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Posted on February 28, 2011October 17, 2012

Italian pioneer of agrobiodiversity conservation dies

One of the Grand Old Men of plant genetic resources conservation, Professor Gian-Tommaso Scarascia-Mugnozza, died today at Viterbo. It is perhaps indicative of his stature and influence that there is a Scarascia Mugnozza Community Genetic Resource Centre at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, in Chennai (Madras), India. He was 85.

Posted on February 27, 2011February 26, 2011

Weird coconuts for sale

We briefly blogged about the rare horned coconut before. But I didn’t know you could actually buy one. Or other strange coconuts for that matter. Talk about adding value to agrobiodiversity.

Posted on February 27, 2011February 28, 2011

Venetian agrobiodiversity bas relief




Venice

Originally uploaded by luigig

Caught this on a recent trip to Venice. It’s embedded in an outside wall of St Mark’s Basilica. Agrobiodiversity was more crucial to iconography back in the Middle Ages, I guess.

Posted on February 26, 2011February 25, 2011

Animal Genetic Resources reminder

The newsletter of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and the IUCN Species Programme has just alerted me to a (fairly) recent edition of FAO’s international journal Animal Genetic Resources which I think we missed. It contains, among many other interesting things, a paper on “Conservation status of wild relatives of animals used for food” by P.J.K. McGowan.

Posted on February 26, 2011February 26, 2011

Seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault…




2011-02-SGSV by country of origin

Originally uploaded by Dag Endresen

…by country of origin, on its third birthday.

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Fresh Nibbles

    1. Sir Nathaniel Bacon’s painting records the arrival of American crops in early modern England. And the cookmaid gets equal billing.
    2. North America’s bison survived near-extinction, but how much of its genetic diversity is left? Past and present DNA is helping reconstruct what was lost, with implications for how what remains is conserved and managed.
    3. China’s wild rice collection in Hainan now holds more than 15,000 samples. A genetic treasure trove, but its value ultimately depends on what breeders can make of it. Much like what’s left of bison diversity.
    4. Mycorrhizal fungi form vast underground networks that support plant life and store carbon. A new global map begins to show their extent, and just how much of this biodiversity remains overlooked.
    5. Africa’s herbaria hold centuries of botanical history, much of it still effectively invisible. Specimens can reveal shifting plant distributions and overlooked species. First, though, someone has to do the painstaking work of getting the data online.
    6. Africa has done painstaking work on seed laws, but getting good seed to farmers remains hard in practice. The gap between policy and delivery is stark, and commercial companies need to work alongside farmer-managed seed systems, not pretend they don’t exist.

    Published on October 14, 2026

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