Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

May 21, 2020May 21, 2020

What makes taro an orphan crop?

Live at 2pm GMT today 21 May…

LATER: Spoiler alert. The answer to the question in the title has to do with:

inaccurate dogmas
multiplicity of names
negative social bias
lack of research
narrow ecological niche
archaeological invisibility
missing numbers

May 20, 2020

Potato atlas returns to life

I have decided to relaunch the potato and sweetpotato atlas sites — completed while working with CIP, but now personal — in hope that with active collaboration, they can become more current and relevant.

That’s from the very brave Kelly Theisen, on the World Potato Atlas site. We’ll see how both develop, and do what we can to help. The country chapters from the original versions of both atlases, which date back to the 1980’s, are also on there.

May 18, 2020May 21, 2020

Talking genebanks

Watch the recording on Facebook, if you can. And that’s hot on the heels of this discussion hosted by the Global Landscapes Forum.

May 18, 2020May 18, 2020

Brainfood: Red Listing, Name checking, Diversification, New breeding, Seed data, Tea genome, Sampling strategies, Plum diversity, Fruit taste, Enset seeds, Maize & nutrition, Emilian grapes

Caution Needed When Predicting Species Threat Status for Conservation Prioritization on a Global Scale. Automated rapid preliminary assessments are all well and good, but…
WorldFlora: An R package for exact and fuzzy matching of plant names against the World Flora Online Taxonomic Backbone data. Automated rapid taxonomic name checking is all well and good, but…
Diverse approaches to crop diversification in agricultural research. A review. Too diverse.
Reinventing quantitative genetics for plant breeding: something old, something new, something borrowed, something BLUE. Retire additive variance.
Nikolaeva et al.’s reference book on seed dormancy and germination. A treasure trove of data comes to light.
The reference genome of tea plant and resequencing of 81 diverse accessions provide insights into genome evolution and adaptation of tea plants. Three groups, originating in SW China.
Taxonomic similarity does not predict necessary sample size for ex situ conservation: a comparison among five genera. The old rule-of-thumb of 50 individuals was not all that far off after all.
Genetic assessment of the pomological classification of plum Prunus domestica L. accessions sampled across Europe. 93 unique accessions out of 104 across 14 partners. Pretty good, no?
Genome‐wide association of volatiles reveals candidate loci for blueberry flavor. Can predict taste from genetics.
Germination ecology of wild and domesticated Ensete ventricosum: Evidence for maintenance of sexual reproductive capacity in a vegetatively propagated perennial crop. Seeds from domesticated material are not much different from the wild ones, except in germination niche.
Mining maize diversity and improving its nutritional aspects within agro‐food systems. Biofortification is only the beginning.
Genetic Characterization of Grapevine Varieties from Emilia-Romagna (Northern Italy) Discloses Unexplored Genetic Resources. About half (62) of the unique accessions (122) in a collection (178) are hardly known.

May 13, 2020May 13, 2020

Diversify for better and more equitable nutrition

This year’s Global Nutrition Report came out yesterday. It calls for…

…a pro-equity agenda that mainstreams nutrition into food systems and health systems, supported by strong financing and accountability. With only five years left to meet the 2025 global nutrition targets, time is running out. We must focus action where the need is greatest for maximum impact.

That includes actions centred around increasing dietary diversity, especially for kids. Prabhu Pingali’s Spotlight 4.1 section of the report shows that more attention to non-staples crops can be a valuable approach for that.

Spotlight 4.1 shows that virtually all the increase in food energy (calories) from 1970 to 2010 is accounted for by non-staple crops, which are relatively more nutrient-dense. The proportion of calories from sugars and sweeteners has declined since 1970. This positive trend highlights the need for a more balanced policy and research and development focus on non-staple crops, to support producers to diversify. This in turn could improve the diversity of crops contributing to a balanced and healthy dietary composition.

Pity this important insight hasn’t found its way in much of the media coverage.