Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

May 7, 2020May 7, 2020

Genebanks in the time of COVID-19

From the desk of Landscape News comes a series of live interviews with experts examining the linkages between COVID-19 and climate change. On 13 May, Tony Simons, director general of World Agroforestry (ICRAF), will speak with Charlotte Lusty, head of programs and genebank platform coordinator at Crop Trust; Lava Kumar, virologist and head of germplasm health at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA); and Vania Azevedo, genebank head at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) about the relationship between COVID-19, genebanks and the conservation of seeds.

May 6, 2020

Our climate envelope takes a licking

The headlines for coverage of the paper “Future of the human climate niche” will no doubt be about the fact that over the coming 50 years, absent migration or mitigation, 1 to 3 billion people look like they’ll end up living outside the climatic conditions our species has gotten used to over the past 6000 years. But I can’t help thinking about something else. What are those bits of the human climate envelope where there is currently so little agriculture and livestock? I’ve drawn little white ovals around them in this figure from the paper.

May 4, 2020May 4, 2020

Food Planet Prize highlights agrobiodiversity

I didn’t know about the Food Planet Prize, but the editors’ picks this year in the area of biodiversity look pretty cool.

The selection comes with a Special Report by Dan Saladino on “Biodiversity in farming and nature.” You can submit nominations until 31 May.

May 4, 2020May 4, 2020

Brainfood: French Neolithic, African forages, Sorghum inflorescences, Root morphology, Folium, Tillage, Sparing, Food localness, Indian diet diversity, Sourdough, Genomics costs, Breeding strategies

Early Neolithic (ca. 5850-4500 cal BC) agricultural diffusion in the Western Mediterranean: An update of archaeobotanical data in SW France. Agriculture came to southern France from southern Italy around 5700 BC, initially focusing on hulled wheats, then transitioned to naked cereals as it moved inland.
Improved feeding and forages at a crossroads: Farming systems approaches for sustainable livestock development in East Africa. Adoption of tropical forages at scale can make a big difference to livelihoods in East Africa, but will need careful consideration of agroecological and socioeconomic settings. My mother-in-law unavailable for comment.
Comprehensive 3D phenotyping reveals continuous morphological variation across genetically diverse sorghum inflorescences. Fancy gadgets and maths show that botanical sorghum races overlap more in morphology than genetics.
Using clear plastic CD cases as low‐cost mini‐rhizotrons to phenotype root traits. Now do roots.
A 1000-year-old mystery solved: Unlocking the molecular structure for the medieval blue from Chrozophora tinctoria, also known as folium. 6′-hydroxy-4,4′-dimethoxy-1,1′-dimethyl-5′-{[3,4,5-trihydroxy-6-(hydroxymethyl)tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-yl]oxy}-[3,3′-bipyridine]-2,2′,5,6(1H,1′H)-tetraone, if you must know.
Generating a rule-based global gridded tillage dataset. The most amazing thing about this is that there are only 6 types of tillage.
The global cropland-sparing potential of high-yield farming. We could give up 40% of current farmland if yields of 16 major crops were higher. Unclear what all those farmers would do. Or what kind of tillage they would use.
Local food crop production can fulfil demand for less than one-third of the population. Still going to need global supply chains.
Regional differences in agricultural and socioeconomic factors associated with farmer household dietary diversity in India. And national supply chains for that matter.
Influences of Ingredients and Bakers on the Bacteria and Fungi in Sourdough Starters and Bread. Bakers are part of bread.
Strategies for reducing per‐sample costs in target capture sequencing for phylogenomics and population genomics in plants. Down to $22 per sample, if you play your cards right.
Evolutionary insights into plant breeding. When you’ve played those cards, target selective sweeps for introgression, among other things. Oh, and gene editing. Here, read these tweets from one of the authors.

April 29, 2020April 29, 2020

Spanish genebank reaches out

The INIA National Center for Plant Genetic Resources (CRF) is aware of the need to integrate in situ and ex situ conservation activities, as well as create synergies and concrete collaborations. Therefore, in the context of the activities of the First Action Plan of the National Program for the Sustainable Conservation and Use of Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Order APA/63/2019), INIA is implementing an initiative to incorporate farmers, their associations and relevant companies as associate members of the national ex situ collection network, so that they can collaborate in primary germplasm evaluation. CRF will make available to them germplasm to grow in the actual conditions of cultivation, so that these associate members can collaborate by providing different kinds of data: on yield, for example under low input conditions, on performance under adverse weather conditions, pests, diseases or weeds, as well as on organoleptic quality; this will support, in addition to its conservation on the farm, the use of diversity and the incorporation of new users. ((My translation, let me know if you spot mistakes.))

Great initiative from CRF in Spain, will be keeping an eye on it.