Medicinal plants

June 22, 2011June 21, 2011

Making the most of bitter gourd diversity at AVRDC

Another interesting agrobiodiversity piece in AVRDC’s newletter today:

The AVRDC Nutrition group is locked in a struggle with a cucurbit – and so far, warty Momordica charantia appears to be winning! As part of the project “A better bitter gourd: exploiting bitter gourd to increase incomes, manage type 2 diabetes, and promote health in developing countries,” researchers have begun preparing samples of the vegetable for later laboratory analysis.

Interested? “Like” the project’s Facebook page then!

June 21, 2011June 21, 2011

Nibbles: Cryo, Tree diversity, Agroforestry, Seed industry, Trigonella, Ancient MesoAmerica, Niche models

CIP’s high-tech genebank.
“The project’s eventual aim is to plant several thousand trees at sites across Perthshire to act as a ‘living gene bank.'” What, because normally genebanks are dead?
Millennium Seed Bank joins ICRAF’s BusyTrees thing. Which you can follow in about a million different social networking ways.
Conservation Magazine does a number on crop improvement. Wait, what? Conservation Magazine? Yep, and with teaching resources.
Fenugreek, barkeep, and make it a double.
Ancient chocolate and corn routes.
What species distribution models do you like?

June 8, 2011June 8, 2011

Nibbles: Royal genebank, Fish collection, Plant health, USDA wheat breeding project, Afghanistan, Breadfruit Art, Pests and Diseases, Idaho, Plant breeding, Gates, Panax quinquefolius, Natives

Thai king has crop genebank on palace grounds.
Fish in jars.
Planning Plant Clinics.
Plant Breeding for Drought Stress: The Project.
Wait, the Nebraska National Guard has an agribusiness development team? Maybe they should talk to the people responsible for the previous bullet point?
Kids! (And adults!) An Art Contest to celebrate ‘Ulu. Breadfruit, that is.
Use of Agrobiodiversity for Pest and Disease Management. A slide show from Carlo Fadda at Bioversity.
3rd Annual Biodiversity Working for Farmers Tour in Idaho. 23rd June, you have been warned.
Huge New York Times story on plant breeding and climate change.
Bill Gates hails creativity for small farmers challenge.
American ginseng: use it or lose it.
Do you live in Ann Arbour? Do you want native plants for your garden? Yeah but how about American ginseng?

May 27, 2011May 27, 2011

Collecting germplasm in the Iraqi desert

You may remember the story of Mrs Sanaa Abdul Wahab Al-Sheikh of the Iraqi genebank. Well, she’s still collecting away, most recently in the deserts of southern Iraq. Here are a couple of the photographs she recently sent me.

May 27, 2011October 8, 2011

Nibbles: Genebank, Sweet wheat, Participatory Research, Land “grab”, Yampah, Vegetables, Tea, Chilling, Rainforest products, Asses, Climate proofing, Natural products

A look inside the big USDA genebank at Fort Collins. Whatever next?
Sweet wheat. Whatever next?
Farmers must participate in agricultural research in Europe. Whatever next?
“Come and farm our virgin lands, Ethiopia tells India.” Whatever.
“You may already know that yampah (Perideridia gairdneri) is a North American umbellifer.” Er, no. Tell me more.
After cloves, vegetables? Zanzibar’s farmers increase productivity.
More news for Luigi’s MIL: Future Climate Scenarios for Kenya’s Tea Growing Areas.
Is this the end of trail mix?
Body Shop uses wins award for using Cameroonian rainforest honey and wax from CIFOR-supported beekeeping project.
Fancy a glass of ass’s milk? Totally SFW.
Everybody is climate-proofing crops.
The BBC looks at medicinal plants.