Nibbles

Nibbles: Domesticating fruit trees, Plains Indians, Weedy rice, Prize, Maize festivals, Ifugao, Bangladeshi diets, Pacific hopes, Plant patents

Domesticating fruit trees for food and profit. But why the “scare quotes” around clone?
Indians 101: Northern Plains Agriculture.
A different kind of weedy wild relative; feral rice.
Great, innovative agricultural scientist? Prizes await you.
Mexico’s corn festivals celebrate diversity – but why bring opposition to GMOs into it?
Project to help the people who created and manage the Ifugao rice terraces to cope with climate change. Stay tuned.
Project to “diversify … diets to improve nutrition and incomes in Bangladesh”. Stay tuned.
And countries of the Pacific look to crop diversity to manage climate variability. Stay tuned.
Can a farmer commit patent infringement just by planting soybeans he bought on the open market? Good question; stay tuned.

Sweet potato and milk “potaghurt”. Just one way Ghanaian women gain from roots and tubers.
Another way being through a US$12 million project “to boost yam productivity”.
Dual purpose crops to sustain livestock and people in India.
Qocho in Chicago. Calling enset “false-banana” doesn’t do it justice.
Cowpeas came to Mexico from three separate continents, but is The Beaneater really eating cowpeas? Not necessarily.
We need to see the trees for the woods, says a new book from ICRAF.

Cambridge University summarizes the 10,000-year journey “from foraging to farming”.
A journey that’s still taking place at the Kuk Early Agricultural World Heritage Site in Papua New Guinea.
Where researchers are working with farmers to see which vegetables grow best where.
Tonka beans (Dipteryx odorata) are the foundation of a conservation programme in Venezuela.
Bio-villages in Bangladesh, “to improve food security and increase the supply of nutritionally rich food”. Supported by IRRI!

Hoping and doping: taxonomy of hops revised.
What do farmers want? Where do they look for it? How much will they pay? IFPRI has answers.
Van Gogh’s sunflower mutants explained.
Gathering in the city: an annotated bibliography and review of the literature about human-plant interactions in urban ecosystems.
Career advice: Plant Hunters.
Coffee forest gardens improve food security.

Watching hens eat – and gaining insights into food production.
EU Commissioner for Environment explains the importance of biodiversity in agriculture.
How to choose a duck breed for your farm.
More money for the Biodiversity Heritage Library. They’re on Flickr too.