Wild relatives

September 23, 2011September 23, 2011

Building a plant conservation toolkit

70 per cent of the genetic diversity of crops including their wild relatives and other socio-economically valuable plant species conserved, while respecting, preserving and maintaining associated indigenous and local knowledge.

That would be Target 9 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, and we are all fully behind it, and all the others, of course. How to do it, though? Well, the new Plants 2020 website is planning to provide a toolkit in due course. ((Not a clearing-house, I am advised.)) When? Well:

Please check back regularly for updates and new information.

Ugh. Yep. No RSS feed. Look, I know I’m nay-saying again, and that it’s really boring. But no RSS feed these days is just not on. I hope they’ll fix that soon because this will be an important resource, and I want to keep up to date without having to check back regularly.

September 22, 2011September 22, 2011

Crawling the web for agrobiodiversity threats

We have often mused here — mainly idly, it must be said — about the possibility of an automated, internet-based system for monitoring the threat of genetic erosion. While we muse, it seems, others roll their sleeves up and, well, do stuff. Welcome to the Threat News Explorer, news of which has reached us via Resilience Science. We’re talking here about “multiple interacting threats (wildfire, insects, disease, invasive species, climate change, land use change)” to “wildlands,” rather than agricultural biodiversity, and so far it looks like mainly in the US. But still, it’s a start. And perhaps of interest to our friends working on the crop wild relatives of the US.

LATER: If you were doing agrobiodiversity threats, you might look at new disease records, for example…

September 22, 2011September 22, 2011

Nibbles: Baobab, Plant cuttings & carnivalia, Apples, Fodder, Range management, PNG blog, Cattle breeding, Food security questions

Baobab: your favourite nutritious neglected species for the next 10 seconds.
Nigel Chaffey’s fresh selection of Plant Cuttings is up.
Which reminds me; don’t forget to submit to Berry go Round.
Searching for lost apples in the Scottish Highlands. A job for mountain rescue?
Why feed my cow? A more interesting question than it seems.
Rangeland scientists take photos of their study sites shock. Applications for crop wild relatives? Bound to be.
Glad to give my friend Seniorl Anzu at NARI in PNG a plug for his new(ish) blog, PNG-Agrinews.
Wageningen solves that cow burping problem.
Cambridge says I see your cow burps and raise you food security.

September 21, 2011September 21, 2011

Nibbles: Polyculture, Melons, Cheese 2011, Australian medicinals

Do polycultures have a role in modern agriculture? Well, do they? h/t The Scientist Gardener.
Texas breeders go for better melons.
“Children from the city who try this yogurt don’t like it, but they’re not healthy like my children!”
Hotspots for Aboriginal traditional medicinal plants mapped to within an inch of their lives, thanks to GBIF.

September 20, 2011September 20, 2011

Nibbles: Nigerian farmer speaks, Kenya meeting, Ecuador, Striga-resistant sorghum, Designer veg, Cottontail, Funding conservation, African adaptation

Why one Nigerian agriculture student will not become a farmer.
Meeting in Kenya on agricultural biodiversity, and other stuff, in October.
Ecuador and access to genetic resources (in Spanish).
“Scientists on the verge of releasing new striga-resistant sorghum.” Drought-resistant too! No need for push-pull then?
One wacky plant breeder’s story.
Attractive local bunny in trouble. Not what you’re thinking, get your mind out of the gutter.
Forest bonds in the offing. Genebank bonds, anyone?
Climate change adaptation in Africa: examples of genetic and agronomic fixes. Need both, I guess.