Nibbles

Nibbles: French seed policy, Coconut, Diversity conservation

Le droit de planter et cultiver librement bientôt interdit? Not new, still important. h/t @plgepts
Or, if you prefer, “French farmers will have to pay to use their own seeds“.
Philippine Coconut Authority promotes value of coconut variety Tutupaen tall for its thick shell.
Payments for Agrobiodiversity Conservation. New Agriculturalist does Bioversity scientist Adam Drucker proud.

Diverse alternatives to Piper nigrum. Tasty.
How local indigenous people farmed in the land that became Massachusetts.
How local indigenous people farm in Orissa: “rice breeds fish breeds rice“. More on that Koraput GIAHS award.
Should Rwandan farmers grow what they want to, or what the government tells them to?
Have you heard the news? Transistor radios may be more important to poor farmers than mobile telephones.

Cynthia gives us her personal history with apple diversity, and the history of Tarte Tatin; yum!
Farmers in Koraput, India, recognized as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS).
Ugandan farmers who select one of four new groundnut varieties increase incomes. Good to know. What happens to the old varieties?

We found these nibbles at the back of the fridge, and they’re not too mouldy, so lets fry them up before we get anything fresh.

Boss of India’s agricultural research exhorts international coconut genebank to do more and be heard.
And, first out of the gate for 2012, Nepal says it will create a new genebank for plants “on the verge of extinction”.
Immigrant urban agriculture — in Cleveland, Ohio.
Aid man Edward Carr interviewed: “drought does not equal famine”
Meetings on “biodiversity” in Europe, under the Danish presidency. Indigestible?
Hibiscus tea, what a tonic.
Resources Research goes crazed for book about brazil nuts, and other Amazonian agrobiodiversity.
A cure for Bayoud disease of dates? And it’s based on medicinal plants!
Pueblos andinos reciben ejemplares de tubérculos nativos. Otra vez?
Guerilla grafting? Now there’s an idea for “covert agriculture”. Wonder what the graftees think.
“The giant panda of the botanical world”? Blimey. A new reserve for real wild rice.
Huge Satoyama-style paper from Bioversity on THE USE OF AGROBIODIVERSITY BY INDIGENOUS AND TRADITIONAL AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITIES IN: ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE And they’re the ones doing the shouting.

“[R]ice plants in hotter and drier parts of Australia tend to be more genetically diverse“. Which means, natch, that they’re “a bulwark against climate change”.
USDA tests wholewheat flour from 14 different varieties for their value in baking. Which varieties? They aren’t saying.