- “Extra virgin” olive oil might not be, but could still be good for you.
- “The underlying causes of hunger are more associated with poverty, institutional weaknesses and policy environments than an inability to produce enough food.” Bob Watson, UK government adviser, on food security …
- … which Jamaica is tackling by enlisting an army of backyard farmers …
- … while Filipinos are told to save on rice by eating camote, sweet potato by another name.
- Bifurcated Carrots points to consultations on new seed laws in Europe.
- Sweet sorghum (jowar) boom in India, with preference for traditional varieties.
Nibbles: Languages, Bats, Climate change, Bioinformatics, Wild Garlic
- Bioinformatics techniques applied to languages.
- Bats are agrobiodiversity too.
- “Biodiversity is under severe threat from climate change, but we need to be careful that we don’t give a false impression of what our confidence is.” Attribution to climate change easy at global level; at local, not so much.
- Problems with bioinformatics? BioStar is a site for asking, answering and discussing bioinformatics questions.
- A wild garlic festival in Wales this Saturday.
Nibbles: SEARICE, R&D, Sustainable intensification, Biofortification, Chillies, Safe movement, Mangoes, Weeds, Berries, Blueberries, Cerrado
- SEARICE explains its approach to seed sovereignty and farmer participation.
- Nature on IFPRI’s report on agricultural R&D in Africa. Not pretty.
- Resilience Science on the UN Special Rapporteur’s sustainable intensification thing.
- The Gates Foundation is on a nutritional roll; most of yesterday’s posts are available from this round-up.
- New Mexico gets all protectionist about its chillies.
- IITA explains how it provides healthy germplasm. Various different interesting stories in there, stick with it.
- Farmer conservation power in India.
- How to control invasive species. Eat more weeds.
- Presentation on Trends in global nutrition and health: Local fruits and their potential importance for nutrition and health as seen at Pavlovsk berry meeting.
- Speaking of berries…
- The cerrado (and its crop wild relatives) is in trouble. We talked about this, weren’t you paying attention?
Secrets of Plant Genomes: Corn
A segment produced by the National Science Foundation in the US. Which means that by “corn” they mean “maize”.
Warning: May be too groovy for those of a nervous or academic disposition
Brainfood: Striga, Rice, Fish, Biofortification, Ecosystem functioning, Intercrops
OK, so we’re trying an experiment, siphoning off Nibbles about research, often in peer-reviewed journals, into their own hifalutin cookie jar. We’ll probably publish once a week. And their inclusion here doesn’t mean we won’t revisit them later.
- Genetic diversity of a parasitic weed, Striga hermonthica, on sorghum and pearl millet in Mali. The parasite is diverse, but no differences in parasitized fields.
- Genetic differentiation among Sri Lankan traditional rice (Oryza sativa) varieties and wild rice species by AFLP markers. Four major clusters agree with morphology.
- Genetic variation in farmed populations of the gilthead sea bream Sparus aurata in Greece using microsatellite DNA markers. Farmed are less diverse and less heterozygous.
- Restoration of hay meadows on ex-arable land: commercial seed mixtures vs. spontaneous succession. No difference in long-term diversity, but there are other considerations.
- Bio-available zinc in rice seeds is increased by activation tagging of nicotianamine synthase. It works.
- Soil fauna alter the effects of litter composition on nitrogen cycling in a mineral soil. It’s complex; larger fauna affect N dynamics.
- Dry matter yield, nitrogen content, and competition in pea–cereal intercropping systems. Intercrops are more productive and deliver higher forage quality.
So what do you reckon? Is this worthwhile?