Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

October 14, 2023October 14, 2023

An apple a day…

Good question. The answer?

It’s all part of a very nice exhibit at the Museum Koenig in Bonn on biodiversity research.

Great to see agricultural research get a look-in.

But pity there was nothing on genebanks, and indeed no call to action. There’s a whole website in Germany about “edible landscapes” that offers ideas about what to do to help preserve fruit diversity. And also shops in and around Bonn that boast about selling lots of apple varieties, including less well known one.

October 9, 2023

Brainfood: Food insecurity drivers, Agroecology & fertilizers, Overselling GMOs, Genomic prediction, Striga breeding, Farmers’ preferences, Farmers’ WtP, Diversity metrics

Drivers and stressors of resilience to food insecurity: evidence from 35 countries. Diversify!
The input reduction principle of agroecology is wrong when it comes to mineral fertilizer use in sub-Saharan Africa. …but that doesn’t mean agroecology is wrong. So, diversify your mind?
Genetic modification can improve crop yields — but stop overselling it. Diversify your research teams.
Genomic predictions to leverage phenotypic data across genebanks. Diversify your training set.
Harnessing plant resistance against Striga spp. parasitism in major cereal crops for enhanced crop production and food security in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review. Diversity within the weed is almost as important as diversity in host resistance, and less studied.
Farmers’ heterogeneous preferences for traits of improved varieties: Informing demand-oriented crop breeding in Tanzania. Breeders need to take into account farmer diversity too.
Farmer Risk Preferences and Willingness to Pay for African Rice Landrace Seed: An Experimental Choice Analysis. Farmers are willing to pay for diversity.
Too simple, too complex, or just right? Advantages, challenges and resolutions for indicators of genetic diversity. What’s the best way to measure diversity anyway?

October 6, 2023October 6, 2023

The Financial Times does crop diversity

Nicely done. But 75%? Really? Ok, fine, the FT gets a pass because it’s such a nice video. But just this time.

October 2, 2023September 29, 2023

Branfood: Salinity tolerance, Comestibles, Underused species, On farm diversity, Minor cereals, Fragrant millet, Wild yams, Fonio, Winged bean, Giant taro, Nutmeg, Mungbean, Finger millet, Amaranth

Salt-Tolerant Crops: Time to Deliver. Sure, breeding for salt tolerance using crop wild relatives is great, but have you tried just domesticating salt-tolerant wild species?
Wild and cultivated comestible plant species in the Gulf of Mexico: phylogenetic patterns and convergence of type of use. No word on how many are salt-tolerant.
Underutilized plants increase biodiversity, improve food and nutrition security, reduce malnutrition, and enhance human health and well-being. Let’s put them back on the plate! No word on how many are salt-tolerant.
Indigenous crop diversity maintained despite the introduction of major global crops in an African centre of agrobiodiversity. If you want local crop diversity in Highland Ethiopia, look for it on the farms of the poorest. No word on how many are “underutilized”.
The role of minor cereals in food and nutrition security in Bangladesh: constraints to sustainable production. Low yields, apparently. I think it could do with having aromatic grains. If only there was a way to make that happen…
De novo creation of popcorn-like fragrant foxtail millet. Yeah, sometimes neither the crop not its wild relatives has the genes for it. Still, if you can edit in aroma, why not salt-tolerance?
Global Genepool Conservation and Use Strategy for Dioscorea (Yam). I wonder how many of these 27 wild species could usefully be domesticated. Or are salt-tolerant.
Towards conservation and sustainable use of an indigenous crop: A large partnership network enabled the genetic diversity assessment of 1539 fonio (Digitaria exilis) accessions. This is how you start to undo underutilization. I’m sure someone will edit it next.
Diversity Assessment of Winged Bean [Psophocarpus tetragonolobus (L.) DC.] Accessions from IITA Genebank. Same as above, but with one hundredth as many accessions. I guess winged bean is even more underutilized than fonio.
The forgotten giant of the Pacific: a review on giant taro (Alocasia macrorrhizos (L.) G.Don). Sad to say it doesn’t seem to be salt-tolerant. Maybe it’s aromatic, though. Or could be gene-edited to become so. Wouldn’t that be something.
Retracing the center of origin and evolutionary history of nutmeg Myristica fragrans, an emblematic spice tree species. No need for editing, let’s just conserve the really diverse populations of the North Moluccas.
Demographic history and distinct selection signatures of two domestication genes in mungbean. Domesticating the mungbean wasn’t all that easy. Hope it’s easier for some random salt-tolerant wild species.
A plausible screening approach for moisture stress tolerance in finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.) germplasm accessions using membership function value at the seedling stage. Will it work on fonio? Or salt-tolerance?
Adoption and impact of improved amaranth cultivars in Tanzania using DNA fingerprinting. So can we stop calling it underutilized? And start gene-editing it for aroma?

September 29, 2023October 2, 2023

RIP Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan

At the International Congress of Genetics in New Delhi in 1983, I stressed the need for a conservation continuum, beginning with revitalizing conservation of domesticated plants by farm families in all countries, and extending to the establishment of an international genetic resource repository maintained under permafrost conditions. Since then, thanks to the spread of participatory breeding and knowledge-management systems involving scientists and local communities, on-farm conservation and gene banks have become integral parts of national biodiversity conservation strategies. For example, there are now over 125,000 genetic strains of rice, of which over 100,000 are in a cryogenic gene bank maintained by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines. This gene pool is invaluable for adapting one of the world’s most important cereal grains to the consequences of global climate change.

Si monumentum requiris circumspice.