- Tangled Bank 116. Where I discovered that Differential Grasshoppers prefer damaged sunflowers.
- Urban Farmer wins MacArthur “Genius Grant”.
- Irish Forum on Genetic Resources, 19 November. Who will report for us?
- New bean varieties boost incomes and food supply in Uganda.
Compare and contrast
Sure, we live in a globalized world, a global village. Recent events in the financial markets are somewhat painful reminders of that. But that doesn’t mean things are the same everywhere, or even going in the same direction. High(er) altitude farming is alive and well in Nepal, as Jeremy just noted. But on its way to extinction in England. Better irrigation is boosting rice yields in Cambodia. While karez wells are being abandoned in Afghanistan. That’s one reason why I don’t believe the genetic erosion meta-narrative. There is always an exception. And although you can sometimes see the world in a grain of sand, it’s better to look at the beach.
Resistance (to UG99) is futile
The Pakistan Biotechnology Information Centre has good news to share:
LAHORE: The scientists of Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad has successfully developed a new variety of wheat ‘UG99’ which is resistant to stem rust disease of wheat. The disease poses world-wide threat to wheat productivity and productive approach of AARI scientists to solve this problem would prove highly beneficial for the country.
Unfortunately, no more details are forthcoming. Where did they find the resistance? How did they get it into a productive variety? The world needs to know.
Nibbles: Meat, Meet
- Visayan warty piglet eaten. Python blamed.
- Biodiversity and Agricultures: Today’s Challenges, Tomorrow’s Research for More Sustainable Farmingâ€. Can’t wait for November 5th.
Disappearing wild potatoes mined for drought tolerance
An article in National Geographic looks at possible changes in the climate of the Andes, how they will affect potatoes, and what breeders are doing about it. The wild relatives are very much to the fore:
“The crosses we are developing between wild, drought-tolerant varieties and modern potatoes now are for the future,” said Meredith Bonierbale, senior potato breeder at the International Potato Center in Lima.
The article also quotes our friend, colleague and occasional contributor Andy Jarvis, ((Andy works for CIAT and Bioversity in Cali, Colombia.)) who recently collaborated with others on a paper which concluded that some of those very same wild relatives are themselves threatened:
“Even if we halt habitat loss, in the next 50 years, climate change could undo all of the conservation that we already have,” said Jarvis.