some really unique varieties there.
I say boniato. For the first and last time.
Acacia on the brink. Easy, tiger. The name, not the genus.
We’re going to need a better model.
Pulque comes back. Never knew it had gone away.
Domesticating fruit trees in Kenya. Something for VirtualKenya?

June 21, 2011June 21, 2011

Nibbles: Cryo, Tree diversity, Agroforestry, Seed industry, Trigonella, Ancient MesoAmerica, Niche models

CIP’s high-tech genebank.
“The project’s eventual aim is to plant several thousand trees at sites across Perthshire to act as a ‘living gene bank.'” What, because normally genebanks are dead?
Millennium Seed Bank joins ICRAF’s BusyTrees thing. Which you can follow in about a million different social networking ways.
Conservation Magazine does a number on crop improvement. Wait, what? Conservation Magazine? Yep, and with teaching resources.
Fenugreek, barkeep, and make it a double.
Ancient chocolate and corn routes.
What species distribution models do you like?

June 20, 2011June 20, 2011

Nibbles: Seed savers, Lemons, Assam Rice, Striga control, Amaranth, Bearded pigs, Banana, Early nutrition

Seed savers: everyone’s got an angle, from Seeds of Hope and Change to Seed Bank Bingo.
Italian lemons enjoying a renaissance. In California, natch.
India registers Assam farmers’ traditional rice varieties. In other news, rice water “is also used as shampoo, according to community elders”.
US$9 million to “implement and evaluate four approaches” to controlling Striga in Africa. One day we’ll know.
Denver Botanic Gardens does amaranth.
Evolution of bearded pigs. Good to know. Good to eat?
Bioversity banana team guest blogs at Annals of Botany. But surely they have a blog of their own. No, wait…
Agriculture is bad for your health.

June 20, 2011June 20, 2011

Brainfood: Soil, Seed aging, Organic sustainability, Yaquis, Garlic, Rice bean, Ethiopian livestock, Sweet potato intercropping, PES

Long-term effect of tillage, nitrogen fertilization and cover crops on soil organic carbon and total nitrogen content. No till is better than conservation tillage.
Catalase is a key enzyme in seed recovery from ageing during priming. It sure is. Good to know.
Sustainable agriculture: A case study of a small Lopez Island farm. The authors conclude: “the need for future targeted nutrient inputs cannot be ruled out for sustainable long-term production”.
Evolution of the knowledge system for agricultural development in the Yaqui Valley, Sonora, Mexico. They’re innovative, and diversity promotes agility.
Changes in phenolic compounds in garlic (Allium sativum L.) owing to the cultivar and location of growth. Don’t hold your breath; only 10 varieties.
Morpho-physiological and nutritional characterization of rice bean (Vigna umbellata). Now that’s what I call science; 30 varieties.
Rural livestock asset portfolio in northern Ethiopia: a microeconomic analysis of choice and accumulation. Many, many factors come into play.
Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.)-based strip intercropping: I. Interspecific interactions and yield advantage. Almost every intercrop improves yield and bottom line.
Should payments for biodiversity conservation be based on action or results? A model says: “It depends.”