- Impacts of forests on children’s diet in rural areas across 27 developing countries. Exposure to forests is good for dietary diversity.
- The Role of Homegardens for Food and Nutrition Security in Uganda. Homegardens too.
- The challenge of feeding the world while conserving half the planet. Sparing biodiversity-rich areas means food production will take a hit.
- Human Perceptions of Megafaunal Extinction Events Revealed by Linguistic Analysis of Indigenous Oral Traditions. The Maori were aware of what was happening to the moa.
- Perpetuating Agricultural Heritage: Saving Seeds and Stories on Hawai‘i Island. Diverse messaging needed to reflect diverse motivations. Maybe that would have helped the moa.
- Genetic evidence for a western Chinese origin of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum). Not northern China, nor eastern Europe.
- New tools to screen wild peanut species for aflatoxin accumulation and genetic fingerprinting. Let the screening begin.
- Identification of new donors for spot blotch resistance in cultivated wheat germplasm. 7 out of 1483 from the Indian collection. Hard row to hoe
- Nutritional variation in sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] accessions from southern Africa revealed by protein and mineral composition. Among 23 accessions, two are good for both Fe and Zn, a different one for protein, Ca and P, and a different one still for Ca and K.
- Farmers’ synergistic selection criteria and practices for livelihood security through the sustainable uses of onfarm Sorghum landrace diversity, Ethiopia. Diverse selection criteria reflect diverse uses.
- Sugarcane Landraces of Ethiopia: Germplasm Collection and Analysis of Regional Diversity and Distribution. Variation follows altitude. Compare and contrast with above.
- To what extent has sustainable intensification in England been achieved? Not much, and only quite recently.
- Lentils: Genetic Resources: Collection, Conservation, Characterization and Maintenance. More work on wild relatives needed.
- Population structure, relatedness and ploidy levels in an apple gene bank revealed through genotyping-by-sequencing. 78% of 349 apple accessions in the Danish genebank are unique.
Nibbles: CRS, Finger millet breeding, Amazonian cacao, Alelo & Genesys, Ag origins double, USDA genebank
- Q&A with Susan Bragdon of Seeds for All on the importance of agrobiodiversity and small farmers.
- Going wild for finger millet in Kenya.
- There’s maybe a previously unknown variety of cacao.
- Brazilian germplasm collection data online.
- A very Fertile Crescentic view of agricultural origins.
- Antidote to above.
- Ft Collins USDA genebank in the (local) news.
Keeping up to date with data from CGN
Interested in new vegetable germplasm? The Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands (CGN) has you covered.
CGN frequently adds new material to its collections and new information to its publicly available data. Via this page you can easily check what’s new!
This is the page to bookmark.
Remember that these data eventually find their way to the European genebank database, Eurisco, and thence to Genesys, which is your global gateway to germplasm collections, and thence to the Global Information System of the International Treaty. This will cover not just genebank collections, but eventually also in situ conserved material and the products of plant breeding using either of these.
Eat up Edible Memory this month
Jennifer Jordan’s Edible Memory: The Lure of Heirloom Tomatoes and Other Forgotten Foods can be downloaded free as an ebook from the University of Chicago Press website during October.
Sandra M. Gilbert, author of The Culinary Imagination: From Myth to Modernity
“Edible Memory is a compelling exploration of the lure and lore of foods that have become culinary ‘heirlooms,’ especially some kinds of tomatoes, but also apples, stone fruits, even leeks and turnips. A meticulous scholar and an incisive sociologist, Jordan writes with verve and wit throughout this beautifully nuanced study. Exploring the many varieties of culinary nostalgia, she avoids sentimentality while investigating our sometimes paradoxical yearnings for fruits and vegetables we may not even have eaten in our own lives and our curiously Proustian longings for (even) Jell-O molds and boxed cakes. Her book is an important contribution both to food studies and, more generally, to the history of taste.”
Brainfood: NUS crackers, Genomic prediction, Chicken double, Wild German celery, Cretan sheep, Boricua papaya, Sorghum breeding, Wheat breeding, Italian carrots, Mining barley, Onion review, Fertilizers
- Development of value-added nutritious crackers with high antidiabetic properties from blends of Acha (Digitaria exilis) and blanched Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan). Putting orphan crops to work.
- A deep convolutional neural network approach for predicting phenotypes from genotypes. Artificial intelligence applied to genomic selection. Sexy enough for you?
- Genomic diversity dynamics in conserved chicken populations are revealed by genome-wide SNPs. Gotta watch those effective population sizes.
- Chicken semen cryopreservation and use for the restoration of rare genetic resources. Maybe a way to help with the above?
- Patterns of Genetic Diversity and Implications for In Situ Conservation of Wild Celery (Apium graveolens L. ssp. graveolens). 15 Most Appropriate Wild Populations out of 78. Still seems like a lot.
- Challenges for local breed management in Mediterranean dairy sheep farming: insights from Central Greece. Conservation through cross-breeding. But how long can it last?
- Genetic Diversity of Puerto Rican Farmer-held Papaya (Carica papaya) Using SSR Markers. I wonder how many are left after Maria.
- Breeding Sorghum for Diverse End Uses: Genetic Improvement of Grain Sorghum. More germplasm could be used.
- Harnessing genetic potential of wheat germplasm banks through impact-oriented-prebreeding for future food and nutritional security. Getting impact from “exotic” germplasm is possible. To be clear, I think that just means wild stuff.
- BiodiverSO: A Case Study of Integrated Project to Preserve the Biodiversity of Vegetable Crops in Puglia (Southern Italy). Saving the Polignano carrot.
- Genomics Approaches to Mining Barley Germplasm Collections. Management, cores, history. But we knew that.
- Allium Genetic Resources. Significant progress in data availability, cryopreservation protocols, health status and levels of evaluation. Maybe acquisition and exchange could be increased?
- Review: Taking stock of Africa’s second-generation agricultural input subsidy programs. 80 studies from 7 countries show that helping smallholders obtain fertilisers gives rapid but short-term and lower-than-expected increases in production. One reason is that yields don’t respond to fertilisation as much as they should. Is it because it’s mainly landraces?