Mainstream

June 30, 2017June 30, 2017

Arise, Sir Daniel

From the Facebook page of the Crop Trust:

Our friends at CIAT inform us that yesterday Daniel Debouck received the Order of Leopold for his 40 years of service to the scientific community. Named in honour of King Leopold I, and awarded by Royal order, this is the highest order of Belgium. We congratulate Daniel, who’s one of the tireless scientists at the front lines of agro-biodiversity conservation. As head of the Genetic Resources Unit at CIAT, he’s made sure the world’s largest bean, cassava and forages collections are safe and available for plant breeders, researcher and farmers to use.

Since its inception, CIAT’s genebank has distributed more than half a million samples from 141 countries to requesters in more than 160 countries. Find out more here.

Well done, Daniel! Great to see the work of another genetic resources scientist being recognized.

Read more about Daniel’s work on a recent CIAT blog post, “On the trail of ancient treasure in Peru.”

June 27, 2017June 28, 2017

Vote for African veggies!!

Great to see a project on African Leafy Vegetables in western Kenya in the running for the Farming for Biodiversity prize at Solution Search. Here’s what they say about return on investment:

The ROI is 39%. The budget was US $150,000 for 2 years. Returns from the sale of ALVs amount to $52,200 per season, for 4 planting seasons. The biggest return, however, is the farmers renewed sense of empowerment. “I never imagined I could go out and find a market for my veggies” said Ms. Joyce Okwara from Busia, as well as improved nutrition in schools and clinics. Funds supported a feasibility workshop to discuss limits and opportunities of linking farmers to institutional markets, the development of a farmer business school and its subsequent rolling out, the acquiring and distribution of certified ALV seed to farmers and nutrition education in local schools and clinics. Additional funds would allow the scaling-up of this model.

Good luck to the Sustainable Income Generating Investment Group (SINGI) in Busia! Vote for them!

June 26, 2017June 26, 2017

Brainfood: Banana GWAS, MGIS, Commodification and racialization, Native tree seeds, Tea in China, Potato in China, Indian eggplant, Rapid phenotyping, Ag & environment

Trait variation and genetic diversity in a banana genomic selection training population. You can use easy-to-measure traits as proxies for important but difficult-to-measure traits. Both of which will hopefully end up in…
MGIS: managing banana (Musa spp.) genetic resources information and high-throughput genotyping data. Very cool. So when can we expect the data in Genesys?
Heirloom rice in Ifugao: an ‘anti-commodity’ in the process of commodification. Calling a landrace a “heirloom variety” is just another form of capitalist oppression.
Race, Status, and Biodiversity: The Social Climbing of Quinoa. Not to mention racist.
To what extent are genetic resources considered in environmental service provision? A case study based on trees and carbon sequestration. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) afforestation/reforestation project design documents are often unrealistic about the chances of sourcing sufficient quantity and quality of seeds of indigenous species.
Diversity analysis on catechin genetic of wild tea plant from Yunnan province. They determine whether a variety is used for green or black tea.
Genetic differences between potato strains introduced from International Potato Center (CIP) and domestic potato resources by SSR molecular markers. The CIP varieties are quite different to the Chinese ones. But we kinda knew that.
SSR marker analysis points to population admixture and continuum of genetic variation among Indian landraces of brinjal (Solanum melongena L.). Brinjal gets moved around a lot.
A high-throughput, field-based phenotyping technology for tall biomass crops. Estimate plant height and stem diameter in sorghum, say, without leaving the office.
Comparative analysis of environmental impacts of agricultural production systems, agricultural input efficiency, and food choice. Better for environment to change dietary habits than production systems.

June 26, 2017July 10, 2017

Nibbles: IPR handbook, People’s food, Open seeds, Club apples, Comms, Indian mangoes, Chili history, Bitter cassava, Better yams

IPR for indigenous peoples.
A People’s Food Policy released today.
Free the Seed! A sort of example of the above?
Are club apples a sort of example of the above?
Historical mangoes are disappearing in Hyderabad. If only they’d been, you know, protected.
The origin of spicyness in (some) chilis.
The downside of cassava in Venezuela.
The upside of better seed yams in Nigeria.
Ag comms: don’t be an eagle or a chicken. I’m a parrot, myself. Circumspice.

June 20, 2017June 20, 2017

It’s been on social media, and the local papers, for a day or two already, but well worth a shout-out here as well. Dr Geoff Hawtin, lately of ICARDA, Bioversity, the Crop Trust, CIAT, Kew, and much else besides, an indefatigable champion for agricultural biodiversity in general and genebanks in particular in the service of development, was recognized in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List at the weekend.

Well deserved, and indeed long overdue.

Congratulations, Geoff!

Category: Mainstream

Arise, Sir Daniel

Vote for African veggies!!

Brainfood: Banana GWAS, MGIS, Commodification and racialization, Native tree seeds, Tea in China, Potato in China, Indian eggplant, Rapid phenotyping, Ag & environment

Nibbles: IPR handbook, People’s food, Open seeds, Club apples, Comms, Indian mangoes, Chili history, Bitter cassava, Better yams

Geoff Hawtin gets OBE