- Multidisciplinary evidence for early banana (Musa cvs.) cultivation on Mabuyag Island, Torres Strait. Early as in 2000 years ago, which isn’t all that early compared to PNG. But opens possibility of mainland Aborigines being agriculturalists too, at least in the wet tropical NE.
- Climate shaped how Neolithic farmers and European hunter-gatherers interacted after a major slowdown from 6,100 BCE to 4,500 BCE. There was the most interaction between the two groups where Middle Eastern crops came to the limit of their climatic adaptation.
- The first evidence for Late Pleistocene dogs in Italy. Those hunter gatherers had dogs.
- Three thousand years of farming strategies in central Thailand. Millet first, then rice, but initially still rainfed. No word on whether anyone had dogs.
- Parallel Seed Color Adaptation during Multiple Domestication Attempts of an Ancient New World Grain. 3 grain amaranth domesticated species from one wild ancestor, with selection for white seeds in common.
- Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Breeding from 1891 to 2010 Contributed to Increasing Yield and Glutenin Contents but Decreasing Protein and Gliadin Contents. No evidence of increasing immunostimulatory potential in German wheat varieties.
- ‘MN‐Clearwater’, the first food‐grade intermediate wheatgrass (Kernza perennial grain) cultivar. Perennial is good, sure, but is it low in gluten?
- Screening of wild potatoes identifies new sources of late blight resistance. All plants in about 10% of 384 wild potato accessions were resistant.
- An Aridamerican model for agriculture in a hotter, water scarce world. 17 genera have highest potential to be used in polyculture to improve agricultural resilience, human health, and community prosperity in the face of climate change.
- Ex situ management as insurance against extinction of mammalian megafauna in an uncertain world. Fancy maths can tell you were genebanks could do the most good.
- Machine learning: A powerful tool for gene function prediction in plants. Very fancy maths can help you predict phenotype from genotype, and much more besides.
- Zoonotic host diversity increases in human-dominated ecosystems. Oh we are in so much trouble.
- Global changes in crop diversity: Trade rather than production enriches supply. Well, actually, a bit of both.
Nibbles: Hambre, Potato song, Blockchain, Pacific crops, Botanic gardens
- Vavilov in Spanish.
- Song about the potato Solanum ajanhuiri from Aymara to Spanish to English.
- Using blockchain to trace biofortified seeds. Maybe.
- Vincent Lebot on the opportunity that Covid-19 represents for traditional Pacific crops. Silver lining.
- Botanic gardens to the rescue. Wouldn’t that be cool.
Nibbles: African veggies, Commodities, Grasslands, Spices, TZ coconuts, Jordan genebank, Mosquito domestication, Jamon, GRIN-Global, Cultivariable
- All-Africa Summit on Diversifying Food Systems with African Traditional Vegetables to Increase Health, Nutrition and Wealth. New dates! 25-28 January 2021.
- “How do you like Cocoa and Coffee? Saving crops, protecting culture, sustaining livelihoods.” Online event, 8 September. Register here.
- How the US prairies got wheat, a soil classification, tree shelter belts and weeds from the Russian steppes, thanks to Mennonite farmers and emigre Jewish scientists. Entertaining podcast on what sounds like a fascinating book. Oh and there’s a video too. Nice Vavilov anecdote.
- History of Spices 101.
- Quick summary of coconut research and development in Tanzania.
- A genebank gets off the ground in Jordan.
- How the mosquito Aedes aegypti got domesticated. Yeah, domesticated.
- Texas and Georgia move into jamón ibérico: acorns off the menu, “pecans, peanuts and sunflower” on. Hilarity ensues.
- The USDA National Plant Germplasm System gets a new database. Go crazy.
- Meanwhile, Cultivariable publishes his latest evaluation data on the USDA potato germplasm (see “Evaluation Year”). Will it find its way into the above-mentioned database?
Brainfood: Seeds & corona, Bleeding finance, Maiz de humedo, High altitude maize, Open data, Seed swapping, Wheat core, Banana epigenetics, Soil biodiversity, Ethiopian mustard diversity, Ryegrass GWAS, Peanut antioxidants, CWR conservation, VRR
- Seed security response during COVID-19: building on evidence and orienting to the future. First and foremost, support farmers save their seeds.
- Blended finance for agriculture: exploring the constraints and possibilities of combining financial instruments for sustainable transitions. How about supporting farmers save their seeds?
- Dynamic conservation of genetic resources: Rematriation of the maize landrace Jala. Genebanks helping farmers save their seeds.
- Molecular Parallelism Underlies Convergent Highland Adaptation of Maize Landraces. Early farmers saving their maize seeds in the Mexican highlands eventually helped out farmers in the Andean highlands. With GIF goodness.
- Open access to genetic sequence data maximizes value to scientists, farmers, and society. How will it help farmers save their seeds?
- Applying Knowledge of Southern Seed Savers to Community-Based Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation Practice. The people saving and swapping seeds in the Ozarks respond to films, need how-to manuals, and could be a tad more diverse. I suspect this is not just true in Arkansas.
- Characterization of wheat germplasm conserved in the Indian National Genebank and establishment of a composite core collection. Farmers trying to save their seeds rejoice.
- Heritable epigenetic diversity for conservation and utilization of epigenetic germplasm resources of clonal East African Highland banana (EAHB) accessions. Hey, it’s not just seeds. Methylation patterns follow geography but not morphology in a genetically uniform group of vegetatively propagated cultivars.
- Blind spots in global soil biodiversity and ecosystem function research. Not now, soil biodiversity, I’m too busy dealing with seeds.
- Narrow genetic base shapes population structure and linkage disequilibrium in an industrial oilseed crop, Brassica carinata A. Braun. Landraces of Ethiopian mustard and improved lines cluster in separate groups, but overall diversity is low. Not enough seeds saved, perhaps?
- High-Throughput Genome-Wide Genotyping To Optimize the Use of Natural Genetic Resources in the Grassland Species Perennial Ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.). Only possible because of saved seeds.
- Presence of resveratrol in wild Arachis species adds new value to this overlooked genetic resource. I hope we’ve saved enough seeds.
- Main Challenges and Actions Needed to Improve Conservation and Sustainable Use of Our Crop Wild Relatives. It’s quite difficult — and insufficient — to save the seeds of wild species, but we should do it nevertheless.
- Influence of diversity and intensification level on vulnerability, resilience and robustness of agricultural systems. Why we should all save seeds.
Nibbles: Quinoa, Another quinoa, Old Apple Tree, “Anglo-Saxon” ag, SADC landraces, Record whisky, “Shipped but Not Sold”
- The results of the 2nd International Quinoa Research Symposium are up on YouTube.
- I was today years old when I learned there’s a quinoa in Taiwan.
- REALLY old English Greening apple tree dies. Sad: “When you reach your new home in the wilderness, should you ever think of me, plant these seeds.” Not all gloom, though, so do read the whole thing.
- Coming conference on the medieval agricultural revolution.
- Results of a dialogue on the registration of farmer varieties in SADC. Long way to go, alas.
- Talk about adding value to agricultural products! But were weird local barley landraces harmed in the making of this whisky?
- High value agricultural products, among other things, were used as gifts by 18th century merchants in Yemen. Not whisky, though, right? Well, actually…