Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

April 27, 2015

Featured: Heirloom apples

Cary Fowler thinks many heritage (or is it heirloom) apples are alive and kicking:

While some of these varieties are gone, many still exist. In fact, I have most of those pictured in my own orchard. Old varieties can be obtained from a number of sources such as Cummins Nursery, and Century Farm Nursery. Recently a new organization — the Temperate Orchard Conservancy — was formed in Oregon to rescue Nick Botner’s 4000+ apple variety collection. Even allowing for synonyms, this might be the largest varietal collection in the world.

Do your part and plant some!

April 27, 2015April 27, 2015

Brainfood: Spanish sheep, Chicory diversity, Sweetpotato GMO, Wild sweetpotato gaps, Diverse grassland, Sorghum nutrition, Diverse agriculture, Diverse farmland, Medicinal fungus, Colombian olives, Citrus phylogeny

The biodiversity and genetic structure of Balearic sheep breeds. 5 types, pretty well differentiated among themselves, and very different to the mainland breeds.
Exploration of genetic diversity within Cichorium endivia and Cichorium intybus with focus on the gene pool of industrial chicory. Species reasonably, though not completely, differentiated. C. intybus division into 3 phenotypic cultivar groups (Witloof, root chicory and leaf chicory) confirmed. Leaf chicory division into 3 phenotypic subgroups confirmed (Radicchio, Sugarloaf and Catalogne cultivars). Modern industrial root cultivars have high phenotypic and genetic variability.
The genome of cultivated sweet potato contains Agrobacterium T-DNAs with expressed genes: An example of a naturally transgenic food crop. No doubt it will soon be banned in Europe.
Distributions, ex situ conservation priorities, and genetic resource potential of crop wild relatives of sweetpotato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam., I. series Batatas]. 79% of species identified as high priority for further collecting. None of them GMOs. Yucatan is the place to go to get bang for buck.
Complementary effects of species and genetic diversity on productivity and stability of sown grasslands. Species diversity increased productivity under drought, regardless of number of genotypes per species present. Genotypic diversity increased temporal stability of production under both drought and non-drought conditions, regardless of number of species.
Exploiting Nutritional Value of Staple Foods in the World’s Semi-Arid Areas: Risks, Benefits, Challenges and Opportunities of Sorghum. Unbalanced amino acid composition, cyanogenic glycosides and antinutrients are obstacles to increased consumption, but can be overcome by: reduction of worrisome components (or their activity), good practices to minimise contamination and compensation by varied diet.
Nutritional and Health Implications of Conventional Agriculture — A review. Only agricultural biodiversity can save us.
Pollination services from field-scale agricultural diversification may be context-dependent. Hedgerows may not always be good for both crop pollination and wild bee conservation.
Morphological, Physiological and Molecular studies on wildly collected Cordyceps militaris from North West Himalayas, India. You can cultivate it.
Olive biodiversity in Colombia. A molecular study of local germplasm. 5 of the genotypes could not be identified with known varieties.
A phylogenetic analysis of 34 chloroplast genomes elucidates the relationships between wild and domestic species within the genus Citrus. 3 main clades: citron/Australian species, pummelo/micrantha and papeda/mandarins. Lots of heteroplasy. 4 genes showing positive selection.

April 26, 2015

Dr Solh on the ICARDA genebank

“Even when the war was going on, they were managing to take seeds out of Syria…”

April 24, 2015April 21, 2015

In memory of Mitsuaki Tanabe

Sad news from our friend Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton, IRRI’s genebank manager.

With sadness I [share] this news about the death of Mitsuaki Tanabe, famed for his lifetime of work promoting the conservation of rice diversity through sculpting and drawing huge grains of wild rice. Many of you frequently, perhaps daily, see the works that he donated to IRRI, FAO, the Crop Trust, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and others. He is surely unique in the way he used his artistic talents to further the cause of rice conservation, and the dedication he showed to both.

My own strongest memory of him is his enthusiastic participation in a scientific meeting organized by the Green Energy Mission in Nepal in 2002 on the conservation of wild rice. He donated a 10 metre long drawing of a wild rice grain, which all participants signed. An exceptional person.

Mr Tanabe was 76. He established a museum for his work last year in Yokohama. This is him seated by the sculpture he donated to the Crop Trust in 2006. It’s on the second floor of the FAO building in Rome, facing the Viale Aventino.

Unveiling Ceremony

April 23, 2015May 2, 2018

ILRI@40 puts down some agricultural biodiversity markers

Last year was a big one for the International Livestock Research Institute, marking as it did its 40th anniversary. There was a whole series of events, the results of which were summarized last week by Nadine Sanginga, the ILRI@40 Coordinator, in an email to stakeholders.

At each event, we asked participants to comment on two questions: Looking to 2054, what are the two most critical livestock-related challenges we must answer through research? What is the most promising ‘best bet’ opportunity we should invest in to achieve better lives though livestock by 2054?

You can see what they had to say nicely pulled together in a Powerpoint. Securing livestock genetic diversity featured as a challenge, as did developing sustainable feeds and forages, which will depend on likewise securing forage genetic diversity. Some interesting stuff among the “best bets” too, such as paying more attention to insects and to multi-purpose crops (grain and forage). Plenty of work there for ILRI’s forage genebank, as well as for its animal genetic resources conservation people.