- Didn’t quite believe The Economist? Neither does Prof. de Schutter.
- Specialty Crops for Pacific Island Agroforestry ready for prime time.
- New Agriculturist celebrates women.
- Banana network newsletter celebrates the International Transit Centre. Maybe it could treat itself to a new name?
Nibbles: UG99, Synsepalum dulciforum
- Slim pickings 1: “Rust never sleeps.”
- Slim pickings 2: silly idea for solving world hunger.
Nibbles: Biofuels, Avocado, Seed systems, Himalaya, Umbria
- Corn and ethanol, sitting in a tree … it’s complicated.
- More than anyone — except us — could ever want to know about the avocado. h/t Nicola.
- FAO prescribes seed systems for small farmers. h/t CIAT blog.
- Slides about agricultural biodiversity in the Himalaya; wish I knew what to make of it, if anything.
- Umbria says “COLTIVIAMO LA BIODIVERSITÀ“.
Test question (no prizes): What’s the link between avocados and orchids?
Nibbles: Flora, Agronomy podcasts, Stats, GFAR, Horses, Lettuce, Churst forests, Brazil nut, Grassland diversity, Baobab, Flotation, Botanic gardens and invasives, Nutrigenomics
- Picture guide to West African plants. Includes agrobiodiversity!
- Iowa State Agronomy podcasts. Some cool stuff. Check out the one on “Modeling Seed Germination Over Time to Decide When to Regenerate Seed Lots in Long-term Storage.”
- A “formal global program to develop subnational agricultural land-use statistics“? Riiiiight.
- GFAR meeting on sustainable use of agrobiodiversity says “[w]e need to initiate solid and inclusive actions to build concerted and practical actions on sustainable use.” Well they do say actions speak louder than words.
- Researcher “trying to remove the perception that hackneys are ‘half-crazed.'” I’d rather pay to save them if they were crazy, but that’s me.
- Romaine: germplasm to breeding lines. But to cultivars? Private sector to pick up the slack.
- Crops not mentioned among species that save our lives.
- Saving sacred groves in Ethiopia. By building pit latrines. Well why not?
- Brazil nut spread by people.
- A trade-off between species and genetic diversity? Say it
ain’t so! - Today’s iconic species threatened by climate change is the baobab.
- An Egyptian archaeobotanical blog.
- Botanic gardens can threaten biodiversity.
- Nature has (or had, it’s a couple months old) a supplement on nutrigenomics.
Nibbles: Plant Cuttings, Truffles, Diseases, Vegetables, Capsicum, Calestous Juma
- Nigel Chaffey’s roundup of botanical news is out.
- Learn how to grow truffles. For Canadians.
- ILRI policy brief on how agriculture and human health are connected. Bottom line: it’s complicated.
- AVRDC introduces you to Mali’s Magnificent Cube.
- Biofortified on pepper breeding.
- Calestous Juma in the New Agriculturist on why he’s optimistic about African agriculture.