Policy

February 2, 2021March 29, 2023

The economics of biodiversity includes genebanks?

It’s 600-odd pages, but the Dasgupta Review on The Economics of Biodiversity, out today, may turn out to be worth reading in full, if these results of quick searches are anything to go by:

…widespread use of individual strains could deepen problems caused by the lack of genetic diversity in crops; introducing resistance into a wide variety of cultivars would counter this.

…future crop security in agriculture and industry is reliant on maintaining plant genetic diversity (Jump, Marchant, and Peñuelas, 2009). Another example of keeping our options open is the development of seed banks. Seed banks store the living genetic diversity of plants, in the form of seeds, to enable future use. Various types of seed bank exist, to support different sectors and interventions, e.g. agriculture, forestry, restoration and conservation. They provide a secure and relatively low-cost method of conserving a large amount of genetic material in a relatively small space.
…
The Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change Project was a global initiative covering 24 countries that focused on the seeds of wild relatives of 29 of the world’s most important crop species (Castañeda-Álvarez et al. 2016). Participants in this project have conserved 242 taxa of crop wild relatives. These collections will be used to identify traits of value in crop breeding, such as tolerance of heat, drought, salinity and waterlogging, resistance to pests and diseases, resistance to root rot, and yield.
…
Sustainable intensification seeks to use contemporary methods to increase crop yields. For example, maintaining soil fertility, improving water use efficiency and reducing chemical inputs can be achieved through zero tillage or intercropping with two or more crops. Other approaches include plant breeding for temperature and pest tolerance, creating bio-controls for crop pests and pathogens, and reducing fossil fuel use in agriculture…

In the meantime, read the hot takes from The Guardian and Kew.

LATER:

January 27, 2021January 25, 2021

Nibbles: Seed edition

Seed stories.
Heterogenous seeds book chapter.
Heritage seeds in Britain book.
Seed app. For tricot trials.
Seed Treaty ratified in Nigeria.

January 27, 2021

Getting to grips with ABS

Plant scientist need to have a voice in the policies and practices that are developed internationally. We urge plant scientist to become familiar with the issues in their country and internationally and contribute to the development of effective approaches at all levels. We need to be proactive in developing a code of practice for plant scientists that provides leadership to policy and law makers in governments globally.

“The issues” in question are those concerning access to digital sequence information in particular, and it seems the Global Plant Council have set up a working group “to raise awareness on obligations to respect access and benefit-sharing [ABS] rights under the Convention on Biodiversity, the FAO Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources, and the Nagoya Protocols on Access and Benefit Sharing.”

Do contact them if you’re interested in finding out more.

January 25, 2021January 15, 2021

Brainfood: Pollinator decline, Diet diversity, Collectors, CBD indicators, Herbaria, Fusarium wilt, Genomic breeding, Niche markets, Study design, American CWR, Domestication limits

No buzz for bees: Media coverage of pollinator decline. Nobody cares. Unless it’s linked to climate change.
Climate impacts associated with reduced diet diversity in children across nineteen countries. Something else that’s linked to climate change and too few care about.
People are essential to linking biodiversity data. Seriously, get an ORCID ID.
Why European biodiversity reporting is not reliable. It’s the free indicator choice in CBD reporting is what it is. Also, not enough attention to genetic diversity. Now, where have I heard that before?
Reversing extinction trends: new uses of (old) herbarium specimens to accelerate conservation action on threatened species. Not just useful in generating new knowledge (including on genetic diversity), can also be used as seed sources and in public awareness.
Ex Ante Assessment of Returns on Research Investments to Address the Impact of Fusarium Wilt Tropical Race 4 on Global Banana Production. Conventional breeding for resistance could lift almost a million people out of poverty. That would be quite the indicator.
Genomic resources in plant breeding for sustainable agriculture. Would help with the above.
Can Niche Markets for Local Cacao Varieties Benefit Smallholders in Peru and Mexico? Maybe. Read it, it’s not that long.
Quantifying and addressing the prevalence and bias of study designs in the environmental and social sciences. Everyone should use randomised designs and controlled observational designs with pre-intervention sampling. No, you did not just waste your time reading the above.
Crop wild relatives of the United States require urgent conservation action. 60% of 600 native taxa need urgent help.
Limits and constraints to crop domestication. Most of the world’s 2000 crops are not fully domesticated, for reasons such as trait architecture, lack of diversity in domestication traits, accumulation of genetic load and gene flow from the above. But something can be done about it.

January 22, 2021January 25, 2021

And we’re off…

The call for abstracts for the 2nd International Agrobiodiversity Congress – Agrobiodiversity for Food System Transformation, is now open. The Congress, scheduled for October 2021, will focus on the role that agrobiodiversity can play in positively changing our food systems. The deadline for abstract submission is 18 April 2021.

Go for it.