- Species distribution modelling to support forest management. A literature review. Embrace the uncertainty.
- First report of Fusarium wilt Tropical Race 4 in Cavendish bananas caused by Fusarium odoratissimum in Colombia. Inevitable.
- Seed Banking as Future Insurance Against Crop Collapses. “Although the basic technology of seed- (gene-)banking is relatively simple, there are nonetheless significant costs involved in effectively managing seed- (gene-)bank collections.” Elevator pitch desperately needed.
- Rapid loss of seed viability in ex situ conserved wheat and barley at 4°C as compared to −20°C storage. Colder the better.
- Origin and Development of Agriculture in New Guinea, Island Melanesia and Polynesia. Maybe 5-6 distinct stages since 7000 BP.
- Exotic eucalypts: From demonized trees to allies of tropical forest restoration? Maybe.
- Quantifying the impacts of defaunation on natural forest regeneration in a global meta-analysis. Forests need vertebrates. No word on where eucalypts stand.
- Market-mediated responses confound policies to limit deforestation from oil palm expansion in Malaysia and Indonesia. Bans are not enough…
- The ‘Capitalist Squeeze’ and the Rise and Fall of Sumatra’s Krui Agroforests. …you need active forest conservation too.
- Rapid Phenotypic and Metabolomic Domestication of Wild Penicillium Molds on Cheese. Wild molds adapt to cheese, can eventually make camembert.
- A global synthesis reveals biodiversity-mediated benefits for crop production. Need species richness for pollination, biological pest control and final yields.
- Animal source foods: Sustainability problem or malnutrition and sustainability solution? Perspective matters. Let them eat meat.
- The vitality of fruit trees in ancient Bedouin orchards in the Arid Negev Highlands (Israel): Implications of climatic change and environmental stability. Recycling centuries-old infrastructure in the desert.
- The Genomic Basis for Short-Term Evolution of Environmental Adaptation in Maize. Significant shift in adaptation of tropical landrace to temperate conditions in 10 generations with little loss of genetic diversity.
Brainfood: Tea diversity, Sorghum CWR, Wine certification, Salty maize, Broadening cacao, Wild emmer evolution, Wheat breeding, Nutrition info, Indian rice, Dietary diversity treble, Potato enhancement
- Assessment of Genetic Diversity of Tea Germplasm for Its Management and Sustainable Use in Korea Genebank. There’s not enough.
- Crop wild relatives as a genetic resource for generating low-cyanide, drought-tolerant Sorghum. From Australia, of all places.
- Consumers’ preferences for biodiversity in vineyards: a choice experiment on wine. Even buyers of cheap plonk are willing to pay for biodiversity.
- Characterization of natural genetic variation identifies multiple genes involved in salt tolerance in maize. 8 of them, at least.
- Extending the cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) gene pool with underrepresented genotypes: growth and yield traits. Lots of potential for broadening the base of the crop in West Africa.
- Elevated mutation and selection in wild emmer wheat in response to 28 years of global warming. Evolution continues, but not necessarily in a good way.
- Genetic Gains in Wheat Breeding and Its Role in Feeding the World. Focusing on ICARDA and CIMMYT. How much would have been possible without the genebanks?
- Agriculture–nutrition linkages in farmers’ communication networks. You can spread nutrition information through existing agricultural extension channels, but you have to be gender sensitive and some people may be excluded. Twas ever thus.
- Population genetics analyses of North-East Indian indigenous rice landraces revealed divergent history and alternate origin of aroma in aus group. A real melting pot.
- Review: Meta-analysis of the association between production diversity, diets, and nutrition in smallholder farm households. Increasing production diversity won’t always lead to improved diets. But it could.
- Farm-Level Agricultural Biodiversity in the Peruvian Andes Is Associated with Greater Odds of Women Achieving a Minimally Diverse and Micronutrient Adequate Diet. Like here for instance.
- Farm-Level Agricultural Biodiversity Is Not the Principal Contributor to Diverse and Micronutrient-Rich Diets, nor to Overall Food Consumption in Smallholder Farm Households. Or maybe not.
- Potato Germplasm Enhancement Enters the Genomics Era. About time? Or jumping the gun?
Brainfood: Clean vines, Wild maize diversity, Heirloom beans, Domestication, Cryptic variation, African rice evaluation, Fall armyworm, Food prices, Human pathogens, Farm biodiversity, Microbiome, Infographics, Tea diversity, Mekong dietary diversity, Women & NUS
- Efficiency of insect‐proof net tunnels in reducing virus‐related seed degeneration in sweet potato. “Seed” meaning vines. And yes, those tunnels work.
- Divergence with gene flow is driven by local adaptation to temperature and soil phosphorus concentration in teosinte subspecies (Zea mays parviglumis and Zea mays mexicana). Genetic differences between the two subspecies is maintained by adaptive divergence despite gene flow.
- Agronomic Performance and Nitrogen Fixation of Heirloom and Conventional Dry Bean Varieties Under Low-Nitrogen Field Conditions. Not much difference, which is actually interesting.
- Evolutionary Insights into the Nature of Plant Domestication. It’s a long process, in which natural selection and interspecific hybridization play an important part, involving many of the same genes across species.
