Threats

November 9, 2012November 10, 2012

Coconut Plan B needed

Bogia Coconut Syndrome is threatening the international coconut genebank in Papua New Guinea, one of several established in the 1990s under the International Coconut Genetic Resources Network (COGENT). That’s the warning coming out of a meeting on the Pacific coconut industry taking place in Samoa, as relayed by SciDevNet. Dr Richard Markham, now with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, one of the co-sponsors of the meeting, but formerly of Bioversity, where he had responsibility for COGENT, is being admirably logical, calm and reassuring in his soundbites:

We are supporting research to try to identify the [Bogia Coconut Syndrome] vector and better understand the host range of this disease. Once we have that information, everyone will be better placed to assess the threat — both to coconuts and livelihoods in general.

But surely plans need to be put in place in case the worst happens. What to do? Roland Bourdeix, the current coordinator of COGENT, who’s responsible for the wonderful photo of coconut diversity I’m reproducing here, is talking of rescuing, relocating, duplicating. Possibly on those little isolated islets he’s so fond of. And that is no doubt an approach worth looking into. But there are 57 accessions to deal with from this genebank, and it’s going to take a while to find the necessary number of uninhabited island paradises, even if not all the 57 are unique. In vitro is an option too. COGENT has been working on an in vitro embryo collecting and transfer protocol, but it’s not quite there yet. Time to ramp that work up?

LATER: More reassuring words from Richard Markham on Facebook. No need to panic. But also no room for complacency.

November 9, 2012November 9, 2012

Severe, grave and philosophical

That, we are told by the BBC’s Material World presenter Quentin Cooper, is what Jonathan Swift thought coffee makes us. And I for one would agree with Mr Cooper that it is indeed also how Dr Aaron Davis, Head of Coffee Research at Kew Gardens, and global crop wild relative expert Dr Nigel Maxted, from the University of Birmingham, came over in an interview with him yesterday. It’s all because of that Kew study on the effects of climate change on wild arabica, which is really making the rounds, not least thanks to the BBC. You can download the whole podcast, but we’ve taken the liberty of filleting out the 10 minutes of the programme which feature Drs Davis and Maxted, with many thanks to the BBC. More background on crop wild relatives in Europe from the PGR Secure and the older PGR Forum project website. IUCN has a Red List. There’s a Global Portal. And a big global project on crop wild relatives too. Who says these things are not getting enough attention?

Listen to that key segment.

Read that paper on Arachis, Vigna and Solanum Nigel alluded to.

And dream about attending that FAO workshop he mentioned for next week.

November 7, 2012November 7, 2012

Nibbles: Biodiversity economics, ICARDA social network, Beyond food miles, Heirlooms on BBC, Cannabis, Research funding, Cacao diversity, Agriculture from the air, Sustainable intensification example, Research whine, Japanese botanic garden visit, European PGR network, Tribal Glycene, Youth in agriculture

Oxford Review of Economic Policy has special volume on biodiversity economics. Not much ag, though, settle down.
ICARDA announces on Twitter the existence of a new Facebook page which looks a bit like the old one.
It’s the fertilizer miles, stupid.
Great British Food Revival does heirloom carrots. Oh and beer.
Good news for a particular agricultural biodiversity subsector from Amsterdam and Colorado. The Dude unavailable for comment. For obvious reasons.
If you’re from Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda and are doing research on Neglected and Underutilized Species you’ll be interested in this call or research proposals from ISF.
Bioversity deconstructs that paper on the spatial analysis of Theobroma diversity. I still don’t quite get why they didn’t do the gap analysis.
Farming from the air. And more along the same lines. Or polygons, I suppose I should say. Can you estimate diversity from the air? I bet you can.
Sustainable intensification in (sort of) action.
Damn rice farmers not playing ball.
Oxford botany geeks visit Japan, identify wood of bench in noodle bar.
13th meeting ECPGR Steering Committee. All the documents you’ll need. And then some.
Soybean as a vegetable. Possibly an acquired taste.
How to keep young people on the farm? “Perhaps the first point to recognise is that the evidence base on which to build policy and programmes is frighteningly thin.”

November 5, 2012November 5, 2012

Brainfood: Chinese fermented fish, Yeast diversity, Wild papayas, Milpa nutrition, Rare wild sunflower, Albanian pomegranate, Wheat mixtures, Climate change yield decline

Chemical and microbial properties of Chinese traditional low-salt fermented whole fish product Suan yu. “The values of Enterobacteria and Pseudomonads were under the detection limits in six different brands” is about the best that can be said for it.
Tapping into yeast diversity. Some new, diverse wild lineages in China may tell us important things about yeast ecology, evolution and domestication.
Genome size variation among sex types in dioecious and trioecious Caricaceae species. Lots of retrotransposons, and sex chromosomes in some species.
The Archaic Diet in Mesoamerica: Incentive for Milpa Development and Species Domestication. The diet preceded the crops.
Genetic diversity and population structure in the rare Algodones sunflower (Helianthus niveus ssp. tephrodes). Low diversity overall, but some populations quite distinct. Which tells you about how to conserve it.
Albania, the domestication country for pomegranate (Punica granatum L.). Well, maybe.
Mixtures of genetically modified wheat lines outperform monocultures. Two transgenes are better than one.
Climate change impacts on crop productivity in Africa and South Asia. -8% overall. The surprise? Sorghum declines more than maize in Africa, less in S Asia.

October 31, 2012October 31, 2012

Nibbles: Potato/banana, European landrace project, GCARD2, Ankole in Uganda, Crowdsourcing gadgets, Cacao renewal, African food, Australian beans

BBC pounces on CCAFS report previously trumpeted by Bioversity. Bottom line: adaptation may mean changing crops. Bottom bottom line: Will they have enough diversity?
PGR Secure newsletter is out.
GCARD2 rumbles on.
The ankole cow is threatened. What, still?
Tracking ash dieback. And since we’re talking gadgets…
Old cacao trees being replaced in Nigeria. No word on what’s happening to the diversity they represent. Maybe it’s ex situ already? Maybe it’s not significant? I dunno, I would just like to be told.
Slow Food documents African foods. Thankfully no ugali.
Aussies put together cool bean collection.