- Bolivia ramps up coca production. Sniff.
- Tamil Nadu ramps up rice breeding.
- Bulgaria ramps up artisanal cheese production.
- Collaboration between organic and biotech ramped up. In other news, pigs fly.
- Ramp up use of microbes, microbiologist says. Nobody surprised.
- Americans ramp up production of purple potatoes.
- Everyone ramps up bean production. To save the planet, no less.
- Can agroforestry be used to ramp up tree conservation? Well, maybe?
- Need to ramp up sweet potato marketing.
Brainfood: Pests & CC, Germplasm pix, Latvian legume rescue, Estonian potatoes, NZ genebanks, Yam polyploids, Tree evaluation, Ethiopian veggie, European seed law, Zulu sheep, Celosia management
- Crop pests and pathogens move polewards in a warming world. At 3 km/year.
- Systems for making NIAS Core Collections, single-seed-derived germplasm, and plant photo images available to the research community. The next level in genetic resources documentation?
- Recovering Genetic Resources of Some Legume Species of Latvian Origin by Plant Tissue Culture. You have to work at it.
- Overview of in vitro Preservation of Potato and Use of the Gene Bank Material in Estonia. They like coloured potatoes in Estonia.
- The key roles of seed banks in plant biodiversity management in New Zealand. Are many and varied.
- Microsatellite and flow cytometry analysis to help understand the origin of Dioscorea alata polyploids. Unreduced gametes did it.
- Genetic variation in progenies of Jacaranda cuspidifolia Mart using the fan systematic design. Yon can measure genetic variation and evaluate performance under different spacings at the same time, which is important in a tree.
- Diversity analysis in Plectranthus edulis (Vatke) Agnew collection in Ethiopia. As ever, a considerable amount of variability was found. Oh hum.
- The European seed legislation on conservation varieties: focus, implementation, present and future impact on landrace on farm conservation. There should be more landraces in the Common Catalogue.
- Characterization of Zulu sheep production system: Implications for conservation and improvement. If they’re so drought tolerant, why is drought threatening them? Well, there’s drought, and then there’s drought.
- Effects of paraquat on genetic diversity and protein profiles of six varieties of Celosia in South-Western Nigeria. That would be a tasty and diverse local leafy green. Well, before the paraquat anyway.
Nibbles: Citrus cryo, Vegetables everywhere, Threatened ecosystems, Brazilian ag, Native restoration, Regeneration video, Nomenclature, Grass pea, Tef, Millet, Hops, Kenyan rabbits, Bloody quinoa
- Saving citrus by freezing it.
- WorldVeg pushing tomatoes in the Solomons. New York next? Ah, but what they really need is Mind Gardens. Oh, and a how-to-save-seeds book. Or maybe just Jeremy’s latest podcast on breeding your own veggies.
- Ecosystems get their red list too.
- “Although there are some who consider Brazilian agriculture to be aggressive and destructive, we want to share another vision for the rest of the tropical belt…”
- But if it’s too late, of course you can try to restore them.
- Video of wheat regeneration in Canada. Like watching grass grow. No, wait.
- The naming of plants, music to our ears.
- Kew does Lathyrus sativus, grass pea to the rest of you, music to Luigi’s ears.
- IFPRI is going great nutritional guns, with the low-down on tef and biofortified millet.
- So, Big Picture Agriculture’s hop garden is flourishing.
- Likewise rabbits in Kenya.
- Enough already with the quinoa.
Nibbles: Superweeds, Old spices, Companies and nutrition, Bananas and cacao, Coffee pix, Potato restaurant, Millet processing, Aussie social herbarium, Rockefeller Story, Apple nutrition, And a bottle of rum…
- Those who like that sort of thing will no doubt enjoy this discussion at Biofortified of that recent paper about a herbicide resistance transgene possibly giving a fitness advantage to weeds. And more.
- As for me, I’d rather read about Neolithic spices. Or beer.
- Some food companies more committed to nutrition than others shock. But good to have the data.
- Bananas to the rescue in cacao plantations. If I had the willpower I’d try to mash it up with the previous thing. Anyway, coffee next?
- Eating more spuds in the Village. Eating more millets in the village.
- Australian National Herbarium gets a Facebook page.
- The history of the Rockefeller Foundation’s agriculture work. That would include the Green Revolution.
- Really confused Telegraph piece on heirloom and/or organic apples.
- I guess I missed National Rum Day. But I’m nevertheless glad that it exists.
Brainfood: Coloured wheat, Very wild wheat, Yam bean, Turkish pigeons, Impact of margarine, Refugia, GM and choice, Indian sorghum, Cameroonian oil palm
- The anthocyanin content of blue and purple coloured wheat cultivars and their hybrid generations. In other news, there are blue and purple wheat cultivars.
- Phylogenetic relationships and Y genome origin in Elymus L. sensu lato (Triticeae; Poaceae) based on single-copy nuclear Acc1 and Pgk1 gene sequences. It’s a very diverse genus, probably polyphyletic, and has exchanged genes with Aegilops/Triticum in the past. And could again in the future, presumably.
- Microsatellite Markers for the Yam Bean Pachyrhizus (Fabaceae). They work, both on the 3 (sic) cultivated species and 2 wild relatives.
- The domestic livestock resources of Turkey: inventory of pigeon groups and breeds with notes on breeder organizations. 72 breeds? Really?
- Land use impact assessment of margarine. Land occupation by the crops involved has a bigger impact on ecosystem services and biodiversity than the transformation process.
- Bio-cultural refugia — Safeguarding diversity of practices for food security and biodiversity. Important for food security locally, but also because of the memories of how the “surprises of the past” were handled.
- Farmer’s choice of seeds in four EU countries under different levels of GM crop adoption. More GM adoption = less choice. For maize in 4 European countries anyway.
- Sorghum landraces patronized by tribal communities in Adilabad district, Andhra Pradesh. And now safe in NBPGR too.
- Molecular characterization of oil palm Elaeis guineensis Jacq. materials from Cameroon. It’s all one big populations, and you don’t need that many accessions to represent the whole.