- “…WFP’s partnership with the Millennium Villages Project would deploy the full range of the Programme’s tools and help utilize the Millennium Villages as a platform for best practices.” Good. But let’s just hope the villagers’ own best tool — agrobiodiversity — doesn’t get left behind.
- More on the Cotacachi agroecotourism project in Ecuador.
- Heritage tourism in the Virgin Islands targets old sugar cane mill.
- The “mango villages” of India.
- Pollination needs to go wild.
- Ok, so the CGIAR is going to re-organize itself into mega-programmes (look at the PDF at the bottom of the page), one of which is on “Crop germplasm conservation, enhancement and use.” Big deal? I wish I knew.
- Pssst, wanna discuss grape breeding?
- More from IIED on landraces and climate change.
- Deforestation, drought and politics in Kenya.
- Tracking eel migrations.
Nibbles: IUCN book, Ancient DNA, Durian, Bees, Enola
- IUCN book Conservation for a New Era is out. Agriculture on page 160.
- Ancient DNA, from the general to the particular, courtesy of pigs.
- Durian and alcohol don’t mix. Damn.
- New Internationalist does a number on bees. Thanks, Lubin.
- The last word on the Enola bean case. At last.
Nibbles: Banana disease, Prickly pears, Pea breeding, Aquaculture, Bees, Soil microbes
- A letter makes some very important points about bananas in Africa. There’s a huge back-story to this, but we’re not going to go there.
- Prickly pear fruit chips. An opportunity beckons, for someone.
- Building the perfect pea.
- Half of fish farmed. But which half?
- Scientific American bee podcast.
- “…there is a whole world of microbes underground, associated with the roots of plants, that has yet to be analyzed.”
Nibbles: Honey, Bio-char, Native American agriculture
- Oh bliss. Ethiopian honey travels to Norway, sweet deal for both ends. Locavores perplexed?
- The Economist hot for bio-char.
- “Our family has farmed this land forever. We’re part of the corn, and its part of us.”
Nibbles: Bee genes, Organics, Swaminathan, Apples, Africa, Late blight, More bees, Agroforestry
- USDA screens bee genes, does not find smoking gun.
- Organic industry needs to focus on “wider benefits to avoid losing customers to other ethical issues”. Er … right.
- M.S. Swaminathan talks to the Wall Street Journal. With added video goodness.
- UK newspaper discovers the threatened home of the wild apple.
- Sustainable farming is the way forward for Africa. Course it is.
- Blight resistant potatoes. No, really. They are.
- The Barefoot Beekeeper.
- ICRAF identifies a silver-bullet tree to revive African soils.