Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
There are times when the whole social media buzz conversation engagement thang is a bit overwhelming. Like today. I saw an item from FAOCrops on Facebook, which said “The gene pool of the Treaty gets 351 Moroccan wheat accessions from a benefit-sharing Fund project“. That’s interesting, I thought. It was attached to a photo, presumably …
Continue reading “Moroccan wheat additions to the global genepool”
The United States Department of Agriculture broke ground yesterday on a new facility at the University of Minneapolis in St Paul, for studying stem rust and other fungal diseases in wheat. “By expanding our commitment to research that targets crop diseases like Ug99, we can strengthen food security and reduce hunger and poverty in countries …
Continue reading “Protect and survive; building better-defended wheats”
Wheat disease understood; sequence of leaf blotch fungus. Wheat disease conquered? “Super varieties” resistant to UG99 and yield 15% more. What could go wrong? Zambian farmers urged to dry vegetables for fun and profit (and better nutrition). Gates Foundations has spent US$1.7 billion on agriculture in Africa, so far. Swaminathan Foundation scores Canadian support for …
I don’t blame Pat Helsop-Harrison for not donning the fire-proof suit to find his Ug99 resistant lines, or whatever. I really don’t. Why would anyone venture into Genebank Database Hell, when they have such a friend in Google? I only do it myself because, well, I get paid to. But although the genebank community bears …
Continue reading “Germplasm documentation is a two way street”
If I want to find which wheat line carries Ug99 rust resistance, I don’t go to a genebank database, nor even Theoretical and Applied Genetics TAG on the shelf behind me and where I saw the relevant article. I Google the phrase. Pat Helsop-Harrison tells it like it is in the Annals of Botany blog. …