Livestock

Nibbles: CIFOR, Weeds, Camelids, Drought, Biofortification, Buckwheat

CIFOR has a blog!
Nice series of videos on eating weeds.
Video on Peru’s “Andean rodeo.” You heard me.
Africa needs drought-tolerant maize. Ok, fair enough, but here’s my question. Shouldn’t they have done this study before doing all that breeding? Oh, who knows, maybe they did.
“Biofortification will thus remain relevant to poor rural populations in the years to come, as their incomes will still be far too low to afford a more diversified diet.” What? Who says a diversified diet need be expensive?
Russia faces looming buckwheat crisis. At least the genetic resources are safe in the Vavilov Institute. Unless of course somebody decides to, I don’t know, build luxury villas there, or something.

Really, who’d be a livestock keeper these days? In Mongolia, Russia, or Pakistan.

LATE: Ok, maybe in Canada?

There’s a Facebook group for that: unusual root crops, sponsored by the inimitable Rhizowen.
ILRI says herders are important to identify disease outbreaks in livestock. Makes sense to me.
ILRI also says local breeds should be included in Indian pig-breeding programmes. Again, no argument.
More on livestock: what Mongolia’s harsh winter has wrought. BTW, there’s also a discussion at DAD-Net of the effect of Pakistan’s floods on livestock.
Aspen trees need occasional sex. Don’t we all.
Climate change not good for rice. I knew that, I think.

Fine memoir of Sir Bent Skovmand. Thanks Dag.
Rice yields falling — and not just in experimental stations. The paper.
In all the eulogies to the inventor of the Cheez Doodle, a note of truth.
You could buy the Pavlovsk genebank site for just USD3.3 million, it says here. Is that even doable?
Meanwhile, over in England, Researchers Rush to Fill Noah’s Ark Seed Bank While Politicians Bicker.
Meanwhile, in Australia, worries about declines in livestock diversity.
EUCARPIA’s meetings calendar. Handy.