Nibbles – Page 477 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

Horse diversity

The wonders of livestock breeding.

July 27, 2007July 27, 2007

“Sex tree” threatened

Ugandans are overexploiting “a natural Viagra”, Citropsis articulata.

Scent of a strawberry

Wild strawberries smell good. Ingmar Bergman unavailable for comment.

US-Africa cooperation on cowpea breeding

African students breeding Striga-resistant cowpeaÂ at US uni.

July 24, 2007July 24, 2007

Animal genetic resources

Big report: Legal aspects of exchange, use and conservation of farm animal genetic resources.

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