- Evaluating tomatoes for carotenoids.
- Yet more on those banana diseases in Africa, this time from VOA.
- Stop maligning pigeons already.
- Six boffins on the fisheries crisis.
- The difference between dogs and pigs.
- Dutch find camels difficult. Camels no doubt return the favour.
Nibbles: Tree planting, Farm photos, Dandelion rubber, Ash trees, Qatar garden, Cairo cull
- India tree planter tells BBC his story. But what species?
- Photoessay on Irish farm, begorrah!
- The next rubber boom?
- A “modern-day Johnny Appleseed for ash trees.”
- Qur’anic Botanical Garden established in Qatar.
- Egyptians regret pig cull.
Mapping banana diseases by phone
…Grameen Foundation, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Uganda’s National Agriculture Research Organization (NARO) designed a pilot project to test if data collection and transmission through the use of mobile phones (and GPS units) is a viable alternative to tradition[al] agriculture extension. The project team used identifying, mapping, monitoring and controlling banana disease as a case study to model this new agriculture extension system.
Interesting, no? And, it seems, quite effective. You can read about some of the results at AGCommons. Who’s going to be the first to use mobile phones to map and monitor crop (or crop wild relatives) diversity?
LATER: The BBC has a piece on software for mobiles that will support this kind of application.
Nibbles: Indian potatoes, IUCN report, Climate change and disease
- The history of the potato at Shimla.
- Lots of Mediterranean mammals in trouble, including wild relatives of domesticated species.
- SciDev rounds up the science on climate change and diseases. Human diseases, that is, but much also applies to those of crops and livestock.
Rust wakes up
We’ve been keeping a vague eye on Asian soybean rust ever since it was first found in US soybean fields in 2004. Truth to tell, there’s nothing like the prospect of disease-induced panic, fed by genetic uniformity, to give us a warm inner glow. So we’ve actually been a bit disappointed that as yet there have been no direct losses to soybean rust in the US. Of course, there have been economic costs associated with spraying fungicides, but that’s not the same. Today, with a teeny shiver of Schadenfreude, we bring you State has first loss to soybean rust, from the Mississippi Agricultural News.