Nibbles: Perenniality, Very minor millet, Red rice, Market, Cacao et al.

  • Aussies test perennial wheat. Luigi asks: should they be growing wheat at all?
  • What is the world’s most obscure crop? The Archaeobotanist makes his case: Spodiopogon formosanus Rendle.
  • Tourism does for “red rice.”
  • “The Wonjoku family in Muea was renowned for the manufacture of hoes, cutlasses, knives, chisels, spears, axes, brass bangles, brass spindles and tools for uprooting stumps of elephant grass.”
  • Nestlé says its new R&D centre in Abidjan will help it source high-quality raw materials of cocoa, coffee and cassava locally, “which in turn will raise the income and the quality of life of local farmers.” Hope conservation gets a look-in.

Nibbles: CCD, Organic breeding, Bioprospecting