Mother Earth News has an online seed finder. It lets you search the “online catalogs of more than 500 mail order seed companies,” mainly in the US, presumably. Test it out and let them know if you could or couldn’t find what you were looking for. We might need to send them our seed list…
2nd World Congress of Agroforestry – 3rd Announcement
This just in.
Theme: “Agroforestry – The Future of Global Land Useâ€
The Congress will assess opportunities to leverage scientific agroforestry in promoting sustainable land use worldwide. It will also serve as a forum for agroforestry researchers, educators, practitioners and policy makers from around the world to:
- share new research findings, lessons, experiences, and ideas that will help influence decisions that impact on livelihoods and the global environment
- explore new opportunities and strengthen existing partnerships in agroforestry research, education, training, and development
- form new networks and communities of practice, and nurture old ones
Underutilized species given undivided attention
It seems that two key organizations dealing with underutilized crops — the Sri Lanka-based International Centre for Under-utilised Crops (ICUC) and the Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilised Species (GFU), based at Bioversity International in Rome — are merging and establishing a new entity. It will be called Crops for the Future (CroFu) and will be based in Malaysia. Best wishes for the future to CroFu.
connect2earth
If you clicked on one of the nibbles above, the one on agri-tourism in Crete to be precise, you will already know about connect2earth. So, for the ones who didn’t, this is a place where you can upload your conservation-related stuff (videos, pictures, slogans, whatever) and have a chance for it to get shown to the bigwigs at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona in October. The interesting thing from our point of view here at Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog is that a there is a section on local and sustainable food.
Talking about neglected crops
AGFAX Radio was at the recent Arusha meeting on neglected crops and has a whole bunch of interviews online (with transcripts):
- National treasures
- International viewpoints
- Nutritional benefits
- Social aspects
- Why Tanzania is ahead
- Mighty baobab
- From weed to cash crop: Amaranth
- Improving the varieties
- The farmer’s view
- The market for underutilized vegetables
Don’t forget the follow-up e-conference is still on.