Extending extension

I have a thing about extension. I believe it is the great missing link in most thinking — and doing, for that matter — about conservation and use of agrobiodiversity. Genebanks around the world usually have reasonably well-established links with national agricultural research systems, but hardly any contact with extension workers, except maybe when it …

Brainfood: Diversity patterns double, Diversification drivers, Polish genetic erosion, Tibetan naked barley diversity, Indian sorghum diversity, Do novo domestication, Eggplant tree, Banana diversity, Pearl millet diversity, Pigeon pea genome, Grasspea genome, Jersey bull diversity

Floristic classifications and bioregionalizations are not predictors of intra-specific evolutionary patterns. You can’t use spatial structures in interspecific diversity to predict spatial structure in instraspecific diversity. Gotta do the hard work, there are no shortcuts. Intraspecific trait variability in wild plant populations predicts neither variability nor performance in a common garden. You can’t use intraspecific …

Brainfood: Ecological intensification, Green Revolution narrative, Agroecology, Livelihood diversification, Eating wild species, Seed systems, Improved peanuts, PGRFA school curriculum

Long-term evidence for ecological intensification as a pathway to sustainable agriculture. Meta-analysis of 30 long-term experiments from Europe and Africa comprising 25,565 data points shows that increasing crop diversity and adding fertility crops and organic matter are as good for the yield of staple crops as N fertilization, but don’t add much if you already …