ILEIA, the Centre for learning on sustainable agriculture, has announced the launch of its new magazine – Farming Matters: Small-scale agriculture for a sustainable society.

Farming Matters will put local experiences in a global context, bringing you background to the news, opinions, debate, and practical examples of how sustainable, small-scale farming contributes to providing food security, social justice, and a healthy environment.

The magazine is for development practitioners, educators, researchers, policy makers, farmers, entrepreneurs, students, and anyone interested in agriculture and development. Each issue has a theme as well as global content. This first issue looks at how sustainable agriculture practices have developed and spread over time, as well as looking at factors that have hindered the uptake of sustainable practices. The on-line articles of this issue can be read here.

A new technical bulletin has recently been released by Bioversity that looks at European landraces.

The authors first establish the context of European landrace diversity conservation and use; and reviews how landrace inventories can be generated, using practical examples of such inventories for European countries. They also provide specific case studies of the on farm management of landraces; and exemplars of how landrace use has been and might be further promoted within a European agricultural context.

The tome includes discussions of why we still need landraces, the current conservation status of European landraces, a review of the threats to on farm management of landraces and the opportunities for future landrace cultivation. The authors conclude with a proposal for a European on farm conservation and landrace management strategy that will both ensure the systematic conservation of landrace diversity and promote its sustainable use.

Want to read more? Click on the cover of the book to access the PDF.

The Diversity for Life is a global campaign hosted by Bioversity International to raise awareness of the value of agricultural biodiversity for people’s lives.

It targets schools, the media and policymakers. The campaign has a very human face. It concentrates on the relationship between people and plants, culture and agriculture all around the world. The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity has endorsed the Diversity for Life campaign, and the campaign is working closely with the Secretariat in the lead up to the UN-declared International Year of Biodiversity in 2010.  Our readers may recall in an earlier post we blogged about the the impressive Guardians of Diversity video done by the Diversity for Life campaign.

Examples of Guardians of Diversity include Doña Adeleiva Castillo who conserves 120 varieties of quinoa on her farm in the Peruvian Andes in memory of her son. They include well-known Japanese artist Mitsuaki Tanabe who uses his art to communicate the urgent need to conserve wild rice and protect the habitats in which it grows. Sharing the stories of these unsung heroes of diversity is a key objective of the Diversity for Life campaign.

Diversity for Life continues to search for stories about the Guardians of Diversity — individuals who have devoted their lives to ensuring that agricultural biodiversity is conserved and used for the benefit of all.  We need your help to find more stories about people who have dedicated their lives to the conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity.  The materials in a number of ways, including in exhibits and on the Diversity for Life website.

Please contact them with your suggestions by the end of December.

The UN Climate Change Confererence  [COP 15] starts today, and continues on till the 18th December.  Delegates from 192 countries will be gathering in Copenhagen, Denmark to discuss  how we, as a global community can cut down on carbon emissions.  It would seem that many countries participating in the conference are very keen in announcing their intentions of curbing their greenhouse emissions.

Some of the main issues that will be discussed include:

* Curbing greenhouse gas emission – finding appropriate targets,  in particular for developed countries

* Nationally appropriate mitigation actions of developing countries

* A carbon trading scheme aimed at ending the destruction of the world’s forests by 2030

Bioversity and the CGIAR will be actively participating  at Copenhagen, through events and exhibitions involving individual Centers as well as collective efforts through the new Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Challenge Program. Three key events for the CGIAR include:

* Bioversity International in collaboration the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) will convene an official high-level Side Event titled “Building the global biodiversity informatics commons for climate change adaptation.” The event will be held on Tuesday, 8 December 2009 from 20h00 to 21h30 in the Dan Turell Room, Bella Center, Copenhagen. It will focus on the importance of international sharing and exchange of biodiversity information, in particular for improved decision-making in climate change adaptation efforts and managing the impacts on agriculture and food security. Invitation is open to all registered COP15 delegates.

