- FAO webinar series on animal genebanks.
- Quick put this wild pigeon in a genebank before it’s too late. No, really.
- Yeah but how much is a wild pigeon worth?
- Maybe if you could cook it, it might be worth more? No, really, I’m serious.
- Would be terrible to have a wild pigeon shortage.
- In fact, we need to be able to re-pigeon.
The trouble with buffel grass
Cenchrus ciliaris (buffel grass) is a valued forage and fodder species both in Africa and the regions of Asia where it is native, and in the other parts of the sub-humid and semi-arid tropics and subtropics where it has become naturalized or is cultivated.
“The buffel grass has been there from the days of my father, grandparents to my great grandparents,” says [Geoffrey] Letakaan [of Baringo County, Kenya]. “This grass has a lot of value. If fed to cows, they fatten within three months. There is also hay for baling, and it is also used for thatching. In the past, the elders used to say ‘nangrongong’, meaning ‘it (the buffel grass) is on the hills’ such as Arabal and Mukutani hills… People should plant this grass – everyone.”
There are almost 4000 accessions in genebanks around the world, which are being genotyped, phenotyped and improved.
And yet, not all is well, as a tweet from GRAIN recently alerted me.
In Australia, where the grass is introduced, it is becoming a serious threat to native wildlife and habitats, with calls for its extirpation in some areas.
It’s … important to note controlling buffel doesn’t require its eradication from pastoral regions where it’s valued. It does, however, require a national commitment and dedicated research, with strategic, coordinated and committed action.
And even back in its native African range, specifically in the Baringo region of Kenya, there are problems. According to GRAIN:
Over the past few decades, a man named Murray Roberts, known to locals as “Omari” has led an effort to try and transform the local management of buffel grass – from a system based on communal land ownership and pastoralism to one based on private landholdings and intensive farming.
The issue is Roberts’ application for plant breeders’ rights over a number of buffel grass varieties, starting about 10 years back.
For many local pastoralists, Roberts is trying to claim ownership over their biodiversity. Eresia Erige, a Baringo community member, says that as soon as the community became aware of Roberts’ application for a breeders’ right, local elders went up the hills and collected samples to compare with the varieties grown by RAE. They found that it was the same grass. For Erige, “The grass belongs to the hills and therefore, its seeds and farming in general should be for all and not be privatised.”
The tug-of-war between Roberts and the Baringo pastoralists continues.
In both Australia and Kenya, buffel grass is affecting the welfare of Indigenous communities, in one case by threatening cultural sites, in the other by what is seen as an attempt to control access to its diversity. In neither case have the local communities had much of a say.
Nibbles: Livestock genebank, Purple grain, Traditional Hawaiian farming
- Call to set up a sheep genebank in Australia. Kinda surprised there isn’t one already, frankly.
- Bringing back purple wheat in the US. Spoiler alert: genebanks were involved.
- Going back to “organized chaos” in Hawaiian farming. There’s probably room for genebanks too, though.
Brainfood: Red rice beer, Chicken domestication, Perennial rice, Biofortified rice, Ancient wheats, Brassica domestication, Potato domestication, Sunflower domestication, Early agriculture
- The quest for red rice beer: transregional interactions and development of competitive feasting in Neolithic China. In the 4th millennium BCE, in China, people brewed a sacred red beer in vats called dakougang using rice, millet, Job’s tears, wheat and snake gourd root.
- The biocultural origins and dispersal of domestic chickens. The earliest domesticated chickens are found 1650-1250 BCE in central Thailand and were attracted by stored rice and millet. No word on the role of beer.
- Performance, Economics and Potential Impact of Perennial Rice PR23 Relative to Annual Rice Cultivars at Multiple Locations in Yunnan Province of China. But does it make decent beer and attract chickens?
- Genomic prediction of zinc-biofortification potential in rice gene bank accessions. Check out in particular the aus subspecies. No word on whether the resulting beer and chickens are also high in zinc.
- Do ancient wheats contain less gluten than modern bread wheat, in favour of better health? More to the point, do they make better beer?
- Evidence for two domestication lineages supporting a middle-eastern origin for Brassica oleracea crops from diversified kale populations. Chickens not involved at all.
- Genome evolution and diversity of wild and cultivated potatoes. Propagation by tubers had a big effect on the cultivated potato genome compared to propagation by seed. And no, I’m not going to get into the whole chickens-in-South-America controversy right now, but you can google it.
- The genomics of linkage drag in sunflower. Introgression from wild relatives has been good for some things, bad for others, but in general pre-breeders should stick to the primary genepool. And watch out for chickens.
- From horticulture to agriculture: New data on farming practices in Late Chalcolithic western Anatolia. While domestic units were small and agriculture extensive, cooperation was widespread and inequality low. Then those Bronze Age elites got chickens…
Brainfood: Bonds, Agrobiodiversity, Subsidies, Orphan crops, Extension, Biodiversity tourism, Green farming
- Impact investing in biodiversity conservation with bonds: An analysis of financial and environmental risk. Need to show ’em the money, and that ain’t easy.
- The benefits and trade-offs of agricultural diversity for food security in low- and middle-income countries: A review of existing knowledge and evidence. Agrobiodiversity is positively connected with food security in two thirds of cases. Here comes the money…
- Repurposing agricultural support: Creating food systems incentives to address climate change. Less money for subsidies and trade barriers, more money for R&D.
- Orphan Crops: A Best Fit for Dietary Enrichment and Diversification in Highly Deteriorated Marginal Environments. More money for R&D you say? Document the evidence that orphan crops are good for you, link it to policy and communicate it to consumers.
- Extension services can promote pasture restoration: Evidence from Brazil’s low carbon agriculture plan. If only there were more money for extension too, eh?
- Linking livelihood and biodiversity conservation in protected areas: Community based tourism development perspective from developing country. People around protected areas don’t see much money from tourists, but that’s better than nothing.
- From boutique to mainstream: Upscaling wildlife-friendly farming through consumer premiums. Consumers are willing to fork over extra money for greener food.