- Hari Deo Upadhyaya: Plant Breeder, Geneticist and Genetic Resources Specialist. “A prolific writer and with immense passion for teaching, Hari Upadhyaya has established a school of his own for the management, evaluation and use of genetic resources for crop improvement.”
- The Contribution of Professor Gian Tommasso Scarascia Mugnozza to the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity. “It is difficult to fully remember the work of Gian Tommaso Scarascia Mugnozza, a man of charismatic personality, brilliant intelligence, great culture, with an extraordinary capacity of translate his ideas and intuitions into concrete projects”
- Evaluation of sweet sorghum accessions for seedling cold tolerance using both lab and field cold germination test. Try the lab first.
- Does introgression of crop alleles into wild and weedy living populations create cryptic in situ germplasm banks? Yes. Review based on sunflower.
- Variability in Susceptibility to Anthracnose in the World Collection of Olive Cultivars of Cordoba (Spain). About a third of 308 varieties resistant, including the most widely grown, while another widely common one is very susceptible.
- Genomewide association study of ionomic traits on diverse soybean populations from germplasm collections. Didn’t even have to grow them out.
- Bio-fortification potential of global wild annual lentil core collection. This lot were grown out, and Turkey and Syria found to be particularly diverse.
- Genome-wide association analyses identify QTL hotspots for yield and component traits in durum wheat grown under yield potential, drought, and heat stress environments. On chromosomes 2A and 2B.
- Investigating the population structure and genetic differentiation of livestock guard dog breeds. Surprisingly “reasonable” levels of diversity within breeds.
- Genetic monitoring of horses in the Czech Republic: A large-scale study with a focus on the Czech autochthonous breeds. Same for these guys, though breed differentiation was not as good.
- Exploring Agricultural Heritage Landscapes: A Journey Across Terra Incognita. “… a perspective on agricultural landscapes as complex, adaptive biocultural systems has not yet been incorporated into conservation practice.”
Nibbles: Forages info, Seed bag, Black rust, Brazilian fruits, Mutant Millets, Biotech conference, Nutrition, RTBFoods
- The latest tropical forages newsletter.
- The Edens Bluff seed bag for your pleasure. You’re welcome.
- SciDev.net thinks Yemen is in North Africa. Anyway, be afraid.
- Umbu and licuri are helping Brazilian farmers. Yeah, I don’t know what they are either. IFAD wants you to google them, I guess.
- The Mutant Millet project is a name to conjure with.
- As is the VIII International Scientific and Practical Conference on Biotechnology as an Instrument for Plant Biodiversity Conservation (physiological, biochemical, embryological, genetic and legal aspects).
- Four ways nutrition is good for development. Only four?
- What gets a new tuber accepted? Now there’s a project to find out. Only now?
Nibbles: Sustainable wheat, Bananacoin, Tuscan agrobiodiversity, Fig conservation, Foraging beer, Wizard vs Prophet, SDGs, Harlan Symposium
- General Mills goes all sustainable. But the genebanks?
- The future of bananas is banana futures. But the genebanks?
- Agrobiodiversity in Tuscany: The App. Who needs genebanks.
- “Correia, a 59-year-old third-generation Delta resident, has one of the most diverse collections of the common fig, Ficus carica, in the world.” Put that in an app.
- The two approaches to feeding 10 billion people. Only two?
- “Eradicating hunger and ensuring food security is a bottom-line requirement for achieving sustainable development and well-being.” Problem is, it’s not the top priority.
- Otherwise orphan crops wouldn’t be orphans.
- Foraged beer is a thing. A very cool thing, and you can probably use orphan crops too.
- A place to discuss all of the above? The Third Jack R. Harlan International Symposium.
Nibbles: Sequencing Davos, WPC 2018, German spuds, Martha’s Excellent Adventure, C4F video, Hawaiian varieties, Seed Book
- Blockchain for ABS touted at Davos. The Economist is there.
- But will it be at the World Potato Congress? I’m betting no.
- But for sure some Germans will be.
- Martha Stewart will be in Svalbard.
- Crops for the Future was On the Menu.
- Culinary Breeding Network is in Hawaii. Lucky them. But would it have killed them to provide a link?
- I want to be in Lebanon.
- There are a lot of pretty seeds in Paul Smith’s new book.
Nibbles: “Millets”, GLF, Agrobiodiversity & resilience, Nepali earthquake, Seed systems, Super beans in Uganda, Cherokee seeds, Potato Park, Italian cook, Ancient turkeys, Linnaean globalization, Wild rice genomes
- I really don’t like the way a bunch of very different cereals are lumped together as “millets,” but anyway.
- Mongabay optimistic about climate-smart agriculture after Global Landscape Forum.
- I guess it must be the resilience.
- Rebuilding Nepali seed systems after the earthquake. See what I mean?
- And here’s a primer on innovative seed systems work from ICRISAT.
- Beans for refugees. Seeds systems at work.
- Cherokee nation knows what to do to get seeds out there.
- So does the Parque de la Papa, for that matter.
- Morocco has truffles? Yep.
- Ancient turkeys were pets, not food.
- Linnaeus was a globalist. Not his fault, though.
- Australian gene-jockey says that Australian wild rice genome could make it easier to grow rice in Australia. Linnaeus, where are you?