* Agriculture and Rural Development Day (ARDD) on Saturday, December 12. ARDD will focus on “the road after Copenhagen: priority strategies and actions for ensuring food security and rural development in the face of climate change.” ARDD is sponsored by a large consortium of organizations, which includes the CGIAR, the Alliance of the CGIAR Centers and the CCAFS Challenge Program.

* Forest Day 3 on Sunday, December 13. This event is hosted by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the Collaborative Partnership on Forests and the Government of Denmark. The event will build on the success of Forest Days 1 and 2 in helping to ensure that forests remain high on the agenda for a future climate agreement.   If you’re interested in seeing all the CGIAR events at COP 15 please follow this link.

Also why not be part of the process, and cast your vote for the Earth at the Earth Hour website.  Vote Earth!

Do you manage an open access respository or are involved in the open access movement?

Then you may be interested in knowing that the FAO of the United Nations has recently launched a survey on Open Access in agriculture and related sciences. This short survey (less then 10 minutes) is designed to get a detailed overview of the state of the art of Open Access (OA) and Open Archives Initiative (OAI) within the Agriculture Research Community.

The survey will be open until the end of January 2010. The results will be made available online in the CIARD Ring to give all participants the opportunity to take a look at and comment the results. The conclusions drawn will be presented at the IAALD XIIIth World Congress on 26-29 April 2010, Montpellier, France.

The survey is available in English, French and Spanish at http://www.ciardring.net/en/survey-oa.

Feel free to forward the URL to anyone you know who may be interested in contributing.

Starting Monday, the 7th December through to Friday 18th December e-Agriculture will be hosting a special online forum on “The Role of ICT in Agricultural Value Chains”. This forum will look at key opportunities and challenges of ICT interventions in the agricultural value chain with a special focus on the most beneficial interventions in rural areas.

This will be an opportunity for knowledge sharing on good practices; presenting expectations of future challenges and outcomes; and reviewing the critical roles of policy makers, rural service providers, and the agricultural community-at-large. The forum will be conducted in English.

All members of the e-Agriculture Community are invited to participate.

Currently there are more than 5,600 members from over 150 countries.

If you aren’t yet a member of the e-agriculture community, you can register online here.

Four new publications have just been released at Bioversity: to access them full-text please click on the book covers.

Authors: Choo, K.Y.; Jalonen, R.; Hong L.T.; Sim, H.C. (eds.)

The reports included in this volume come from seven national consultative workshops within the ITTO funded project on forest genetic resources, “Strengthening National Capacity and Regional Collaboration for Sustainable Use of Forest Genetic Resources in Tropical Asia”. The project started in February 2006 and ended in 2009, and was carried out by seven participating countries: Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand.

This volume results from a collaboration amongst FRIM, Bioversity International and APAFRI.

Authors: George, M.L.C.; Cervantes, E.P. (eds.)

This book is the outcome of a joint effort of Bioversity International and COGENT member countries. Being a traditional part of the rural food system and a major source of nutrition for many rural communities, coconut has been combined in various ways with locally available ingredients in cuisines that reflect the local biodiversity.  In this book, the authors share 300 ways of using coconut in recipes from 13 coconut-growing countries.

Authors: van Oudenhoven, F.; Eyzaguirre, P.; Mijatovic, D.

During the recent DIVERSITAS Open Science Conference in Cape Town on “Biodiversity and society: understanding connections, adapting to change,” Bioversity presented this poster on the connections between agricultural and wild landscapes. The poster urges conservation scientists and protected area managers to see agricultural communities, and the landscapes they create, as integral to the conservation of wild ecosystems. It proposes a set of “social-ecological indicators” that can be used by communities and scientists to monitor human-environment interactions and how they affect the health of the ecosystem.

Authors: Jalonen, R.; Choo, K.Y.; Hong, L.T.; Sim, H.C.; (eds.)

This compilation of the national status reports from the seven participating countries of the ITTO Project is the second joint documentation of national activities for the conservation and management of forest genetic resources in South and South-east Asian countries. The reports in this publication were provided by the National Focal Points of the ITTO project countries during the years 2007-2009, and they capture updates in the conservation and management activities and initiatives in the project countries since the inception workshop of the APFORGEN Programme in 2003. The implementation of the ITTO project is supported by FRIM, in collaboration with APAFRI and Bioversity International.

