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The Equilibrium Fund is now called the Maya Nut Institute
Read the Maya Nut Institute summer 2010 Newsletter!
Plant Genetic Resources in the Pacific
During September 2009 a suite of meetings and events will take place in Fiji, related to plant genetic resources:
21-22 September: “Crops for the Future in the Pacific”. This consultation meeting aims to explore the potential of under-utilized species as crops for the future in the Pacific region and highlight the areas/gaps that would benefit from further action. The outcomes from this seminar will feed into the next phase of the Pacific PGR network (PAPGREN) project.
23-24 September: ITPGRFA meeting. This meeting is a follow up to the 3rd Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) meeting in Tunis, Tunisia (June 2009). At this 3rd Session meeting the Pacific officially placed the collections held in trust by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees into the Multilateral System of the Treaty. At the two day workshop in Fiji participants will cover the following issues related to ratification and implementation of the Treaty, namely (a) using the SMTA (b) how to fulfill your obligations under the Treaty (c) issues related to accession to the Treaty (d) international and regional cooperation in the implementation of the Treaty
25 September: Opening of the new Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees (CePaCT) in Suva.
26 September – 2 October: PAPGREN meeting and training. This is the annual meeting of the Pacific Plant Genetic Resources Network (PAPGREN) during which PAPGREN members will present their country activities for the last year. The role that diversity plays in climate change, nutrition and trade will be discussed as these are key issues in the Pacific. Three days of this week long meeting will be spent conducting training in genebank management to include morphological and molecular characterization.
The above meetings are co-organised by the Secretariat of the Pacific Communities (SPC), the Asia-Pacific Association for Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) and Crops for the Future. For more information contact Mary Taylor.
European Seed Research – request for information
From Dave Aplin:
I am carrying out some work for the European Native Seed Conservation Network (ENSCONET), specifically researching the future research requirements in Europe (and elsewhere) for well-documented samples of wild-collected, native European seed. We are keen to identify research that could be encouraged or enhanced by access to such high-quality seed samples.
Furthermore, (a) would this research need material collected from across the continent or just from specific regions, (b) what data (other than standard date, location, general ecology and sampling) would need to be recorded, and (c) what quantities of seed would be required?
In the past, collection of native seeds in Europe by seed banks in botanic gardens and universities has been carried out primarily with conservation in mind. Consequently, researchers have had to make do with the material on offer rather than that tailored to their needs. We would like to turn this around and develop a dialogue with both state and private research to explore needs and thereby create opportunities for research that might otherwise be expensive or impossible to carry out.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Dr. Dave Aplin
ENSCONET
Call for Contributions: Urban Agriculture Magazine No. 23
UA Magazine No. 23: Urban Nutrient Management will be published in December 2009.
Please send your contribution before 15 September 2009 to: email hidden; JavaScript is required
Urban food demand, especially for fresh perishable food products, is increasing with population growth. Urban agriculture responds to this demand through intensive and continuous production taking advantage of market proximity. Such intensive production is highly dependent on nutrients and water. Rapidly growing cities face the challenge of providing basic services such as drinking water and sanitation on the one hand, and sustainably managing urban wastes and wastewater on the other. UA Magazine no. 20 focused on water, and the following issue, no. 23, will focus on the equally important aspect of nutrient management.
For more information about the call for contributions and about RUAF, visit the RUAF website (www.ruaf.org).
UA Magazine is published two times a year on the RUAF website and in hardcopy version. This English version is translated into Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese and Portuguese. The UA Magazine welcomes contributions on new initiatives at individual, neighbourhood, city and national levels. Attention is given to technical, socio-economic, institutional and policy aspects of sustainable urban food production, marketing, processing and distribution systems. Although articles on any related issue are welcome and considered for publication, each UA Magazine focuses on a selected theme.
Local Foods Research
This site was originally set up in November 2007 as the home for a research project examining localism in alternative food networks in Scotland. It currently hosts information about the completed research project, the localfoods blog, and in the future will host more research regarding local food politics. The introduction page provides background information about the research, and the findings are detailed on the results page.
Acacia Gum – Innovative Management of Acacia Senegal Trees
The ACACIAGUM project provides a unique north-south collaboration where relevant expertise and resources are being availed for addressing problems of food security and livelihood faced by developing countries. The European and African partners in a more or less balanced way are sharing the various work packages and tasks. There is thus a strong complementarity between research teams from the two regions resulting in high quality multi-disciplinary research approach.
- Various innovative approaches are going to be implemented:
- Innovative approaches to the study of water-use and photosynthate allocation within trees are particularly apt for this study of an exsudate-producing crop. Physiological measurement systems of tree water (stem sap flow, leaf gas exchange, soil water content) will be conducted in relation to gum production;
- Tree management (shoot and root) for optimization of gum-arabic production in relation to soil microbial populations present in the rhizospheric area in differing environmental conditions will form an important topic for improvement of the financial profits of the populations concerned in gum-arabic production.
- The innovative linking of genetics with quality attributes of verified A. senegal trees will yield a tool to ensure that future tree plantings produce high quality gum.
- An innovative and novel, certified marketing system that provides equitable returns to producers and rural populations and assures importers of the source, bio safety, hygiene and quality of the product will be developed and proposed to policy makers and commerce.
- The relationship between soil fertility and sustainable gum-arabic production will be developed and quantified with the final objective to produce gum arabic with a green label.
- The topic of dissemination of results and information has been granted particular importance and a work package has been dedicated to dissemination issues to try to maximize impact amongst end users. Dissemination plans will be developed for different audiences: to Government Departments in DC’s countries involved in the study to national and international agencies involved in natural resource management, NGOs, all actors in the production/marketing chain from local populations through farmers, and the scientific community.
Visit the projects website: inco-acaciagum.cirad.fr
The Chicago Initiative on Global Agricultural Development
The Global Agricultural Development Project aims to stimulate and inform the policy discussion around America’s role in alleviating poverty through global agricultural development. The project also seeks to identify opportunities for the United States to work with governments and other institutions to increase productivity, market access, and incomes of rural smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
www.thechicagocouncil.org/globalagdevelopment/default.asp