Threats

May 20, 2011

Vegetable starter kits for Thailand

A short piece in AVRDC’s latest monthly newsletter tells the story of how that institute is producing thousands of “vegetable seed kits” with support from the government of Taiwan and handing them over to a university and the army in Thailand for distribution to people affected by flooding and landslides in a couple of different regions of that country.

It’s an interesting idea, but as usual the article left me wanting to know more. Like how were the varieties of mungbean, okra and kangkong chosen? In fact, how were the crops chosen? And did all the thousands of kits have the same varieties? And, more fundamentally, how did AVRDC know that vegetable seeds were needed in the first place? Seed provision in the wake of disasters is a complicated business.

May 18, 2011

Yes! We do have bananas

Almost a week ago we reported on the fabulous news that bananas, and especially the threat posed by a virulent new race of Fusarium wilt (better known as Panama disease) ¹ had featured on BBC’s The One Show. That show, alas, is not available outside the UK without some very fancy jiggery pokery, which hoops everyone who wanted to see it would have had to jump through for themselves. ² So, in a spirit of sharing and collective action for agrobiodiversity, we assembled a crack team of hoop-jumpers and did the jiggery pokery for you.

Here you go: Restaurant critic and all around good guy Jay Rayner comes to grips with the threat to bananas, aided and abetted by Pat Heslop Harrison, whose blog post on the subject we refer you to once again, just in case you want more on the topic than The One Show offered.

Was it worth it? Of course it was.

May 16, 2011May 13, 2011

Brainfood: Millet biscuits, Wheat micronutrients, Diversification and C footprint, Agroforestry, Epazote, Grape history, Belgian farmers, Millet phenology, Species migration, Barley domestication, Sheep genetics

Quality characteristics of biscuits prepared from finger millet seed coat based composite flour. They’re nutritious. Crocodile Dundee on the tastiness of the iguana may, however, apply.
Minerals and trace elements in a collection of wheat landraces from the Canary Islands. There are differences, but environment and agronomic practices could affect them.
Lowering carbon footprint of durum wheat by diversifying cropping systems. Yes, by 7-34%, depending on how the diversification was done.
Effect of shading by baobab (Adansonia digitata) and néré (Parkia biglobosa) on yields of millet (Pennisetum glaucum) and taro (Colocasia esculenta) in parkland systems in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Taro is a shade lover; grow it under néré, and vice versa.
Ethnobotanical, morphological, phytochemical and molecular evidence for the incipient domestication of Epazote (Chenopodium ambrosioides L.: Chenopodiaceae) in a semi-arid region of Mexico. Good to know; I love epazote.
Grape varieties (Vitis vinifera L.) from the Balearic Islands: genetic characterization and relationship with Iberian Peninsula and Mediterranean Basin. See the grand sweep of European history unfold.
Microsatellite characterization of grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) genetic diversity in Asturias (Northern Spain). No evidence of communication with the previous group.
Plant economy of the first farmers of central Belgium (Linearbandkeramik, 5200–5000 b.c.). They were dope fiends.
Selection for earlier flowering crop associated with climatic variations in the Sahel. Compared to 1976 millet samples, samples collected in 2003 had shorter lifecycle (due to an early flowering allele at the PHYC locus increasing in frequency), and a reduction in plant and spike size. So you don’t need new varieties, the old ones will adapt to climate change. Oh, and BTW, there’s been no genetic erosion.
Do species’ traits predict recent shifts at expanding range edges? No.
The domestication syndrome genes responsible for the major changes in plant form in the Triticeae crops. Failure to disarticulate and 6-rows in barley, in detail. Part of a Special Issue on Barley.
The genetics of colour in fat-tailed sheep: a review. I didn’t know karakul had fat tails.

May 13, 2011May 14, 2011

Bananas on TV and the blogosphere

In Africa, political parties must stop using real banana leaves as their symbol at rallies or on buses…

Why? Pat Heslop-Harrison explains the reason, and much more, in a great new post at AoB Blog. The occasion is the 13 May edition of the BBC TV programme The One Show, which included an interview with Dr Heslop-Harrison by journalist, food critic and TV personality Jay Rayner. With links to a couple of freely available Annals of Botany papers and a presentation too.

LATER: Let’s not forget the importance of banana for brewing beer in parts of Africa.

May 12, 2011May 12, 2011

Nibbles: Fruit-tree fundraiser, Bangladesh seed crisis, Mead, Early farmers, Fruit genebank

Bioversity promotes a fund-raiser for forgotten fruit trees.
Seed crisis in Bangladesh. It’s complicated. Really complicated.
Belatedly, mirthful report on mead.
“…during the advent of agriculture … early farmers may have at first come together in communal activities, prior to congregating in villages.”
USDA’s fruit genebank at Corvallis in the news.