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Breeding orphan crops for Africa

News arrives of a conference on New approaches to plant breeding of orphan crops in Africa. To be held from 19-21 September 2007 in Bern, Switzerland, the conference promises to

“bring together scientists both from developed and developing countries and discuss techniques that could be implemented in a scheme of orphan crops improvement. In addition, future prospects and feasibility of modern biotechnology in African agriculture will be addressed. Success stories will also be presented by prominent scientists.”

All fine and dandy, of course, and we’re looking forward to the results. But we’re impatient. So here’s our offer: if you’re going to the conference, why not become a guest blogger for the occasion?

We’ll supply everything you need — a user identity, a password, even some basic training. All you need is the motivation, the computer, the ticket to Bern etc etc. And in return, we can offer the undying gratitude of lots and lots of readers. How about it? Use the form to contact us, or just send an email.

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Vegetable soup as chemical reagent

Here’s one that’s hard to characterize: scientists in the US and Brazil say that common vegetables contain many of the chemicals that chemists need to perform their research, and that scientists in the developing countries, who often lack the funds to buy reagents, should make use of these resources. I’m not competent to judge but the paper, in the Journal of Natural Products, contains a pretty impressive list of things you can make (chemically) from vegetables.

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How to halt desertification

IRD in France has released the results of a long study of the Jeffara region of Tunisia, which has been very prone to desertification. The study pinpoints the role of agriculture and the use of natural resources as key factors in the spread of deserts, but acknowledges the very complex interactions at work. The press release concludes:

“[D]egradation can be checked by prohibiting the development of endangered natural environments for cultivation. However, real practical alternatives must in that case be proposed to farmers, in the agriculture sector, through maintenance of a certain diversified production in their holdings and enhancing commercial value of high-quality local or regional produce, but also by means of diversification of activities and of sources of revenue other than farming. This diversification would offer people improved flexibility to face up to climatic and economic hazards and enable them to manage better their families’ financial resources. In addition, the effort government has made in water management, through the CES, could be enhanced by schemes for desalinating brackish water and recycling waste water.”

But can they find a way to diversify and add value before the farmlands, soils and water have vanished completely?

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New tomatoes promise better nutrition

The World Vegetable Center rounds up its work on tomatoes in a recent feature. A new cherry tomato released in Taiwan promises three to five times more beta-carotene than currently available varieties. But, I wonder, finger ever on the pulse, is it the right sort of beta-carotene? Is it the trans form or the cis form, so much more readily absorbed? Either way, the new tomatoes are more than merely sources of vitamin A precursors. They are also higher in citric acid and ascorbic acid (vitamin C), and the higher levels of vitamin C make more iron available when the tomatoes are cooked with mung beans.

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Non-wood forest products information

You may remember I blogged recently about a couple of FAO news resources, on plant breeding and on biotechnology. I just want to mention today a third: FAO’s Non-Wood Forest Products Digest, the focus of which is pretty self-explanatory. You can subscribe to it here((FAO’s link is broken.)) (there does not seem to be an RSS feed), thereby joining 1300 other people around the world. The website also has past issues. It comes around by email a couple of times a month, and it has the introductory text of articles, announcements etc., with links to the full pieces.