Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

September 8, 2015

Colin gets doctored

photo (10) Our friend and occasional contributor Colin Khoury has successfully defended his PhD thesis at Wageningen University. As spelled out in a nice summary over at CIAT, where he was a visiting researcher, Colin’s work addressed four crucial questions dear to our hearts here at the blog:

(1) What is the status of diversity in our food systems, and where are the greatest vulnerabilities?
(2) Where can genetic diversity be found that can be useful in increasing productivity and mitigating these vulnerabilities?
(3) Is this genetic diversity available in the present and in the long term?, and
(4) What steps are needed to improve the ability for researchers to access genetic resources critical for present and future crop improvement?

Congratulations, Colin, and best wishes for the future.

September 8, 2015September 8, 2015

The right tree in the right place

Much excitement at the World Forestry Congress yesterday over the launch of the World Agroforestry Center’s fancy-shmanzy new app.

New app 4 identifying+selecting the right tree launched today! Try it. http://t.co/kLUCvjFJAN #Forests2015 pic.twitter.com/mPq4EG7lpw

— CIFOR-ICRAF (@CIFOR_ICRAF) September 7, 2015

Long story short, it’s version 2 of a potential natural vegetation map of eastern and southern Africa. ¹ You can consult it in a browser, including on mobile devices, in Google Earth, or in your own GIS. Once you know where you are, or where you’d like to grown some trees anyway, you can get an idea of the natural vegetation there, and of what species might do well, for a variety of different purposes (honey production, say, or firewood).

map_screenshot2

Once you’ve selected a likely tree, you can get more information on it from ICRAF’s Agroforestry Species Dashboard. It’ll need a bit more road-testing than I have time for just at the moment, but it looks promising at first blush. One immediate reaction I do have is that it’s not possible to look for species that fulfil multiple functions: honey production and firewood, in other words. But I may be doing the thing an injustice.

September 7, 2015September 9, 2015

Brainfood: Protein in Amazon, Ponies in UK & US, Old wheats, Resistant filberts, Buying local breeds, Chickpea roots, Beet diversity, Italian goats, Mung bean improvement

From fish and bushmeat to chicken nuggets: the nutrition transition in a continuum from rural to urban settings in the Colombian Amazon region. More fish and bushmeat in rural areas compared to towns, where they are considered luxuries. Industrial chicken reaching rural areas, though, and that’s bad for nutrition.
Comparative genetic diversity in a sample of pony breeds from the U.K. and North America: a case study in the conservation of global genetic resources. Mother and daughter populations of breeds in the UK and US respectively turned out to be somewhat genetically different.
Do “ancient” wheat species differ from modern bread wheat in their contents of bioactive components? No.
Marine reserves help preserve genetic diversity after impacts derived from climate variability: Lessons from the pink abalone in Baja California. More protection, more diversity.
Sources of resistance to eastern filbert blight in hazelnuts from the Republic of Georgia. 79 plants from 34 seedlots out of 1374 seedlings from 50 seedlots. Hard row to hoe.
Determinants of the intention to purchase an autochthonous local lamb breed: Spanish case study. People are lazy.
Assessing Genetic Variability for Root Traits and Identification of Trait-Specific Germplasm in Chickpea Reference Set. 23 out of 300 accessions could be useful in breeding for better roots.
Breeding patterns and cultivated beets origins by genetic diversity and linkage disequilibrium analyses. Fodder and sugar beets grouped together, separated from garden and sea beets, in worldwide genebank collection but not in elite lines.
Genetic diversity of Italian goat breeds assessed with a medium-density SNP chip. As with so much else in Italy, goat diversity follows a N-S pattern.
Genomic resources in mungbean for future breeding programs. A couple of reference genomes will make everything easier.

September 7, 2015September 7, 2015

CIMMYT genebank goes solar

cimmyt

I’m not sure how many genebanks around the world are run on solar power, but it’s not that many. The Millennium Seed Bank is one. Please drop me a line if you know of any other.

August 31, 2015September 4, 2015

Brainfood: Endophytes, Diet data, Nutrition & agriculture, Japanese Rubus, Hybrid conservation, Iranian cattle, Fat hen complications, Himalayan agroforestry, Gathering moss

Diazotrophic Endophytes of Poplar and Willow for Growth Promotion of Rice Plants in Nitrogen-Limited Conditions. No doubt this will be touted as The Next Big Thing.
Assessing global dietary habits: a comparison of national estimates from the FAO and the Global Dietary Database. FAO overestimates grains and vegetables, underestimates beans and nuts.
Nutrition-sensitive agriculture and the promotion of food and nutrition sovereignty and security in Brazil. Experience suggests that interventions need to be “intersectoral, decentralized and framed in order to allow for institutional coordination.”
Assessment of genetic relationships among cultivated and wild Rubus accessions using AFLP markers. 15 species and some hybrids between them in Japan.
Characteristics for evaluating the conservation value of species hybrids. And some of those hybrids may need conserving too.
Prioritization for conservation of Iranian native cattle breeds based on genome-wide SNP data. Some of the breeds are in trouble.
The taxonomic riddle of Chenopodium album L. complex (Amaranthaceae). Three ploidy levels and lots of variation in a wild-weedy-domesticated vegetable complex.
Does agroforestry conserve trees? A comparison of tree species diversity between farmland and forest in mid-hills of central Himalaya. It can be a complement, but never a substitute, for protected areas.
Sphagnum farming: the promised land for peat bog species? Yes, but do it on degraded peatland, and with long rotation cycles.