- Resistance to coffee rust found in India, though not clear where. Now for the hard part …
- Arguments for Payments for Ecosystem Services. Matt points to a conference in 2013, but where are the actual payments?
- “Rather than decrying development in India and China we should be strenuously objecting to agrofuels.” So lets distinguish agrofuels from biofuels.
- Today’s new genebank is in Israel. Bet there are some crop wild relatives in there.
- Those Mayans were boffo agricultural engineers.
- “Alcohol-free” cannabis. I don’t understand any of this.
- A gene associated with flowering time has alleles associated with a rainfall gradient. h/t Jacob. Cool.
Nibbles: Livestock system resilience, Nepal genebank, Salicornia, GMO risk
- ILRI slideshow on adapting South Asian livestock systems to climate change. And some background.
- Latest on Nepal’s new genebank.
- Salicornia 101.
- GENERA: a database of published, peer-reviewed scientific papers that are related to the risks and safety of genetic engineering in agriculture. Courtesy of Biofortified.
Nibbles: Sierra Leone, Cooking traditions, Value chains, Sorghum, Manihot, AnGR
- Sierra Leone gets back to (rural) work.
- Rachel Laudan not keen on UNESCO protecting culinary traditions.
- Value chains are hard.
- Dual-purpose sorghum in the CGIAR spotlight.
- Andy does cassava. Looks like he may need to buy a house in Bellagio.
- Latest Animal Genetic Resources is out. In other news, there’s an international journal called Animal Genetic Resources.
Nibbles: CBD COP, Biofortification, Foodie potatoes, Dates date, Reintroductions, Quercus, Nomenclature, Maize, P, Agroforestry, Weeds, VIR, Lactose intolerance, Yersinia
- Bioversity DG “jubilant” at Nagoya Protocol.
- A video plug for the biofortification conference.
- Native potatoes on foodie agenda.
- A date palm festival. In the US.
- The success of species introductions.
- Italian acorn cakes deconstructed. I’m told the people able to recognize these sweet acorns are few and old.
- Calling times on biological names. Whoa!
- Saving heirloom mielies.
- What the heck is happening with phosphorus anyway?
- Panamanian farmers don’t like to grow (some) native trees on their farms because of slow growth rates.
- Eating medieval weeds.
- Latest from Pavlovsk. I have no idea what’s going on anymore.
- Lactase persistence due to cold.
- Genetics says plague came from China.
Fruit tree genebank faces the chop
An important field genebank of rare fruit trees faces an uncertain future as a result of financial support. No, not that one. Bioversity International reports that the Pomona Botanical Conservatory in Apulia, Italy, has failed to obtain a much needed grant to support its activities.
And in other threatened genebank news, our friends in the north report a visit from Swedish National TV to the Nordic Genetic Resources Center to cover budget cuts there.
According to our friends, half the staff will lose their jobs at the start of 2011 if the crisis is not resolved, “and the Nordic countries may start to lose the genebank collection of genetic resources carefully preserved during more than three decades”.
How fine that all this should be happening as the world discusses the conservation of biodiversity at Nagoya.