As in many other (most?) walks of life, there is much that professional breeders can learn from “amateurs” (i.e., farmers), and vice versa. The experience of the taro breeders’ club in Samoa is a good example of that. Danny has already blogged for us about this. There are also examples of livestock (and pet) breeders’ clubs, and plenty of them according to Google. Many more than for crops, it looks to me. I don’t know much about such livestock clubs, and would welcome more information on how successful they have been, and whether we who are more into crops can learn anything from their experience. Anyway, there’s a great discussion of the advantages of the club approach to breeding crops for pest resistance in a downloadable recent 1995 IDRC publication. It’s accompanied by a list of crops best avoided by clubs, though the Evil Fruit Lord begs to differ.
They shoot horses, don’t they?
Ok, that’s just a provocative way of introducing an interesting review in Trends in Ecology and Evolution describing how harvesting from animal populations can affect their genetic make-up. ((Fred W. Allendorf, Phillip R. England, Gordon Luikart, Peter A. Ritchie, Nils Ryman (2008) Genetic effects of harvest on wild animal populations. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. Volume 23(6):327-337.)) The following three types of genetic change are highlighted:
- strengthening or collapse of population structure
- genetic erosion
- selection
The take-home message is that management plans should recognize that harvesting changes not just the demography but also the genetics of populations. Very important for sustainable management of fisheries etc., but I bring it up here because it got me thinking: are any wild relatives of livestock exploited through harvesting? Things like these cute pigs, for example. And would the conclusions be very different for plants?
Nibbles: Global Food, Aid, Nettles, Women, Aquaculture, Education
- Remember those photos of global families’ food? The creators answer questions.
- Speaking of funding, an analysis of aid for agriculture published January 2008.
- CABI blogger pushes Nettle Awareness Week. Quite right too.
- “The men don’t know how to sell, they’ll give up the potatoes for next to nothing.“
- Vietnamese pangassius farmers up in arms. Yeah I never heard of it either, but I’ll be looking for it in the market out of solidarity .
- How to involve children in gardening.
Reindeer domestication
From our occasional contributor Michael Kubisch.
Reindeer have been domesticated by denizens of the Northern hemisphere for some time – but exactly for how long and whether domestication occurred at different sites or only once has been the matter of some debate. Estimates of how long ago domestication might have happened have ranged from as long as 20,000 years ago to as little as 3000. Part of the problems stems from the lack of archaeological records that could pinpoint a more exact time frame. The evidence for the shorter period relies mostly on ethnographic observation, such as the development of certain implements (for example saddles) that early reindeer herders developed apparently after contact with other people of the central Asian steppes.
But did domestication happen more than once? A recent paper by a group of researchers from Oslo sheds some light on this question. After analysis of a number of DNA markers they conclude that the Sami people of Northern Scandinavia domesticated reindeer independently from indigenous people in what is now Russia. Moreover the evidence points to the existence of three distinct gene pools suggesting that domestication even within Russia may have occurred more than once.
And there is another interesting observation: comparisons with gene markers from wild reindeer suggests that introgression of “wild” genes into domestic reindeer appears to have happened quite frequently through the ages, but that only some of the wild populations have made genetic contributions suggesting perhaps different propensities for domestication among animals of various wild herds.
Unfortunately there is increasing concern about the future of reindeer agriculture. The Sami herders, who live in Scandinavia, Finland and parts of Russia, are beginning to feel the effects of global climate changes. The rapid warming trend that seems to occur in the Northern hemisphere interferes not only with foraging but also with the ability to move animals across what used to be solid ice. And many Sami now fear not only the loss of their livelihood, but also the disappearance of a substantial part of the culture, which has always been intricately linked to reindeer. Â
Nibbles: reindeer
- Reindeer vary in domesticability, have been independently domesticated a couple of times. Santa Claus unavailable for comment.