Threats

June 14, 2011June 14, 2011

Protect and survive; building better-defended wheats

The United States Department of Agriculture broke ground yesterday on a new facility at the University of Minneapolis in St Paul, for studying stem rust and other fungal diseases in wheat.

“By expanding our commitment to research that targets crop diseases like Ug99, we can strengthen food security and reduce hunger and poverty in countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Pakistan,” said Robert Bertram, head of USAID’s Office of Agriculture, Research and Technology. “This research concurrently helps U.S. scientists protect America’s wheat crops.”

The groundbreaking ceremony was part of a four-day research conference sponsored by the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative. Not coincidentally, a report from a recent wheat-rust meeting at ICARDA is winging its way towards the experts attending the conference. You can download your own copy direct from ICARDA.

June 13, 2011June 13, 2011

Brainfood: Bean diversity, Rice domestication, Microbial interactions squared, Threat of extinction, Agroforestry, Species diversity

Population structure and genetic differentiation among the USDA common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) core collection. Subpopulations detected within usual Middle American and Andean genepools. The former was more diverse. Diversity was lower for domestication loci. One wonders whether game worth candle.
Artificial selection for a green revolution gene during japonica rice domestication. There’s nothing new under the sun. Fuller fills us in.
Positive plant microbial interactions in perennial ryegrass dairy pasture systems. Plant-microbe interactions can have significant positive impact on production of, and chemical inputs into and losses from, perennial ryegrass dairy pasture systems. Gotta love that agrobiodiversity.
Plant growth promoting potential of Pontibacter niistensis in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.). And another one. New bacterium from Western Ghats fertilizes soil and helps cowpea to grow.
Extinction risk and diversification are linked in a plant biodiversity hotspot. That would the Cape. Extinction threat (IUCN categories) is better explained by phylogeny than by human activity or plant traits. Go figure.
The framework tree species approach to conserve medicinal trees in Uganda. Sort of like artificial keystone species. Lots of other cool stuff in the same issue of Agroforestry Systems.
Use of topographic variability for assessing plant diversity in agricultural landscapes. By and large, more environmental variability means more plant diversity, in Switzerland. Maybe some crop wild relatives in there?

June 10, 2011June 10, 2011

Nibbles: Wheat disease, Dried vegetables, Gates spending in Africa, Canadian spending in India, Ethiopian wheat

Wheat disease understood; sequence of leaf blotch fungus.
Wheat disease conquered? “Super varieties” resistant to UG99 and yield 15% more. What could go wrong?
Zambian farmers urged to dry vegetables for fun and profit (and better nutrition).
Gates Foundations has spent US$1.7 billion on agriculture in Africa, so far.
Swaminathan Foundation scores Canadian support for research on agriculture, poverty and nutrition. h/t PAR.
Bioversity Seeds for Needs distributes preselected genebank wheat varieties to Ethiopian women farmers to adapt to climate change.

June 10, 2011June 20, 2011

Wallow Fire (may) threaten (some) wild beans. Maybe.

There’s a really bad fire spreading in Arizona. ¹

You can donwload all kinds of stuff about it, and even post your experiences of it on Facebook. But can you find out whether any crop wild relatives are threatened by it? Well, sure: all you have to do is go off to GBIF, and choose a likely genus (Phaseolus, say), and download the records, and mash them up in Google Earth with the latest fire perimeter data or whatever. ² Like I’ve done here:

Coming in closer, and using the NASA GeoTIFF instead of the normal Google Earth imagery, you can put yourself in the position of being able to make some reasonably intelligent guesses about what might be happening to some of these populations, and the genepool as a whole in the area:

But what I really meant is that there ought to be a way to do this automagically, or something. Anyway, it is sobering to reflect that while all hell is breaking loose in Arizona, not that far away to the northeast, in the peaceful surroundings of the Denver Botanical Garden, Anasazi beans are enjoying their day in the sun, utterly oblivious of the mortal threat faced by some of their wild cousins. It’s a cruel world. And there’s a point in all this about the need for complementary conservation strategies that’s just waiting to be made. Isn’t there?

June 8, 2011June 8, 2011

Nibbles: Royal genebank, Fish collection, Plant health, USDA wheat breeding project, Afghanistan, Breadfruit Art, Pests and Diseases, Idaho, Plant breeding, Gates, Panax quinquefolius, Natives

Thai king has crop genebank on palace grounds.
Fish in jars.
Planning Plant Clinics.
Plant Breeding for Drought Stress: The Project.
Wait, the Nebraska National Guard has an agribusiness development team? Maybe they should talk to the people responsible for the previous bullet point?
Kids! (And adults!) An Art Contest to celebrate ‘Ulu. Breadfruit, that is.
Use of Agrobiodiversity for Pest and Disease Management. A slide show from Carlo Fadda at Bioversity.
3rd Annual Biodiversity Working for Farmers Tour in Idaho. 23rd June, you have been warned.
Huge New York Times story on plant breeding and climate change.
Bill Gates hails creativity for small farmers challenge.
American ginseng: use it or lose it.
Do you live in Ann Arbour? Do you want native plants for your garden? Yeah but how about American ginseng?