- On-Farm Crop Species Richness Is Associated with Household Diet Diversity and Quality in Subsistence- and Market-Oriented Farming Households in Malawi. Correlation is not causation, but one gets one’s victories where one can.
- Agroecology and healthy food systems in semi-humid tropical Africa: Participatory research with vulnerable farming households in Malawi. See above.
- Diversity and Evolution of Salt Tolerance in the Genus Vigna. Salt tolerance has evolved at least 4 times in the genus among coastal species.
- An ethnobotanical study of traditional rice landraces (Oryza sativa L.) used for medical treatment in selected local communities of the Philippines. 19 landraces are used to treat a variety of nutritional and other complaints.
- Is it time for a socio-ecological revolution in agriculture? Sustainable intensification is often neither.
- Core Collections of Potato (Solanum) Species Native to the USA. Only two species, but more collecting needed, though one population of one of the species captures 82% of total AFLP bands. In other news, people still using AFLPs.
- Genetic Diversity and Relationship of Ethiopian Potato Varieties to Germplasm from North America, Europe and the International Potato Center. 15 unique Ethiopian genotypes reflects 2 distinct introductions from Europe.
- Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Rice Varieties Cultivated in Temperate Regions. 217 varieties from temperate regions show much diversity, structured by grain type and origin.
- Genetic Vulnerability and the Relationship of Commercial Germplasms of Maize in Brazil with the Nested Association Mapping Parents. Brazilian commercial maize hybrids are pretty diverse, but show little overlap with the diversity of the NAM parents.
- Evaluation of resistance to Phytophthora sojae in soybean mini core collections using an improved assay system. Resistant materials made up about a third of the world mini-core, but <10% of the Japanese mini-core.
- Genetic Diversity of Chinese and Global Pea (Pisum sativum L.) Collections. The USDA global core was more diverse than the Chinese core, which was pretty diverse anyway.
- Population viability analysis on a native Danish cattle breed. Jutland cattle has 122 years if nothing is done, but things can be done.
Nibbles: Sweet potato, Horse genetics, Sandy Knapp video, Rumphius, Rice breeding, Banana breeding, Medieval vegetables, Tomatoes & witchcraft, Native American corn
- On a day that we hope will be historic for the right reason…
- The history of the sweet potato.
- The history of the horse.
- The history of the study of plant diversity. And more.
- The history of IR8.
- The banana is not yet history.
- The history of vegetables. And more.
- The continuing history of Iroquois corn.
The perils of reduced diversity: animal edition
To the standard hymn-sheet of crop failures associated with genetic erosion we can now add an example from livestock. A mutation in a single Holstein bull — Pawnee Farm Arlinda Chief, who happens to father super-productive daughters — also causes spontaneous abortion. The mutation spread through the US dairy industry and caused $420 million in losses.
That’s a crazy number, but here’s an even crazier one: Despite the lethal mutation, using Chief’s sperm instead of an average bull’s still led to $30 billion dollars in increased milk production over the past 35 years.
There’s nothing like that, at least not that I can think of, for crops, but it is just one of the nuggets in a super piece from The Atlantic magazine on selective breeding.
Brainfood: Truffle diversity, Pig diversity, SDMs
- How the truffle got its mate: insights from genetic structure in spontaneous and planted Mediterranean populations of Tuber melanosporum. More outbreeding in plantations, but strong structure still.
- Comparing genetic diversity of pig populations on the US mainland, Pacific Islands and China: Y chromosome evaluation. 16 breeds, 5 haplotypes, 10 breeds with only 1.
- What we use is not what we know: environmental predictors in plant distribution models. Edaphic factors are being ignored. ‘Twas ever thus.
Nibbles: Aquaculture, Rice vs ugali, Genetics game, Natural protection, NUS
- Aquaculture and the poor: The Correspondence.
- Even the poor prefer rice in Kenya. They’ll have to eat sorghum soon.
- Mendel: The Game.
- Diverse fields mean there’s a greater chance of all pests failing.
- Turning back to neglected crops. Yet again.