Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

June 28, 2011June 27, 2011

US national programme gets it together

beltsville — USDA's Beltsville Agricultural Research Center

The Plant Germplasm Operations Committee gets together every year to help the National Plant Germplasm System of the USA operate. It has just had its 2011 meeting in Beltsville, MD, with representatives from the national genebanks of Brazil, Mexico and Canada in attendance, and the presentations are online. They provide an interesting glimpse into the workings of a national system which in many ways serves the whole world.

June 27, 2011June 27, 2011

Plant breeding considered sexy at long last

Plant breeding is one of science’s 10 hottest fields!

With the population set to pass 7 billion this year and rising to 9 billion in mid-century, the world faces a formidable challenge. If everyone is to be fed without appalling environmental consequences, the yield of staple crops must increase enormously. Some plant scientists are still licking their wounds from the onslaught against genetically modified crops. But there is an intensified effort, among public-sector laboratories and industry companies, to breed better plants for farmers. This involves both direct genetic modification to make plants more resistant to stress and disease and the use of genomic information to accelerate improvement through conventional breeding.

June 27, 2011June 29, 2011

Malaysia funds underutilized crops research centre

The Crops for the Future Research Centre (CFFRC) is expected to receive a funding of nearly RM113 million (US$40 million) over seven years from the government to carry out research on a whole range of under-utilised crops.

Wow. Well done Crops for the Future. And well done Malaysia.

June 27, 2011June 23, 2011

Brainfood: Benin diversity, Catalan diversity, Serbian sorghum, Flowering in barley and sunflower, Potato nutritional quality, Cacao genebank management, Potato genebank management, Caribbean cattle, Venezuelan CWR, Ecogeographic surveys, Refugia, Vegetation change, Fisheries, Botanic gardens, Crop diversity patterns, Old trees

Diversity, geographical, and consumption patterns of traditional vegetables in sociolinguistic communities in Benin: Implications for domestication and utilization. 245 species, from 62 families, 80% wild-harvested.
Landraces in situ conservation: A case study in high-mountain home gardens in Vall Fosca, Catalan Pyrenees, Iberian Peninsula. 39 landraces of 31 species, disappearing fast.
Origin, history, morphology, production, improvement, and utilization of broomcorn [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] in Serbia. Summarizes 60 years of experience.
The timing of flowering in barley and sunflower dissected. In the former, variation in photoperiod sensitivity occurred both pre- and post-domestication. In the latter, variation is clinal.
Cultivated and wild Solanum species as potential sources for health-promoting quality traits. Some of the latter are pretty good.
Microsatellite fingerprinting in the International Cocoa Genebank, Trinidad: accession and plot homogeneity information for germplasm management. A quarter of plots were mixtures. Well that’s no good. Huge amount of stuff in this issue of PGR-CU.
Construction of an integrated microsatellite and key morphological characteristic database of potato varieties on the EU common catalogue. So that the above doesn’t happen.
Footprints of selection in the ancestral admixture of a New World Creole cattle breed. Lots of African and zebu blood in Guadeloupe cattle.
Inventory of related wild species of priority crops in Venezuela. Basically a big list.
Potential of herbarium records to sequence phenological pattern: a case study of Aconitum heterophyllum in the Himalaya. Could be used to flesh out the above kind of thing.
Refugia: identifying and understanding safe havens for biodiversity under climate change. How to spot refugia past and future, which would be useful for the above-but-one kind of thing.
Modelling biome shifts and tree cover change for 2050 in West Africa. Climate change leads to greening, human impact to browning.
Comparison of modern and historical fish catches (AD 750–1400) to inform goals for marine protected areas and sustainable fisheries. Along the Kenyan coast. Amazingly, comparisons are possible, and they show a deterioration in quality and quantity.
The biodiversity benefits of botanic gardens. They are there, despite their history with invasives, but gardens need to get their act together. Which they are doing.
Domesticated crop richness in human subsistence cultivation systems: a test of macroecological and economic determinants. Number of crop species grown depends on latitude, habitat heterogeneity and commitment to agriculture (as opposed to foraging, herding and exchange). Can’t make up my mind if this is interesting or predictable. Maybe it is both. Would be great to apply same method to infraspecific diversity too.
The age of monumental olive trees (Olea europaea) in northeastern Spain. Maybe over 600 years.

June 27, 2011June 27, 2011

Roads not taken

The BBC has a history of botany, but it’s not available in my area, despite the fact, pointed out by my friend Michael, that the Beeb’s motto is “Nation shall speak peace onto nation.” And the Save Our Species coalition puts out a call for proposals for Threatened Species Grants and Rapid Action Grants. But plants, let alone crop wild relatives, are not eligible (at least for now). Don’t you wish sometimes that you’d just stayed in bed?