Nibbles – Page 463 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

September 22, 2007September 22, 2007

National fruit of Cambodia

Chicken egg banana. Not diversity, a variety name.

September 21, 2007September 21, 2007

How domestication happens

Blog commentary on a paper about serendipitous backyard domestication.

September 21, 2007September 21, 2007

Atomic energy for agriculture

Make food not war: FAO head praises International Atomic Energy Agency.

September 19, 2007September 19, 2007

Norway to ban pig castration

To snip or not to snip? Norway bans pig castrations, The Economist ponders the ramifications.

September 19, 2007September 19, 2007

Camel farming

Farm camels, feed them halophytes to fight desertification?Â

1. In the UK, Herefordshire’s Museum of Cider is picking up national recognition for its genebank of heritage apple trees. The BBC’s canonical autumnal apple story comes a little early this year.
2. Speaking of iconic apples, Kazakhstan is scaling up efforts to bring back the Aport, the giant heirloom that once made Almaty famous. No word of museums, though. Or cider.
3. Over in the Philippines, Department of Environment and Natural Resources is beefing up its rattan genebank to keep pace with demand, with forest stewards in Bukidnon planting seedlings to match. Furniture makers need genebanks as much as cider makers.
4. Sri Lanka’s pre-Green Revolution heirloom rice varieties, purana haal, are being eyed for their resilience and disease-management potential. Good thing they’re in the national genebank.
5. Saudi Arabia’s Jazan terraced coffee farms are turning into rural and ecotourism hotspots, proving not all agrobiodiversity needs to be in a genebank to survive. But it helps.
Published on August 9, 2026