- Public sector plant breeders are disappearing.
- The Millet Man of India is still there though. And why he’s important.
- A museum to public sector breeder Nazareno Strampelli appears in Italy.
- Another couple of community genebanks appear in Ghana.
- We can never have too many discussions on the importance of genebanks, so here’s another one. Not much on the community sort, though. Here’s another example: Ireland. Even the Arab States of Asia want one!
- And a deep dive on crop wild relatives in genebanks to round things off.
- A community saves illegal potatoes in Canada. Yeah, I know, there’s a lot to unpack there.
- Maybe that humble illegal potato needs a geographic indication, like that superfood, açaí.
- The Mayocoba bean as a superfood is a bit of a stretch, but there’s plenty of other pulses out there making waves.
- The Michigan State kiwi could probably do with a geographic indication too, come to think of it. Cold-hardy and smooth-skinned? Super!
- Ok, this is probably the last Nibbles before Christmas, so let’s celebrate with a drink: with bitters of course.
Brainfood: MLS, PPP, GMOs, SINAREFI, FGD, InDel
- What Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture Are Available under the Plant Treaty and Where Is This Information? It’s really difficult to know, and it shouldn’t be.
- Bridging the gap? Public–private partnerships and genetically modified crop development for smallholder farmers in Africa. They really haven’t worked. But should they have?
- Recalcitrant maize: Conserving agrobiodiversity in the era of genetically modified organisms. Trying to keep landraces and GMOs both physically and conceptually apart won’t work, and doesn’t need to.
- Flavour, culture and food security: The spicy entanglements of chile pepper conservation in 21st century Mexico. Efforts to ensure food security needs to take flavour into account if they are to work.
- Gender differential in choices of crop variety traits and climate-smart cropping systems: Insights from sorghum and millet farmers in drought-prone areas of Malawi. Efforts to improve crop adaptation and resilience to climate change need to take gender into account if they are to work.
- A target cultivar-specific identification system based on the chromatographic printed array strip method for eight prominent Japanese citrus cultivars. Specific DNA markers can be used to enforce plant breeders’ rights.
Nibbles: USDA germplasm plan, Millet CoP, Seed system resources, Kenyan sorghum Scottish crab apples, Heirloom maize, Yak cheese, Indian mangoes
- The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a new National Strategic Germplasm and Cultivar Collection Assessment and Utilization Plan. Quite the tour de force. Now to get it funded.
- Yes, there’s now a community of practice on millets. Joined!
- The Seed System Lab at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences has lots of interesting resources on its new website.
- The latest on the Kenyan genebank’s sorghum work.
- Why wouldn’t Scotland have a crab apple genebank?
- Why Jimmy Red maize is worth saving, despite its faults.
- Yak cheese? Yes, please.
- And nice pics of Indian mangoes to close.
Nibbles: Seed system, Food system, Coffee infographic, African agroecology, ENRICH, Land Institute citizen science
- Do you want to describe and analyze seed systems? Let the Norwegian University of Life Sciences show you how.
- Do you think there should be a, well, systemic approach to the food system? So does the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Hope they include seed systems. And genebanks.
- Want a rather beautiful way to remember the complicated history of coffee? Let Chris Kornman sell you one. A time when botanic gardens acted as genebanks.
- Looking for an African take on African agricultural development? Million Belay has you covered. Wish he had mentioned African genebanks though.
- Would you like to celebrate 20 years of HarvestPlus? IFPRI to the rescue.
- Want to grow perennial crops for the Land Institute? Well now you can.
Nibbles: Fonio beer, ICRISAT seed kits, Dark Emu, China potatoes, 3D genebank, Bioculture, Microbiome genebank, Nutrition, Michigan kiwi
- You can make beer from fonio.
- ICRISAT providing Niger and Chad with sorghum and pearl millet seed kits. Fonio next?
- No, Echinochloa turneriana next. In Australia. I love the Dark Emu Hypothesis, and not least for its name.
- CIP is helping China improve its potato crop.
- Won’t be long before China’s genebank has 3D images of all its holdings. I’d love to see the potatoes.
- Want to see the earliest known site of domestication of teosinte?
- UK builds first crop biome cryobank.
- How the private sector can help with a more nutrition-sensitive agriculture. Should it want to.
- You can grow kiwi in Michigan. Should you want to.