- Sensors for volatile organic compounds will detect crop diseases for ya. Then a drone comes in and zaps them?
- Breeding better bees.
- “So why not simply replace the traditional variety with Dhanshakti?” Answers on a postcard, please.
- Bringing back the passenger pigeon.
- The impact of land rights around the world. Including on conservation of agricultural biodiversity?
- What the Mongols ate, and how we know it. Some millet. Maybe some passenger pigeons. Interesting concept of land rights.
- Sorry we’re one day late celebrating Barbara McClintock’s birthday.
Brainfood: Open sesame, Turkish buffalo, Crops & diets, Tuberous-rooted chervil, Pine breeding, Pigeonpea diversity, Sorghum adoption, Slumdog trees, Regenerating wild sunflower
- Sesame Crop: An Underexploited Oilseed Holds Tremendous Potential for Enhanced Food Value. Nice overview of diversity conservation and use. Lots of scope for improvement.
- Microsatellite based genetic diversity among the three water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) populations in Turkey. No great evidence of differentiation among populations into breeds, unlike in India, say.
- Crop diversification, dietary diversity and agricultural income: empirical evidence from eight developing countries. More crops grown, more dietary diversity.
- Temporal evolution of the genetic diversity of Chaerophyllum bulbosum: Consequences on the genetic resources management. French article on the lack of hydrographic structuring, or erosion, in the genetic diversity of largely forgotten apiaceous root vegetable in Germany.
- Merging applied gene conservation activities with advanced generation breeding initiatives: a case study of Pinus radiata D. Don. Because introduction of new diversity from native areas is difficult, foresters in non-native areas should better understand and use the diversity in existing provenance/progeny trials.
- Comparative Analysis of Genetic Diversity among Cultivated Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L) Millsp.) and Its Wild Relatives (C. albicans and C. lineatus) Using Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR Fingerprinting. 16 Indian accessions classified in 3 clusters, with the stress resistant material mostly together. More diversity in the wilds.
- The role of varietal attributes on adoption of improved seed varieties: the case of sorghum in Kenya. Not just about yield.
- Vegetation in Bangalore’s Slums: Boosting Livelihoods, Well-Being and Social Capital. What’s needed is trees with short stature, narrow trunks, medium canopy, high value. How many species like that can you think of?
- Comparison of fatty acid composition of oil from original and regenerated populations of wild Helianthus species. It’s not the same.
Nibbles: Climate change & yields, Eucalyptus genome, Pacific breeders, Iranian barley breeders, Food Policy Report 2013, Titan, Gluten allergy, FGR podcast, Rice culture, NERICA and gender, WCC2014, CWR article, Malnutrition myths, Halophytes
- Yeah, on this climate change thing? We’re doomed.
- Oh crap, there’s another genome: eucalyptus this time. Here’s the paper, you geeks. Great news for koalas, whose genome we still await, incidentally. Yeah, where are we with that?
- SPC trains some breeders with Treaty money.
- I wonder if they were told about Evolutionary Plant Breeding.
- IFPRI has its new food policy report out. More on this later from us, I suspect.
- The Bonn Titan Arum blooms! Well, I’m calling it a crop wild relative.
- That gluten allergy? Don’t blame modern wheat varieties.
- Podcast on the importance of genetic resources to sustainable forests.
- Why rice? The Filipino view.
- And the African view. NERICA’s good for women. And bad.
- Bioversity blogs about World Cocoa Conference 2014, gets dates wrong. It’s on now.
- Crop wild relatives in The Scientist. But I’m biased…
- Busting malnutrition myths. Because they’re there.
- There’s probably a few myths out there about halophytes too.
Nibbles: Genomes galore: beans, sheep, citrus, Breeding from “weeds”, Talks, Old wheat, Adaptation, Popped sorghum, Managing BXW
Can’t move for genomes today.
- First off, Phaseolus vulgaris.
- Next up, sheep: one genome, three stories:
- And citrus diversity: “Citrus has incestuous genes. Nothing is pure.”
But there is other stuff too.
- How weeds could feed billions. Not by eating them but by breeding from them. Are crop wild relatives really all weeds?
- TED talks on biodiversity. I suppose we should be grateful for 1.5 out of 30.
- A New York baker has been exploring tumminia wheat. Without telling us.
- Adaptation to climate change hardly worth it, according to econ 101.
- So you want to make your own popped sorghum? All you need is a microwave and a paper bag.
- ProMusa reports on an easier and better way for banana farmers to manage Xanthomonas wilt.
Brainfood: Homegardens, AnGR genomic conservation, Forest services, Desert wheat, Wild artichoke, Enset ethnobotany, Turkish sheep, Eggplant evaluation, Bolivian maize, Cattle & fire
- Biodiversity conservation in home gardens: traditional knowledge, use patterns and implications for management. Most cliches about homegardens are valid in Benin, apart from the one which suggests old people know more about them.
- Genomics applied to management strategies in conservation programmes. How gene jockeys can help you maintain enough diversity within breeds, but no more.
- Living close to forests enhances people׳s perception of ecosystem services in a forest–agricultural landscape of West Java, Indonesia. And agroforests perceived as being best providers of services, even better than actual forest.
- Saharan wheats: before they disappear. Surprisingly, they have not been much studied.
- The wild gene pool of globe artichoke. Four wild species lack studies of crossability with the cultigen, but look interesting and could actually be in GB2.
- Indigenous knowledge, use and on-farm management of enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) diversity in Wolaita, Southern Ethiopia. Maybe 100 varieties, 10 dishes, lots of knowledge.
- Genetic diversity in nine native Turkish sheep breeds based on microsatellite analysis. Most variation within breeds, but not much higher that that of European breeds.
- Genetic Diversity, Population Structure, and Resistance to Phytophthora capsici of a Worldwide Collection of Eggplant Germplasm. 99 accessions, 4 species, 5 continents, 32 countries, 1 resistant genotype.
- Conserving agrobiodiversity amid global change, migration, and nontraditional livelihood networks: the dynamic uses of cultural landscape knowledge. Things are changing, but maize diversity abides.
- Fuel, fire and cattle in African highlands: Traditional management maintains a mosaic heathland landscape. Sustainable management of vegetation (including some CWR?) in Ethiopian highlands means using fire and cattle in consort.