Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
Boffins find lots of cryptic genetic diversity in earthworms. China produces half the world’s vegetables? Know your bison. Flouting Zimbabwe’s laws on urban agriculture to stay alive. Cork certification.
More on how the baobab is coming to Europe. Review of breeding for nutritionally improved crops. Book on the origins of British gardening. Earthworms “modulate the competition between grasses and legumes.” ACIAR publishes book on taro pests in the Pacific. UNEP launches global pollinator conservation initiative. Unusual use for livestock fetuses. “And she grows more …
A comment on the threat to the Banaue rice terraces prompted me to go Googling, and it seems the story has legs. Unlike the giant earthworms, which may or may not be an all-female species related to a worm called Polypheretima elongata. SciDev.net reports on the efforts of an Indian scientist, Ravindra Joshi, to help …
There’s an interesting paper in the latest Pedologia. Researchers grew Cavendish bananas in all combinations of with and without an endoparasitic nematode, and with and without an earthworm. They found that the banana plants did better when there were earthworms around, which slightly alleviated the root damage done by the nematodes and made more nutrients …
Opportunities and Threats to Harmonisation of Plant Breeders’ Rights in Africa: ARIPO and SADC. While the intention of ARIPO and SADC is to create a single internal market for protected varieties in Africa, “the end result may look quite differently.” Evaluation of Resistance to Ralstonia solanacearum in Tomato Genetic Resources at Seedling Stage. Out of …