- The Lancet waxes optimistic on hunger and poverty goals.
- Korea keen to help compile information on African livestock.
- Is there nothing Jatropha cannot do? Now it’s a carbon sink.
- Fijian ginger and Ethiopian beans; two value chains explored in the latest New Agriculturalist.
- An International Symposium on Vegetables in August 2014, with lots of interest, but as it is under the ISHS you’ll have to pay to read about it.
- “Temperature alters population dynamics of common plant pests.” Ya don’t say.
- “Help a Bolivian farmer: Eat quinoa“. Now there’s a headline with attitude.
What’s eating India?
Resources Research undertook a labour of love to produce this graph. It shows, for 20 Indian states, roughly how much of pulses and cereals each tenth of the population eats each month. I urge you to go and read the full post for the details.
Bottom line: Of the 200 populations, 43 are “severely deficient” in cereals and pulses required per month.
The graph is based on data from national surveys of “Consumer Expenditure,” so I don’t know whether it includes food people grow rather than buy, but I doubt that makes much difference overall.
Makanaka makes lots of interesting points about the data, comparing the 2009-2010 survey with a similar one done five years before. Overall, this is a terrific example of open data allowing people to offer alternative interpretations to the standard line.
Nibbles: DIY entomophagy, Svalbard movie, Perennial crops, IPM
- Grow your own delicious bugs for snacks. I feel duty bound to point out that the snacks in question are flies, not bugs. And where’s my donut?
- This short film about the Svalbard seed vault is not nearly as scary as it’s poster image.
- FAO hosts an expert workshop on perennial crops, for three days in August.
- The ENDURE network – “diversifying crop protection” – says Danish farmers love Integrated Pest Management. And the Endure network.
Nibbles: Brazil nut, PVP, Dog evolution, Plant Treaty in India, Kerala veggies, Rust tracking latest, Adapt or die, Quinoa latest, NZ seed exchange, African soybeans, Ancient aquaculture
- The Brazil nut needs its pollinators.
- How USDA protects plant varieties.
- American dogs are Asian, not European.
IndiaNepal working out how to implement the ITPGRFA.- Kerala’s vegetable terrace gardeners.
- Haven’t heard much about Ug99 lately, have we? Doesn’t mean people aren’t keeping a careful eye on it.
- Climate change 10,000 times faster than vertebrate evolution.
- Why quinoa is not “taking over the world.”
- Not even New Zealand. Though not for want of trying.
- In the meantime, soybeans taking over Africa?
- Aquaculture that’s sustainable and ancient. Includes taro fish ponds, which for some reason seem to me cool beyond measure.
Nibbles: Tree ID, Pyramid scheme, Looking ahead, Fun with mould, GM wheat, Sinai reclaimed
Stuff that’s been sitting around while I’ve been lying on a beach:
- Speaking of apps for agriculture, here’s one that identifies North American trees.
- R. Ford Denison spots the weakness in an afro-forestry get-rich-quick scheme.
- Public Radio International has a big series on feeding the 9 billion — and wants photos of your lunch.
- I’ve no idea why people are squeamish about smut. Huitlacoche is my personal favourite among Smithsonian MAG’s Four Fungi Fit For Your Plate.
- No idea what’s happened lately to Monsanto’s GM wheat fiasco. Is the US National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation off the hook?
- And something old yet new: reclaiming the Sinai for agriculture by reviving an ancient river.