Nibbles

Nibbles: Syria, Manioc, Climate change

In case you were worrying about the impact of the unrest in Syria on the genebank, fear not: The Global Crop diversity Trust has your back.
AoB Blog investigates manioc and marriage. Cassava!
Andy Jarvis climbs mountain to explain impact of climate change on agriculture to Scientific American.

Everything you need to know about sunflowers, as it happens. They’re not cassava.
New York Botanical Gardens has a climate change garden. Coupla apples mentioned, no other food, not even cassava.
Cassava, “the Rambo of food crops,” will save the world. Did Rambo use silver bullets?
The Center for Global Development thinks Bill Gates is the cassava of agriculture. No, wait …
JStor Plant Biology rounds up his favourite historical food papers. Cassava absent

NERICA shmerica.
Did you know that the Society for Advancement of Breeding Research in Asia and Oceania (SABRAO) 12th Congress from 13-16 January 2012 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. No, neither did I.
Whither wild wheat?
Koraput and its agrobiodiversity, including aus rice, makes it on the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS).
GBIF has many duplicates. I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
Amazonia was densely populated. No it wasn’t. Yes it was. No it wasn’t.

BBC says we can feed the world through technology. And why not. The Times of India, meanwhile, didn’t get the memo.
Bill Gates at the IFAD Governing Council will probably say the same thing today. And put his money where his mouth is.
CIMMYT Director General said the same recently at an Economist conference. Funny how genebanks are rarely among the saviour technologies being touted.
It’s all about the scaling up, isn’t it?
Tell that to the Lake Chad fisherfolk who are now turning to farming.
And, in another universe, sushi seeks protection.
Buffel vs Rhodes in the Arabian peninsula.

Modern Chinese agronomist praises ancient Chinese agriculture, possibly gets in trouble.
Domesticating trees is still the next big thing.
Transform agriculture for a greener economy, says SciDev.net.
VoA on genebanks, including Svalbard.
Gerbil enthusiasts tackle millets. Yes, gerbils.