SEARCA Graduate Scholarships are open to applicants from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam who are regular employees of academic, research or government institutions and not more than 35 years old. The topic of research for thesis/dissertation must be in line with SEARCA’s current priority themes:

1) Natural Resources Management
Focuses on management of land and water resources; biodiversity management for food security; and risk assessment and the impacts of climate change on agrobiodiversity

2) Agricultural Competitiveness
Addresses agricultural competitiveness, food security and rural poverty alleviation, natural resources management

Click here to see the universities that qualify for study posts.

Applicants may submit the applications to the respective Ministries of Education of their countries before 30 July 2012.

Click here for the detailed application procedure.

Prof Sayed Azam-Ali

Crops for the Future Research Centre (CFFRC) has announced the appointment of Professor Sayed Azam-Ali as its first Chief Executive Officer. We have previously reported on the launch of CFFRC.

Professor Sayed Azam-Ali assumed his new post  on 1st August, 2011, after CFFRC was launched by Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia in June this year. He will manage and drive the research strategy and direction of the centre through an independent CFFRC Board and under the overall direction of the global Crops for the Future (CFF) organisation, which is jointly hosted in Malaysia by Bioversity International and UNMC. Dr Michael Hermann was appointed as the Global Co-ordinator of CFF in 2010.

Professor Azam-Ali was previously the Vice Provost of Research and Internationalisation at The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus.  Prior to his appointment at UNMC, Professor Azam-Ali was Director of the University Tropical Crops Research Unit and Professor of Tropical Agronomy at The University of Nottingham’s Sutton Bonington Campus in the UK.

Professor Sayed can be contacted at email hidden; JavaScript is required.

For more information on CFFRC please consult here.

A consortium led by UC Davis with CGIAR partners and the private sector plans to sequence the genomes of neglected African crops, with the ultimate goal of developing “new varieties [...] that are more nutritious, produce higher yields and are more tolerant of environmental stresses, such as drought”. Genomic information generated through the project will be freely available to scientists around the world. Of the US$ 40 million needed by the project, US$7.5 million have already been raised. A list of 96 species has been developed, which will be narrowed to 24 food crops and tree species whose genomes will be sequenced. Candidate species include amaranth, marula, cocoyam, Ethiopian mustard, ground nut tree, African potato, acacia, baobob, matoke bananas, African medlars, African eggplant and Cape tomato. We were intrigued by the latter name but unable to associate it with a taxon. Could this be the pictured Physalis peruviana, a native of South America, which is now globally distributed with much export-oriented production taking place in South Africa under the trade name of Cape Gooseberry?

“Reinforcing the resilience of poor rural communities in the face of food insecurity, poverty and climate change through on-farm conservation of local agrobiodiversity”

This is the title of the new Project Bioversity and its partners in India, Nepal and Bolivia, will be launching in June 2011.

Threshing minor millets in India: traditional operations which are currently poorly effective can be improved with great benefits for the farmers who are encouraged to use these resources and contribute to their on farm conservation (Credit: S. Padulosi)

The 2010 FAO State of the World Report II on PGRFA depicts an alarming and worrying situation with regard to the conservation and use of agrobiodiversity: despite considerable progress made on ex situ conservation, very limited efforts are on record for curbing the genetic and cultural erosion taking place on farm and severely affecting the sustenance of local crops and varieties. Furthermore, international policy instruments in support of agrobiodiversity, such as the Global Crop Diversity Trust, are currently focusing mainly on crops of Annex I of the International Treaty for PGRFA, thus excluding de facto thousands of other nutritious (and in many cases endangered) crops and varieties from being properly safeguarded, conserved and promoted for their effective use.

The Programme will be implemented in Latin America (Bolivia) and in South Asia (Nepal and India) and will be pursuing three main objectives:

1. the development of tools to map out diversity and assess values, threats and competitiveness of local crops of relevance to the rural poor within a climate change context;
2. the dissemination of tools, mechanisms, approaches to enhance capacities of stakeholders in conserving diversity on farm and
3. the exploration of policy options and collaborative frameworks at national and international levels aimed at strengthening pro-poor on-farm conservation. Ultimately, these efforts will aim at mainstreaming agro-biodiversity into conservation and use practices and in so doing enhance the preparedness of farmers and value chain actors against climate change.

For more information contact email hidden; JavaScript is required and to read a more extensive write up see the post on PAR web site

The first comprehensive review of sesame and its close relative.
Sesame: the genus Sesamum covers ethnographic data, modern use, linguistic analysis of sesame names from around the world, market size, export and import data, geographical sources, use in the food and cosmetic industries, and much more. The book includes a historical review of the genus Sesamum that reveals its place in present-day traditions and cultivation in Africa and Asia.
Expanding coverage from archaeological and anthropological literature from India, Mesopotamia, and Egypt, this ethobotanical monograph draws on folk sources, reviews the phytochemistry of Sesamum, and presents extensive references.

Here the link to the publication “Sesame: The genus Sesamum” (2010) and more about the author can be found here:

Dorothea Bedigian’s publications on Sesame and from the db on projects: Open SESAME (Sustainability and Ecology of Sesamum in Africa and the Middle East)