Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

October 19, 2021October 19, 2021

Seeds going green

The Global Conference on Green Development of Seed Industries is organized by FAO as a means to provide a neutral forum for its members, partners, industry and opinion leaders, and other stakeholders to engage in focused dialogues on how best to make quality seeds of preferred productive, nutritious and resilient crop varieties available to farmers.

It’s online, 4-5 November.

Themes include, and I quote from the website again:

Advanced technologies. The conference will review the advances in modern plant breeding technologies, emerging biotechnologies and informatics technologies and how they can be used safely and efficiently to enhance the delivery of genetic gains to farmers. Importantly, the conference will also facilitate a stocktaking of the available tools.

Conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. The conference will be a forum for reviewing the state of knowledge of crop diversity, its conservation and availability, and its underpinning role in resilient and sustainable agri-food systems. It will further explore how the use of crop diversity may be positively influenced through a wide range of actions taking place in situ, on-farm or ex situ as part of an interdependent global system.

Crop varietal development and adoption. The conference offers a unique opportunity to review select case studies to identify the drivers of success. Particular attention will be paid to the validated means for the deployment of scientific progress in nurturing environments that permit mutually beneficial partnerships amongst the multiplicity of actors.

Seed systems. The conference will explore what has worked in transforming ineffective systems into responsive and dynamic ones that provide the solutions farmers need so that successes may be replicated. The roles of international seed trade and the requisite harmonization of legal frameworks will be explored, especially in the context of the solutions that work for the production systems of small-scale farmers.

Policy and governance. The conference will be an opportunity to explore the enabling environment – at national, regional and global levels – for seed systems and the associated upstream domains of germplasm conservation and plant breeding.

October 18, 2021October 18, 2021

Brainfood: Coconut cloning, Apricot diversity, European ag double, Diet seasonality, Farm size, Ethiopian seeds, Biocultural diversity, Aquatic food, Grasslands, Pollinator mixtures

Development of the first axillary in vitro shoot multiplication protocol for coconut palms. Cloning the tree of life, really fast.
Frequent germplasm exchanges drive the high genetic diversity of Chinese-cultivated common apricot germplasm. Looking forward to the same being said about coconut.
Crop diversity effects on temporal agricultural production stability across European regions. The effects are good.
Are agricultural sustainability and resilience complementary notions? Evidence from the North European agriculture. They are indeed, but what about stability though?
Seasonal variability of women’s dietary diversity and food provisioning: a cohort study in rural Burkina Faso. Do Europe now.
The “Sweet Spot” in the Middle: Why Do Mid-Scale Farms Adopt Diversification Practices at Higher Rates? Spoiler alert: it’s got less to do with farm size than with access to resources and markets. At least for Californian lettuce farmers.
Politics of seeds in Ethiopia’s agricultural transformation: pathways to seed system development. The Ethiopian seed system needs diversification just as much as Californian lettuce farmers.
Biocultural Diversity for Food System Transformation Under Global Environmental Change. What we all need is biocultural diversity.
Harnessing the diversity of small-scale actors is key to the future of aquatic food systems. Yes, all of us, whether in mountains or by the sea.
Combatting global grassland degradation. It may be stretching a point, but biocultural diversity may also be a useful lens through which to look at grassland restoration and sustainable management. But then I would say that.
Supporting wild pollinators in agricultural landscapes through targeted legume mixtures. Yeah, let’s not forget the pollinators while we’re at it.

October 15, 2021October 15, 2021

Happy birthday to us

Fifteen years and counting, people. Thanks to everyone who follows us, and engages with us, and encourages us. Much appreciated.

An no, blogs are not dead. They’re just resting.

October 14, 2021October 14, 2021

Your trusted source on genetic resources

Periodic reminder that if you’re into genetic resources — of crops, livestock or forests — you should consider publishing in Genetic Resources, especially if your work cuts across the usual silos.

Genetic Resources is an open access peer-reviewed journal publishing original research, reviews and short communications on plant, animal and forest genetic resources, serving stakeholders within and across domains. It is a platform to share domain specific and interdisciplinary knowledge and tools used by the global community of practitioners involved in monitoring, collecting, maintaining, conserving, characterizing and using genetic resources for food, agriculture and forestry.

And well worth having in your RSS feed of course. I dunno, are RSS feeds still a thing for anyone else?

Genetic Resources is inspired by the no longer existing Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter and Animal Genetic Resources journal and aims to fill the gap created by their discontinuation. Its scope and setup draw from the results of a survey conducted among stakeholders within the framework of the GenRes Bridge project. Genetic Resources is published by Bioversity International on behalf of the ECPGR Secretariat.

October 14, 2021

Freezing cool plants

Hear from leading experts in exceptional plant conservation and cryopreservation. Oaks will be used as a model to illustrate and demonstrate the potential of cryobiotechnologies and how they can be applied to a wider range of exceptional species.

Sounds like fun: 19-21 October.

Talks will be pre-recorded and shown during the sessions, but will also be made available ahead of time.