Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

May 11, 2022May 12, 2022

How to prevent the next crop pandemic

He suggests creating a global “fire brigade” of 3,000 experts scattered around the world, recruited for skills ranging from epidemiology and genetics, through drug and vaccine development and computer modelling, to diplomacy. This outfit, which would probably work under the auspices of the World Health Organisation, would remain on permanent standby, ready to respond to any detected outbreak.

That’s Bill Gates in his new book on How to Prevent the Next Pandemic, according to a review in The Economist. Which should remind us all that something similar has been mooted for crop diseases. What with the International Day of Plant Health coming up, it would be good to know where we are with that idea now.

LATER: I had something to say about the International Day of Plant Health over at work.

May 10, 2022May 10, 2022

Olive genebanks are the genuine article

It sounds like the International Olive Genebanks are inching towards Article 15 status under the Plant Treaty.

And that may soon include a fourth collection.

Today, a network of 20 national olive germplasm banks is affiliated with the IOC network, which is also connected to the three current international banks located in Córdoba, Spain, Marrakech, Morocco, and Izmir, Turkey.

So what? Well…

Under Article 15 of the International Treaty, international institutions holding collections of crop germplasm can sign agreements with the Governing Body, in order to make the collections available worldwide under the Multilateral System and benefit from financial and technical assistance for maintenance and improvement of the collections.

May 9, 2022May 9, 2022

Brainfood: Insect biodiversity, Pollinator conservation, Sustaining protected areas, Tea gardens, Sustainable meat hunting, Eating weeds in Crete, Organic ag in Sweden, New wine grape varieties, Genomic crop improvement, Anthocyanins in crops, Amaranthus core collection, Bere barley

Agriculture and climate change are reshaping insect biodiversity worldwide. Does that mean there won’t be enough of them for us to eat? Well, and to pollinate stuff I guess.
From science to society: implementing effective strategies to improve wild pollinator health. It’s the indirect drivers that will get them in the end.
Sustainable protected areas: Synergies between biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic development. Empower communities and management, you fools!
Tea–vegetable gardens in Longsheng Nationalities Autonomous County: temporal and spatial distribution, agrobiodiversity and social–ecological values. Communities and management were presumably fully empowered.
WILDMEAT interventions database: A new database of interventions addressing unsustainable wild meat hunting, consumption and trade. Very empowering, I’m sure. Unclear whether edible insects are included though.
Chorta (Wild Greens) in Central Crete: The Bio-Cultural Heritage of a Hidden and Resilient Ingredient of the Mediterranean Diet. Well, frankly, who needs insects when you have weeds?
Relative yield of food and efficiency of land-use in organic agriculture – A regional study. If the best bits of Sweden went fully organic, 130% more land would be needed. Unclear whether eating either weeds or insects was factored into the calculations.
Advancing designer crops for climate resilience through an integrated genomics approach. Forget eating weeds, protecting pollinators and empowering this or that, thrown everything at crop improvement.
Developing Germplasm and Promoting Consumption of Anthocyanin-Rich Grains for Health Benefits. Especially crops with coloured grains.
The World Vegetable Center Amaranthus germplasm collection: Core collection development and evaluation of agronomic and nutritional traits. Well, and vegetables, presumably.
Consumer acceptance of fungus-resistant grape wines: Evidence from Italy, the UK, and the USA. Ah yes, but whether consumers like the idea of grape vines improved through interspecific hybridization depends on what exactly you tell them. So much for empowerment.
The evolutionary relationship between bere barley and other types of cultivated barley. Unfortunately this paper did not come out in time for the inclusion of a subplot on the introduction of Viking barley to the Orkneys in the current blockbuster The Northman. But I hear there’s stuff in there about empowerment.

May 5, 2022May 5, 2022

What have genebanks ever done for us?

Still need to be convinced about the value of genebanks? Well, hot on the heels of the 2020 collection Genebanks and Food Security in a Changing Agriculture now comes another tranche of studies from the Impact Fellowship program that has been running under the just-concluded CGIAR-Crop Trust Genebank Platform:

Developing country demand for crop germplasm conserved by the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System. Demand is high and probably getting higher, and better data helps everyone.
Global demand for rice genetic resources. Demand is high, even from farmers, especially for accessions with better data.
The role of CGIAR Germplasm Health Units in averting endemic crop diseases: the example of rice blast in Bangladesh. The Germplasm Health Units have a return on investment of 112 for this one disease in one country.
IITA’s genebank, cowpea diversity on farms, and farmers’ welfare in Nigeria. New cowpea varieties derived from genebank accessions are good for livelihoods and don’t displace landraces.
Genebanks and market participation: evidence from groundnut farmers in Malawi. New groundnut varieties derived from genebank accessions help get farmers into markets through higher production.
Dynamic guardianship of potato landraces by Andean communities and the genebank of the International Potato Center. The in situ survival probability of rematriated landraces was 18% after 15 years.

May 2, 2022May 4, 2022

Brainfood: Finger millet diversity, US wheat diversity, Enset diversity, Anglo Saxon diets, Agrobiodiversity index, Rangeland management, Butia groves, Cryotherapy, Bogia Syndrome, Niche models, Merino ancestors

Scientific Selection – A Century of Increasing Crop Varietal Diversity in US Wheat. Whether you take into account the genetic relationship among varieties or not, breeding has been driving up wheat diversity in American fields. But anyone else think this is a bit of a straw man?
Novel GBS-Based SNP Markers for Finger Millet and Their Use in Genetic Diversity Analyses. The Zimbabwean and Ethiopian landraces are different and should be crossed more to inject some diversity into improved varieties. You mean like they did for wheat in the US?
On-Farm Diversity of Enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) Landraces, Use, and the Associated Indigenous Knowledge in Adola Rede District, Guji Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia. No problem with diversity in enset, at least morphologically speaking.
Food and Power in Early Medieval England: a lack of (isotopic) enrichment. Elite “Anglo-Saxon” males did not have a diet that was consistently higher in meat than anyone else at the time, so there. I wonder if any ever ate enset.
Assessment of agrobiodiversity in the intensive agriculture: a case study of the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India. Could do with some more legumes.
Community-based rangeland management in Namibia improves resource governance but not environmental and economic outcomes. Market incentives do not always work the way you think.
The palm trees choose the places – Popular knowledge associated with the use and conservation of butiá (Butia spp.). No word on market incentives.
Shoot tip cryotherapy for plant pathogen eradication. Especially good if combined with thermotherapy or chemotherapy. May even work on enset, for all I know.
The phytoplasma associated with Bogia coconut syndrome in Papua New Guinea is a new phytoplasma in the group of the lethal yellowing syndromes (LYTS) of coconut and other palms. Yeah but will cryotherapy work?
Implementation of species distribution models in Google Earth Engine. Shhh, or everyone will want to do it, and then where will we be.
Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Moroccan Beni Ahsen: Is This Endangered Ovine Breed One of the Ancestors of Merino? Maybe? Partly? Does it matter?