- MSM on Amman meeting; eat Luigi’s dust.
- Black sigatoka disease confirmed on St Lucia; eats banana plantations.
- “Eggs come from sheep” kids survey surprise shock; eat anything.
- Qatar builds a genebank.
- On World Wetlands Day, Lake Chad protected and British farmland flooded. Will some crop wild relatives benefit?
Goats in peril
A plea arrives from Australia, concerning the goats of Middle Percy Island, a paradisiacal spot off the coast of Queensland on the Great Barrier Reef. These goats, it seems, are the descendants of animals released on the islands 200 years ago to provision passing sailors. They still do. The thousands of “yachties” who drop anchor at Middle Percy each year could buy expertly tanned goat skins and stock up on goat stew (and other goodies) all prepared by the people who hold the lease on Middle Percy. In a few weeks, however, the lease is due to revert to Queensland’s Department of Environment and Resource Management. They have apparently threatened to cull all the goats (although there’s nothing about that on the DERM website) or maybe all the goats except those that can survive on 140 Ha of the island.
“These goats need to be protected or domesticated — not annihilated” says my informant. “They have lived in the tropics and have foraged for themselves for two centuries.” As a result, “the genetic heritage among this small goat population which, by its very isolation, could potentially be crucial in providing genetic traits to goat populations in tropical Third world countries in need of calcium” could vanish.
Is that true? I simply don’t know. The history and current status of Middle Percy Island is complicated enough without even bringing the goats on board. Get into the livestock and it becomes more complicated still. The first European explorer, Matthew Flinders, noted “no marsupials were inhabiting Middle Percy Island” when he was there in 1802, and he is believed to have left behind the first of the goats. Subsequently settlers on the island brought their own herds, probably Saanen and British Alpine types. In the 1920s a herd of 2000 sheep was established. And in 1996 a senior BBC producer noted sheep, kangaroos, a solitary emu and a small herd of Indian cattle in addition to the goats.
One of the current leaseholders says they “have identified a variety of different types of goat, which seem to breed true to form; Cashmere, Saanen, British-Alpine, Australian All-black the Melaan, and possibly Toggenburg and an All-brown goat.” It would indeed be interesting if all these types were maintaining their distinctive looks despite their freedom to choose their own mates.
Will the Department of Environment and Resource Management really try to annihilate all the interloper species, including fruits and vegetables and bees and poultry brought in to sustain the settlers? Or have they just got it in for the goats? Could the goats be managed to keep populations at a level low enough not to damage the environment? Would those population levels preserve the genetic diversity of the goats? And is that diversity important anyway?
Lots of questions, no answers. But at least the questions are now being asked, and if answers are forthcoming we’ll be sure to bring them into the conversation.
Nibbles: Biofuels, No-till corn, BBTV, Coffee pest, Air potato, Neolithic, Turkish roses, Cowpea conference
- Science: Biodiversity is good even for biofuels.
- Science: Lack of annual diversity is bad for no-till maize (corn).
- Science: “Dead” bananas can still transmit banana bunchy top virus BBTV.
- Science: Potential biological control identified for coffee berry borer. (Eeeyew warning.)
- Art: Biological control (Lilioceris near impressa) of air potato (Dioscorea bulbifera). (Gorgeousness warning.)
- Science: Farmers brought farming to Britain.
- Science and art: A rose is a rose is a rose.
- Science: Black-eyed peas in Dakar gig.
Hold the phone! It’s a seriously endangered crop wild relative
It has happened, and January not even over yet. The IUCN’s Red List Species of the Day, which we are privileged to feature in a little widget over there on the right, has hit paydirt with a crop wild relative: Apium bermejoi, which Wikipedia says is “closely related to the wild form of celery”. What are the chances that it could confer resistance to some of the many pests and diseases that celery is martyr to? One expert told us: “my feeling is that it has not been used in celery breeding to any effect”. Anyone know differently?
A. bermejoi seeds are in storage, although in the wild there may be fewer than 100 individuals hanging in there on the island of Menorca.
Its habitat is often trampled by passing fishermen and hikers, or more seriously disrupted by off-road motorcyclists. In addition, Apium bermejoi must compete with a wide variety of other plant species for essential water and nutrients. Its present decline seems to be related to a series of drier summers, showing that this species is very sensitive to climate change.
That’s a lot to cope with.
Nibbles: Tomatoes, Fattipuffs, Thinifers, Rice, Policy, IFAP, Small oats, Yams, Drought insurance, Siberian nomads, Cereal miscegenation, Fiji breadfruit, Introgression, Mudchute, Gordon Edgar, Coconuts, Eels, Cat worship, Biofuel breeding, Perennials
- Some heirloom tomatoes resist late blight, others not so much.
- Overweight or obese Americans at 68%, and holding steady. No epidemic, say free-thinkers.
- “No wonder kids are gaining weight.” But they aren’t, see above. (Where’s that sarc-mark when you need it?)
- Hydroelectric scheme to save Ifugao rice terraces, cut carbon emissions. W-w-w?
- Climate Change and Agrobiodiversity updates us on hot policy news. Thanks.
- IFAP updates its farmers on agricultural biodiversity. Thanks again.
- Small oats genebank evaluations make big progress with young crofters.
- Yam festivities in the Philippines.
- Psst, you want drought insurance for your camel herd? Oh, and Jeremy wants to know why this IFPRI stuff didn’t find its way into the story.
- “The ability to roam freely enables people and animals to exploit or avoid a wide range of natural and manmade habitats.” Still no cure for cancer.
- Barley helps wheat. But how, exactly? I think we should be told.
- Fiji sets up breadfruit genebank Which will hopefully help local agricultural entrepreneurs.
- Anastasia on introgression. At length.
- The biggest urban farm in Europe.
- A bite of Cheese(monger).
- Coconuts bad for birds bad for soil bad for plants bad for crabs. Ok then, let’s cut the damn things down, shall we?
- Cockney cuisine takes a turn for the worse. Well would you Adam and Eve it?
- Egyptian cat temple pix. Miaow.
- “…the first biofuel crop breeding programs for low-input systems are likely to accelerate progress by focusing on grass–legume bicultures.”
- And another from the Land Institute: “…harvested perennial
grasslands provide valuable ecological benchmarks for agricultural sustainability.”