Cassava – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

February 17, 2010February 17, 2010

Nibbles: Cassava, fonio, apples, Salicornia, aurochs, seeds

Nagib Nassar challenges the wisdom of GM cassava. Cultivate indigenous and wild varieties of the crop!
Or fonio (Digitaria exilis). New paper on its diversity.
And for dessert? Wild apple diversity?
Need salad? How about Salicornia then?
Nice aurochs steak to go with the salad?
Not too soon to start planning a future harvest, if you’re in Ireland and want seeds.

1. In the UK, Herefordshire’s Museum of Cider is picking up national recognition for its genebank of heritage apple trees. The BBC’s canonical autumnal apple story comes a little early this year.
2. Speaking of iconic apples, Kazakhstan is scaling up efforts to bring back the Aport, the giant heirloom that once made Almaty famous. No word of museums, though. Or cider.
3. Over in the Philippines, Department of Environment and Natural Resources is beefing up its rattan genebank to keep pace with demand, with forest stewards in Bukidnon planting seedlings to match. Furniture makers need genebanks as much as cider makers.
4. Sri Lanka’s pre-Green Revolution heirloom rice varieties, purana haal, are being eyed for their resilience and disease-management potential. Good thing they’re in the national genebank.
5. Saudi Arabia’s Jazan terraced coffee farms are turning into rural and ecotourism hotspots, proving not all agrobiodiversity needs to be in a genebank to survive. But it helps.
Published on August 9, 2026