What’s that you say? You do have some ideas for mobile phone apps in support of agrobiodiversity for development? Well, maybe you can win a trip to New Delhi to present it to the 3rd International Conference on Mobile Communication on Development. But you’ll have to hurry.
Erna Bennett papers
Thanks to Helmut Knüpffer of IPK Gatersleben, for his comment pointing to two important papers relating to Erna Bennett.
- Erna Bennett: Her Career and Convictions and An Interview with Erna Bennett by IS Cunningham provides an insight into some aspects of her personality and drive. (Diversity 5(2 & 3), 60-63, 1989. As with the Ceres article reprinted by The Ecologist, if you do download and skim through the whole issue, you might, like me, wonder what on Earth we’ve all been doing for the past 40 years.)
- Award of Meyer Memorial Medal to Erna Bennett of FAO, including Presentation by Dr. Ralph W. Phillips, Miss Erna Bennett’s Acceptance, and Statement by Dr. A. H. Boerma. 1971. (J. Heredity 62(5), 277-279. That one’s behind a paywall, although I reckon snagging the photo above constitutes fair use.)
Helmut also wrote: “I just went to the Mansfeld Library. There are 2292 reprints in the “Reprint Collection Erna Bennett” sorted alphabetically by author and then numbered 1-2292.” Good to know.
And a couple of other links. Grain, the NGO, published its own tribute. Grain’s archives contain a piercing essay from Erna on The Summit-to-Summit Merry-go-Round, which should be on the reading list of everyone with an interest in agricultural biodiversity and the context surrounding its conservation and use.
Nibbles: Citizen science! Apples in Vietnam, Pyramid builders, Ecosystem services, Vegetable network, India’s shame, Dryland diversity
- Unlike spring, we’re late to The Guardian’s citizen science map of “weird nature”. Please Sir, can we have one for agriculture?
- Apples in French Indochina; more histoire des pommes française, or something.
- Scaling up food supplies — in ancient Egypt.
- “Conserving biodiversity could benefit the world’s poor,” it says here.
- South Asian boffins launch regional vegetable research network. Only 5 crops, but open-pollinated varieties will be included in the trials.
- “Ending malnutrition is a matter of political will. If India wanted to address childhood malnutrition in any serious way, it could.” Marion Nestle lays it on the line.
- Diversity in drylands linked to greater resilience. A press release, and a news report.
Social networking success stories
I think the time has come to acknowledge the great work that Sue Grimbly is doing at the SCI’s Horticulture Technical Interest Group on Facebook. Consistently interesting posting. And since I’m at it, let me also mention another Facebook group, Radix Root Crops, “[i]ndependent plant breeders collaborating to bring new root and tuber crops into cultivation in temperate climates.” The passion really comes through. But is it the beginning of the revolution?
Mobile phone apps for agricultural biodiversity
When I was asked recently whether I knew of anyone developing mobile phone apps “which can assist with seed diversity” my first reaction was: nah. And that’s where I left it. For a couple of hours, at any rate.
Because then my second reaction kicked in: but wouldn’t it be cool to have one? Or many, in fact. Like a mobile version of Genesys which tells you if any germplasm is being conserved in a genebank from the vicinity of your present location. Like a little thing that updates the environmental niche model for a species on the fly as you find (or fail to find) more specimens during a collecting trip. Like a way of recording an event or activity likely to lead to genetic erosion in a place you’re visiting. Like a way for farmers to feed back information on the performance of seeds they’ve been given. Like a version of Climate Analogues that farmers could actually use. And that’s where I left it for a few more hours.
Which is when my third reaction arrived: hang on, maybe there are some after all. And indeed there are various things in the App Store that are agrobiodiversity relevant, though admittedly clearly not aimed at subsistence farmers. So is anyone keeping track of stuff that may be useful to developing countries? Well, google reveals Ken Banks is, at kiwanja.net. Mongabay.com did an interview with him a few years back. Nothing very seedy in his database, though. Yet. Do you know of any relevant apps we could send in to them? Maybe you’re developing one yourself? Let us know.
And yes, I know. I should just have googled right at the start. But I was in a mood.