SAFRUIT (Sahelian Fruit Trees) is a research project on fruit trees in the Sahel that started in January 2006 and will run until the end of this year. The project involves 6 African and 3 European institutions.

SAFRUIT has just announced that a workshop will be held in November 2009 in Bamako, Mali on “Promoting local fruit trees in the Sahel”

Read more about the background and objectives of this workshop here.

Every month the CGIAR website highlights an area of research that of one the CGIAR centers is conducting or has conducted.

This month it focuses on the research carried out by the by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and its partners.  The study that has been published in the journal Conservation Letters looks at how wildlife can boost the appeal of tropical forest protection and provides compelling evidence that paying to conserve billions of tons of carbon stored in tropical forests could also protect orangutans, pygmy elephants and other wildlife at risk of extinction.   Read more.

After a long hiatus, we’re back and ready to provide our readers with interesting tibits, and news on all thing agrobiodiversity.

To get started please find following some articles of interest that arrived on our desks this last week:

Agriculture and climate change: an agenda for negotiation in Copenhagen. IFPRI 2020 Focus no. 16/ edited by Gerald C. Nelson

This IFPRI Focus is made up of 16 briefs that discuss how agriculture and climate change are interlinked and the strategies we need to consider if climate change mitigation and adaptation are to be met.  Some of the areas that the briefs discuss include:  the role of international trade (brief 13);  synergies among mitigation, adaptation and sustainable development (brief 9); and household impacts and institutional responses to climate change adaptation (brief 12).

Ice on fire / Fred Pearce

This lead article from the New Scientist (no. 2714 – 27th June) looks at what could be considered the next new fossil fuel.  It is called methane clathrate, and it is essentially methane that has been trapped in ice.  If a lit match is placed near a block of this ice, it bursts into flames.  It is seen as an easy solution to the energy crisis and it emits only half of the carbon dioxide of that of coal. Methane clathrate is not new to gas and oil companies but not a lot of attention was given to it, however as natural gas reserves begin to dwindle there is  renewed interest and research, particularly in countries like Norway, China and Canada.

Do we really need another fossil fuel?  Couldn’t/shouldn’t we be looking at aiming our funding and research at more environmentally sound options? And what about the sustainable technologies we already have in place? Shouldn’t we be looking at using/adapting/improving these?   What do you think?

We just came across this film on You Tube entitled “Home”.

It is a film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand.  It intends to show the state of our planet and the challenges humanity faces.

The film contains absolutely beautiful images of the earth from above, and highlights the fact that we are all interconnected and need to do so much more to get “our home in order”.

The documentary is quite long (approx. 1.5 hours) but well worth it.  If you can’t afford the time to watch the whole film, even 10 minutes viewing is a must.  This video is only available on Youtube until the 14th June so watch it now.

View it here. Enjoy!

It’s Friday. When we can we always like to end the working week with a video that features some aspect of agrobiodiversity, sustainability or environmental issues. So here goes…today’s video comes from the organisation Plant with Purpose and is titled “Trees Please”

One of Plant with Purposes’s main objectives is to reverse deforestation. They state on their website  “By reversing deforestation, Plant With Purpose helps the poor restore productivity to the land to create economic opportunity out of environmental restoration. Since 1984 we have helped more than 100,000 people in some 230 villages lift themselves out of poverty through our holistic approach to sustainable development.”

This is essentially what this short video is about.   View it here.

Our readers may recall that in April we mentioned in a blog post that the organisers of the Science Forum 2009,  were interested in hearing back from people who had been involved in projects that looked at how Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) were enabling agricultural science to be a social endeavor by communities rather something done by a few scientists tucked away in a laboratory. Essentially it was a call for posters on this theme.

The winning poster was:

Rural Information Kiosk: Taking IT to farmers for improving crop water efficiency in areas subjected to groundwater distress: an FAO-India initiative. / by K.A.S. Mani, P.S. Rao, and Das S.V. Govardhan.

Nine other posters were selected and will also be presented at the Science Forum.  They can be viewed here.

For more information about the Science Forum, which will be held on the 16-17 June in Wageningen,  please click here.

According to statistics published by the UN, investments in 2006  for renewable, clean energy technologies has surpassed those of  traditional fossil fuels.

Major investments have come from countries such as India and China. The technologies that attracted the most dollars were wind, solar and biofuels.

The sector’s boom  seems to be a result of a global concerns such as  climate change, as well as increasing energy demand. Read more.

Our readers may recall that back in September 2008 we highlighted the World Food Programme’s Purchase for Progress (P4P)initiative.

Well it would seem that the WFP has made its first purchase of buying locally from small-scale farmers. It has  purchased 45 metric tons of rice from farmers in Ahero in the Kisumu district in western Kenya.  “P4P is a win-win situation.” said WFP Country Director Burkard Oberle. “We help support local famers. The rice grown in Ahero will be used in WFP’s operation to assist Kenyans hit by drought. WFP would like to thank the Brazilian Government for its generous donation.” Read more via the African Science News Service.

The public awareness unit at Bioversity recently presented a video that focuses on seven individuals who are passionate about biodiversity and safeguarding genetic resources for food and agriculture.  Mediterranean farmers, scholars and people like Carlo Petrini who founded the Slow Food Movement are featured.

The video is titled “Guardians of Diversity”

Worth a look!

ICIMOD have published the latest issue of their newletter which focuses on  Biodiversity and Climate Change in the Himalayas.

Please find below some of the interesting articles that we have selected that can be accessed full-text: -

Biodiversity Environment Change and Regional Cooperation in the Hindu Kush-Himalays

Climate Change in the Mountains – Who Wins and Who Loses

Climate Change in the Himalayas: the Vulnerability of Biodiversity

Linking Traditional Ecological Knowledge Systems with Modern Approaches

Regional Research on Biodiversity : Improved Knowledge as a Basis for Better Livelihoods

To see the rest of the table of contents, click here.

While you are browsing the website, take the time to look at their other technical publications, there is a treasure trove of information – most of it freely available.