Seed systems

October 30, 2023

Roots and tubers to the rescue

The latest Seed Systems newsletter from the Alliance of Bioversity & CIAT has an interesting roundup of examples of the role of root and tuber crops in crisis situations:

Uganda: Refugee, host communities find relief and stability in orange-fleshed sweet potato
Mozambique: Reaching humanitarian and neglected places with the nutritious and resilient sweetpotato: The case of the Cyclone Idai in Manica and Sofala Provinces, Mozambique
Madagascar: Anti-malnutrition initiative targeting drought-affected populations exceeds expectations in 18 months
Cameroon: Relief group travels hundreds of kilometers to feed school children in Cameroon, braving roadblocks to grow orange-fleshed sweet potato in conflict-affected areas
Haiti: Improving the sweet potato seed system in a challenging humanitarian environment
Ethiopia: Discovering hope: Potato and sweetpotato technology transforming lives in drought and conflict-affected Ethiopia
DRC: IITA and CIP provide Eastern DRC relief efforts with RTB planting materials
Philippines: Crop resistance and household resilience – The case of cassava and sweetpotato during super-typhoon Ompong in the Philippines
Ecuador: Efforts of researchers and other stakeholders to manage an unfolding epidemic: Lessons from potato purple top in Ecuador

I think we may have included some of these in recent Nibbles and Brainfoods, but it’s nice to have them all together.

October 20, 2023

Nibbles: Heirloom mixology, Renaissance breeding, Heirloom watermelon, Heirloom apples, British horses, Ancient grapes & wine, Potato cryo, Arboretum, Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Rice breeding

A self-described seed mixologist calls for a science fiction, rather than historical, approach to growing heirloom varieties. Excellent reading.
The Renaissance approach to genetic mixology explained in a new book The Perfection of Nature.
Sometimes, though, you just want a good old watermelon.
Or a good old apple.
Or indeed ‘the Swiss army knife of equines.’
Or you want to know what ancient people ate and drank.
So it’s a good thing we have genebanks, genebanks, genebanks…
Including for rice.

October 9, 2023

Brainfood: Food insecurity drivers, Agroecology & fertilizers, Overselling GMOs, Genomic prediction, Striga breeding, Farmers’ preferences, Farmers’ WtP, Diversity metrics

Drivers and stressors of resilience to food insecurity: evidence from 35 countries. Diversify!
The input reduction principle of agroecology is wrong when it comes to mineral fertilizer use in sub-Saharan Africa. …but that doesn’t mean agroecology is wrong. So, diversify your mind?
Genetic modification can improve crop yields — but stop overselling it. Diversify your research teams.
Genomic predictions to leverage phenotypic data across genebanks. Diversify your training set.
Harnessing plant resistance against Striga spp. parasitism in major cereal crops for enhanced crop production and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review. Diversity within the weed is almost as important as diversity in host resistance, and less studied.
Farmers’ heterogeneous preferences for traits of improved varieties: Informing demand-oriented crop breeding in Tanzania. Breeders need to take into account farmer diversity too.
Farmer Risk Preferences and Willingness to Pay for African Rice Landrace Seed: An Experimental Choice Analysis. Farmers are willing to pay for diversity.
Too simple, too complex, or just right? Advantages, challenges and resolutions for indicators of genetic diversity. What’s the best way to measure diversity anyway?

October 2, 2023September 29, 2023

Branfood: Salinity tolerance, Comestibles, Underused species, On farm diversity, Minor cereals, Fragrant millet, Wild yams, Fonio, Winged bean, Giant taro, Nutmeg, Mungbean, Finger millet, Amaranth

Salt-Tolerant Crops: Time to Deliver. Sure, breeding for salt tolerance using crop wild relatives is great, but have you tried just domesticating salt-tolerant wild species?
Wild and cultivated comestible plant species in the Gulf of Mexico: phylogenetic patterns and convergence of type of use. No word on how many are salt-tolerant.
Underutilized plants increase biodiversity, improve food and nutrition security, reduce malnutrition, and enhance human health and well-being. Let’s put them back on the plate! No word on how many are salt-tolerant.
Indigenous crop diversity maintained despite the introduction of major global crops in an African centre of agrobiodiversity. If you want local crop diversity in Highland Ethiopia, look for it on the farms of the poorest. No word on how many are “underutilized”.
The role of minor cereals in food and nutrition security in Bangladesh: constraints to sustainable production. Low yields, apparently. I think it could do with having aromatic grains. If only there was a way to make that happen…
De novo creation of popcorn-like fragrant foxtail millet. Yeah, sometimes neither the crop not its wild relatives has the genes for it. Still, if you can edit in aroma, why not salt-tolerance?
Global Genepool Conservation and Use Strategy for Dioscorea (Yam). I wonder how many of these 27 wild species could usefully be domesticated. Or are salt-tolerant.
Towards conservation and sustainable use of an indigenous crop: A large partnership network enabled the genetic diversity assessment of 1539 fonio (Digitaria exilis) accessions. This is how you start to undo underutilization. I’m sure someone will edit it next.
Diversity Assessment of Winged Bean [Psophocarpus tetragonolobus (L.) DC.] Accessions from IITA Genebank. Same as above, but with one hundredth as many accessions. I guess winged bean is even more underutilized than fonio.
The forgotten giant of the Pacific: a review on giant taro (Alocasia macrorrhizos (L.) G.Don). Sad to say it doesn’t seem to be salt-tolerant. Maybe it’s aromatic, though. Or could be gene-edited to become so. Wouldn’t that be something.
Retracing the center of origin and evolutionary history of nutmeg Myristica fragrans, an emblematic spice tree species. No need for editing, let’s just conserve the really diverse populations of the North Moluccas.
Demographic history and distinct selection signatures of two domestication genes in mungbean. Domesticating the mungbean wasn’t all that easy. Hope it’s easier for some random salt-tolerant wild species.
A plausible screening approach for moisture stress tolerance in finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.) germplasm accessions using membership function value at the seedling stage. Will it work on fonio? Or salt-tolerance?
Adoption and impact of improved amaranth cultivars in Tanzania using DNA fingerprinting. So can we stop calling it underutilized? And start gene-editing it for aroma?

September 26, 2023

Nibbles: China seeds, Dixie apples, USDA genebanks, ASU dates, IPR, IFG grapes, Pick-a-mix, Coffee ESG, French heirlooms, Belgian brewing, Tanzanian sorghum, Horse-bread, Roots & tubers, Guyana cassava, SDG indicators

China announces a slew of seed-related measures.
A slew of seeds kept apples diverse in the US South, but not so much any more.
Fortunately there’s a slew of apples, among many other things, in the USDA genebank system.
Dates too, probably, but this article is actually about the (complementary?) collection at Arizona State University.
A slew of intellectual protections has been good for seed companies. But consumers?
IFG no doubts benefits mightily from intellectual property protection of its grape varieties. The diversity of which you can peruse on this nice website.
Speaking of nice websites, this one helps farmers pick-a-mix of crops. Intercropping is diversity too.
How the coffee industry is trying to cope with a slew of sustainability rules. Yeah, sometimes IP protection is not enough.
But who owns heritage varieties?
Including heritage varieties of Belgian malting barley and other cereals.
Speaking of malting, they use sorghum in Tanzania.
It’s unclear what heritage varieties went into making horse-bread, but I’d like to taste the stuff.
But who needs bread (or beer?) anyway? There’s a slew of root and tuber crops in Africa and elsewhere just waiting to solve hunger…
…as Guyana knows well.
Wanna keep track of (most of) the above? FAO has you (sorta) covered via a slew of indicators.