Mainstream

September 20, 2017

Go HarvestPlus!

Great to see HarvestPlus, part of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, make it to the semi-finals of the MacArthur Foundation $100 Million Grant Competition.

With a $100 million grant, we would considerably scale up the delivery of biofortified nutritious crops in Africa, transforming the food system and breaking the cycle of nutrition insecurity to leave a lasting legacy for the continent’s future. The grant would allow us to set the stage for reaching 1 billion people globally with these crops by 2030.

There’s an interview with HarvestPlus founder “Howdy” Bouis on their website, explaining the history of the initiatiive. Biofortification is a great illustration of the importance on crop diversity.

September 19, 2017September 19, 2017

Nibbles: Millets galore, Human diversity & ag, Super farmers, Extinction is forever, Indian nutrition maps, Future Food competition, Banana viruses, Cassava in Brazil & Africa, Sugar book, Fairchild & Irma, Vegetable ROI, Embrapa beans, Certified coffee, Legal pot, Native American foods

Today’s new genome is pearl millet. The most climate-smart of crops? Now, to process it more easily.
Finger millet is not too bad either.
Agriculture was good for human diversity, at least in Papua New Guinea. Elsewhere, maybe not so much.
Julio Hancco Mamani grows 400 potato varieties up in the Andes (but how did it all start?). And Rahibai Soma Popere “15 varieties of rice, nine varieties of pigeon pea and sixty varieties of vegetables, besides many oil seeds” in Maharashtra.
“West Bengal government encourages cultivation of extinct rice varieties.” Wait, what?
Presumably not extinct like silphium.
India’s first nutrition atlas will maybe tells us where more Rahibai Soma Poperes are most needed.
Future Food includes seeds.
Cleaning up bananas.
Would love to have been on the “Brazilian Cassava Learning Journey.” Tanzania next?
The bitter side of sugar.
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden damaged by Irma.
Research on vegetables really pays off, vegetable researchers say.
Brazilian bean catalog launched.
Certifying coffee seeds.
Pot next?
Closely followed by Navajo tea.

September 8, 2017September 8, 2017

Nibbles: Community seed bank, Weird chocolate, Rice breeding, “Super” plants, Quinoa, Bush tucker

Mr Chetri’s genebank.
Ruby chocolate. You heard me.
The next Green Revolution won’t be like the first one. Phew.
Ideas that will change the world include “super plants” like enset. Right.
But not, surprisingly, quinoa.
Or bush tucker.

September 8, 2017September 8, 2017

Sin maíz no hay país

Town by town, I looked for these seeds, studying where they might be located. I started driving to many states in Mexico trying to find them, but there were none. It was so disappointing. One by one, I had people telling me that their grandparents planted them, but not anymore, and they lost the seeds awhile ago… I visited a very old lady who recalled planting them herself, but there was a big frost many years ago that caused her to lose all her seeds. After that, she started buying tortillas.

That’s Rafael Mier on maize in Mexico. But in how many places around the world, and for how many crops, is something similar happening? Perhaps the worst thing about genetic erosion is that we don’t know what we don’t know. But then again, maybe it doesn’t matter, if there are people out there like Rafael doing something about it.

…he was eventually able to find the popcorn seed he needed from a farmer in Mexico state—after planting, it’ll be part of his 2017 personal harvest as well as the first harvest of this variety in 60 years, Mier believes.

Mier believes.

September 4, 2017

Bhuwon Sthapit RIP

Very sad to hear a few days ago that Dr Bhuwon Sthapit, a tireless champion of the role of local communities in agrobiodiversity conservation, has died. There’s a lovely tribute on the Bioversity website. And a more formal obituary in the Himalayan Times. Bhuwon was a great guy and an inspirational scientist who leaves behind a massive legacy and a myriad heartbroken friends and colleagues all over the world.