Indigenous knowledge systems

October 21, 2010October 21, 2010

The agrobiodiversity of Wayanad District in Kerala

An extremely long explanation of the wonderful “‘home garden’ system” ((Their scare quotes, not mine.)) of Wayanad District in the south Indian state of Kerala, from the Satoyama savants at UN University. There’s a video, natch, which is very pretty and very informative. One scene of four women pounding what looks like millet looks lovely, dangerous, and unnecessary. Couldn’t they get a mini-mill?

What I don’t get is why the headline says “South Indian agricultural model mimics fragile ecosystem”. Looks to me like the agricultural model is a lot more robust and resilient than the ecosystem. But what do I know?

October 21, 2010October 21, 2010

Nibbles: Bean gap analysis, Protected areas 2.0, NZ livestock, French boar, Taro in Hawaii, UNEP, Moringa, False flax, Hordeum

Let “The Bean Counters” show you where to collect wild Phaseolus.
Protected areas get wikified.
Expensive book published on the heritage breeds of New Zealand.
Wild boar going crazy in France.
Another Hawaiian taro festival. And why not.
Ecosystems for climate change adaptation. No agroecosystems though.
Moringa! Not just for people.
Camelina! Not just for Europeans.
What is it about barley wild relatives lately?

October 20, 2010October 20, 2010

Nibbles: Wild Hordeum, Barley landraces, Funny cucumber, Dogs, Wild Manihot, Taxonomy, ABS, Capsicum farmer selection, Bulgarian genebank

Crop wild relatives from genebank in use shock.
Landraces from same genebank in use shock. Hopefully a full blog post is coming soon from the author himself.
Would you eat this cucumber?
Dog evolution, again.
New wild cassava species found.
Thank goodness for our name-based bioinformatics infrastructure, eh?
The history of benefit sharing deconstructed. Nothing on ITPGRFA?
Mexican chili farmers maintain rather than direct with their seed selection.
My genebank is bigger than your genebank!

October 19, 2010October 19, 2010

Nibbles: Amazon agriculture, Livestock conservation, Chestnut redux, COP 10, Stone Age flour

More on that thing about how the Amazon was once pullulating with people. And why.
Why conserve livestock genetic resources. And one possible way to do it.
The American people are bringing back the American chestnut.
COP-watchers, something to amuse yourselves with if things get dull.
Even Neanderthals understood the benefits of a diverse diet. Though not, perhaps, of jewellery.

October 18, 2010October 18, 2010

Share Fair set fair to share

The “AgKnowledge Africa Share Fair” is off and running at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Addis Ababa, and will continue until 21 October. You can follow proceedings in all sorts of web 2.0 ways, detailed on the blog. There’s no specific “learning pathway” on agrobiodiversity, but that’s ok, there’s still plenty of interest to us here. Including a “food fair” which will focus on “sharing the indigenous/local content embedded in African food.” Wish I was there for that!