Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
Drought threatens rare rice varieties. What d’you mean they’re not in genebanks? Has video dimmed the radio’s star? Wanna get a PhD in “climate services for development“? Course you do. Apple harvest fails. Turns out you need a diversity of agricultural labourers too. Medlars. I love it when people treat my familiar stuff as highly …
Continue reading “Nibbles: Genetic erosion, Rural radio, PhD, Farm workers, Medlars”
Relating dietary diversity and food variety scores to vegetable production and socio-economic status of women in rural Tanzania. Dietary diversity was all too often alarmingly low, and when it was it was associated with seasonal fluctuations in the production and collecting of vegetables. But a more varied diet need not necessarily be healthier, so more …
What causes genetic erosion? People in our business are way too fond of making lists of all the things that can possibly lead to a farmer abandoning a variety. But sometimes it’s just down to an accident. Take my mother-in-law. Please. No, but seriously, this is an interesting example of the law of unintended consequences. …
Continue reading “A tale of genetic erosion narrowly averted”
Dave Wood has a question about genetic erosion in US apple varieties: How many did they have in 1492?
We get hours of amusement from poking holes in the many ways in which statements about the loss of 75% of agricultural biodiversity are likely to be less than accurate any way you slice them. But here’s an entirely new wrinkle. A friend recently wrote asking for some moral support for a grant proposal, which …