Another feel-good genebank story. Eric Vercoe, now 85, grew rice in the 60s in TePuke near Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty in the North Island of New Zealand. Alas, the project eventually came to a stop because of flooding problems, but there has been some interest recently in re-establishing the crop, using more modern technology, but the same variety. Called TePuke (gold), this had been developed in the area over 12 years from an original introduction from Japan. It grew very well, had good cooking quality and very good taste. Unfortunately, it was no longer anywhere to be found in New Zealand. So Mr Vercoe asked the IRRI genebank, where it turned out that a deposit of the variety had been made in 1965. He received seeds last summer, and rice is again being grown in the most southerly location for the crop that our friends at IRRI know of.
Stripe rust collection makes a move
Yes, fungi have genebanks too.
Stephen Colbert, on the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog ???
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Survival Seed Bank | ||||
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Too much fun not to include. Thanks, Elli.
Blogging Niu Afa
Dr Roland Bourdeix is a senior researcher at CIRAD and an honorary research fellow at Bioversity International. He’s long worked on coconut genetic resources conservation and use, including at the Marc Delorme Research Station. He’s now in the South Pacific on a mission — in collaboration with my old pals at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community — to collect a famous Samoan coconut variety, and you can follow his progress on his new blog.
From one fish to feeding the world
If we’re feeding more people, more cheaply, how bad can that be?
Watch Dan Barber’s mesmerizing TedTalk and get the answers to that rhetorical question. This is storytelling at its best, storytelling with a real point, storytelling that could change the way people think.