Indigenous knowledge systems

Nibbles: Agrobiodiversity, Mexican food, Benin chickens, Tylosema chemistry, Wild coffee

Do my eyes deceive me? Exhortation not to forget farms during biodiversity festivities.
Edible Geography does Mexico City. Oh to be in DF on the 9th.
What do Benin farmers want out of their chickens? Clue: it wont be easy.
Is marama bean the next big thing? Probably not, but check it out anyway.
New Biosphere Reserve protects wild coffee.
Uber-blogger Tom Barnett tackles sweet potato breeding. Sweet potato wins.

The wages of Kenyan rose growers increase 22% — to $59 a month. Sinful.
Wheat stripe rust uses sex to break down barriers.
Q&A with Cuban whiz Humberto Ríos.
Latest Carnival of Evolution is up; we’re the only ag, alas.
Proposed agricultural biodiversity heritage sites in India. (Is this new?)
Investing in Underutilised Crops to Achieve Food Security. A report from the CGARD conference in March.
The Hanging Gardens of Kenya.
Living in genetic mixtures helps plants against herbivores. No, really.
“Restoring human cultures to the web of life.”

Rust boffins meet in St Petersburg. Good luck to them: sounds like they’ll need it.
Did 3000-year-old rice really sprout in Vietnam? Nah.
Indian farmers queue up for old rice seeds. Not old as in the Vietnam case above though.
And more rice. Did the Chinese really use the sticky kind in mortar 1500 years ago? Yep.
More ancient technology. This time Mayan rubber.
“…a major leap forward in species-area relationship fitting…”: where will future habitat loss wreak the most havoc on plant species? And on crop wild relatives?
The pulses of Africa. Well, a couple of them.

Cacao beer. What’s not to like?
CABI blog deconstructs pesticidal plants.
Worldwatch blog on how “livestock can improve food security and preserve and rebuild communities.”
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park tries to diversify.