- Nigel Chaffey’s roundup of botanical news is out.
- Learn how to grow truffles. For Canadians.
- ILRI policy brief on how agriculture and human health are connected. Bottom line: it’s complicated.
- AVRDC introduces you to Mali’s Magnificent Cube.
- Biofortified on pepper breeding.
- Calestous Juma in the New Agriculturist on why he’s optimistic about African agriculture.
Nibbles: Buckwheat, Dates, Book, Apples, Geographical indications
- Buckwheat yields boosted by diversity in nearby forests.
- Date (press) with the past, in Qatar.
- Sustainable Intensification: Increasing Productivity in African Food and Agricultural Systems. A bit steep at GBP65 for 30 papers; we’ll be reading and sharing what we find.
- Apples, endangered? Well, yes.
- What’s so good about geographical indications anyway?
Nibbles: Cassava, Brazil, Taro, Tobacco
- High-protein, vitamin-A enriched cassava. It’s GM, but it doesn’t have to be. Apparently.
- Resilience Science shows us the modernist face of intense and diverse agriculture in Brazil.
- The Scientist Gardener gives taro, and our pal the TaroMeister, some respect.
- A tobacco festival! Celebrating the diversity of cigars! In Cuba! (Where else?)
Botanic gardens get the treatment
We probably don’t give botanic gardens the attention they deserve. So it’s a pleasure to point out that Biodiversity and Conservation has a special issue out on Botanic Gardens in the Age of Climate Change, with a focus on Europe. Lots of interesting stuff in there, including from some old friends.
And since we’re on the subject of published papers, I’d like to say what a good idea it is to include an illustration in the abstract of a paper. I had not come across this before I stumbled on the example here on the left in a recent Scientia Horticulturae paper on Citrus phylogeny.
Nibbles: Food photos, Phenology, Breadfruit, Medicinal plant gardens, Animal quiz, Soil agrobiodiversity, Cloning
- World Bank food snaps.
- Looks like there is phenotypic selection on flowering time.
- Workshop on revitalizing breadfruit in Hawaii. If you go, let us know.
- Sacred Seeds gardens around the world.
- How much do you know about animal production and health? FAO wants to know.
- CIAT now looking at soil biodiversity.
- Boffins can now clone plants as seeds. Clever, but is it good?