I’ve blogged about ProMED before a couple of times. It’s advertised as a “global electronic reporting system for outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases & toxins.” But it is actually a bit more than that, as a recent piece on cassava brown streak disease revealed. There have recently been some stories in the Ugandan popular press about this disease. And one of the early ones made it to ProMED. That’s useful enough, but it also elicited a reply from Prof. Mark Laing of the School of Biochemistry, Genetics, Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. He noted that “that there is hope on the horizon versus both cassava mosaic disease (CMD) and cassava brown streak virus (CBSV)” and quoted a couple of breeding programmes that are having some success. That’s really how you want an early warning system to work. It should not only give warning of the problem, but also get people to discuss possible solutions. It doesn’t seem all that complicated to set up. Is it too much to hope for that there’ll be something along these lines for genetic erosion before I crawl away to my well-earned retirement?
Nibbles: New Agriculturist, Coffee
- New Agriculturist is out. Among many cool things, check out the piece on crossing rice with a wild relative to make it perennial.
- Nestle finds 33 elite coffee trees in Indonesia, evaluates 6, will use these to produce seedlings by somatic embryogenesis. What could possibly go wrong?
The debunking of the genetic erosion meta-narrative continues
Regular readers will be familiar with our skepticism here at the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog about the genetic erosion meta-narrative. Not with the fact that genetic erosion has in fact occurred, and is continuing to occur, of course. Just with the notion that it has occurred everywhere, for every crop, to the overall tune of “75% over the past century.” There’s now news of a further nail in the coffin of that hoary myth.
Continue reading “The debunking of the genetic erosion meta-narrative continues”
Nibbles: Traditional knowledge, Opium poppy, Fish, Bees, Earthworms, Wild horses, Camel, Fearl rabbits, Guinea savannah, Kava
- “In the face of climate change, keeping diverse, resilient ecosystems is one of the strongest tools for adaptation.”
- Getting high in Eden.
- Chinese ate freshwater fish 40,000 years ago.
- British MPs finish cleaning their moats, decide to save the honeybee.
- Worm power!
- LEISA 25:2 is out.
- Przewalski’s horse gets first ever reverse vasectomy.
- Early farmers used camel-drawn carts.
- Using Google Earth to map bunnies in Australia. And then kill them.
- Farming the savannah. What could go wrong?
- Stressed out? Try kava. With audio goodness.
Nibbles: Rice breeding, ICRISAT, Arkansas heirlooms, Rice domestication, Livestock products
- Oldest rice research facility in Western Hemisphere turns 100.
- ICRISAT DG plugs his genebank, says “India should start investing for the long-term sustainability of the farming sector particularly in dryland agriculture.”
- Seed-saving in Arkansas.
- The Archaeobotanist reviews rice domestication. And again.
- Nordics to discuss how to develop products based on local livestock breeds.