- In the Footsteps of Vavilov: Plant Diversity Then and Now. The Pamiri Highlands of Tajikistan, the Ethiopian Highlands, and the Colorado Plateau of Southwestern North America compared at time of Vavilov and now: “Localities that have retained diversity have suffered the least.”
- Vavilovian Centers of Plant Diversity: Implications and Impacts. “His concept of specific centers of origin for crop plants was not an isolated aphorism but has directed breeders, on their study and reflection, to the continued improvement and economic development of plants for humanity.”
- Mitochondrial DNA variation of Nigerian domestic helmeted guinea fowl. Recent domestication, and lots of intermixing mean not much diversity, and what there is doesn’t have structure.
- Genome-wide association and genomic prediction of resistance to maize lethal necrosis disease in tropical maize germplasm. That’s when two viruses attack synergistically. Resistance is from multiple loci with smallish effects, and there are some promising markers.
- Genome-environment associations in sorghum landraces predict adaptive traits. Genotype predicts drought tolerance.
- Facilitation and sustainable agriculture: a mechanistic approach to reconciling crop production and conservation. Understanding facilitative plant–plant interactions (intercropping, varietal mixtures) in crops leads to more sustainable farming practices. Or it could.
- The relative contribution of climate and cultivar renewal to shaping rice yields in China since 1981. Mainly new varieties. Climate change has actually helped, but for how long?
- Biodiversity inhibits parasites: Broad evidence for the dilution effect. Meta-analysis shows biodiversity decreases parasitism and herbivory.
- Using genomic repeats for phylogenomics: a case study in wild tomatoes (Solanum section Lycopersicon: Solanaceae). Data that are usually thrown away turn out to be useful for something after all.
- Genetic structure of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) in the Old World reveals a strong differentiation between eastern and western populations. Asian and African genepools, with geneflow E to W.
Nibbles: Sustainable database, Strawberry breeding, Breeding rice, Nutrition champion, Camel milk, Mike Jackson, Feed the Future, Quinoa prices, Small is beautiful
- A database of how you do sustainable intensification.
- Building a better strawberry.
- New lab helps Bangladesh with high-zinc rice.
- Maybe those guys are you nutrition champions.
- They’re right, camel milk is good, and good for you.
- Useful list of Mike Jackson’s publications.
- Pres. Obama learns about maize in Ethiopia.
- Increased quinoa supply leads to lower prices shock.
- Silly season roundup: tiny watermelons (no, not really), tiny pineapples.
Nutritional yield in the spotlight
Dr Jess Fanzo had a paper in the works on the topic when he asked a few days ago “How would you measure agricultural production?” But his pleas for measuring nutrition per hectare, rather than just calories or yield, certainly gets a boost from the article, and in Science, no less.
Here is what Prof. Ruth DeFries of Columbia University, who is the lead author, and others 1 think:
We propose a metric of “nutritional yield,” the number of adults who would be able to obtain 100% of their recommended DRI [daily dietary reference intake] of different nutrients for 1 year from a food item produced annually on one hectare.
Why? Because…
…nutritional needs for a wide range of essential nutrients in the human diet have generally not been included in considerations of sustainable intensification. Access to food with high nutritional quality is a primary concern, particularly for 2 to 3 billion people who are undernourished, overweight, or obese or deficient in micronutrients.
They even provide a worked example, highlighting the fact that many neglected staples are more nutrient-dense than boring old rice, wheat and maize.
In 2013, for example, on average one hectare of rice produced 4.5 metric tons/year, which is the equivalent of providing the annual energy requirement for 19.9 adults. Millet produced only 0.9 metric tons/ha per year, the annual energy requirement for 4.0 adults. However, a hectare of rice fulfills the annual iron requirement for only 7.6 adults, compared with 15.3 for millet.
Leave aside for a minute that, depending on what particular millet is meant, rice vs millet is an unusual comparison to be making. This does sound like a promising idea; but here’s the problem I see. You have to do the calculation for each damn nutritional factor: protein, iron, zinc, whatever. How do you know which to pick for any given comparison you want to make? Is there no way to come up with a more synoptic nutritional yield score? One that takes into account multiple nutrients at once, rather than one at the time. How about this, for example:
the number of adults who would be able to obtain at least 50% of their recommended DRI of all of X nutrients for 1 year from a food item produced annually on one hectare
Where X is whatever nutritionists think is a sensible basket of nutrients. After all, people rarely need just iron.
Nibbles: Malagasy double, Sandwich photos, Middle way, NUS comms, Fishpocalypse, Cali palms, Home on the range, Heirloom rice, Potato genomes, Old watermelons
- Madagascar: Vintage photos, not-so-vintage photos.
- More photos, this time of state sandwiches. Yes, sandwiches.
- “The solutions to the problem of feeding people and protecting the planet are endlessly and irredeemably gray.” Pretty much the same argument I made recently, not quite so rudely.
- Training course on communicating the awesomeness of neglected species. How difficult can it be though, right?
- Keeping cats happy has a cost.
- Nifty vintage photos of California palms. The trees, people, the trees.
- Cowboys ain’t what they used to be. But only just.
- Gleaning deconstructed.
- IRRI opens exhibit on heirloom seeds, no doubt through gritted teeth.
- Ten potato genomes in the offing. Wait, doesn’t rice have like 3,000? Get it together, potato people.
- Renaissance watermelons looked really crappy. Probably tasted of something, though.
Nibbles: Native American foods, Responsible soy maps, Ocean blue, Social academics, Kenyan vendors, Coffee pix, Local food takedown, Ancient horses, Kava bar, Plantae, Root fungi
- Traditional foods fight Native American obesity.
- Round Table on Responsible Soy makes some nice maps.
- The Decade for African Seas and Oceans is off to a blue start.
- Face it, academics, social media are good for you.
- You think Pres. Obama checked out some Nairobi street food?
- Pics of coffee value chain. Wow, that makes it sound really boring.
- Calling bullshit on farm to fork.
- A day in the life of an archeologist of Iron Age horses.
- Kava reaches NYC hipsters.
- Plantae is coming!
- Rice plants colonized by mychorriza express different genes and have more lateral roots.