Medicinal plants

Nibbles: Coffee cryo, Potato catalogue, Chickpea Revolution, Community seed bank, Livestock gifts, Mexican grinding, Agroforestry in Pakistan, CGIAR, Japanese mint

The value of conserving coffee diversity? Actually more like the cost, but anyway.
CIP publishes a hardcopy variety catalogue. How quaint.
The latest installment of the Consortium’s pean to the CG at 40 is all about chickpeas.
Indian farmer to set up “collective seed bank for climate emergencies and future generations.” No word on whether he’s using Climate Analogues.
I All African Horticultural Congress proceedings online.
The case for and against livestock handouts.
Mexican men do not grind.
World Livestock 2011 out online as bunch of PDFs. How quaint.
Pakistanis told to turn to agroforestry before it’s too late.
Head of CGIAR says we need agricultural research to feed the world. Well he would, wouldn’t he.
There’s money in them thar mints.

Plant domain name changes hands for “high” price.
Biochar reduces emissions of greenhouse gases from glacial soils. Probably cures dandruff too.
We love resistance to wheat hessian fly, as an example of the value of agricultural biodiversity. Now it gets really interesting.
18th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference, University of Hull. h/t CAPRi Deadline for submissions is Thursday! Hurry!
But wait! “‘Sustainable Development’ Is Often Used Gratuitously”.
Local seed saving in Mexico.

A statue of Norman Borlaug. Artists invited to submit ideas.
A diversity of Junior Ministers of Agriculture in Italy.
Feeling left out of the EU’s survey on the state of its biodiversity work? Join Patrick and make your voice heard. But not necessarily listened too.
Fiji cracks down on yaqona, which we know as kava. Say it isn’t so!

Sweet potato yoghurt? Yeah, ok, why not.
Decreasing coffee production in Kenya can reduce tree abundance and richness on farm, but increasing production will lead to more trees but not necessarily more diversity. No, I don’t get it either, but have a look at the data yourself and try to figure it out. There’s plenty of it in this presentation.
Love of hot peppers as benign masochism. Myself I think it’s a sexual selection cue.

Push-pull pulls in prize.
Which is more than can be said for the Millennium Villages Project. I wish someone would occupy them.
You can have too much good breeding. If you’re a horse.
Nice aerial pics of rice cultivation. And a sort of information service on that cereal called Rice 2.0, which unaccountably lacks an RSS feed.
WorldFish invites entrepreneurs to get together and discuss investing in aquaculture. Here’s hoping diversity won’t be left in the dust.