AVRDC has a nice new website. You can subscribe to a couple different newsletters, and also follow the institute on Facebook and Twitter. You can buy a porcelain coffee mug and donate money. And there’s a decent RSS feed at last. The first thing that popped up when I subscribed to it was, almost inevitably, a fact sheet on the baobab. Yet another fact sheet on the baobab. Incidentally, I know I’ve already nibbled this, but also newly online is CABI’s Plantwise Knowledge Bank, an “online resource with information for all involved in plant health.” Where, almost inevitably, you can get information on the baobab.
Trees of Life: The book of the movie
Prof. Roger Leakey’s book, Living with the Trees of Life: Towards the Transformation of Tropical Agriculture, the publication of which we trailed way back in January, is now officially out. You can get it from the CABI Bookshop. I know I will. Here’s how Prof. Leakey describes the rationale for the book in the media release:
We need a fresh approach both to food production and the use of natural resources if we are to avoid the emerging food crises expected to impact every country in the world by the middle of this century. We need to rehabilitate degraded land, diversify farming systems and protect watersheds… Few people realize the vast untapped wealth of the genetic variation that is present in trees. The development of tree crops can create local business opportunities and employment. In some cases there is the potential to support a whole range of new industries – this time however, poor people in developing countries must benefit.
Interestingly, Faidherbia albida, a photo of which graces the ICRAF post on the book, seems not to be one of Prof. Leakey’s Trees of Life. 1 Not sure if cashew is, but Kew’s Wolfgang Stuppy certainly seems to have a thing for it.
Nibbles: Pollinator book, Museums, Quinoa and celiac disease, Plant growth analysis, Mangroves, Plant health
- You’ve heard of alternative lifestyles? Now read all about alternative pollinators.
- Why should we spend money digitizing natural history collections?
- Not all quinoa cultivars may be good for celiacs.
- The largest comparative growth experiment ever. Hope some of the 600+ species are crop wild relatives.
- Mangroves trap heavy metals. And sequester a lot of carbon. But they are moving. Thank goodness there’s lots of ways to value the services they provide.
- CABI’s Plantwise Knowledge Bank is online.
- Kew boffins blow up coffee. The genus, settle down.
Brainfood: Cacao, Yak genome, Quinoa production
- The Search for Value and Meaning in the Cocoa Supply Chain in Costa Rica. Organic and Fairtrade are all very well, but watch out for “integration of the story of producers’ commitment and dedication; shared producer and consumer values of social and environmental responsibility; and personal relationships between producers and consumers”.
- The yak genome and adaptation to life at high altitude. Guess what. They’re genetically adapted to high altitude!
- What is Wrong With the Sustainability of Quinoa Production in Southern Bolivia – A Reply to Winkel et al. (2012). One thing that’s wrong is that the link to Winkel et al. is broken. So here it is …
- The Sustainability of Quinoa Production in Southern Bolivia: from Misrepresentations to Questionable Solutions. Comments on Jacobsen (2011, J. Agron. Crop Sci. 197: 390–399). You can make your own way further down the rabbit hole.
Brainfood: Red meat, Chocolate quality, Shea and livelihoods, Modeling extinction, Living collections, Sorghum & millet breeding, Hotspots, Ancient sesame, Breeding lovefest
- Red meat in global nutrition. Not as bad as people say. But then the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association would say that, wouldn’t they.
- Optimizing chocolate production through traceability: A review of the influence of farming practices on cocoa bean quality. Manufacturers really need data on how the crop was grown.
- Contribution of “Women’s Gold” to West African Livelihoods: The Case of Shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) in Burkina Faso. It is high, especially for the poorest households, for women, and when other sources of income are scarce.
- Herbarium records do not predict rediscovery of presumed nationally extinct species. Fancy probabilistic models based on number of sightings in different time periods are pretty useless predictors of whether news of the demise of a species was exaggerated.
- The importance of living botanical collections for plant biology and the “next generation” of evo-devo research. “Next generation” sequencing pretty useless without the actual plants in “last generation” genebanks and “first generation” botanical gardens/arboreta. Don’t believe me? Here come the vignettes.
- Breeding Strategies for Adaptation of Pearl Millet and Sorghum to Climate Variability and Change in West Africa. Involve farmers, bank on diversity, support seed systems.
- Plant species richness: the world records. They’re only found in oligo- to meso-trophic, managed, semi-natural, temperate grasslands and tropical rain forests.
- Sesame Utilization in China: New Archaeobotanical Evidence from Xinjiang. 5kg of white sesame seeds in a nice jug at the Thousand Buddha Grottoes at Boziklik dating from ca. 700 years BP means the crop was, well, used at that time and place.
- The twenty-first century, the century of plant breeding. Accentuate the positive.