Nibbles – Page 466 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

September 18, 2007September 18, 2007

Dry numbers

Interesting links on drought.

September 18, 2007September 18, 2007

Biotechnology annual report available

The biotech industry’s annual pat-on-the-back report is available from ISAAA.

September 17, 2007

Hot peppers celebrated

Damn, I missed the Peperoncino Festival!

September 15, 2007September 16, 2007

Pachyrhizus power

Yam bean a major high-proteinÂ starch staple?

September 14, 2007September 14, 2007

Globalized fruit

Globalization = Vietnamese family growing pitaya in California.

- China is building its germplasm collection at the National Frigid Zone Crop and Soybean Germplasm Resources Mid-term Bank in Harbin. Cool.
- Driscoll’s helped build China’s blueberry industry, then discovered that knowledge, infrastructure and genetics have a habit of escaping. Not so cool.
- Meanwhile, the Philippines wants its rice collection to hit 21,000 varieties by the end of the year. IRRI unavailable for comment.
- Italy is establishing a major global olive genebank. Unclear where it fits in with other major global olive genebanks, but some redundancy is good.
- FAO showcases Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems, where crops, landscapes and traditional knowledge have survived together. Like olives in Italy, I guess.
- The mangelwurzel is making a comeback, because apparently forgotten root vegetables just need better publicity, and not a fancy GIAHS.
- Ohio growers are trying to save the pawpaw just as Americans are discovering it, partly because of better publicity.
- BeanGPT is bringing AI to breeding and farming beans. Maybe it can help the mangelwurzel and pawpaw too?
Published on September 23, 2026