Threats

September 7, 2018September 7, 2018

Rescuing the ICARDA genebank

Another important CGIAR genebank with over 41,000 Triticeae accessions at the International Center for Agriculture Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) housed in Aleppo, Syria has been lost from the turmoil in that region…

Err, no, of course not. I thought this story was better known than such a statement implies. Maybe this will help.

September 5, 2018September 4, 2018

We’ve mostly (though not entirely) steered clear of the Xylella crisis in Italy, because it all seems to futile. I was in Puglia earlier this summer and it was heartbreaking to see entire olive groves dead and dying, and for what? Because of fear and mistrust all around, and an absolute absence of any kind of societal solidarity. So the recent news that the infected zone continues to march steadily up Italy’s heel was in many respects inevitable.

The disease is now threatening plant nurseries, which may be even more important economically than those majestic old olive trees, because they supply huge amounts of grapevines for export. And what do the nurseries say? That “a lack of effective action on the part of regional authorities is responsible for the spread of Xylella, which is now unfairly forcing a crucial economic sector to shut down or move”. On the one hand, they’re absolutely right. On the other, they think that plant nurseries should be exempt from the controls because “no Xyella-infected plants have ever been identified in plant nurseries”.

To which, pessimist that I am, I would add only “Yet”.

September 4, 2018September 7, 2018

Brainfood: Quinoa boom, Diet affordability, Insect boom and bust, Organic & pests, Maize agroforestry, Landraces, Wheat roots, Conservation costs, Sustainable intensification, Defences & domestication, Polyploid niches, Mexican CWR, Danish apples, Diversity proxies, Grassland nutrient hotspots

Foods and fads: The welfare impacts of rising quinoa prices in Peru. Modest.
Measuring the Affordability of Nutritious Diets in Africa: Price Indexes for Diet Diversity and the Cost of Nutrient Adequacy. Maybe they could try quinoa.
Impacts of climate warming on terrestrial ectotherms across latitude. Insects are in trouble in the tropics, but will make up for it at higher latitudes, which will be really bad for crops there, 10-25% more bad.
Evidence that organic farming promotes pest control. Something for farmers in those higher latitudes to think about.
The global distribution of Bacillus anthracis and associated anthrax risk to humans, livestock, and wildlife. 63.8 million rural poor livestock keepers are at risk. No word on effect of climate change.
Do open-pollinated maize varieties perform better than hybrids in agroforestry systems? Maybe in Rwanda, but in Ethiopia not so much.
More than Yield: Ecosystem Services of Traditional versus Modern Crop Varieties Revisited. Landraces are liked for yield stability in marginal environments, and for cultural reasons.
Root and shoot traits in parental, early and late generation Green Revolution wheats (Triticum spp.) under glasshouse conditions. Modern wheat have smaller roots.
Standardized reporting of the costs of management interventions for biodiversity conservation. Behind a paywall, so can’t tell whether includes genebanks. But I bet it doesn’t. Tell me I’m wrong.
Global assessment of agricultural system redesign for sustainable intensification. Apparently 30% of farms and 10% of agricultural land worldwide, which is both more and less than I would have guessed.
Genetic homogeneity of North-African goats. The Berber breeds are different, everything else is a big mixed up mess.
Plant domestication decreases both constitutive and induced chemical defences by direct selection against defensive traits. In cabbage, even the tissues that are not eaten are more edible than in the wild relative.
Polyploid plants have faster rates of multivariate climatic niche evolution than their diploid relatives. Relevant for domestication?
An Initiative for the Study and Use of Genetic Diversity of Domesticated Plants and Their Wild Relatives. In Mexico.
Population structure, relatedness and ploidy levels in an apple gene bank revealed through genotyping-by-sequencing. There’s a lot of inter-relatedness in the Danish collection.
Biases induced by using geography and environment to guide ex situ conservation. “Although geographic and environmental diversity have proven to be reliable predictors of allele frequency differences and ecotypic differentiation across species ranges, they appear to be poor predictors of allelic diversity per se.” At least for 3 species.
Examining the spectra of herbarium uses and users. Herbaria mostly used by taxonomists shock.
Ancient herders enriched and restructured African grasslands. Shit. You heard me.

August 25, 2018August 24, 2018

Nibbles: Apple diversity, Nutrition, Cali crops, Sourdough 101, Orphans, Nomenclature, Wheat genome, CWR Week, Replanting

The decline and fall of Golden Delicious.
Jess Fanzo on the nutritional triple threat.
Stunning map of California’s farms.
A sourdough library. Have you listened to Jeremy’s podcast on the subject?
Remembering forgotten crops.
How to name plants.
Tricky genome outwitted.
Crop Science Society of America is celebrating Crop Wild Relative Week September 22-29.
Chinese rural trees in cities.

August 13, 2018August 13, 2018

Nibbles: Lad spuds, Assisi olives, Amazing maize art, Wild tea, Peruvian alpaca, TR4, Seed banks, Space Seed Force, Embrapa sweetpotato, ITPGRFA

The hidden treasure of Colombian potatoes. In a lad mag, no less.
Umbrian olive terraces get UN status, no less.
Maize furniture, no less.
New wild tea species found. In protected areas, no less.
Saving the dreadlocked Suri alpaca of Peru through spinning.
Saving the banana through lots of things.
Seed banks for restoration, but also so much more.
Even in space. No less.
But don’t forget to safety duplicate .
Seed Treaty scores important first, explained. I hope.

Category: Threats

Rescuing the ICARDA genebank

Moving the goalposts

Brainfood: Quinoa boom, Diet affordability, Insect boom and bust, Organic & pests, Maize agroforestry, Landraces, Wheat roots, Conservation costs, Sustainable intensification, Defences & domestication, Polyploid niches, Mexican CWR, Danish apples, Diversity proxies, Grassland nutrient hotspots

Nibbles: Apple diversity, Nutrition, Cali crops, Sourdough 101, Orphans, Nomenclature, Wheat genome, CWR Week, Replanting

Nibbles: Lad spuds, Assisi olives, Amazing maize art, Wild tea, Peruvian alpaca, TR4, Seed banks, Space Seed Force, Embrapa sweetpotato, ITPGRFA