Documenting agricultural biodiversity everywhere

Nice to see a couple of examples of agrobiodiversity catalogues, albeit of very different kinds, available online.

The Catàleg de varietats locals de Catalunya (from that autonomous community of Spain’s Department d’Acció Climàtita, Alimentació i Agenda Rural) can be searched online by either cultivated species (hint: “mongueta” is Phaseolus vulgaris) or the “entitat” that is managing the landrace.

On the other hand, the Field Guide to the Cultivated Plants of the Philippines (Volume 1: Commonly cultivated species) from the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) can be downloaded as a beautifully produced PDF.

And since I’m here, I might as well point to a nice infographic summarizing the cultivated Citrus family tree. I may have shared this (or something similar) before, but I’m hoping that if I keep doing so some of the details will eventually stick in my brain.

Nibbles: Pacific genebank, IPBES report, New mangoes, British apples, Greek landraces, Fonio, Space seeds, Macadamia cryo

  1. New Zealand supports SPC regional crops and trees genebank in a big way.
  2. Some of those trees are wild species that contribute to food security, and more must be done to conserve them.
  3. Some trees are crops of course, like mangoes, and scientists are doing their bit for them in the Philippines.
  4. Wait, isn’t it too early for the usual BBC saving-the-apple story? Usually comes in the autumn.
  5. Who needs genebanks when you can inscribe landraces in a National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
  6. Maybe try it with fonio next?
  7. Or just send seeds into space?
  8. Maybe including macadamia, or is space not cold enough for them?

Brainfood: Rice domestication, Roman wine, Dog domestication, Earth ovens, Forest orchards, Saffron origins

Nibbles: Animal genebanks, Wild pigeon, Uganda genebank, Biodiversity value, W African cooking, Indigenous cafes, Climate crisis & food, Reforestation

  1. FAO webinar series on animal genebanks.
  2. Quick put this wild pigeon in a genebank before it’s too late. No, really.
  3. Yeah but how much is a wild pigeon worth?
  4. Maybe if you could cook it, it might be worth more? No, really, I’m serious.
  5. Would be terrible to have a wild pigeon shortage.
  6. In fact, we need to be able to re-pigeon.