Category: Threats

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Finnish genebank attacked

Something else to add to the long list of problems that can afflict field genebanks:

Hordes of moles have penetrated into the MTT Agrifood Research Finland plant gene bank in Laukaa during the winter.

A lot of damage was done to fruit tree saplings in particular. Fortunately, there is a back-up site, but not all material is safety duplicated. More protective measures are to be introduced. Also, there seems to be a lot of cryopreservation work going on at Laukaa, so maybe in time there will be an added level of protection. MTT Agrifood research have a nice pamphlet on Finnish agrobiodiversity and its conservation.

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Kesar magoes on the ropes in Gujarat

Farmers in Gujarat are cutting down their mangoes because they no longer yield enough.

Kanu Korat, a farmer of Mandola village in Talala, earlier grew Kesar mango trees on 3.5 hectares of land; but he had to hew them owing to the crop failure. A change of weather conditions in recent times ruined the crop in the region, with mango production falling by 75 per cent. As a result, the farmers here have not been able to quote the normal price of mangoes.

That’s a pity, because Indian mangoes have only recently been allowed back into the US market. I don’t know anything about mango diversity, but the Kesar variety seems popular and fairly common (over 8,000 Google hits), so I don’t suppose it will be endangered by the cull. But still. The shape of things to come? Is this climate change in action?

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Opposing the Egyptian pig cull

I posted my recent little note about the imminent disappearance of the Egyptian pig landrace called Baladi to DAD-Net, and it has generated quite a bit of feedback. The gist is that nobody thinks the cull is justified, and that conservation measures are urgently needed (freezing sperm and keeping it in liquid nitrogen and freezing or vitrifying embryos at the time of slaughter were mentioned). Especially since, surprisingly, the breed has never been properly characterized. An Egyptian researchers lamented this by saying that

characterization needs commitment and funds which are not readily available even for more economically important livestock species.

So that’s not unlike the case with crops, then. You can sign up to a petition to stop the cull.