Nibbles

Nibbles: Indian livestock, Borlaug book, iFOn, Brassica meet, Pat, Agave, Penguins

More evidence of India’s fascination with little-known indigenous
cattle breeds.
Forbes reviews Borlaug bio.
FAO Forestry has a nifty new mobile app. No idea why.
VI International Symposium on Brassicas and XVIII Crucifer Genetics Workshop looking for sponsors. Any ideas?
Prof Pat Heslop-Harrison is today’s “Face of Plant Cell Biology“.
Of course it is a daft idea to claim rights over the word “agave”. But will anyone listen?
Blimey! A penguin is like a lime juice.

Norwich boffins save the world. To get the real story, you need to deconstruct the piece using this.
“Results indicate that the greatest agriculture-led growth opportunities in West Africa reside in staple crops (cereals and roots and tubers) and livestock production.” Minor crops get the shaft again?
Project tackles conservation of Asian farm animal diversity. I’ve always wondered whether there might be a role for ecotourism. I’d pay to see weird cocks. And hens.
Pakistani boffins return home with skills to improve wheat P efficiency. And the resources? We shall see.
Chinese food and plant semiotics. Can’t wait for LanguageLog to get to grips with this.
NordGen characterizes a weirdly-named exotic Cinderella crop. Can you guess which?
And can you guess what the “best kept secret of agricultural success” might be? Clue: nothing to do with those East Anglian boffins of the first item.
Participatory plant breeding and gender analysis. They’re not giving much away at the source site.

The Archaeobotanist reviews the domestication and spread of bananas …
… and says that bananas weren’t important to the first farmers of Central Africa.
New York Times blog dissects the climate change and agriculture paper that’s making waves.
But biodiversity loss is a bigger threat than climate change. No mention of ag; do these guys ever talk to one another?
In India, children of women who farm their own land are less malnourished.
So what if 11 plant species “account for 93 percent of all that humans eat”? Rachel Laudan thinks that fine, and I agree.
The patent on one of the Roundup-Ready genes is about to expire. So?

“[D]iversity in domestic dogs derives from a small genetic tool kit.” Really, really small. Like, 50 genes.
ILRI says we need to maintain indigenous farm animal diversity in Asia. They eat dogs, don’t they?
You say pomato, I say totato: “Tomato-potato cross benefits farmers.” Fine, but it’s a graft. So why call it a cross?
Non timber forest products important “in times of crisis” shock.
Sumerian beer non-alcoholic? Not even beer, but “fermented cereal beverage“.
Then again, ancient Peruvians discovered popcorn. But not movies.
IRRI wants a student to re-examine optimal drying conditions for rice.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault– is it important for plant genetic resources? Answers here, next week.