Category: Neglected species

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Nibbles: Seed system, Food system, Coffee infographic, African agroecology, ENRICH, Land Institute citizen science

  1. Do you want to describe and analyze seed systems? Let the Norwegian University of Life Sciences show you how.
  2. Do you think there should be a, well, systemic approach to the food system? So does the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Hope they include seed systems. And genebanks.
  3. Want a rather beautiful way to remember the complicated history of coffee? Let Chris Kornman sell you one. A time when botanic gardens acted as genebanks.
  4. Looking for an African take on African agricultural development? Million Belay has you covered. Wish he had mentioned African genebanks though.
  5. Would you like to celebrate 20 years of HarvestPlus? IFPRI to the rescue.
  6. Want to grow perennial crops for the Land Institute? Well now you can.
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Nibbles: Fonio beer, ICRISAT seed kits, Dark Emu, China potatoes, 3D genebank, Bioculture, Microbiome genebank, Nutrition, Michigan kiwi

  1. You can make beer from fonio.
  2. ICRISAT providing Niger and Chad with sorghum and pearl millet seed kits. Fonio next?
  3. No, Echinochloa turneriana next. In Australia. I love the Dark Emu Hypothesis, and not least for its name.
  4. CIP is helping China improve its potato crop.
  5. Won’t be long before China’s genebank has 3D images of all its holdings. I’d love to see the potatoes.
  6. Want to see the earliest known site of domestication of teosinte?
  7. UK builds first crop biome cryobank.
  8. How the private sector can help with a more nutrition-sensitive agriculture. Should it want to.
  9. You can grow kiwi in Michigan. Should you want to.
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Roots and tubers to the rescue

The latest Seed Systems newsletter from the Alliance of Bioversity & CIAT has an interesting roundup of examples of the role of root and tuber crops in crisis situations:

  1. Uganda: Refugee, host communities find relief and stability in orange-fleshed sweet potato
  2. Mozambique: Reaching humanitarian and neglected places with the nutritious and resilient sweetpotato: The case of the Cyclone Idai in Manica and Sofala Provinces, Mozambique
  3. Madagascar: Anti-malnutrition initiative targeting drought-affected populations exceeds expectations in 18 months
  4. Cameroon: Relief group travels hundreds of kilometers to feed school children in Cameroon, braving roadblocks to grow orange-fleshed sweet potato in conflict-affected areas
  5. Haiti: Improving the sweet potato seed system in a challenging humanitarian environment
  6. Ethiopia: Discovering hope: Potato and sweetpotato technology transforming lives in drought and conflict-affected Ethiopia
  7. DRC: IITA and CIP provide Eastern DRC relief efforts with RTB planting materials
  8. Philippines: Crop resistance and household resilience – The case of cassava and sweetpotato during super-typhoon Ompong in the Philippines
  9. Ecuador: Efforts of researchers and other stakeholders to manage an unfolding epidemic: Lessons from potato purple top in Ecuador

I think we may have included some of these in recent Nibbles and Brainfoods, but it’s nice to have them all together.

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Nibbles: Community seedbanks everywhere, USDA genebanks, Public sector plant breeding, Salinity tolerance, Food systems transformation

  1. Community seedbanks are so big in Zimbabwe that international NGOs are jumping on the bandwagon.
  2. More from the Cherokee Nation Seed Bank, very much a friend of the blog. International NGOs unavailable for comment.
  3. Community seedbanks are also in the news in Mexico.
  4. And in Peru, of course. Oh, here’s a nice video from Peru on Andean roots and tubers, courtesy of CIP, since we’re here.
  5. Indonesia too, you say? Yeah, why not.
  6. How to protect genebank collections from climate change, courtesy of USDA. Community seedbanks please take note.
  7. Who’s going to use all that diversity? Well public sector plant breeders of course.
  8. Yes, even plant breeders working on Salicornia.
  9. But how much of the 6 trillion dollars needed for food systems transformation is going to go to genebanks and plant breeding?