- Guardian has whole piece on the importance on Kew’s collections without once mentioning Millennium Seed Bank. Anyway, the Paris herbarium is not so bad either, though they are no match for the Kew press machine.
- Hybridization is good for plant diversity. Well, yeah. What am I missing here? Oh and here’s more about things that maintain variation, and more still. You see what I did there?
- Allanblackia is the next big thing in agroforestry. Which probably means its name will soon be changed.
- Conclave meets to discuss
election of next Popepulse productivity. - Videos from Africa GIS week.
- Meeting to review 10 years of research on chronic poverty. Must have been deeply depressing.
- Helping rice to keep its cool. A crop wild relatives story.
- “The Ministry of Science and Technology should emphasize the need to undertake research programmes on unexplored and underutilized crops as these could constitute the genetic base for genes for improved nutritional quality of foods.” In India, that is.
- “We need to mine that diversity to provide genetic material in an adapted background more readily to be used by plant breeders.” From CIMMYT. How many times have I heard that? Here’s my problem: who will do it?
- That IRIN feature from a few days ago recycled with a new pic. Which is of a genebank not included in the list in the text. The person shown is my friend Dr Jean Hanson, recently retired head of the ILRI genebank.
- DIY perennial cereals.
- “Biodiversity scientists and agricultural scientists have tended to approach their interests in very different ways. I think there’s a lot we can learn from each other.” Wait, what?
- Another best biodiversity blogs list. Ahem.
- A “very clear action plan” for a ‘Green Revolution’ in Africa emerges from AGRA meeting. You will however look in vain for the details on the scidev.net piece.
- The last Inka treasure. Yep, the potato.
- Boffins find anti-Striga gene. No, not really, settle down.
- Rachel Laudan is really rude about Mexican potatoes.
- Cur moriatur homo cui salvia crescit in horto? Good question.
- Finding the 100-Horse Chestnut.
- Getting to grips with photoperiod sensitivity in maize.
Nibbles: Pavlovsk, Environment, Medicinals
- New York Times blog and USA Today update readers on Pavlovsk.
- Biopolitical unpacks the environmentalists’ paradox, and finds it not in the least bit paradoxical.
- New standards promulgated to protect wild medicinal plants, and wild plant collectors. Phew.
- BioBlitz in East London. Wonder if they’ll find anything edible?
Nibbles: Cattle nutrition, Maize, Freshwater biota, Modeling maize, Rice, Book, Veg, Urban ag
- Climate change ain’t going to be good for cattle.
- But will be fabulous for breeders of drought-resistant maize.
- A fifth of Africa’s freshwater plants and animals threatened. How many of these are important to local people’s nutrition and health? A lot, I bet.
- Just a couple guys, modeling the spread of maize genetic diversity in the Americas.
- Uganda turns to wild relatives for new rice varieties.
- Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century recognizes importance of agrobiodiversity. Good to know.
- New Agriculturalist revisits veg-garden-in-a-sack.
- FAO policy brief on urban agriculture.
Nibbles: Pavlovsk, Maize, Papaver somniferum, Organics, Zulu gardens, Feasts, Female farmers, Transhumance, Dogs
- Bioversity International and UNEP jointly pile on the pressure to preserve Pavlovsk …
- … as do plant professors from University of Wisonsin.
- Mexican maize farmers using CIMMYT genebank materials to adapt their varieties. Why not in Africa, then?
- High praise for a novel on opium.
- Mat Kinase takes Time to task over lacklustre organics article.
- King Goodwill Zwelithini calls for One Home One Garden campaign to support food-growing and nutrition.
- Feasts predate agriculture. Well, yeah.
- Female farmers … a bloke writes.
- Great pic on the joys of modern transhumance.
- Resurrecting the Maize King. And why not?
- More than anyone has a right to know about dogs in the ancient world.
Nibbles: Eggplant, Cactus domestication, Berries, Conservation, Drought, Conference, Chaffey, Rice relative, Cornus, Adansonia, Pavlovsk, Genebanks, Dams
- How can you do Eggplant’s Rich History and not wonder why this generally huge, generally purple thing is called an eggplant?
- Domestication of the Gray Ghost Organ Pipe cactus; exceedingly complex. Oh and there’s a cool photo here.
- How berries protect the brain from age-related malfunction. Are you listening, Dmitry?
- Protect medicinal plants, says letter-writer.
- The world doesn’t understand drought tolerance, says another letter-writer.
- Agrobiodiversity in Mesoamerica conference.
- Chaffey’s Plant Cuttings from Annals of Botany. Must-read stuff.
- A wild relative contributes trait for early morning flowering to rice, allowing it to escape sterility induced by high temperatures.
- The Cornelian Cherry and the Baobab explained.
- Voice of America devotes Special English report to Pavlovsk. If that ain’t viral, what is?
- Genebanks on a roll in China. In Australia, not so much.
- Dam dataset online. Let the mashups proliferate.