- “Priortizing restoration across agricultural landscapes.” Nothing to do with agriculture, though.
- “Gene banks to rescue local crops.” Nothing to do with genebanks, though.
- “‘Psychedelic’ maize may help increase crop and biofuel yields.” Nothing to do with LSD, though.
- Scotland gets a national genebank. Well, not really, but anyway.
- Malawi schoolchildren sing about food diversity. No, really.
- Homo erectus ate fish as part of a pretty diverse diet. Had to wait about 2 million years for chips.
- Report for 10-Year Strategy for Reduction of Vitamin & Mineral Deficiencies. “…activities to enhance dietary diversification are an attractive option for improving micronutrient status, but these have proved difficult to evaluate.” Ouch.
- “Integrating Genetic Resource Conservation and Sustainable Development into Strategies to Increase the Robustness of Seed Systems.” You’ll need to pay to find out how, though. I’ll try to get a pdf, some of the authors are friends.
- The role of Punjab Agricultural University in the Green Revolution. And in genetic erosion?
- Enough arable land to feed world, says new French study. But not here, say Indians.
- Reviving the elm in Britain one sapling at a time. How long till the next disaster, though, with such a narrow genetic base?
Pest increases potato crop yields
Here’s a turn-up for the books. Potato plants in which a tuber is infested by the larva of the Gautemalan Potato Moth Tecia solanivora — “considered one of the most economically important potato pests in Latin America” — produce 2.5 times more marketable potatoes than uninfected plants. Something in the caterpillar’s saliva spreads through the plant and promotes tuber growth, giving a greater yield even when up to one in five of the tubers are infected.
Did indigenous Colombian potato farmers know of this? I couldn’t discover why the researchers had decided to investigate. In any case, the Guatemalan Potato Moth is clearly no pest. Researchers are now looking at “herbivore-derived chemical clues” and “induced compensatory plant responses to herbivory” as new ways to boost production.
Nibbles: Ecosystem vulnerability, Mayan chocolate, Natural dyes, Japanese art
- Climate change affecting ecosystems. Well I never. Mashup with crop wild relative distributions needed!
- Hershey scientist studies ancient chocolate.
- Natural dyes in Indonesia. Temptation to pun successfully resisted for once.
- Agrobiodiversity in art: The Old Plum.
Nibbles: Roses, Stripe Rust, Cuba, Carnival, India, GCARD, Urban ag, Genetic diversity and herbivory, Biocultural diversity
- The wages of Kenyan rose growers increase 22% — to $59 a month. Sinful.
- Wheat stripe rust uses sex to break down barriers.
- Q&A with Cuban whiz Humberto Ríos.
- Latest Carnival of Evolution is up; we’re the only ag, alas.
- Proposed agricultural biodiversity heritage sites in India. (Is this new?)
- Investing in Underutilised Crops to Achieve Food Security. A report from the CGARD conference in March.
- The Hanging Gardens of Kenya.
- Living in genetic mixtures helps plants against herbivores. No, really.
- “Restoring human cultures to the web of life.”
Vegetable seeds safe after fire
Bad news from our friends at AVRDC. The much-needed and still incomplete extension to their genebank has been badly damaged by fire. Fortunately, there were no injuries, and the seeds in the old coldrooms (below) are safe. But it will now be several more months before the new genebank can finally be commissioned. Anyway, commiserations to AVRDC’s genetic resources unit. But I know they’ll bounce back stronger than ever.
