Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

August 17, 2015August 17, 2015

Evaluating evaluation networks

Mike Jackson, who ran the IRRI genebank 20 years ago, has some provocative things to say on his blog about the International Network for Genetic Evaluation of Rice (INGER), which has just turned 40. Here is Mike’s main point:

In my opinion, INGER could—and should—have been more. According to the riceTODAY article, INGER is today, 40 years after it was founded, at ‘the crossroads’. But it was already at a crossroads almost 25 years ago when it became clear that UNDP support would end. Opportunities were not seized then, I contend, to bring about radical and efficient changes to the management and operations of this important rice germplasm network, but without losing any of the benefits of the previous 20 years. I also believed it should be possible to add even more scientific value.

If I understand Mike correctly, he thinks INGER has gone for quantity (of trials) rather than quality of late, and missed out on some clear opportunities to be even more successful than it has been. Counterfactual history is always tricky, but I wonder whether this is a testable proposition. Maybe there’s a natural experiment out there? For example, are there countries that have not taken much advantage of INGER in the past couple of decades. How have their rice improvement efforts fared in comparison to countries which have?

Coincidentally, there was a short article in the Times of India recently trumpeting the release of rice varieties of low glycemic index. Can INGER take some of the credit for that, I wonder? Well, let’s have a look.

One of the varieties in question is Sampada. The Indian Directorate of Rice Development’s catalogue of released varieties (1996-2012) has the following entry for this variety:

The immediate parents are therefore Vijaya and C 14-8. You can look these up in the International Rice Information System. Vijaya has featured in INGER’s nurseries:

And C 14-8 is safely in the IRRI genebank:

We saw it for wheat and maize, and now for rice. Partnership with the relevant CGIAR centre has been extremely important in the success of the Indian national breeding programmes for these crops.

Now, are there countries for which these partnership have not been so strong? And how successful have their breeding programmes been?

August 17, 2015August 11, 2015

Brainfood: Brassica rethink, Camel colours, Parsing the ITPGRFA, Static buffalo, Traits not taxa, Expert tyranny, Chinese pollinators, Heritage landscapes, Mining text, Diversity & nutrition

Domestication of Brassica oleracea L. It happened in the balmy Mediterranean, not along those blustery Atlantic cliffs.
Validating local knowledge on camels: Colour phenotypes and genetic variation of dromedaries in the Nigeria-Niger corridor. The locally recognized colour-based breeds are not supported by the genetics.
The Battle over Plant Genetic Resources: Interpreting the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources. The Treaty phrase “genetic parts and components, in the form received” can be interpreted in ways that do not clash with TRIPS. The author also suggests that the Benefit Sharing Fund should be used to pay lawyers, but I’m not sure if that’s tongue-in-cheek.
The response of the distributions of Asian buffalo breeds in China to climate change over the past 50 years. Fancy maths says it’s minimal.
Functional traits in agriculture: agrobiodiversity and ecosystem services. It’s not the taxa. Or it shouldn’t be.
Expert opinion on extinction risk and climate change adaptation for biodiversity. In situ most preferable, ex situ most feasible.
Conserving pollinator diversity and improving pollination services in agricultural landscapes.The view from China is much like the view from everywhere else.
Heritage Values and Agricultural Landscapes: Towards a New Synthesis. Back to the future: heritage can mean resilience.
Using legacy botanical literature as a source of phytogeographical data. Text parsed to yield maps. Brave new world.
Production diversity and dietary diversity in smallholder farm households. Want better nutrition? Access to markets better than promoting production diversity.

August 14, 2015

Featured: Tanzania

Anne-Marie has a bone to pick with Vel Gnanendran, head of DFID’s Tanzania office:

Too right that that ‘people like [him] need to get much better at understanding the complexity and long-term nature of agricultural change.’ Anyone whose prior agricultural experience is apparently limited to growing ‘watercress’ from seed in a yoghurt pot at a primary school (it probably wasn’t watercress, luv) sounds like they are at the bottom of a very steep learning curve…funded by my taxes. For the sake of the Tanzanian people, I do hope that those designing and running agriculture projects under him have substantially more experience and expertise in agriculture.

Ouch.

August 13, 2015

Report on farming in Tanzania

Vel Gnanendran heads the Tanzania office of DFID, the UK’s Department for International Development. He recently decided to find out as much as he could about agriculture in Tanzania, and his report is an interesting read. Here’s part of his conclusion:

Farmers operate in a world of tremendous uncertainty. What will the world price of the crop be when it comes to harvest time? Will government policy be the same next season? Will the rains come this year? What is the cost benefit of investing in seeds and fertilisers? And, related but hardest of all, will someone buy the crop at a decent price? I have a degree in economics, but this is akin to applied quantum game theory.

Global markets and prices are important, for sure, but it would be good to see a little more emphasis on supply food to local markets, rather than seeing agriculture purely as oriented to global markets.

August 12, 2015

Preserving the canon of taste

Fascinating article in Aeon magazine by Jill Neimark, exploring the role of specific, older varieties in the experience of taste. I won’t steal her thunder here, just urge you to read it. I will, however, cavil at one statement:

All commercial apples, including Granny Smiths, have been hybridised to a sugary monotone.

That’s simply not true, unless hybridised means something else in Georgia.

If they’re called Granny Smith, their genetics should be the same. If they taste dreadful from the supermarket, and astonishing picked up from a roadside stand “by a white-frame house on a curving, shady lane by Lake Allatoona,” that’s the result of nurture, not nature.

But please ignore my quibbles — and I have others — unless you agree that sometimes accuracy matters.