- “The Access to Seeds Index measures the performance of the leading companies in the seed industry independently, which will result in the publication of a ranking every two years.” Will need to keep an eye on this. As no doubt also will the CGIAR…
- …which met in Lisbon to discuss the Generation Challenge Programme and presented on NUS at Tropentag, having moved on from the Science Forum in Bonn, which had a lot on nutrition. No doubt some of them will be in Lillehammer to discuss plant genetic resources and climate change. How do they keep on top of it all?
- And when they are not meeting, they are surveying the use of Gnetum, sampling goats, and making videos about their genebanks among many other worthwhile things…
- Speaking of the IRRI genebank, Mike Jackson’s obituary of his friend Dr Joe Smartt, “geneticist and renowned grain legume expert,” is online at GRACE, but behind a paywall. Fortunately, you can get a condensed version on Mike’s blog.
- Legumes, I hear you say? “Two big mysteries in soybeans have captured my attention.” And I’m sure that sentence captured yours. Corn+Soybean Digest reveals all.
- Time for dessert. I see your 300-variety mango of Malihabad and I raise you a 250-variety apple of Chidham.
- But lest we forget why we’re doing all this meeting and goat-sampling and fruit-grafting, here comes FAO’s latest report on food insecurity.
Brainfood: Extinct breeds, Olive breeding, Wild peanuts, Conserving dates, Hazelnut diversity, Religion, & biodiversity, Parqe de la Papa, Maize flowering, Mozambique watermelon, Nigerian cocoyam processing
- Cattle Breeds: Extinction or Quasi-Extant? Many supposedly extinct breeds live on in the genome of others.
- Evaluation of the need and present potential of olive breeding indicating the nature of the available genetic resources involved. If you want to intensify olive production, and apparently you do, you need to breed for it.
- Characterization of Brazilian accessions of wild Arachis species of section Arachis (Fabaceae) using heterochromatin detection and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Cytogenetics still has something to contribute.
- Complementary Strategy for Conservation of Date Palm Germplasm. Sets out the options well enough, their pros and cons, but doesn’t give you what you really need, a clear idea of which germplasm to conserve how, where. Which I submit was not too much to ask for.
- Molecular and morphological diversity of on-farm hazelnut (Corylus avellana L.) landraces from southern Europe and their role in the origin and diffusion of cultivated germplasm. 3 primary centres of diversity, plus a couple of secondary ones. Spain and Italy have one of each.
- Biodiversity priority areas and religions—a global analysis of spatial overlap. It’s all up to the Vatican. What could possibly go wrong?
- Situating In Situ: A Critical Geography of Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation in the Peruvian Andes and Beyond. In other news, the Parque de la Papa has epistemological implications.
- Adaptation of Maize to Temperate Climates: Mid-Density Genome-Wide Association Genetics and Diversity Patterns Reveal Key Genomic Regions, with a Major Contribution of the Vgt2 (ZCN8) Locus. It takes a lot of genes.
- Genetic differentiation of watermelon landraces in Mozambique using microsatellite markers. Type of use is more important than geography in explaining genetic diversity.
- Extending the use of an underutilised tuber I: Physicochemical and pasting properties of cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium) flour and its suitability for making biscuits. Let them eat cocoyam biscuits.
Nibbles: Bees, Okra, Horsemeat, Monoculture, CWRs mapped, Barley, PB&J
- Colony collapse disorder. It’s still complicated.
- The Botanist in the Kitchen is at it again, with an in-depth treatment of okra, slime and chocolate.
- But seriously, why don’t Anglo-Saxons eat equids? It’s all down to religion.
- Nigeria embraces UNCTAD report that warns against monoculture.
- An interactive map of crop wild relatives. If it showed barley too, I know someone who would be in heaven.
- As so often in these matter, Kew comes to the rescue.
- A history of the peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich. My kind of dietary diversity.
Nibbles: Chickens, Markets x 2, Bananas, Cover crops, Pyramid foods, Beans, Maize, Austrian diversity, Tuberous legume, Natural wine, Figs and mulberries, Meetings x 3, Purple sweet potatoes, Bambusetum
- Backyard chickens too much hassle? We have the solution for you.
- Supplies go up, prices go down. Those pesky speculators had nothing to do with it.
- Prices go up … The story for India’s agrciultural labourers.
- Colombia’s loss will Ecuador’s gain. Predictions for bananas in the 2060s.
- Conventional farmer loves cover crops. Shurely shome mishtake.
- Building the pyramids. It’s a tough job, but at least you eat well.
- Beans with benefits. On the road with a breeder in Rwanda.
- Chinese maize diversity explored, a bit.
- Massive diversity of all sorts of thing, in German.
- Rhizowen has another favourite underutilised legume crop: Amphicarpaea bracteata subsp edgeworthii.
- It’s vino, but is it natural?
- How is a fig like a mulberry? The Botanist in the Kitchen explains.
- Capturing wild relative and landrace diversity for crop improvement. A conference, in June 2014.
- Agricultural Biodiversity Community @ Work. A conference, in June 2013. PENHA was there.
- Preparations are underway for Kew’s Great Seed Swap. Call me dumb, but I cannot see a date anywhere there.
- Purple sweet potatoes to dye for.
- Oh boy! A regional genebank for bamboo. A bambusetum, no less.
Brainfood: Identifying GMOs, European beans, Palm distribution, Croatian cattle, Beta biodiversity, Apple pollination, Chinese foxtail millet, New Brassica, Pennisetum & latitude, Egusi oil
- Next-Generation Sequencing as a Tool for Detailed Molecular Characterisation of Genomic Insertions and Flanking Regions in Genetically Modified Plants: a Pilot Study Using a Rice Event Unauthorised in the EU. A rice event? They mean GMOs.
- Genetic Diversity and Dissemination Pathways of Common Bean in Central Europe. Slovenia is mainly Andean, Austria a mixture of Andean and Mesoamerican.
- Spatial distribution and environmental preferences of 10 economically important forest palms in western South America. It’s the water, stupid.
- Genetic variability of microsatellites in autochthonous Podolian cattle breeds in Croatia. Istrian cattle and Slavonian Syrmian Podolians are similar, but not identical. I dunno, I just hope someone is keeping track of all this stuff.
- Biodiversity Assessment of Sugar Beet Species and Its Wild Relatives: Linking Ecological Data with New Genetic Approaches. Where to find them, and how to use them. EcoTILLING is the way to go, apparently.
- Biodiversity ensures plant–pollinator phenological synchrony against climate change. The more pollinators, the better.
- Molecular diversity and population structure of Chinese green foxtail [Setaria viridis (L.) Beauv.] revealed by microsatellite analysis. Domesticated has geographical structure, wild does not. Origin in N China.
- A new species of Brassica sect. Brassica (Brassicaceae) from Sicily. It never ends.
- Latitudinal patterns of diversity in the world collection of pearl millet landraces at the ICRISAT genebank. Aim for 15°–20°.
- Genetic Mapping of Seed Traits Correlated with Seed Oil Percentage in Watermelon. Egusi, to be precise. Aim for bigger seeds.