Nibbles

Nibbles: Millet, Goat, Heirloom Veg, Tamarind, Rice domestication, Rice sustainability, Microbes, Competition

The importance of multi-purpose crops in Africa.
The importance of multi-purpose goats, everywhere.
Target reader reviews The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Heirloom Vegetables.
Tamarind charcoal loses out to tamarind drink, Malawian villagers rejoice.
Has intellectual piracy been with us since humans first became engaged in agricultural production? AoB blog asks the tough ones.
Land-use intensity and Ecological Engineering – Assessment Tools for risks and Opportunities in irrigated rice based production systems launched. Glad they have an acronym.
Microbe diversity matters too.
OK, so nobody nominated us, but the semi-finalists at the 3QD science writing competition have been announced.

Wheat disease understood; sequence of leaf blotch fungus.
Wheat disease conquered? “Super varieties” resistant to UG99 and yield 15% more. What could go wrong?
Zambian farmers urged to dry vegetables for fun and profit (and better nutrition).
Gates Foundations has spent US$1.7 billion on agriculture in Africa, so far.
Swaminathan Foundation scores Canadian support for research on agriculture, poverty and nutrition. h/t PAR.
Bioversity Seeds for Needs distributes preselected genebank wheat varieties to Ethiopian women farmers to adapt to climate change.

German donor examines food and security, notes “the fast loss of biodiversity”.
Food carts are successful oases in at least one food “desert”.
Yesterday’s Botany Photo of the Day was American cotton.
Good news, everyone: “Hardcore farmers prefer lowkey rituals.” Obviously the memo didn’t reach the children of the corn.
Photosynthesis and climate change: it’s complicated.
Native Americans try to reclaim control of their foodways. And their waists.
“…every district should have a community-controlled seed centre with a gene bank for traditional seeds.” Of course it should. “The local available seed diversity needs to be protected and conserved at any cost.” Of course it must.
“Right now, all over the world, projects are underway to store seeds…“
Dark earths not just in Amazon, Africa too.
Presentation on IFAD project on cultivating wild aromatic etc. species for money in Morocco.

Thai king has crop genebank on palace grounds.
Fish in jars.
Planning Plant Clinics.
Plant Breeding for Drought Stress: The Project.
Wait, the Nebraska National Guard has an agribusiness development team? Maybe they should talk to the people responsible for the previous bullet point?
Kids! (And adults!) An Art Contest to celebrate ‘Ulu. Breadfruit, that is.
Use of Agrobiodiversity for Pest and Disease Management. A slide show from Carlo Fadda at Bioversity.
3rd Annual Biodiversity Working for Farmers Tour in Idaho. 23rd June, you have been warned.
Huge New York Times story on plant breeding and climate change.
Bill Gates hails creativity for small farmers challenge.
American ginseng: use it or lose it.
Do you live in Ann Arbour? Do you want native plants for your garden? Yeah but how about American ginseng?

All about the International Treaty on PGRFA.
More, much more, on that climate change hotspots study.
IDRC on climate change adaptation in Africa. Almost nothing on agricultural diversity as a coping mechanism.
Unlike this.
Or this, for that matter. Never knew the Basque country was such a hotbed of potato research.
Or…oh forget it.
What, in the name of all that is happy, is hopniss?
Danone buys some goodwill.
Fairtrade chocolate: this looks like it should be really important. Is it?
So, you say you want to know what plant remains were found in the baskets in Tutankhamun’s tomb?
Bolivian agricultural biodiversity, anyone?