…is up, at Gravity’s Rainbow. Welcome, everyone!
New open access breeding journal calls for papers
The Journal of Plant Breeding and Crop Science (JPBCS) is a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal published monthly by Academic Journals dedicated to increasing the depth of Crop Science across disciplines with the ultimate aim of improving plant research.
Nibbles: Soy, Horse, Terroir, Sorghum, Ensete
- The joy of soy.
- Earliest known domestic horses.
- More than anyone could possibly want to know about biochar and biodiversity (Part III).
- Sorghum difference yield map, see how they grow.
- Mathilda on ensete in highland Ethiopia.
Tropical fruit cocktail
They offered us ciruela fruits at coffee break this morning, here at the Centro de Formacion de la Cooperacion Española in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. Deliciously tart, but I had no idea what it might be — botanically, I mean — which always annoys me. I asked around, and narrowed it down to a Spondias, probably Spondias mombin. Certainly looks like the photo here. The go-to source for information on tropical New World fruits is, of course, the database put together by my colleagues at Bioversity. In looking around for other photos, I came across a travel site called Dave’s Travel Corner which has a page on tropical fruits and a great photo gallery. Plus a whole bunch of links.
New Agriculturist tackles animals
Yes, the new New Agriculturist is out, and this time it has animal genetic resources in its sights. But not only. As always, it’s got lots of great stuff, including cotton expert Karim Hussein on the International Year of Natural Fibres. Don’t forget to do the online survey.
LATER: The State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is now multi-lingual, at least in part.
LATER STILL: The Sheep Trust has just published a report that says that rare local breeds are more vulnerable to diseases because they live all together in a relatively restricted geographical area.