Nibbles – Page 430 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

February 2, 2008

Plantstress website

All you ever wanted to know about helping plants cope with environmental stresses.

February 1, 2008

New GFU publication

Geographic indications to the rescue of agrobiodiversity.

January 31, 2008

Survey of European attitudes to biodiversity loss published

Europeans worried about biodiversity loss. Agrobiodiversity unavailable for comment.

January 30, 2008

Origin of European potatoes

DNA from old potato herbarium specimens re-writes textbooks.

January 30, 2008January 31, 2008

New book

Lost African fruits found.

1. A North Macedonian professor’s 15-year rescue mission for landraces and crops surviving only in remote villages. Why bother? Stay tuned…
2. Ancient grapevines in Tigray represent a unique genetic lineage with potential value for breeding varieties adapted to dryland conditions.
3. Hawai’i Public Radio checks in on Maui’s coconut genebank. Useful to breed varieties adapted to really wet conditions, presumably.
4. The Cayman Islands are also hoarding coconuts, along with lots of tasty fruits.
5. A USD 400,000 boost from Taiwan for the Eswatini national genebank. Indigenous vegetables get much-needed love.
6. A regional survey of 25 orphan crops across 13 Latin American countries finds quinoa and amaranth well-catalogued, but characterization budgets are the real bottleneck. Collecting and conserving in genebanks is great, but not enough.
7. South Korea puts 330,000 seed accessions under “double lock”, hedging against both climate change and war. Conserving in one place is not enough.
8. FAO warns that nearly a third of the world can’t afford the USD 4.28 a day that a healthy diet costs — nearly three billion people, and rising. That’s why we need al the above, I guess.
Published on July 28, 2026