Threats

July 18, 2017July 18, 2017

Measuring the success of botanical gardens

Good to see Botanic Gardens Conservation International first technical review online, entitled Defining the botanic garden, and how to measure performance and success.

The definition part turns out to be a compendium of “criteria useful in defining a botanic garden.” The performance measures are rather long lists of indicators in the following areas, ranked by the percentage of correspondents who agreed with each measure:

Plant conservation
Scientific research
Collections
Horticulture
Public engagement and education
Sustainability and ethics
Business management and governance

Here’s the overall list:

Is there anything genebanks could learn from these?

July 16, 2017

CILY in cassava: not so fast

So it turns out the article the previous post on the possibility of Côte d’Ivoire lethal yellowing phytoplasma (CILY) attacking cassava in that country may have been a bit premature. Dr Lava Kumar, virologist and Head of Germplasm Health Unit at IITA, left the following comment on my Facebook page:

Misleading! The symptoms on these leaves are typical cassava mosaic. Authors of this study happened to detect CILY in CMD infected plants and left it loose for interpretation. Reports of this kind can create needless phytosanitary bottlenecks. Wish NDR editorial review was better.

Time to wheel on Koch’s Postulates?

July 14, 2017July 14, 2017

CILY jumps to cassava?

You know that disease that we said about a year ago was threatening coconut plantations (and, incidentally, a coconut genebank) in Côte d’Ivoire? Yeah, Côte d’Ivoire lethal yellowing phytoplasma (CILY) that’s the one, well remembered.

Well, it looks like it may be affecting cassava as well.

That’s not good. Not good at all.

To our knowledge this is the first report of a phytoplasma affecting cassava in Côte d’Ivoire. The findings suggest that cassava may be a potential alternative host for the CILY phytoplasma, which poses a serious threat for the food security of the smallholder coconut and cassava farmers, especially women in Grand-Lahou, Côte d’Ivoire.

July 10, 2017July 10, 2017

Brainfood: Wild foods, Maize in Guatemala, Wild lentils, Sorghum gaps, Ethiopian erosion, Chikanda barcoding, Brazil nut systems, Wild carrots, Ancient wild potato use, Wild wheat grains

The role of wild fruits and vegetables in delivering a balanced and healthy diet. Not great, until they’re domesticated.
Maize Diversity, Market Access, and Poverty Reduction in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. Forget maize.
Evaluation of Wild Lentil Species as Genetic Resources to Improve Drought Tolerance in Cultivated Lentil. Environment explained drought response in wild lentils better than molecular classification.
Geographical distribution, diversity and gap analysis of East African sorghum collection conserved at the ICRISAT genebank. Both Sudans.
Explaining the Ethiopian farmers’ perceptions on potential loss of traditional crop varieties: A principal components regression analysis. Poor farmers know more, and care more, about loss of traditional landraces.
High-throughput sequencing of African chikanda cake highlights conservation challenges in orchids. Those are very biodiverse cakes, but not in a good way.
Revisiting the ‘cornerstone of Amazonian conservation’: a socioecological assessment of Brazil nut exploitation. It’s actually in pretty good shape, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.
Phylogenetic Prediction of Alternaria Leaf Blight Resistance in Wild and Cultivated Species of Carrots. Look for taller material in clade A.
Starch granule evidence for the earliest potato use in North America. S. jamesii may have been used for 10,000 years in Utah.
Genome-Wide Association Study of Grain Architecture in Wild Wheat Aegilops tauschii. Two genetic lineages, with big differences in grain width and weight.

June 28, 2017June 28, 2017

Maize for Haiti; but from Haiti?

Good news for hard-pressed Haitian farmers.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has grown 150 tons of renewed, improved maize seed that will be sent to Haitian farmers to help jump-start the country’s seed sector, improve local food security and decrease malnutrition. This will be the largest seed shipment to any country in CIMMYT’s history.

But are there any maize landraces left in Haiti that this much-needed effort will displace? If so, it will be important to collect them. Genesys lists 78 landraces from the country, most at the genebank of CIMMYT itself, collected thus:

Maybe enough. Maybe not…