- The illusion of participatory forest management success in nature conservation. Success is in the eye of the beholder.
- Back to the future of a rare plant species of the Chihuahuan desert: tracing distribution patterns across time and genetic diversity as a basis for conservation actions. A combination of genetic analysis and niche modelling shows that population structure is due to habitat, not geography.
- High‐throughput phenotyping reveals growth of Medicago truncatula is positively affected by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi even at high soil phosphorus availability. And affected differently during the course of plant growth.
- Global drivers of food system (un)sustainability: A multi-country correlation analysis. Most drivers are driving sustainability in the wrong direction.
- Progress and Challenges in Ex Situ Conservation of Forage Germplasm: Grasses, Herbaceous Legumes and Fodder Trees. Highly palatable leguminous woody species tick a lot of boxes. We know what to do. Let’s do it.
- A classification of endangered high-THC cannabis (Cannabis sativa subsp. indica) domesticates and their wild relatives. One subspecies, 4 botanical varieties? Well, that’s like your opinion, man.
- Phenomic selection and prediction of maize grain yield from near‐infrared reflectance spectroscopy of kernels. Yeah, but can you do it in the field?
- Global dataset of historical yields v1.2 and v1.3 aligned version. For maize, rice, wheat and soybean, for the period 1981-2016. No NIRS in sight.
- Cassava breeding and agronomy in Asia: 50 years of history and future directions. 50% yield increase in 20 years. Is that good?
- Decision-Making to Diversify Farm Systems for Climate Change Adaptation. Define goals, assess enabling & disabling factors, quantify risks, look for gaps in functional diversity, pick some interventions, evaluate & learn.
- Connecting species’ geographical distributions to environmental variables: range maps versus observed points of occurrence. Points are better than polygons.
Free seed resources
Because of the realisation (due to the Covid-19 situation) that it is important to be in the garden growing your own food, we offer free downloads of “Seed to Seed Food Gardens” on how to start a food garden, and “Local Seed Network Manual” on how to start a group that collects, uses and distributes locally adapted seeds and other planting material (at a distance). We leave seeds and planting material at our gate for neighbours and friends to pick up.
Thanks, Seed Savers!
Nibbles: Coronavirus double, HSL, Safaa Kumari, Australian forages, Foodways journal
- COVID-19 and Africa’s food?
- FAO has the answers.
- The Heritage Seed Library on the BBC.
- ICARDA’s virologist in The Guardian.
- Tasmania regenerates Australia’s forage seeds.
- New journal: Archaeology of Food and Foodways.
Brainfood: Bull, Durum, W2Px2, Urban hort, Maya ag, Nepal PGR, Bean GWAS, Pig landrace, DSI
- Reconstitution and modernization of lost Holstein male lineages using samples from a gene bank. Because all today’s bulls tracing back to exactly 2 born in the late 1880s is really not a very good thing.
- Comparative population genomic analyses of the reconstructed local breed “Nero di Parma” with other commercial and autochthonous Italian pig breeds. I like the idea of reconstructing a breed, but this one needs some more work or it will end up as the above.
- Durum wheat in the Mediterranean Rim: historical evolution and genetic resources. What have the Romans ever done for us? Well…
- Drinking biodiversity: a choice experiment on Franciacorta sparkling wines. Willingness to pay for biodiversity friendliness of high value products has its limits.
- Benefits of conserving agricultural genetic resources in Finland: Summary of the recent Finnish research and setting it in the international context. Still, there is some willingness to pay.
- The hidden potential of urban horticulture. Yes, even in Sheffield.
- Maize Politics and Maya Farmers’ Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Yucatán, 1450–1600. The sustainability of milpa depends on politics. ‘Twas ever thus.
- Genomics-assisted breeding for pigeonpea improvement. How do you know when you have enough genomics data?
- Agrobiodiversity and its Conservation in Nepal. 25,000 accessions around the world. But are they enough?
- Genetic Associations in Four Decades of Multi-environment Trials Reveal Agronomic Trait Evolution in Common Bean. 2 large genomic regions have been ruthlessly selected in relentless pursuit of the ideotype. Doesn’t sound like enough.
- Implications of biological information digitization: Access and benefit sharing of plant genetic resources. “The solution lies in an international institution stepping forward, with a bold vision and strong mandate, capable of resolution.” Good luck with that.
Rotting in cassava database hell
When one is seeking statistical information about a crop like, say, cassava, it is so rewarding to see a notice like this:
Statistics for cassava are extremely important for a variety of scientists, developers, economists, bankers, investors, policy makers and more.
Alas, like cassava itself, which starts to decompose almost as soon as it has been harvested, becoming unusable within 72 hours, the site that offers this validation appears to be suffering its own special form of post harvest physiological deterioration.
Go to the Cassava Statistics page of the grandiose Global Cassava Partnership for the 21st Century and you will discover that there is absolutely nothing of value there. Things that look like maybe, just perhaps, they could be links are not even broken links, although the site promises that they are:
For the convenience of the users we provide excel sheets and ppt presentations that have been organized in different ways (see above), to generate information that can be used readily.
Of course the actual statistics are from elsewhere, the FAO, no less. But FAOstat has been missing in action for as long as I can remember.
My point, though, is not just to hurl brickbats at the Global Cassava Partnership for the 21st Century, 1 not even for raising false hopes in me. It is to make the larger point that whenever these time-limited projects end, the online presence that they are so keen to launch at the start, slowly rots away. Very seldom is any thought (or support) given to maintaining their value. Maybe that’s because they have no value, but in that case, why not just give them a decent burial and be done with it?
I believe they may well have value, as an historical record if nothing else, as a source of lessons to be learned, perhaps, from mistakes made.
Now, in the specific case of GCP21 I combed through the website and didn’t actually find anything worth putting on life support, but it doesn’t look as if that was ever any part of a strategic decision, and it could have been. The Generation Challenge Programme, a similar beast, thoughtfully preserved most of its achievements in a website that, as far as I can tell, still works very well.
Every time-based project should plan for its end; kill it, or preserve it, but please don’t just let it rot away.