Nutrition

March 30, 2011March 30, 2011

Yo! Pavlovsk Politicos! Listen up!

Some of the accessions investigated by the project are nutritionally much more valuable than others. Thanks to the project, we know which berries they are. Thanks to Pavlovsk, we have the berries. On that basis alone, surely they’re more valuable than the land they occupy on the outskirts of St Petersburg. Let’s hope that the project team is successful in getting that policy message across tomorrow.

The Vaviblog reports on the first day of an important meeting, a round-up of the project on Conservation, characterization and evaluation for nutrition and health of vegetatively propagated crop collections at the Vavilov Institute.

March 30, 2011March 30, 2011

Zimbabwe revisited; please reward GardenAfrica

A couple of weeks ago I moaned that the description for a project to Support Zimbabwean smallholders to feed their communities and conserve their natural heritage had “failed to set my heart aflutter”. A little wordly magic has now been wrought on the proposal, which I now honestly believe gives a better picture of what the project is setting out to do. The very least you can now do is to reinforce GardenAfrica’s behaviour by heading over to the Coop site and voting for this proposal in the Tackling Global Poverty category.

Thanks.

March 29, 2011March 29, 2011

VIR collection is berry nutritious

Inside the VIR cryotank, a photo by luigig on Flickr.

I’m in St Petersburg for a meeting organized by VIR and Bioversity International on the Luxembourg-funded project “Conservation, characterization and evaluation for nutrition and health of vegetatively propagated crop collections at the Vavilov Institute.” More later, hopefully, at Vaviblog…

March 28, 2011March 30, 2011

Brainfood: Striga, Rice, Fish, Biofortification, Ecosystem functioning, Intercrops

OK, so we’re trying an experiment, siphoning off Nibbles about research, often in peer-reviewed journals, into their own hi-falutin’ cookie jar. We’ll probably publish once a week. And being here doesn’t mean we won’t revisit them later.

Genetic diversity of a parasitic weed, Striga hermonthica, on sorghum and pearl millet in Mali. The parasite is diverse, but no differences in parasitized fields.
Genetic differentiation among Sri Lankan traditional rice (Oryza sativa) varieties and wild rice species by AFLP markers. Four major clusters agree with morphology.
Genetic variation in farmed populations of the gilthead sea bream Sparus aurata in Greece using microsatellite DNA markers. Farmed are less diverse and less heterozygous.
Restoration of hay meadows on ex-arable land: commercial seed mixtures vs. spontaneous succession. No difference in long-term diversity, but there are other considerations.
Bio-available zinc in rice seeds is increased by activation tagging of nicotianamine synthase. It works.
Soil fauna alter the effects of litter composition on nitrogen cycling in a mineral soil. It’s complex; larger fauna affect N dynamics.
Dry matter yield, nitrogen content, and competition in pea–cereal intercropping systems. Intercrops are more productive and deliver higher forage quality.

So what do you reckon? Is this worthwhile?

March 26, 2011March 26, 2011

Gardens of peace and reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The project isn’t just about food – reconciliation and the regaining of trust are equally important. We’re working with people who suffered a lot during the war and our main goal is to bring conflicting sides together. We’ve tried to make a secure space where thoughts and opinions can be exchanged freely; somewhere people can be useful to both the community and their families.

The secure space is in urban gardens. Great idea.

The link to the Community Gardens Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina is wrong in the article. You can find them at their website and on Facebook. Go support them, even just by making seed donations.