- “I think you’re going to need different sheep.” In Wales, that is. (And different grasslands?)
- And new cattle in India, apparently.
- Another bunch of international agricultural research centres get together. Yeah, because the other lot are doing so well.
- I wonder if any of either lot will be going to this FAO symposium on NUS in Asia in a couple of weeks’ time. And no, I don’t know why we didn’t know about this earlier.
- On the whole, though, I think I’d rather be at the Purdue llama workshop.
- Or, at a pinch, this thing on the edible Alliaceae.
- Wait, there’s also a New Alliance to Increase Food Security and Nutrition. Not sure who’s invited to this party, but the “Rome-based agencies” seem to be the ones throwing it. (I guess this comes on the heels of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ annual symposium? Where’s a good summary of what happened there? Anyone? Ah, yes, Ian Scoones explains all.)
- One of those agencies wants to hear from you if you have experience of community “gene/seed banks.”
- Unclear if Seed Savers Exchange would qualify, but they have a bunch of peas out for the “community” to have a look at.
- These Indian award-winners would definitely qualify. Which is just as well as it seems the national genebank is up for sale.
- Meanwhile, botanic gardens get together to restore degraded ecosystems.
- The Bard’s plants. Well, some of them.
Nibbles: Yams, Aroids, Shattering gene, Panicoid genomes
- Improving yams at IITA.
- Improving aroids the world over.
- Parallel evolution in the domestication of cereals. Will it help to improve them?
- Foxtail millet helps with switchgrass genome assembly. And, one supposes, improvement.
Brainfood: Bee diversity, Fodder innovation, African agrobiodiversity, Quinoa economy, Fragmentation and diversity, Rice in Madagascar, Rice in Thailand
- Management increases genetic diversity of honey bees via admixture. No domestication bottleneck there!
- Enhancing innovation in livestock value chains through networks: Lessons from fodder innovation case studies in developing countries. Fodder innovators of the world, organize. If you don’t, you will lose your value chains.
- Introduction to special issue on agricultural biodiversity, ecosystems and environment linkages in Africa. Special issues? What special issue?
- The construction of an alternative quinoa economy: balancing solidarity, household needs, and profit in San Agustín, Bolivia. Despite the allure of fancy denominations of origin and the like, old-fashioned cooperatives, and the much-maligned intermediary, manage to hang on in there.
- Species–genetic diversity correlations in habitat fragmentation can be biased by small sample sizes. Can.
- The original features of rice (Oryza sativa L.) genetic diversity and the importance of within-variety diversity in the highlands of Madagascar build a strong case for in situ conservation. Actually the way I read it, the stronger case is for ex situ. But see what you think.
- Population structure of the primary gene pool of Oryza sativa in Thailand. In situ Strikes Back.
Nibbles: Plant data, Wild relatives, Citizen science, Danish pig breed, Fruit names, Genebanks big and small, Taxonomy, Seaweed, Weather data, IPR training, Caribbean & Pacific, Potato research at Birmingham, Taro training in PNG, BioAreas
- Latest Plant Press has interesting stuff on botanical data of various forms. Always worth a skim.
- CSA pamphlet on the importance of crop wild relatives. Why does this feel like a bandwagon? And how long to the backlash?
- And talking of bandwagons, here’s the latest from the one on citizen botany. Does indigenous tree knowledge count as citizen science? How about indigenous weed knowledge?
- And how about using your pet pig to reinvigorate a breed?
- Interesting take on fruit variety names. Can we crowdsource an answer?
- Everything about the opening of that new Mexican mega-genebank. Including the speeches. Nice-looking building, I must say. And from IRRI an example of a genebank from the other end of the scale in the Philippines. And similar, but different, from
CanadaColorado. - Biodiversity bigshots beg for naming blitz. Better hurry. And don’t forget the soil.
- Sargasso Sea coming ashore in Ghana is bad news for fisherfolk. Can they not eat it? Is it bad to ask that?
- How to find your way around weather data.
- Swedes to provide IPR training for PGR types.
- Island nations from opposite sides of the world brought together by agrobiodiversity. Full disclosure: I’ve worked with both regional PGR networks and want to again.
- Brits who worked on spuds.
- And Wontoks who worked on taro.
- Privatizing conservation.
Nibbles: Citizen science! Apples in Vietnam, Pyramid builders, Ecosystem services, Vegetable network, India’s shame, Dryland diversity
- Unlike spring, we’re late to The Guardian’s citizen science map of “weird nature”. Please Sir, can we have one for agriculture?
- Apples in French Indochina; more histoire des pommes française, or something.
- Scaling up food supplies — in ancient Egypt.
- “Conserving biodiversity could benefit the world’s poor,” it says here.
- South Asian boffins launch regional vegetable research network. Only 5 crops, but open-pollinated varieties will be included in the trials.
- “Ending malnutrition is a matter of political will. If India wanted to address childhood malnutrition in any serious way, it could.” Marion Nestle lays it on the line.
- Diversity in drylands linked to greater resilience. A press release, and a news report.