Information

March 14, 2019March 15, 2019

Breeding Africa’s next super-vegetables

Ready to take your company to the next level? Join the Africa Vegetable Breeding Consortium and discover how exposure to the latest research and closer contact with international breeders and scientists will change the way you do breeding and business.

The main benefit?

Consortium companies will be able to view a broad array of PYT [preliminary yield trials] entries in the field at least 12 months before the material is made public. Participants may have early access to screening protocols or other kinds of scientific information developed at WorldVeg, provided the sharing of such information does not conflict with existing WorldVeg agreements or policies.

Remember that WorldVeg sits on a huge reservoir of diversity, and has talented plant breeders that make the most of it.

LATER: Looking forward to seeing an African vegetable among these.

LATER STILL: Maybe we need a SeedTracker for vegetables?

March 11, 2019February 26, 2019

Brainfood: Forage seeds, Meat is murder, Medieval farming, Bean breeding, Moth bean genomics, Red List definitions, Amaranth domestication, Seed networks, Local adaptation, Social norms, Food demand, Grasspea future, Strawberry evolution, Maracuoccio

Medium-term seed storage of diverse genera of forage grasses, evidence-based genebank monitoring intervals, and regeneration standards. One size does not fit all.
Sustainability gridlock in a global agricultural commodity chain: Reframing the soy–meat food system. Divide and conquer.
Farm establishment, abandonment and agricultural practices during the last 1,300 years: a case study from southern Sweden based on pollen records and the LOVE model. Medieval Swedes got high.
A review of breeding objectives, genomic resources, and marker-assisted methods in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Oh dear, a worldwide catalogue of germplasm needed.
Construction of genetic linkage map and genome dissection of domestication-related traits of moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia), a legume crop of arid areas. No word on whether a catalogue is needed.
Resources and opportunities for re-establishing Lathyrus cicera L. as a multipurpose cultivated plant. I’d try it. But do a catalogue first.
Ex situ seed banks and the IUCN Red List. When is extinct not extinct?
Convergent seed color adaptation during repeated domestication of an ancient new world grain. Grain amaranth selected 3 times independently from same wild precursor, but always for the same colour.
Modeling epidemics in seed systems and landscapes to guide management strategies: The case of sweetpotato in Northern Uganda. Spread of disease depends on where it starts. Watch out for places with lots of out-nodes.
A Molecular View of Plant Local Adaptation: Incorporating Stress-Response Networks. Adaptation here does not necessarily mean no adaptation there. Interesting for breeders?
Using social norms to encourage healthier eating. To get kids to eat broccoli, tell them their favourite youtuber does. Probably generalizable.
Nutrition Transition and the Structure of Global Food Demand. Lower growth in overall food demand than in the past, but a doubling of demand for animal calories.
Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.): orphan crop, nutraceutical or just plain food? Needs to shed its bad image.
Origin and evolution of the octoploid strawberry genome. All four parents tracked down.

February 26, 2019February 26, 2019

Nibbles: Homeric food, Two atlases, Cacao breeding, Smart foods, Lancet/EAT, Wild grapes, Landrace maize, Training breeders, Apios, Sustainable use, Cost of nutrition

Did Homeric heroes eat a lot of meat? The answer will surprise you. A thread.
Social food atlas to be launched.
Atlas of West African food systems already launched. Very different thing.
Saving chocolate through biotech.
What makes foods smart?
Pros and cons of the Lancet/EAT thing. And more.
Waking up the wine industry to the beauty grapevine wild relatives.
The magos of maize, from Mexico to the US, and back again.
Plant breeding training in Africa.
Pre-colonial North America: not wilderness, not dense forest, and not just the Three Sisters, lots of Apios too. Lots.
Food AND biodiversity.
Nutritious OR affordable.

February 25, 2019

What is the State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture?

Spoiler alert: It’s not good.

BBC version. Online Version. Full monty.

February 25, 2019February 26, 2019

Crowdsourcing variety evaluation data

Jacob van Etten has a new paper out which uses information on variety performance crowdsourced from farmers to support climate change adaptation. He’s been tweeting about it. A lot. Here’s a taste:

Yesterday I promised to write some tweets about our recent article in @PNASNews. A nerdy thread on technical details first! We used a cool model to analyze farmers' crop variety evaluation and test if seasonal climate could explain differences. https://t.co/4DD7eSVq1l pic.twitter.com/xF9MSCiJ4I

— @jacobvanetten@mastodon.online (Jacob van Etten) (@Jacobvanetten) February 20, 2019

The threads are unrolled here, here and here if you prefer to stay away from Twitter.

We’re hoping Jacob will answer any questions you might have on the paper right here on the blog in the near future. If you do have any questions, tweet them at him, or leave them here.

And let me take this opportunity of linking to this “field guide” to methods for making new crop diversity available to farmers which sort of sets Jacob’s paper in context.