- Clonal diversity and estimation of relative clone age: application to agrobiodiversity of yam (Dioscorea rotundata). Some clones are almost two thousand years old.
- Development of a cost-effective diversity-maximising decision-support tool for in situ crop genetic resources conservation. The case of cacao. Sure, you can use molecular markers and fancy maths, but in the end you’ll still need to make some judgement calls.
- Fishing in the gene pool — how useful was the catch? We have the technology. Do we have the policies?
- The Wheat Black Jack: Advances Towards Sequencing the 21 Chromosomes of Bread Wheat. See what I mean about the technologies?
- Reduction of pesticide use can increase earthworm populations in wheat crops in a European temperate region. Prince Charles will be pleased.
- Areas of Increasing Agricultural Abandonment Overlap the Distribution of Previously Common, Currently Threatened Plant Species. In Japan, abandoned farmland can be good and bad for threatened species. Damn scientists. Never a straight answer.
- Can agroforestry option values improve the functioning of drivers of agricultural intensification in Africa? Yes. But please, sir, what’s option value?
- Biodiversity through Domestication. Examples from New Guinea. What 8000 years of horticulture will do to diversity. I wonder if some yam clones go back that long.
- Establishment of the integrated applied core collection and its comparison with mini core collection in soybean (Glycine max). You lost me at integrated.
- Variability in sensory attributes in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.): a first survey in the Iberian secondary diversity center. Agronomy does not correlate with taste. So you can breed for both.
Nibbles: Banana bionformatics, Banana problems, Dietary diversity indicator, SoD meet, MSSRF & millets, Intercropping tree crops, Ecosystem management, UNEP atlas, Pacific ABS, Seed theft
- Data geeks tuck into bananas.
- Will it help the Filipino smallholder, though?
- Dietary diversity suggested as an indicator of welfare at national level. Wow.
- Seeds of Discovery discovers it has made progress.
- Celebrating a potato breeder. We should do more of that.
- Beer-fueled conservation. Not what you’re thinking.
- Milling minor millets means more money.
- CIRAD breaks down intercropping rubber. And nutmeg?
- Better forest governance by the numbers. How about savannas
- Arab region gets an environmental atlas. Also in Google Earth.
- The Pacific learns about the ITPGRFA. Not for the first time…
- I guess these guys didn’t know about MTAs.
Nibbles: Intensive livestock, Genetic erosion, Genetic diversity … in India, NUS, Domestication, Seminars, Nutrition, Prince of Wales
With sincere apologies for the lack of service. It’s just been that kind of week. For both of us.
- “[H]ow a powerful and intransigent agriculture lobby has successfully fought off attempts to reduce the harmful environmental and health impacts of mass livestock production.” Say it isn’t so.
- “[A] planet that has lost 75% of its plant genetic diversity between 1900 and 2000.” Mythbusters? FAO don’t need no stinkin’ mythbusters.
- Here’s a little historical context for ya, on Seed Collection and Plant Genetic Diversity, 1900–1979
- Striving to gain insights into agro-biodiversity through surveys in Bijapur, India will doubtless add, er, something.
- Round up the usual NUSpects:
- And the unusual: Alpine rice, aka Microlaena stiphoides, a newly domesticated grass down under.
- You want more on domestication? AoB blog has you covered, with pointers to wheats and the artichoke cardoon nexus.
- A little learning … Is a wonderful thing?
- Functional agrobiodiversity in North-West Europe: What does the future hold? 11 December, Brussels.
- Improving agriculture’s impact on under-nutrition: What do we know and what do we need to know? 27 November, London.
- EndingHunger Online University. Seriously, everyone’s an expert now.
- Cynical, moi? Not compared to the guy who wrote Implausible results in human nutrition research. Definitely one to cut out, boil lightly, season, and eat.
- Speaking of cynics, “The Prince of Wales writes passionately about the future of farming and the countryside in this week’s Country Life, which he has guest-edited on the occasion of his 65th birthday.”
You really can’t make this stuff up.
Brainfood: Asian American horticulture, Salt resistant Vigna, Rubber dandelion, Biofortifying wheat, US apple cores, Central European barley, Swedish peas, Alpine dairy, CAP crap, MVP
- Asian Germplasm in American Horticulture: New Thoughts on an Old Theme. The tap has sort of run dry.
- Identification of salt resistant wild relatives of mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek). From 22 accessions of 7 species to 2 accessions of 2 species. Now for the hard part.
- Available germplasm of the potential rubber crop belongs to a poor rubber producer, (Compositae–Crepidinae).
Cultivation of the Russian dandelion (Taraxacum koksaghyz) was no such thing, but taxonomy has the answer. - Biofortification strategies to increase grain zinc and iron concentrations in wheat. Not just about the breeding.
- Diversity Captured in the USDA-ARS National Plant Germplasm System Apple Core Collection. Apple core? Seriously.
- Genes for resistance to powdery mildew in European winter barley cultivars registered in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to 2010. There’s quite a few of them, some of them previously unknown. Oh those jammy breeders. And beer drinkers.
- Genetic diversity in local cultivars of garden pea (Pisum sativum L.) conserved ‘on farm’ and in historical collections. Little connection between historical and current material, and genetic erosion both in genebanks and on farms.
- Dairy systems in mountainous areas: Farm animal biodiversity, milk production and destination, and land use. The traditional, low-input systems are best for sustainability and biodiversity, but have low productivity, but geographic appellations for cheeses can make up for that.
- The contribution of the EU Common Agricultural Policy to protecting biodiversity and global climate in Europe. Is, ahem, limited.
- Can Big Push Interventions Take Small-Scale Farmers out of Poverty? Insights from the Sauri Millennium Village in Kenya. Greater productivity (due to seeds and fertilizers) compared to nearby villages does not translate into higher incomes. Well that’s awkward.
Nibbles: Soil testing kit, Sustainable farming, Coffee and climate change, BGI genebank, Bamboo genebank, Genebank management, India’s malnutrition, Phenotyping conference, CIP genebank video, CG impact, Feed the World
Luigi went on a three-week trip, and all he came back with was this:
- A new soil testing kit? Really?
- Ok, how about a SciDev Spotlight featurette on sustainable farming? No? Well, can I tempt you with the British Ecological Society on agroecology then?
- Oh, I bet this thing on coffee and climate change will hit home.
- I’m pretty sure news of yet another Chinese genebank (of sorts) won’t.
- Pssst. Got room for a new bamboo genebank too?
- They’ll need a genebank management system, won’t they? GRIN and bear it.
- News too of hunger and malnutrition in India, by Indians, for … er …
- Phenotyping conference, anyone? Anyone at all? Some EU breeders will no doubt be there. And some of them at least will find a new map of water risk useful in their work.
- And to end with, Al Jazeera on the CIP potato genebank. You heard me.
- As you were, there’s the CGIAR Knowledge Day too, all about delivery and impact. I wonder if the genebanks will feature…
- Not so fast, there’s also a live webcast of the conference Feeding the World without Consuming the Planet that awaits you.