Vegetables

June 29, 2011July 1, 2011

Educate girls, plant a school garden, promote biodiversity

What’s not to like?

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This post is simply an abuse of authorial rights to promote a project. I just received the second project report from Educate 1300 Girls By Restoring A Marrakech Garden, which I am supporting via Global Giving. Why that project? Because it is relevant to me in all sorts of ways. Maybe to you too; they still need to raise about $15,000.

During the past academic year, thirty students conducted their own field research by interviewing Marrakechi herbalists about important cultural recipes. [The Global Diversity Foundation] is now organizing a database of the girls’ findings, titled, “An Ethnobotanical Study of Five Traditional Women’s Recipes.” In the autumn of this year, the girls will be able to re-examine, analyze, and discuss their own data. We hope that this will be the first of many such educational initiatives at Lalla Aouda Saadia.

I look forward to the next report, which I hope will tell me more about those traditional recipes, and to the garden’s continued growth.

June 27, 2011June 23, 2011

Brainfood: Benin diversity, Catalan diversity, Serbian sorghum, Flowering in barley and sunflower, Potato nutritional quality, Cacao genebank management, Potato genebank management, Caribbean cattle, Venezuelan CWR, Ecogeographic surveys, Refugia, Vegetation change, Fisheries, Botanic gardens, Crop diversity patterns, Old trees

Diversity, geographical, and consumption patterns of traditional vegetables in sociolinguistic communities in Benin: Implications for domestication and utilization. 245 species, from 62 families, 80% wild-harvested.
Landraces in situ conservation: A case study in high-mountain home gardens in Vall Fosca, Catalan Pyrenees, Iberian Peninsula. 39 landraces of 31 species, disappearing fast.
Origin, history, morphology, production, improvement, and utilization of broomcorn [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] in Serbia. Summarizes 60 years of experience.
The timing of flowering in barley and sunflower dissected. In the former, variation in photoperiod sensitivity occurred both pre- and post-domestication. In the latter, variation is clinal.
Cultivated and wild Solanum species as potential sources for health-promoting quality traits. Some of the latter are pretty good.
Microsatellite fingerprinting in the International Cocoa Genebank, Trinidad: accession and plot homogeneity information for germplasm management. A quarter of plots were mixtures. Well that’s no good. Huge amount of stuff in this issue of PGR-CU.
Construction of an integrated microsatellite and key morphological characteristic database of potato varieties on the EU common catalogue. So that the above doesn’t happen.
Footprints of selection in the ancestral admixture of a New World Creole cattle breed. Lots of African and zebu blood in Guadeloupe cattle.
Inventory of related wild species of priority crops in Venezuela. Basically a big list.
Potential of herbarium records to sequence phenological pattern: a case study of Aconitum heterophyllum in the Himalaya. Could be used to flesh out the above kind of thing.
Refugia: identifying and understanding safe havens for biodiversity under climate change. How to spot refugia past and future, which would be useful for the above-but-one kind of thing.
Modelling biome shifts and tree cover change for 2050 in West Africa. Climate change leads to greening, human impact to browning.
Comparison of modern and historical fish catches (AD 750–1400) to inform goals for marine protected areas and sustainable fisheries. Along the Kenyan coast. Amazingly, comparisons are possible, and they show a deterioration in quality and quantity.
The biodiversity benefits of botanic gardens. They are there, despite their history with invasives, but gardens need to get their act together. Which they are doing.
Domesticated crop richness in human subsistence cultivation systems: a test of macroecological and economic determinants. Number of crop species grown depends on latitude, habitat heterogeneity and commitment to agriculture (as opposed to foraging, herding and exchange). Can’t make up my mind if this is interesting or predictable. Maybe it is both. Would be great to apply same method to infraspecific diversity too.
The age of monumental olive trees (Olea europaea) in northeastern Spain. Maybe over 600 years.

June 22, 2011June 22, 2011

Vote early, vote often…

Many thanks to the World Vegetable Center for running a poll on Jacob’s seeds-with-yoghurt idea. Head on over to their Facebook page and vote!

Alternatively, because we are such Social Media Mavens that we serve even people who aren’t on Facebook, head on over to our own sidebar, over there on the right, and vote here instead. Or as well. Do people who vote here vote differently from people who vote at the other place?

You’ll note that we’ve modified the question ever so slightly, as we’re not sure how many subsistence farmers in, say, Mali, eat store-bought yoghurt. Even with free seeds.

June 22, 2011June 21, 2011

Making the most of bitter gourd diversity at AVRDC

Another interesting agrobiodiversity piece in AVRDC’s newletter today:

The AVRDC Nutrition group is locked in a struggle with a cucurbit – and so far, warty Momordica charantia appears to be winning! As part of the project “A better bitter gourd: exploiting bitter gourd to increase incomes, manage type 2 diabetes, and promote health in developing countries,” researchers have begun preparing samples of the vegetable for later laboratory analysis.

Interested? “Like” the project’s Facebook page then!

June 20, 2011June 20, 2011

Brainfood: Soil, Seed aging, Organic sustainability, Yaquis, Garlic, Rice bean, Ethiopian livestock, Sweet potato intercropping, PES

Long-term effect of tillage, nitrogen fertilization and cover crops on soil organic carbon and total nitrogen content. No till is better than conservation tillage.
Catalase is a key enzyme in seed recovery from ageing during priming. It sure is. Good to know.
Sustainable agriculture: A case study of a small Lopez Island farm. The authors conclude: “the need for future targeted nutrient inputs cannot be ruled out for sustainable long-term production”.
Evolution of the knowledge system for agricultural development in the Yaqui Valley, Sonora, Mexico. They’re innovative, and diversity promotes agility.
Changes in phenolic compounds in garlic (Allium sativum L.) owing to the cultivar and location of growth. Don’t hold your breath; only 10 varieties.
Morpho-physiological and nutritional characterization of rice bean (Vigna umbellata). Now that’s what I call science; 30 varieties.
Rural livestock asset portfolio in northern Ethiopia: a microeconomic analysis of choice and accumulation. Many, many factors come into play.
Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.)-based strip intercropping: I. Interspecific interactions and yield advantage. Almost every intercrop improves yield and bottom line.
Should payments for biodiversity conservation be based on action or results? A model says: “It depends.”