Information

May 16, 2018May 16, 2018

Wheat landraces centre stage

The program for the 1st International Conference of Wheat Landraces is out and it looks fab. There are about 95,000 wheat landraces recorded in Genesys.

Lots to play around with.

So much variation in #Durum Reference Collection.. how many PhDs will take to study it all? @ICARDA_CGIAR @WheatInitiative @CropWildRelativ pic.twitter.com/SUTCVFkwZJ

— Filippo Bassi (@fillobax) May 15, 2018

May 14, 2018

Farmer’s Pride’s survey

If you are involved in conserving wild or cultivated plant genetic resources in situ or if continued access to plant genetic diversity is important to you, please take 10–15 minutes to complete our survey.

That’s from Farmer’s Pride, a new EU-funded project coordinated by, ironically, the University of Birmingham.

May 14, 2018May 14, 2018

Brainfood: Spanish livestock, IPK forage & wheat, USDA soybean diversity, NERICA/ARICA, Nagoya, Intensification, Greek lentil, Zulu sheep, Kola vs cocoa, African rice farming, Wild foods

Human and ecological determinants of the spatial structure of local breed diversity. The closer Spanish provinces are in demography, ecology, history and geography, the more similar in their livestock breeds.
Enhancing the Sustainable Use of Lolium perenne Genetic Resources from Genebanks in Plant Breeding and Research. The importance of international collaboration illustrated yet again. Material best at different things comes from different countries.
Leveraging the use of historical data gathered during seed regeneration of an ex situ genebank collection of wheat. Accessions should be regenerated at random. From same genebank as above.
Population and quantitative genomic properties of the USDA soybean germplasm collection. 8 major clusters.
Assessment of Genetic Variation and Population Structure of Diverse Rice Genotypes Adapted to Lowland and Upland Ecologies in Africa Using SNPs. Lowland NERICA close to indica, highland NERICA close to japonica.
Do You Conduct International Research? What You Need to Know About Access, Benefit‐Sharing, and the Nagoya Protocol. Quite a lot.
Pasture intensification is insufficient to relieve pressure on conservation priority areas in open agricultural markets. Intensification relieves pressure on land in Africa, but not in Latin America, where it stimulates increased trade.
Genetic diversity analysis of the Greek lentil (Lens culinaris) landrace ‘Eglouvis’ using morphological and molecular markers. 400 years old, quite distinct, and with some variation.
Genetic structure of South African Nguni (Zulu) sheep populations reveals admixture with exotic breeds. Quite variable and not much inbreeding, but gotta watch out the admixture with exotics.
Is kola Tree the Enemy of Cocoa? A Critical Analysis of Agroforestry Recommendations Made to Ivorian Cocoa Farmers. No, but you wouldn’t think it from Big Chocolate recommendations.
‘The Tides Rhyme with the Moon’: The Impacts of Knowledge Transmission and Strong Spring Tides on Rice Farming in Guinea-Bissau. The youth resist.
Wild Foods: Safety Net or Poverty Trap? A South African Case Study. Depends on the season.

May 7, 2018May 7, 2018

Taking the pulse of legume research

The 7th International Food Legumes Research Conference started yesterday in Marrakesh. Like the World Cup, they happen only every four years, and are eagerly awaited. Unlike the World Cup, Brazil doesn’t feature much, and you can’t follow along on TV with a beer. There is, however, Twitter.

A short summary of Day 1 at the International Food Legumes Research Conference #IFLRC2018 @iflrc: https://t.co/jikEKvuKcI pic.twitter.com/uWPnx4xQVT

— ICARDA (@ICARDA) May 6, 2018

May 7, 2018May 7, 2018

Brainfood: Genebanks genomics, Improving forages, 3000 rices, Sweet potato dispersal, Diversity on farm double, Herbaria double, Phenotyping box, Invasives, Meta-meta-analysis, Rice domestication, Soil depth

Role of genomics in promoting the utilization of plant genetic resources in genebanks. Genebanks don’t need to do genomics themselves to benefit from genomics.
Improving the Yield and Nutritional Quality of Forage Crops. Case in point.
Genomic variation in 3,010 diverse accessions of Asian cultivated rice. Case in point. Multiple independent domestications. Tomorrow, the world.
Sweet potato dispersal or human transport? Maybe no evidence one way or another after all. Rebuttal of: Reconciling Conflicting Phylogenies in the Origin of Sweet Potato and Dispersal to Polynesia. And the counter to the rebuttal. This genomics stuff not so easy after all.
Review: Meta-analysis of the association between production diversity, diets, and nutrition in smallholder farm households. It’s not always there. But that would have been a high bar.
Agricultural diversification as an important strategy for achieving food security in Africa. Case in point. More diverse households and farming systems are more food secure, but only up to a point, and it depends on various factors. 43% of African cropland will be difficult to diversify.
Using herbaria to study global environmental change. Have been used to monitor the effects of climate change, habitat change, pollution and invasives on plants.
Green Digitization: Online Botanical Collections Data Answering Real‐World Questions. Gotta get the stuff digitized first though.
The ‘PhenoBox’, a flexible, automated, open‐source plant phenotyping solution. Somebody mention digitizing?
Dissecting the null model for biological invasions: A meta-analysis of the propagule pressure effect. The success of aliens is down to their numbers. Wonder if it works for pest and disease organisms too.
Are systematic reviews and meta-analyses still useful research? We are not sure. All righty then. Scrap the above.
Shattering or not shattering: that is the question in domestication of rice (Oryza sativa L.). From one of the authors, Debarati Chakraborty: Loss of shattering through sh4 is not a crucial step for rice domestication. Genetics, cultural anthropology and archaeology suggests that primitive agrarians were dependent on wild or semi-domesticated shattering rice.
Rooting for food security in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa probably hasn’t the rootable soil depth for monster maize yields.