- Cryptic genetic variation accelerates evolution by opening access to diverse adaptive peaks. Add to the above? Ah no, only in bacteria so far.
- Screening African rice (Oryza glaberrima) for tolerance to abiotic stresses: III Flooding. From a collection of >2,000 to 11 better than Asian rice. You’re wondering about I and II, aren’t you?
- Understanding the factors influencing fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda J.E. Smith) damage in African smallholder maize fields and quantifying its impact on yield. A case study in Eastern Zimbabwe. Differences among maize varieties, but weeding, tillage and intercropping also have an effect. Have yield losses been overestimated, though? Maybe.
- Natural selection contributed to immunological differences between hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists. But the evidence seems to be that the pathogen burden was higher for the hunter-gatherers, which goes counter to everything we’ve been taught by Jared Diamond.
- Increasing crop heterogeneity enhances multitrophic diversity across agricultural regions. More crops means more biodiversity in general.
- More Than the Sum of Its Parts: Microbiome Biodiversity as a Driver of Plant Growth and Soil Health. More microbes mean better plant growth.
- Science–graphic art partnerships to increase research impact. Free your inner artist.
- Genetic diversity, linkage disequilibrium, and population structure analysis of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis) from an origin center, Guizhou plateau, using genome-wide SNPs developed by genotyping-by-sequencing. Four groups: pure wild type, admixed wild type, ancient landraces and modern landraces.
- The Relative Caloric Prices of Healthy and Unhealthy Foods Differ Systematically across Income Levels and Continents. …and at least partially explain differences in undernutrition and overweight in adults. Here’s the infographic.
- Household-level drivers of dietary diversity in transitioning agricultural systems: Evidence from the Greater Mekong Subregion. It’s complicated and context-specific, but dietary diversity seems to generally increase with agricultural “development,” i.e. market orientation, specialisation, and intensification. Somewhat surprising? I’ve lost track, frankly.
- Potential role of neglected and underutilized plant species in improving women’s empowerment and nutrition in areas of sub-Saharan Africa. So is increasing cultivation of orphan crops a driver or a consequence of agricultural development? See what I mean? Anyway, useful review.
Nibbles: Language erosion, Cacao genebank, Singapore genebank, Coffee fund, Insect pollination, Sustainable ag
- The link between language and biodiversity loss.
- Cacao genebank does more than conserve cacao diversity.
- Singapore gets into seed-banking. Not cacao, though.
- Sachs proposes big coffee fund to ensure sustainably. No word on genebanks, though.
- If you want to increase the cultivation of an insect-pollinated crop, you should diversify your agriculture.
- Sustainable not necessarily equal to organic.
Brainfood: Molecular characterization, Ancient weed, Patagonian berries, Strawberry origins controversy, Potato & nutrition, European potatoes, Extension, Cacao, Maize & wheat breeding history, Rural employment, Production stability, Amazonian Neolithic, Fairtrade wages
- Genebank genomics bridges the gap between the conservation of crop diversity and plant breeding. What do we want? An accurate genotype-to-phenotype map for all seeds stored in the genebank. When do we want it? As soon as we have the money to ensure their conservation.
- The origins of cannabis smoking: Chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs. Well, that’s like your opinion, man. Residues in incense burners used for mortuary rituals, if you must know.
- Patagonian berries as native food and medicine. Good, and good for you.
- Revisiting the Origin of the Octoploid Strawberry. Not 4 separate diploid progenitors, as another paper recently found, but rather 2 extant ones, once you re-do the math.
- The Nutritional Contribution of Potato Varietal Diversity in Andean Food Systems: a Case Study. It’s great, but it’s not enough.
- The origins and adaptation of European potatoes reconstructed from historical genomes. Sequencing of old herbarium specimens, including Darwin’s, shows that early introductions to Europe were from the Andes, and later admixed there with Chilean and wild material, forming a sort of secondary centre of diversity.
- Effect of Intensive Agriculture-Nutrition Education and Extension Program Adoption and Diffusion of Biofortified Crops. Breeding is not enough.
- Morphological characterisation and evaluation of cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) in Trinidad to facilitate utilisation of Trinitario cacao globally. Now we know which ones are the best, for different reasons.
- Evolution of US maize (Zea mays L.) root architectural and anatomical phenes over the past 100 years corresponds to increased tolerance of nitrogen stress. There has been unconscious selection for root traits resulting in better N use efficiency. An old paper, resurrected because of the next one.
- Breeding improves wheat productivity under contrasting agrochemical input levels. Breeding wheat in Europe for good performance under high input levels has not markedly affected its performance under more challenging conditions. Diversity has held up too.
- Positive outcomes between crop diversity and agricultural employment worldwide. Irrespective of input levels and economic growth rates.
- National food production stabilized by crop diversity. Crop diversity is not just good for rural employment (see above), but for year-on-year production stability too.
- Climate change and cultural resilience in late pre-Columbian Amazonia. And it was sort of the same in ancient Amazonia.
- Effects of Fairtrade on the livelihoods of poor rural workers. Fairtrade improves wages of workers in cooperatives, but not on small farms.