Category: Policy

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Nibbles: Gardens, Heirloom tomatoes, Maple beetles, Nepali citrus, Guyana adaptation, Indian policy, GMOS, Apple festivals

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Lots of questions about agrobiodiversity

After years of web-based consultation and diligent sifting through the numerous submissions, we now have the final list of “One hundred important questions facing plant science research” in the form of a paper in New Phytologist. The 100-questions thing may be approaching self-parody, but I will resist the temptation to mock the whole enterprise and simply point out here that there are several questions in the list which involve agricultural biodiversity, its conservation and effective use. I’ll leave you with the most obvious example, question E6:

How can we ensure the long-term availability of genetic diversity within socio-economically valuable gene pools?

Leave your answer in the comments.

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Nibbles: Dutch soybeans, American flora and vegetation, Cassava pests, Bangladesh biocrats

  • Do you have a small parcel of land in the Netherlands that you would not mind being used to test soybean varieties? Non-GMO, mind.
  • Kew has a couple of new online resources on Neotropical plants.
  • We need an international early warning system for cassava problems.
  • “Is there anyone in Bangladesh to look deep into the workings of the biocrats who are bent on advancing the cause of giant companies at the expense of the people’s long-term food security?”