- All nice and rested, we are resolutely back. With the peaceful gardens of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
- With the very different lifeways of the Gwich’in.
- With Cassandra Quave and her quest for medicinal plants. Not among the Gwich’in, alas.
- With Jacob van Etten and his quest for crowdsourcing. Also not among the Gwich’in, who can’t buy a break, it seems.
- With Eve Emshwiller (and others) on the joys of genomics.
- With Mary Ndila and her efforts to get to the bottom of the good cow/bad cow dichotomy. Using genomics, natch.
- With ICARDA’s exhortation to be smart and systematic.
- With CTA’s instructions on how to plant better plantains. Presumably by being smart and systematic? Kinda. Not, apparently, by varietal mixing, though.
- With ICRISAT’s pean to fonio. And now I need another holiday.
- Or a piece of chocolate.
Nibbles: Agroforestry, Genomics conference, Weed propagation, Potato gene, Potato Bean, Seeds, Chilli breeding, University, Prize, Arroz etc, Sinai, Maple syrup, Raw milk, Cacao
It’s Easter. A bigger than usual haul to see you safely through the lean times ahead.
- Simons says, plant a tree. And here’s how.
- FAO had an e-conference on “Impacts of genomics and other ‘omics’ for the crop, forestry, livestock, fishery and agro-industry sectors in developing countries” and all I got was this pdf.
- I personally think The Dude would prefer seeds.
- That potato day-length gene paper deconstructed. A bit.
- Owen’s
Potato beanhopniss seeds have sprouted. Can a new variety be far away? - No doubt he’ll be contributing to a list of US seed suppliers for perennial veg.
- There are perennial peppers, you know. A new weapon as the pepper breeding wars heat up?
- And enthusiasm for Kerala Agricultural University cools down.
- “Attention responsible gene stewards!” You had me at Attention. (But you lost me at responsible gene stewards.) On the other hand, if you are “diligent about developing or releasing durable varieties that will ensure long-term global wheat security” stick with it.
- Arroz, trigo, maíz y patata. The usual story: Casi todos los esfuerzos de la Revolución Verde se han enfocado hacia la mejora de los denominados cultivos principales.
- Farming in the Sinai is 5000 years older than it used to be.
- How to get genuine maple syrup.
- Raw milk is fine. No it’s not.
- Nestle and Mars commit to equality for women cocoa farmers. Mondelēz has not yet responded to Oxfam-inspired consumer pressure. Perhaps because few people know they’re Cadbury and Suchard and Toberlone and … what’s with that stupid ē anyway?
Enjoy that Creme Egg!
Nibbles: Cucurbits, Climate change cuisine, Passover pulses, Quinoa grant, Sago network
- The botanist in the kitchen takes on the diversity of squashes. And pumpkins. And some gourds. So we don’t have to.
- Aren’t you glad we’re here to tell you that “Potato Beans” are Apios americana? Why do we even link to this stuff?
- Split peas split Jewish communities. Because it allows us to have fun.
- Like this: USDA grant condemns Bolivian peasants to eternal poverty but better nutrition.
- I see your allegedly neglected crop and raise you a really neglected one.
Nibbles: Leaflets, IFPRI and CGIAR reamed, Locusts, Whisky, Backpacks for Africa, Yield drops, Oca, Fishy rice
- Speak French? Unaware? The Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research has leaflets for you.
- Indian writer bites the hands that feeds him. Well, somebody had to.
- Israeli eaters bite the pests that plague them.
- Debunking the mystery of whisky, the bastards. A muckle more detail here.
- Backpack Farm is in the news again. We still want to know, what’s in those backpacks, and how diverse are they.
- So you’ve been growing corn (maize) continuously and your yields are dropping precipitously? Scientists: Now we know why!
- Expert tells potato centre all about oca. Fact No. 1: it isn’t a potato.
- “Rice-fish cultivation produces environmental services.” What, in addition to rice and fish? Praise be.
Brainfood: Perennial wheat, Tree diversity, Fire, Dog domestication, Coffee diversity, Uganda cassava diversity, Sorghum structure, Japanese pastures, Maize diversity, Protection, Pigeonpea hybrid, Wheat nutritional composition, Pollinator diversity, Cajanus gap, Tree diversity, Resilient seed systems
- Perennial cereal crops: An initial evaluation of wheat derivatives. Early days still.
- Effects of silviculture on native tree species richness: interactions between management, landscape context and regional climate. Encourage mosaics, and don’t harvest everything.
- The global fire–productivity relationship. It’s humped, and will be changed by climate change, though for different reasons for different productivity levels. Wonder about the fire-diversity relationship, though.
- Ancient DNA Analysis Affirms the Canid from Altai as a Primitive Dog. Bit of a judgement call though.
- Genetic structure and diversity of coffee (Coffea) across Africa and the Indian Ocean islands revealed using microsatellites. Just what you would expect, given the “morpho-taxonomic species delimitations and genetic units.”
- Genetic diversity among farmer-preferred cassava landraces in Uganda. Landraces only a bit more diverse than elites overall, but half of them quite different.
- Correspondence between genetic structure and farmers’ taxonomy — a case study from dry-season sorghum landraces in northern Cameroon. Genetic units = farmer-recognized landraces.
- Plant diversity, productivity and nutritive value change following abandonment of public pastures in Japan. The best way to restore productivity (diversity doesn’t change much) in abandoned pastures is to start grazing them again.
- Genetic variability of maize stover quality and the potential for genetic improvement of fodder value. You can improve stover and grain yield simultaneously, in hybrids. In theory.
- Governance regime and location influence avoided deforestation success of protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon. Total protection better than sustainable use. Ouch. Meanwhile, in the USA…
- ICPH 2671 – the world’s first commercial food legume hybrid. Yet another milestone on the road to the complete eradication of farmers’ rights.
- Genetic improvement of grain protein content and other health-related constituents of wheat grain. Need to figure out the genetic control mechanisms, and then exploit “alien” germplasm using MAS. Oh, and GMOs too.
- Quantifying the impacts of bioenergy crops on pollinating insect abundance and diversity: a field-scale evaluation reveals taxon-specific responses. Diversity begets diversity.
- Diversity and geographical gaps in Cajanus scarabaeoides (L.) Thou. germplasm conserved at the ICRISAT genebank. Now collectors know exactly where to go.
- Tree species diversity increases fine root productivity through increased soil volume filling. Below-ground complementarity is good for everyone’s roots, presumably good for the community too.
- Making seed systems more resilient to stress. Foster informal innovation, but also information exchange (presumably including of the formal kind).