Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog – Page 54 – Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …

October 7, 2021

How are plants doing out there?

The International Workshop on the Global Plant Health Assessment is being held in Toulouse, France, on October 5-8, 2021.

The Global Plant Health Assessment (GPHA) aims to provide a first-time ever overall assessment of plant health in the natural and human-made ecosystems of the world. Plant health is assessed through the functions that plants ensure in ecosystems: “ecosystem services”. The GPHA will assess plant health on the basis of published, science‐ and fact‐based, expert evaluations.

There’s lots of interesting reporting on Twitter using #GPHA2021.

October 6, 2021October 8, 2021

A very hot spot for agrobiodiversity

You probably heard about the eruption and lava flow on La Palma in the Canary Islands. What you may not know is that there’s an interactive map of it online. And what came as a further, very welcome, surprise to me is that it allows you to import your own data. That’s quite unusual. Genesys shows 442 georeferenced accessions from the island, and importing their locations suggests that two of them (a pepper and a watermelon) were originally collected from farms that are now in the vicinity of the lava flow.

Does that matter? Probably not, but it was nice to be able to do this sort of mashup quite easily for once. All too often combining spatial data is an almighty chore if you’re not a GIS specialist.

https://twitter.com/i_ameztoy/status/1446171506028032001

October 4, 2021September 28, 2021

Brainfood: Commons edition

Seeds of resilience: the contribution of commons-based plant breeding and seed production to the social-ecological resilience of the agricultural sector. A seed production commons is good for agroecology and resilience. At least in the German-speaking vegetable sector. Yeah, but give them an inch…
Crop Diversity Management System Commons: Revisiting the Role of Genebanks in the Network of Crop Diversity Actors. …and they’ll take a mile.
Changing patterns in genebank acquisitions of crop genetic materials: An analysis of global policy drivers and potential consequences. Maybe it would be good if they took that mile.
Seeds as natural capital. This is the mile we’re talking about. It’s worth fighting for.
A Critical Review of the Current Global Ex Situ Conservation System for Plant Agrobiodiversity. II. Strengths and Weaknesses of the Current System and Recommendations for Its Improvement. It has become a really complicated mile.
Uses and benefits of digital sequence information from plant genetic resources: Lessons learnt from botanical collections. And this makes it even more complicated.
Impact of climate change on biodiversity and food security: a global perspective—a review article. Yeah, but look what happens if we don’t do something.
Agrobiodiversity Index scores show agrobiodiversity is underutilized in national food systems. And we’re certainly not doing enough.
Endangered Wild Crop Relatives of the Fertile Crescent. See what I mean?
Crop diversity is associated with higher child diet diversity in Ethiopia, particularly among low-income households, but not in Vietnam. Sure, I know it’s complicated…
Insights into the genetic basis of the pre-breeding potato clones developed at the Julius Kühn Institute for high and durable late blight resistance. …but just look what’s possible with a little effort…
Spatiotemporal seed transfer zones as an efficient restoration strategy in response to climate change. …and a little thinking. Well, a lot of effort and thinking.
Current Advancements and Limitations of Gene Editing in Orphan Crops. And on top of all that, we have this to look forward to.
Inactivation of the germacrene A synthase genes by CRISPR/Cas9 eliminates the biosynthesis of sesquiterpene lactones in Cichorium intybus L. Well actually it’s already here.
Living standards shape individual attitudes on genetically modified food around the world. Maybe if they were in a commons? Wait, isn’t this where we started?
Waive CRISPR patents to meet food needs in low-income countries. It does look like it.

September 28, 2021September 28, 2021

Indian PM launches crop varieties

Well this is something you don’t see every day.

Developed thanks to ICRISAT material, apparently.

September 27, 2021September 27, 2021

Brainfood: Domestication, Maize roots, Dental calculus, Psychedelic drugs, Green manures, Forage millet, VIR radish, Wild beans, Siberian dogs, Maize taxi, Dairying history

Reconsidering domestication from a process archaeology perspective. De-colonising, and de-transitivising, domestication.
Maize biochemistry in response to root herbivory was mediated by domestication, spread, and breeding. Not archaeology, but an example of the more expansive view of domestication being touted above.
Tracking the transition to agriculture in Southern Europe through ancient DNA analysis of dental calculus. Agriculture was associated with some changes in oral microbiomes, but not nearly as big as happened relatively recently. One could perhaps argue that some oral commensals were domesticated? No? Too much? More on dental calculus below…
The Failed Globalization of Psychedelic Drugs in the Early Modern World. Culture and religion affected why tobacco spread around and peyote didn’t. Wait, domestication had nothing to do with it?
Estimating agronomically relevant symbiotic nitrogen fixation in green manure breeding programs. All the better to domesticate them.
Assessing Forage Potential of the Global Collection of Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.) Conserved at the ICRISAT Genebank. The top 10 identified, and they’re not bad, considering forage potential was not what the crop was domesticated for. ILRI unavailable for comment :)
Genetic Diversity of Phenotypic and Biochemical Traits in VIR Radish (Raphanus sativus L.) Germplasm Collection. More variable than was once thought. Ah, domestication, you never disappoint…
Preliminary evaluation of wild bean (Phaseolus spp.) germplasm for resistance to Fusarium cuneirostrum and Fusarium oxysporum. Wait, domestication can disappoint after all. Deeply. At least we still have the CWR.
Not so local: the population genetics of convergent adaptation in maize and teosinte. People moved maize about, post-domestication, usefully bringing it into contact with teosinte. But the main author Dr Silas Tittes says it better. Hail the maize taxi!
Modern Siberian dog ancestry was shaped by several thousand years of Eurasian-wide trade and human dispersal. People moved dogs about, post-domestication. The doggie taxi?
Dairying enabled Early Bronze Age Yamnaya steppe expansions. People moved around because of milk. But the main author Dr Shevan Wilkin says it better, and links this with other important papers. Dental calculus never disappoints.

1. A paean to diverse diets is just what we all need.
2. And another one, from the MIT Technology Review of all places.
3. Menawhile, there’s only one reference to dietary diversity in the World Bank’s investment framework for nutrition.
4. Maybe you have to quantify that diversity before you can save it? Now where have I heard that before?
5. Meanwhile, Europe reports on biodiversity-friendly farming practices. Does that include the biodiversity of the actual crops? Perhaps surprisingly, yes!
6. You want biodiversity-friendly farming practices? Talk to Indigenous people. The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has launched an e-consultation on “Preserving, strengthening and promoting Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems and traditional practices for sustainable food systems.”
7. There’s diversity in asparagus too.
8. Genebanks can help with those biodiversity-friendly practices, diverse diets and rops and Indigenous practices.
9. Even big international genebanks.
10. Even the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
11. But some are in trouble.
12. Though others are coming back.
Published on November 7, 2024