- After yesterday’s thing on gum arabic, CIFOR’s blogger weighs in on frankincense and myrrh. Gums and resins renaissance, anyone?
- VoA on the ITPGRFA, with interview goodness.
- Soy sauce in bullet points.
- A Spanish food historian’s deconstruction of the Mediterranean diet deconstructed by Rachel Laudan.
- Fish in paddies: here comes the science.
- Côte d’Ivoire to revive cacao cultivation. By building a research centre?
- Pleasant, cultured and not so short foray into the history of the sugar industry in Kenya and Mauritius.
- You say sweet potato. I say yam.
- You say yam, so does Rhizowen, and yet … he’s talking about neither Ipomoea nor Manihot.
- Urban agriculture thriving in DR Congo.
Brainfood: Kids and veggies, Common names, Markets, Barley genetic history, Inbreeding depression
- Exclusive breastfeeding duration and later intake of vegetables in preschool children. More breastfeeding means more vegetables later on.
- Common names of species, the curious case of Capra pyrenaica and the concomitant steps towards the ‘wild-to-domestic’ transformation of a flagship species and its vernacular names. Applying the common name of a domestic species to a wild one can cause problems. Yeah but how do you get across the importance of wild relatives otherwise?
- Testing the central market hypothesis: a multivariate analysis of Tanzanian sorghum markets. Lots of fancy maths proves there are basically two sorghum markets in Tanzania. But what does that mean for diversity?
- Evolutionary history of barley cultivation in Europe revealed by genetic analysis of extant landraces. Nine geographically-based populations, which go back to the early days of the spread of agriculture. Now, tell me someone, do they correspond with the human genetic data?
- Genetic erosion impedes adaptive responses to stressful environments. Stress reduces variability, which reduces ability to respond to stress.
Don’t forget the open Mendeley group for the papers we link to here.
Nutrition boosts productivity boosts nutrition
A new study from IFPRI looks at the link between agricultural productivity and nutrient consumption in Uganda. How does nutrient intake affect productivity? And how does productivity affect nutrient intake?
Using a structural equations model (SEM), estimation results clearly reveal the bidirectional relationship between productivity and nutrient intake. Labor productivity elasticity with respect to nutrient intake varies between 0.04 for vitamin B12 and 0.01 for Iron. Our findings suggest that labor productivity increases agricultural income as one would expect. We also find that nutrient intake as well as labor productivity positively affect agricultural income in Uganda. Overall, results indicate that agricultural productivity in Uganda is likely to be enhanced if nutrients intake is significantly increased.
I think that translates roughly as “win-win”. More than that, I cannot say.
Nibbles: Palestinian genebank, PNG seeds, Local chickens, Landscapes
- New seed bank on West Bank. This one seems to be a genebank. I think.
- Seeds and needs in PNG.
- ILRI PowerPoint on Ethiopian chickens. But 46 slides?
- Everybody’s talking about the new Landscapes for People, Food and Nature thing, so I guess we should too.
Nibbles: Fish blog, El Guardabosques, Andean crops, Traditional knowledge
- WorldFish director has a brand new blog with a fancy Latin tag. Expiscor: to fish out, to find out, and discover.
- Cuba boasts home-grown Guardians of the Forests.
- Promotion of Andean Crops for Rural Development in Ecuador. No idea what this is or why it popped up now, but worth sharing anyway.
- Bioversity shares slides on The role of agricultural biodiversity in diets in the developing world: Improving diet diversity, quality and ecosystem sustainability.
- IIED comes out for traditional methods to cope with climate change. Could we abandon this sterile dichotomy, please?