Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

May 3, 2010May 3, 2010

Mango symposium

This just in, in response to Bhuwon’s wonderful report on the mother of all Dashehari mangoes.

National Seminar on Mango

Biodiversity For Livelihood, 25 to 28 June, 2005, Lucknow

Dear Sir / Madam,

I am pleased to inform you that the Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture is organizing a four-day National Seminar “Mango Biodiversity For Livelihood” during June 25th and 28th 2010 at CISH, Rehmankhera, Lucknow. The Seminar is being organized jointly by ICAR, and Society for Advancement of Subtropical Horticulture, Lucknow under the auspicious of National Biodiversity Authority Chennai, Bioversity International, New Delhi, National Horticulture Board, Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights and National Horticulture Mission. It gives me great pleasure to invite you and your colleagues to the Symposium and request you to contribute to the deliberations. I am sure with your contributions to the field of mango research and development you would be deeply interested in this Symposium.

Alas, we cannot be there. More details at the website.

May 2, 2010May 1, 2010

School gardens

[I]nstead of building up and knocking down an army of straw men from a distance, Luke Tsai actually visited the [Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California] garden to see how it works and talked to the teachers and principal about the Edible Schoolyard.

What a strange idea, to go and look at something you’re reporting on and see what the people involved make of it, rather than just using your own gut feelings. But Luke Tsai did just that before he wrote about The Edible Schoolyard. Let’s hope this kind of effort never catches on. The Ethicurean wrote about Tsai’s piece and gives lots of context and links.

May 2, 2010May 6, 2010

Let’s define success, shall we?

Professor Robert Paarlberg has a long article in Foreign Policy that takes a critical look at feeding the poor. There’s much in it I agree with, and probably more I disagree with. I do have one important question, which I’m loathe to see buried among the comments at Foreign Policy.

Paarlberg devotes some time to attacking the “myth” that the Green Revolution was a failure. “In Asia,” he writes “the Green Revolution was good for both agriculture and social justice.” So here’s my question:

Why are 44% of the children under 5 years old in India malnourished?

Answers in the comments, please.

May 2, 2010May 2, 2010

Carnival of Evolution

There’s a new edition of the Carnival of Evolution up at Evolution: Education and Outreach, the “official blog” of the journal of that name, and it contains three items of direct interest to agrobiodiversity fans (four if you count our submission, but you’ve already read that, right?).

Christie Wilcox reminds us that domesticated animals have smaller brains, relative to their body size, than their wild counterparts. Are they actually not as intelligent though?
Sticking with domestication, Jason Goldman reckons dogs have evolved to take advantage of the existing mechanisms that bond parents to their children. I can vouch for that.
And the author of Byte Size Biology takes on the gene transfer that sees pea-aphids making for themselves the carotenoids that colour some morphs orange. That’s a first for animal synthesis of carotenoids, essential compounds for healthy human life. Where did the pea aphids get their genes? From a fungus, by means of horizontal gene transfer. which is interesting in itself and also suggests a much simpler and perhaps more acceptable alternative to making transgenic staple crops rich in carotenoids: let’s just stick the gene into people!

May 2, 2010May 1, 2010

CABI suggests global database of plant health

CABI will create a comprehensive global database of plant health, underpinned by CABI’s ever-growing collection of the world’s most extensive and trusted agricultural content. This currently comprises eight million records in CAB Abstracts, 30,000 pest datasheets from the Crop Protection Compendium, thousands of images, and almost 2,000 distribution maps. These will be augmented with research project findings, book content, sanitary and phytosanitary legislative standards, and open access data from authoritative partners. These include the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Plant Protection Convention, and various national plant protection organizations.

A great starting point for the assessment of future breeding needs as well genetic erosion threats? Attentive readers will remember we’ve blogged about CABI’s pest/disease distribution maps before.