Threats

June 27, 2018

Keeping an eye in the sky on olives

The latest on the very troubling Xylella outbreak in olives is that you can spot infestation from the air before it’s obvious on the ground.

The new research, published in the journal Nature Plants, demonstrates the first way to spot infected trees months before signs are visible to farmers. The scientists analysed more than 7,000 olive trees in 15 Italian groves over two years, both tree-by-tree on the ground and from the air.

June 26, 2018July 13, 2018

Nibbles: Cordillera rice, Farmer seed, Toddy audio essay, Eat This Newsletter, Coconut conservation, Australian genebank, Sweet potato diversification, Mungbean income, NERICA impact, Bing cherry, TFP, Conservation evidence, NordGen matters

Conserving heirloom rice in the Philippines.
A seed production company run by farmers.
Tapping toddy. With audio goodness.
Lots of goodness in Jeremy’s latest newsletter.
Australia gets serious about coconut conservation in the Pacific and beyond.
Australia’s own genebanks are very serious. Oh yes indeedy.
Will sweet potatoes get young people into farming in Kenya? If my nephews are anything to go by, the answer, alas, is no.
Maybe they should try mungbeans.
Or NERICA.
The Bing cherry didn’t help Ah Bing much though.
Whatever the crop, it’s total factor productivity that you have to watch for.
And then don’t forget to include whatever intervention you come up with in subject-wide evidence synthesis.
Prize for best title of the week: “Nordic cooperation on genetic resources – what’s the point?” Nice video.

June 25, 2018June 25, 2018

Brainfood: Rationalizing acquisition, Empowering women, Breadfruit domestication, Rice hybrid sterility, Long-distance crop dispersal, Diversification, African leafy greens, GIAH, Silkworm cryo, Bean in situ

Molecular markers as a tool for germplasm acquisition to enhance the genetic diversity of a Napier grass (Cenchrus purpureus syn. Pennisetum purpureum) collection. Win-win for the ILRI and Embrapa genebanks.
Women’s empowerment in agriculture and agricultural productivity: Evidence from rural maize farmer households in western Kenya. 1% increase in women’s empowerment led to a 6-16% increase in maize yields, depending on fanciness of math.
A transcriptome screen for positive selection in domesticated breadfruit and its wild relatives (Artocarpus spp.). Evidence of selection in 1000 genes.
A selfish genetic element confers non-Mendelian inheritance in rice. Pollen toxin-antidote genetic system controls hybrid sterility in wild-cultivated crosses.
Between China and South Asia: A Middle Asian corridor of crop dispersal and agricultural innovation in the Bronze Age. It’s not all demic diffusion.
Determinants of crop diversification in rice-dominated Sri Lankan agricultural systems. Not everyone can diversify.
Improving food-system efficiency and environmental conservation using agricultural biodiversity in Busia County: a pilot study. Giving farmers nutritional data increased their cultivation of traditional vegetables, and their income.
The impacts of farmers’ livelihood endowments on their participation in eco-compensation policies: Globally important agricultural heritage systems case studies from China. Giving farmers money increased their income.
Conservation of wild silkworm genetic resources through cryopreservation: Standardization of sperm processing. It’s best to recover sperm from the bursa copulatrix and spermatheca of the female moth after mating.
Short-Term Local Adaptation of Historical Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) Varieties and Implications for In Situ Management of Bean Diversity. 3 years of multiplication of heritage varieties in contrasting organic farms leads to genetic changes: it takes a network to truly conserve.

June 18, 2018June 18, 2018

Brainfood: Potato errors, Cryo maize, Fish ABS, Salamander poaching, Better niches, Diverse urban farms, Old growth, Space seeds, Breeding networks, Mating systems

Genetic Identity in Genebanks: Application of the SolCAP 12K SNP Array in Fingerprinting and Diversity Analysis in the Global In Trust Potato Collection. 11 mismatches between 250 original samples and their putative in vitro counterparts.
Maize seed cryo-storage modifies chlorophyll, carotenoid, protein, aldehyde and phenolics levels during early stages of germination. But do the effects last?
Sharing aquatic genetic resources across jurisdictions: playing ‘chicken’ in the sea. Fish resources need cooperative governance too.
Imminent extinction in the wild of the world’s largest amphibian. Because it’s a luxury food, believe it or not.
Community structure informs species geographic distributions. Include coexisting species in niche models for better results.
Increasing plant diversity with border crops reduces insecticide use and increases crop yield in urban agriculture. Planting soybeans, maize and vegetables around rice was bad for pests and good for profits in Shanghai.
Where are Europe’s last primary forests? Mountains, mainly.
Seeds in space. Orbiting Svalbard, anyone?
Resistance Genes in Global Crop Breeding Networks. Networks for cassava, potato, rice, and wheat “are clustered due to phytosanitary and intellectual property regulations, and linked through CGIAR hubs.”
Plant Mating Systems Often Vary Widely Among Populations. One estimate is never enough.

June 11, 2018June 11, 2018

Brainfood: Sustainable Brazil, Epigenetic variation, Global conservation, Rice nutrition, Austronesian societies, Saharan domestication, GM wheat, Smallholders, Bos introgression

Sustainable diet from the urban Brazilian consumer perspective. Healthiness, basically.
Comparison of the Relative Potential for Epigenetic and Genetic Variation To Contribute to Trait Stability. Genetic >> epigenetic.
Global mismatch of policy and research on drivers of biodiversity loss. Except for climate change.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels this century will alter the protein, micronutrients, and vitamin content of rice grains with potential health consequences for the poorest rice-dependent countries. And not in a good way. But some variation among varieties = breeding opportunity?
Coevolution of landesque capital intensive agriculture and sociopolitical hierarchy. Among Austronesian-speaking societies, no evidence that agricultural intensification drives social complexity; if anything, it’s the other way around.
Plant behaviour from human imprints and the cultivation of wild cereals in Holocene Sahara. Weediness has been good to humans in the past.
Gene Flow in Genetically Modified Wheat. Would probably only be a problem within fields.
How much of the world’s food do smallholders produce? FAO: 70%. New paper: 30-34%.
Pervasive introgression facilitated domestication and adaptation in the Bos species complex. Miscegenation has been rampant.