Information

August 20, 2015

Documenting improved variety adoption

In my defence, I have visited the ASTI website before. Just not in a while, unfortunately. And I therefore missed a lot of developments. So thank you, Jeremy, for sending me there again earlier today. But let’s step back a bit. What is ASTI, anyway?

Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI) provides trusted open-source data on agricultural research systems across the developing world. Led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), ASTI works with a large network of national collaborators to collect, compile, and disseminate information on financial, human, and institutional resources at both country and regional levels across government, higher education, nonprofit, and (where possible) private for-profit agricultural research agencies.

Very laudable. There’s a lot of useful stuff on the website, organized by country and region, but also covering the CGIAR centres. And the last is what I would like to focus on for a minute here. ASTI is hosting two projects tracking the adoption of improved varieties in South Asia and Africa. The raw data is downloadable, but there are useful summary graphics, though I would have liked them to be more easily sharable (the following examples are screenshots).

So, if we take as an example pigeonpeas in Madhya Pradesh, we get this overview:

overview

And a time line of releases:

total number of varieties

And, perhaps most interestingly, the level of adoption of the main varieties:

adoption by variety

And if you’re interested in that 37% share, and I know you are, you can find out all about the variety in question, ICPL 87119 (otherwise known as Asha) from ICRISAT.

August 18, 2015August 18, 2015

Nibbles: Plant names, Tomato trifecta, Amaranth, Corn wars, Wild lettuce, Dying, Indian ag, Chocographic, Root symbionts, Rehabilitation, Mesquite, Extreme weather, Saviour plants, Pawpaw, Japanese rice, Coffee museum, Caribbean early ag, Amazonian livelihoods, Vislak on corn

In praise of common names. Meh. You won’t see a Latin name in this whole Nibbles. See how you like it.
Building a tomato. In Spanish.
Tracking a tomato.
The dark side of tomatoes.
Amaranth to rescue Mexicans from obesity.
Seeds of contention.
Finding the lost Least Lettuce.
Indigo goes back to the future.
What if the monsoon fails? MS Swaminathan has some answers.
Nice chocolate infographic from FAO.
A diverse microbial community in and around roots helps plants thrive. The Science article is behind a paywall, but there’s a helpful infographic on Twitter.
The US has a National Seed Strategy for Rehabilitation and Restoration. Vision? The right seed in the right place at the right time. Wish I’d thought of that.
When otherwise useful trees attack. Ah, the irony of this coming right after the previous one.
UK’s Global Food Security programme says extreme weather events are increasing and we must adapt agriculture. Good to know.
And today’s Five Plants That Will Save the World are…
Maybe add pawpaw to that?
Japanese rice farmers: change gonna come.
Nice coffee museum in Brazil.
Early agriculture in the Caribbean: Cuba and Trinidad.
The babaçu breakers of Maranhão are under threat. What’s babaçu? Yeah, well, look it up.
“Seed banking began about 30 years ago as an improvement to individual farmers storing and using their own seeds.” Riiiiight.
That Vilsak is a card.

August 17, 2015August 11, 2015

Brainfood: Brassica rethink, Camel colours, Parsing the ITPGRFA, Static buffalo, Traits not taxa, Expert tyranny, Chinese pollinators, Heritage landscapes, Mining text, Diversity & nutrition

Domestication of Brassica oleracea L. It happened in the balmy Mediterranean, not along those blustery Atlantic cliffs.
Validating local knowledge on camels: Colour phenotypes and genetic variation of dromedaries in the Nigeria-Niger corridor. The locally recognized colour-based breeds are not supported by the genetics.
The Battle over Plant Genetic Resources: Interpreting the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources. The Treaty phrase “genetic parts and components, in the form received” can be interpreted in ways that do not clash with TRIPS. The author also suggests that the Benefit Sharing Fund should be used to pay lawyers, but I’m not sure if that’s tongue-in-cheek.
The response of the distributions of Asian buffalo breeds in China to climate change over the past 50 years. Fancy maths says it’s minimal.
Functional traits in agriculture: agrobiodiversity and ecosystem services. It’s not the taxa. Or it shouldn’t be.
Expert opinion on extinction risk and climate change adaptation for biodiversity. In situ most preferable, ex situ most feasible.
Conserving pollinator diversity and improving pollination services in agricultural landscapes.The view from China is much like the view from everywhere else.
Heritage Values and Agricultural Landscapes: Towards a New Synthesis. Back to the future: heritage can mean resilience.
Using legacy botanical literature as a source of phytogeographical data. Text parsed to yield maps. Brave new world.
Production diversity and dietary diversity in smallholder farm households. Want better nutrition? Access to markets better than promoting production diversity.

August 12, 2015

Nibbles: Kinky crops, Hot pepper, Cary Fowler, Gin history, Open data, Quaker food, QPM in Ethiopia, Botany app, Old seeds, New tomato

Why aren’t there more crops among the orchids?
This pepper is not so much a crop as a weapon of mass destruction.
Now here’s a crop. New tomato has taste, storability, looks. But I think it’s dating.
Maize with cool amino acids reaches Ethiopia. Must have walked there.
Really old squash seeds.
Cary Fowler on the Weather Channel. You heard me.
Quakers have an opinion on the right to food and climate change. Well, why shouldn’t they? They also have a UN office, but that’s another story. No word on whether they made the Weather Channel.
Ok, so apparently the answer is data. Says a data company. And open data at that. Quakers nonplussed.
Botanizing in N or S America? There’s an app for that.
The rise and rise of gin. And I certainly need one.

August 10, 2015August 10, 2015

Brainfood: Apple diversity, Wheat diversity, Wild lettuce diversity, Picking cores, Saudi rice diversity, Indian minor millets, Species distribution modelling, Pollinator diversity

Chloroplast heterogeneity and historical admixture within the genus Malus. Three genetic networks within the genus, with the cultivated species in one of them.
Subgenomic Diversity Patterns Caused by Directional Selection in Bread Wheat Gene Pools. Five subpopulations, dividing the European from the Chinese material. Some parts of the genome more in need of diversity than others.
Biodiversity of Lactuca aculeata germplasm assessed by SSR and AFLP markers, and resistance variation to Bremia lactucae. Some race-specific resistance in the wild relative in Israel-Jordan, but nothing extraordinarily efficient.
Using Multi-Objective Artificial Immune Systems to Find Core Collections Based on Molecular Markers. Very fancy math not only picks populations to maximise diversity, but also potentially at the same time minimises distance from the office.
Assessment of ISSR based molecular genetic diversity of Hassawi rice in Saudi Arabia. It’s not just one thing.
Minor Millets as a Central Element for Sustainably Enhanced Incomes, Empowerment, and Nutrition in Rural India. Holistic mainstreaming pays dividends.
Minimum required number of specimen records to develop accurate species distribution models. Depends on prevalance, but 15 is a good rule of thumb.
Microsatellite Analysis of Museum Specimens Reveals Historical Differences in Genetic Diversity between Declining and More Stable Bombus Species. Species which declined less diverse than species which did not.