The CGIAR’s Systemwide Livestock Programme 1 has just announced the release of its latest database, this one on the nutritive value of feeds in Sub-Saharan Africa. You put in the name of some sort of feed, typically a plant species, and you get out data on nutritional composition, often from multiple samples, arranged in a couple of different ways, and downloadable. Nice enough, and very useful, I’m sure, for its target audience. However, at the risk of burnishing to a well-nigh mirror-like finish my reputation as a nay-sayer, I’d have to say that I missed a couple of things. One would be the ability to search on particular nutritional values. Then when a species with the appropriate combination of qualities pops up you could work out if you can grow it in your shamba using another nifty ILRI tool. And the other thing would be some kind of link to genebank accessions. Surely some of the samples analyzed were of material that’s conserved in the ILRI forages genebank? Maybe for ver. 2.0.
Nibbles: Collecting, US heirlooms, Sequencing NUS, Nutrition strategies, Potatoes and climate change, Italian genetics
- NSF re-invents the genebank wheel. No, that’s unfair, they’ve given much-needed money to evolutionary scientists to go out and collect seeds of 34 species in a really pernickety way.
- Heirlooms being lost (maybe) and being re-found in the US. Thanks to Eve (on FB) for both.
- A Cape tomato by any other name…
- Gates Foundation has a new nutrition strategy. Gotta admire the chutzpah of summarizing the thing in basically half a side of A4. Compare and contrast, both as to content and presentation, with the CGIAR. Unfair again, I know, but that’s the kind of mood I’m in. Jess unavailable for comment.
- Very complicated, very pretty maps about potatoes and climate change.
- “I failed to notice substantial contributions to discussions or presentations from breeders or seed organizations, the end users of so much of the research discussed.” Pat Heslop Harrison calls ’em like he seems ’em.
Nibbles: Baobab, Plant cuttings & carnivalia, Apples, Fodder, Range management, PNG blog, Cattle breeding, Food security questions
- Baobab: your favourite nutritious neglected species for the next 10 seconds.
- Nigel Chaffey’s fresh selection of Plant Cuttings is up.
- Which reminds me; don’t forget to submit to Berry go Round.
- Searching for lost apples in the Scottish Highlands. A job for mountain rescue?
- Why feed my cow? A more interesting question than it seems.
- Rangeland scientists take photos of their study sites shock. Applications for crop wild relatives? Bound to be.
- Glad to give my friend Seniorl Anzu at NARI in PNG a plug for his new(ish) blog, PNG-Agrinews.
- Wageningen solves that cow burping problem.
- Cambridge says I see your cow burps and raise you food security.
Nibbles: Polyculture, Melons, Cheese 2011, Australian medicinals
- Do polycultures have a role in modern agriculture? Well, do they? h/t The Scientist Gardener.
- Texas breeders go for better melons.
- “Children from the city who try this yogurt don’t like it, but they’re not healthy like my children!”
- Hotspots for Aboriginal traditional medicinal plants mapped to within an inch of their lives, thanks to GBIF.
Nibbles: G20, Organics, Oca, Cassava, Molecular phylogenetics, Human diversity, OFSP
- G20 nations turn to agricultural research for food security. All you need to know.
- Would it be worth updating Borlaug on organics? A Prinz says “Yes!”
- Rhizowen gets oca to grow seed to seed. Can Cornish “potatoes” be far behind?
- Is it cassava‘s time?
- Molecular taxonomy helps an allergy sufferer.
- Lagging behind in development? Maybe you’re too diverse. Or not diverse enough. Difficult, in either case, to envisage the solutions.
- Agfax podcast on orange sweet potato in Uganda. Comment on the kuroiler goes for this too.