- Psst, wanna breed a cucumber? With video goodness.
- Hudson Valley Seed Library.
- “One duck creates boundless treasure.â€
- Potato spindle tuber viroids go back to the beginning of life on Earth. Kinda.
- AGCommons’ Quick Wins: geospatial technology for smallholder farmers. Via.
Pesticide brigades
It is well established that brown plant hopper outbreaks in rice are caused by the use of pesticides. So why do farmers and their advisers spray even more when there is an outbreak?
According to this post on the Ricehoppers blog, it might be because plant protection services (in Vietnam) operate like fire brigade services, equipped for rapid response and control. And because, for the people leading these services, it is better to do the wrong thing (spray) then to be perceived as not acting (and perhaps lose their job).
Perhaps, like modern fire brigades, plant protection services will be able to shift their emphasis to prevention. And, like modern fire-ecologists, learn to let the occasional outbreak run its course.
Rare breeds at risk of disease
BBC News says that “regional breeds of sheep face a heightened risk of disease because of their tendency to remain together in one location”. It is summarising a report from The Sheep Trust, which was founded during the epidemic of Foot and Mouth disease in the United Kingdom in 2001. That’s important.
What the Trust’s report seems to be saying that when there is an outbreak of disease, the regional, heritage, breeds are vulnerable because they are concentrated in a single geographical location. But that does not put them at greater risk of disease. It puts them at greater risk of being culled as part of government’s policy-based response to the disease. If the policy is to slaughter all animals within, say, 5 km of an affected farm, regardless of whether they have the disease or not, then yes, geographical concentration is a threat to the breed. But it isn’t the disease as such that is the threat, it is the policy response. It is even possible that the policy would wipe out flocks that contain genetic resistance.
What’s the answer? Given that regional breeds are interesting precisely because they are adapted to a small region, simply spreading them about might not be much of a solution. Gene-banking? Well, that’s where we came in: The Sheep Trust is an outgrowth of the Heritage Genebank. So what exactly do they want?
“We are strongly recommending that new measures are put in place to protect these important genetic resources now that their vulnerability has been so clearly demonstrated,†says Professor Dianna Bowles OBE, founder and Chair of The Sheep Trust.
No further details are forthcoming. How very frustrating. Maybe all they want is government money for the sheep genebank.
Nibbles: Databases, Hell squared, Genebanks, Goats, Olives, Safe movement, Pouteria, Roman wine
- iSPOT to map common names to Latin names. Jeremy says “Good luck with that.”
- International Conference on Biodiversity Informatics. Jeremy says “Good luck with that too.”
- Online discussion forums for the ICBI, above. Agriculture! Forestry! Fisheries!
- Uganda joins the rush to Svalbard global genebank.
- Scientists to clone pashmina goat. Er … why?
- Adopt-an-Italian-olive-tree.
- International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) meets so we can eats.
- Inverted root grafting of canistel at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
- In vino veritas.
Nibbles: Urban agriculture, Rural agriculture, Assisted migration, FAO prize, Traditional medicine, Diseaese
- IDRC reports on Agriculture in urban planning.
- French end subsidy hypocrisy. Mais non? Mais oui! Via .
- More on assisted migration.
- Chinese pig farmer wins FAO plaudits.
- India puts traditional remedies into public domain for their own good.
- Kenyan crops in trouble from diseases.