- Do you want to describe and analyze seed systems? Let the Norwegian University of Life Sciences show you how.
- Do you think there should be a, well, systemic approach to the food system? So does the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Hope they include seed systems. And genebanks.
- Want a rather beautiful way to remember the complicated history of coffee? Let Chris Kornman sell you one. A time when botanic gardens acted as genebanks.
- Looking for an African take on African agricultural development? Million Belay has you covered. Wish he had mentioned African genebanks though.
- Would you like to celebrate 20 years of HarvestPlus? IFPRI to the rescue.
- Want to grow perennial crops for the Land Institute? Well now you can.
Nibbles: Fonio beer, ICRISAT seed kits, Dark Emu, China potatoes, 3D genebank, Bioculture, Microbiome genebank, Nutrition, Michigan kiwi
- You can make beer from fonio.
- ICRISAT providing Niger and Chad with sorghum and pearl millet seed kits. Fonio next?
- No, Echinochloa turneriana next. In Australia. I love the Dark Emu Hypothesis, and not least for its name.
- CIP is helping China improve its potato crop.
- Won’t be long before China’s genebank has 3D images of all its holdings. I’d love to see the potatoes.
- Want to see the earliest known site of domestication of teosinte?
- UK builds first crop biome cryobank.
- How the private sector can help with a more nutrition-sensitive agriculture. Should it want to.
- You can grow kiwi in Michigan. Should you want to.
Nibbles: PlantSearch, Ranking apples, Pumpkin pix, Fruit pix, Livestock maps, Impact
- Searching for plants in botanic gardens.
- Searching for the best apple.
- Searching for pumpkins and squashes.
- Searching the Pomological Watercolor Collection.
- Searching for livestock.
- Searching for varietal turnover. And other kinds of impact.
An apple a day…
Good question. The answer?
It’s all part of a very nice exhibit at the Museum Koenig in Bonn on biodiversity research.
Great to see agricultural research get a look-in.
But pity there was nothing on genebanks, and indeed no call to action. There’s a whole website in Germany about “edible landscapes” that offers ideas about what to do to help preserve fruit diversity. And also shops in and around Bonn that boast about selling lots of apple varieties, including less well known one.
Brainfood: Food insecurity drivers, Agroecology & fertilizers, Overselling GMOs, Genomic prediction, Striga breeding, Farmers’ preferences, Farmers’ WtP, Diversity metrics
- Drivers and stressors of resilience to food insecurity: evidence from 35 countries. Diversify!
- The input reduction principle of agroecology is wrong when it comes to mineral fertilizer use in sub-Saharan Africa. …but that doesn’t mean agroecology is wrong. So, diversify your mind?
- Genetic modification can improve crop yields — but stop overselling it. Diversify your research teams.
- Genomic predictions to leverage phenotypic data across genebanks. Diversify your training set.
- Harnessing plant resistance against Striga spp. parasitism in major cereal crops for enhanced crop production and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review. Diversity within the weed is almost as important as diversity in host resistance, and less studied.
- Farmers’ heterogeneous preferences for traits of improved varieties: Informing demand-oriented crop breeding in Tanzania. Breeders need to take into account farmer diversity too.
- Farmer Risk Preferences and Willingness to Pay for African Rice Landrace Seed: An Experimental Choice Analysis. Farmers are willing to pay for diversity.
- Too simple, too complex, or just right? Advantages, challenges and resolutions for indicators of genetic diversity. What’s the best way to measure diversity anyway?