Category: Nutrition

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Bigger not necessarily better in agrobiodiversity

Jeremy says we sound like a broken record on the lack of agricultural thinking in biodiversity circles at times, and he’s right of course. More charitably, it could be thought of as judicious use of a leitmotif. In which case another one would certainly be the unfortunate dearth of information on nutritional composition at the variety or accession level, certainly as compared to morphological and agronomic information. The reason for that is that genetic resources scientists and breeders have been more interested in things like yield and disease resistance. That’s had consequences.

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US agricultural assistance to the vulnerable

The US Bureau of International Information Programs has been producing “a series of articles on U.S. food aid and agricultural assistance for vulnerable populations around the world.” The fifth is just out, and this is how it starts:

Scientists from the United States and other nations want to create another “green revolution,” particularly in Africa, that would help poor countries better meet their own food needs and the demands of export markets.

Within governmental, university and private-sector partnerships, researchers are working on new agricultural technologies that can help poor countries end food scarcity and malnutrition.

The article then goes on to list various examples of US scientists working with national agricultural research programmes around the world and CGIAR centres to develop such innovations as “improved crop varieties, more effective fertilizers, new livestock vaccines and new food-processing techniques.”

Which is fine. But why not even a passing mention of the National Plant Germplasm System? At over 450,000 accessions, the genebanks of the NPGS are second only to those of the CGIAR in the amount of agrobiodiversity they conserve. That’s a lot of raw materials for innovation.