Nibbles

Nibbles: Pests & Diseases, Nutrition Actions, Famine, GM Maize, Breeding, More breeding, India’s monsoon, Vegetable undernutrition

Need a new pest or disease? Here’s the latest list from CAB Abstracts.
WHO’s e-Library of Evidence for Nutrition Actions. No food, as such, that I could see.
Is “famine” partly the result of a fixation on maize?
Nah, course not. At least, I think not … “Drought persuades Kenya to import GM maize“.
CIAT and partners toast new BREAD project. (FX: Groan.) It’s about breeding cassava and banana.
Plant Breeders Without Borders. Read more here. Could do with a snappier title, I reckon.
India’s long-range weather forecast looks bad.
Modern vegetables are less nutritious.

Jess dissects nutrition mystification. So hey, Jess, what field do you work in?
Can agricultural research help eradicate famine? CGIAR boss asks the tough ones.
Giant FAO document on Payments for Ecosystem Services and Food Security.
Crop diversity and disease pressure, The case of maize in China.
Wanna job? Crops for the Future Research Centre is hiring.
Our chums at the Global Crop Diversity Trust get a Dutch treat.
Nagoya Protocol threatens to conserve Mexican biodiversity.
The Scientist Gardener distinguishes hay from straw.
Ford Denison scrutinizes nitrogen-fixing cereals paper.

Deeper roots could store CO2 and resist drought? Well, yeah, I suppose. Need to find the original paper.
Commodity price volatility 101; off topic, but important.
Good return on investment for agricultural aid in Togo. Some vegetables included.
Stuart Pimm answers “why should I care” questions about biodiversity. No time to listen, so no idea whether he does any agrobiodiversity.

Harry Potter upsets tree expert shock. Here’s the video.
Botany, salad and Allium cepa.. (NB Satire.)
Out of the Archives – Researching Herbal Medicine Then and Now. Seminar, 26 October 2011; details here.
Coconuts: not indigenous, but quite at home nevertheless. Scientific American investigates coconut evolution and dispersal.