Indigenous knowledge systems

February 25, 2011September 22, 2021

Agrobiodiversity and languages in danger

I’ve finally been able to obtain the dataset on which UNESCO’s interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger is based. ¹ In the map below, which you’ll be able to see bigger if you click on it, you can see Chad’s endangered languages (brighter red means more endangered), mashed up with germplasm from Chad listed in Genesys.

Would it be sensible to give particular priority for germplasm collecting to areas where languages are threatened with extinction?

February 18, 2011

Nibbles: Food photos, Phenology, Breadfruit, Medicinal plant gardens, Animal quiz, Soil agrobiodiversity, Cloning

World Bank food snaps.
Looks like there is phenotypic selection on flowering time.
Workshop on revitalizing breadfruit in Hawaii. If you go, let us know.
Sacred Seeds gardens around the world.
How much do you know about animal production and health? FAO wants to know.
CIAT now looking at soil biodiversity.
Boffins can now clone plants as seeds. Clever, but is it good?

February 17, 2011February 17, 2011

Nibbles: Food prices, Wheat breeding, Potato Park, Mead, Peanut processing

Is the World Producing Enough Food? The NY Times has the answer(s).
Aussies trying to get to grips with salinity through breeding. Very cool, but maybe they should just stop growing wheat and think of some other crop?
Potato Park potatoes to be parked in the Bóveda Global de Semillas de Svalbard.
You know what those naughty Vikings used to say: “Let there be mirth, mead and fornication!”
Adding value to peanuts in Bolivia. KIT video.

February 3, 2011February 3, 2011

Nibbles: Fruits x2, Rice, Forests, Dogs

Feeding the world with breadfruit.
Feeding the world with ngali nut. Well, the Solomons.
Feeding the world with sticky rice. Well, Laos.
Threatened forest hotspots mapped, and discussed. Why is it we haven’t done this for agrobiodiversity?
Man takes best friend to grave, old and very old.

February 1, 2011February 1, 2011

Nibbles: CBNRM, Extension, Seed systems, Climate change book and conferences, Cassava, Endophytes, Old Irish Goats, Plant Cuttings, Ethnobotany, Weeds

Designing the next generation of community-based natural resource management projects. No agriculture. Weird. Well, not so much actually.
Extension systems have a website! Yeah but do they need one?
Informal seed system working just fine in Indian Himalayas. So maybe the extension system is not needed? But, hey, they have a website, did I mention that?
Climate Change and Crop Production: The Book. And: The Conference. No but wait, here’s another.
The unusual crop that is cassava.Yeah, but in The Economist?
” …among the largest collections of endophytes…” Not a lot of people know that.
Old Irish goats (and others, to be fair) meet to talk about, well, Old Irish goats.
The great Plant Cuttings.
How to design an ethnobotanical garden. Would coca find a place?
Musings on the evolution of weeds.