Just in time for your weekend reading, here are a selection of the latest research papers authored by our scientists.  Three papers are available as open access, so are available in full-text.   Enjoy!

Chaves, N.P.; Pocasangre, L.E.; Elango, F.; Rosales, F.E.; Sikora, R.(2009) Combining endophytic fungi and bacteria for the biocontrol of Radopholus similis (Cobb) Thorne and for effects on plant growth. Scientia Horticulturae v.122 (3): p. 472-478 ISSN:0304-4238

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Davey, M.W.; Graham, N.S.; Vanholme, B.; Swennen, R.; May, S.T.; Keulemans, J.(2009)    Heterologous oligonucleotide microarrays for transcriptomics in a non-model species; a proof-of-concept study of drought stress in Musa. BMG Genomics 10: article nr. 436 ISSN:1471-2164     OPEN ACCESS PAPER

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De Capdeville, G.; Souza Junior, M.T.; Szinay, D.; Diniz, L.E.C.; Wijnker, E.; Swennen, R.; Kema, G.H.J.; De Jong, H.(2009)  The potential of high-resolution BAC-FISH in banana breeding. Euphytica v.166 (3): p. 431-443 ISSN:0014-2336    OPEN ACCESS PAPER

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Dochez, C.; Speijer, P.R.; De Schutter, B.; Dubois, T.; Tenkouano, A.; De Waele, D.; Ortiz, R.(2009)  Host plant resistance and tolerance of Musa landraces and hybrids to nematode infestation. Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics Suppl. 92: p. 137-153 ISSN:1612-9830   OPEN ACCESS PAPER

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Dulloo, E.; Ebert, A. W.; Dussert, S.; Gotor, E.; Astorga, C.; Vasquez, N.; Rakotomalala, J.J.; Rabemiafara, A.; Eira, M.; Bellachew, B.; Omondi, C.; Engelmann, F.; Anthony, F.; Watts, J.; Qamar, Z.; Snook, L.(2009)  Cost efficiency of cryopreservation as a long-term conservation method for coffee genetic resources. Crop Science 49 (6): p. 2123-2138 ISSN:0011-183X

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Hermann, M.(2009)  The impact of the European Novel Food Regulation on trade and food innovation based on traditional plant foods developing countries. Food Policy v. 34: p. 499-507 ISSN:0306-9192

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Pandey; M.; Geburek, T.(2009)  Genetic differences between continuous and disjunct populations: some insights from sal (Shorea robusta Roxb.) in Nepal. Conservation Genetics Online first article: 10.1007/s10592-009-9940-y ISSN:1566-0621 (Print)

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Wang, Q.C.; Panis, B.; Engelmann, F.; Lambardi, M.; Valkonen, J.(2009) Cryotherapy of shoot tips: a technique for pathogen eradication to produce healthy planting materials and prepare healthy plant genetic resources for cryopreservation. Annals of Applied Biology V. 154: p. 351-363 ISSN:0003-4746

Today and for the next two days (16-18th Nov), topics such as food security, hunger and governance will be on the agenda in Rome at the World Food Summit being held at FAO.

The key challenges for this summit include:

* To put in place a more coherent and effective system of governance of food security at both national and international levels.

* To make sure developing countries have a fair chance of competing in world commodity markets and that agricultural support policies do not unfairly distort international trade.

* To agree on more effective mechanisms for early reaction to food crises.

* To find ways to ensure that farmers in both developed and developing countries can earn incomes comparable to those of secondary and tertiary sector workers in their respective countries.

To learn more about the Summit, click here.   Or, follow the Summit in real time via IISD reporting services or Twitter

The 1 billion hungry.org portal was launched yesterday to harness support for the 1 billion hungry people in the world, and make the issue a priority as a lead up to the World Summit on Food Security that is being held at FAO on the 16th-18th November.

Please consider signing this petition and let’s make hunger a thing of the past.