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Conserving horticultural species, one at the time

Another report from one of our correspondents at the International Horticultural Congress in Brisbane, this on the symposium on Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources:

The full day symposium keynote by Dr Ehsan Dulloo of Bioversity International covered the broad topic of developing strategies for conserving plant genetic diversity. Individual presentations covered a wide range of topics and crops, including: roots/tubers (sweet potatoes, yams, cassava), aroids and breadfruit in the Pacific Islands; use of native species to restore costal landscapes impacted by cyclones in Fiji; conservation of wild temperate small fruit species such as Vaccinium in Canada (blueberries and cranberries); use of the underutilized tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) in Australia; conservation of mango landraces on-farm in India; characterizing the morphological and genetic diversity of baobab (Adansonia digitata) in Kenya; and the cryopreservation of clonal genetic material of apple, peach and nut trees (Juglans spp), among others. The common thread that ran though most of these presentations is that a lot of work still needs to be done to understand the genetic diversity that we have and the best way to conserve it (in situ & ex situ), such that it leads to optimal use of these important genetic resources.

There’s one more of these updates from IHC2014 in the pipeline, which we’ll probably put up tomorrow.

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Baobab, frankincense and croton: private sector brings gifts

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Found these in an up-market curio shop in Nairobi’s Yaya Centre shopping centre. I’ve never come across Wild Living before, but they sound like an interesting outfit, doing some serious value addition to local products by the look of it:

From Baobab and Shea to Leleshwa and Acacia frankinsense forest oils, East Africa, the cradle of mankind, hosts a remarkable diversity of unique natural resources that have provided succour and health during the majority of our evolution.

Whilst traditionally used, the natural benefits of these products, have until now, been unavailable to the global market. Furthermore, Africa’s potential to produce conservation and livelihoods products for its own development has remained unclaimed.

Wild Living realizes this potential by providing a market for over twenty community based projects located throughout East Africa who are being assisted by partner organizations such as WWF and OXFAM to sustainably and ethically produce natural products.

Wild Living publicises the conservation and livelihoods benefits of each of these producers products and through increased sales revenue assists them to continue conserving their unique natural resources whilst building their own lives in a dignified and self-sufficient manner.

Revenues realized by Wild Living through the sale of its brand are used to assist partners in the ethical and sustainable production of goods whilst providing access into an increasingly conscientious consumer market.

Anyone know anything more about them? Are they on the level? In any case, something else to add to those baobab fact sheets.

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Focusing on genebanks for climate change adaptation

The Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy (FIGS) has been the subject of a fair number of posts here in the past couple of years. It has now clearly hit the big time, with a major workshop which got picked up by the BBC, no less. The latest paper to feature this strategy for more effectively mining genebank collections for the material you really want features the search for drought adaptation in faba beans.

Meanwhile, another workshop reminds us that breeding new varieties using the stuff you find in genebanks is just one way of adapting agriculture to climate change:

…there are various agricultural practices to offset the adverse effects of climate change on crop production and soil, such as mulching, that will help with water conservation and soil fertility, and crop rotation, which contributes to sustainable cultivation.