Ranching in South America tends to get a bad press because it is often associated with Amazonian deforestation, but of course there are vast swathes of the continent where it makes good environmental sense, as well as economic. 1 The Pampas grasslands of Argentina are a case in point. The home of gaucho culture 2, the Pampas are undergoing drastic change. The soybean boom is not just having an effect on the livestock industry, but also, perhaps surprisingly, on honeymaking. Much smaller in value, no doubt, than either soybeans or livestock, but these are not times to pass up on diversification.
Meetings, meetings
Banana researchers are meeting in Mombasa, and conservationists of all stripes in Barcelona. Both are receiving a lot of press. Africa Science News Service, for example, has a piece on the banana conference. And the BBC has a daily diary on the World Conservation Congress, no less. If you’re at either meeting, and would like to share your impressions with us, let us know.
Vavilov blogs up a storm in the Pamirs
Resistance (to UG99) is futile
The Pakistan Biotechnology Information Centre has good news to share:
LAHORE: The scientists of Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad has successfully developed a new variety of wheat ‘UG99’ which is resistant to stem rust disease of wheat. The disease poses world-wide threat to wheat productivity and productive approach of AARI scientists to solve this problem would prove highly beneficial for the country.
Unfortunately, no more details are forthcoming. Where did they find the resistance? How did they get it into a productive variety? The world needs to know.
Potato news
A couple of Spud-U-Likes. Tuesday sees the opening of the International Symposium on Living with Potatoes (ISLP’08). Yes! And according to the conference organisers:
The objective of the ISLP’08 is to provide an international forum for sharing and exchanging information amongst the growers, associations, academicians, researchers, students, practitioners, and government who are interested in promoting the sustainability of potatoes–one of the top three staple foods.
Right. But what about bloggers? Anyone who is at the Symposium and who fancies joining the hallowed ranks of our Guest Bloggers need only send us an email.
And then there’s the wittily headlined Eyes peeled, a report in The Australian newspaper of writer Judith Elen’s potato-focused agro-tourism in the Andes, starting off at CIP, the International Potato Centre in Lima, Peru. Not just potatoes either, but a host of delicious goodies. Sent abroad to eat for her readers, what a great gig. Her conclusion:
Meanwhile, CIP continues its work in the background, conserving and researching native potatoes. The purple-fleshed varieties are especially high in antioxidants, stored in the pigment, while yellow-fleshed varieties are higher in available iron. Andean highlanders serve red, yellow (yema de huevo, egg-yolk potato) and blue in a single dish. But even along the Inca highway, some native varieties have been lost. In this, the UN’s international year of the potato, awareness is the key to keeping cultivation and research funds flowing.
Judith Elen was a guest of Centro Internacional de la Papa.
Money well spent, I’d say.