Policy and Legal Frameworks Governing Trees: Incentives or Disincentives for Smallholder Tree Planting Decisions in Cameroon?

Agroforestry and planting trees on farmers’ fields have been reported as important elements in a strategy to meet the millennium development goals of poverty reduction and climate change improvement. However, their uptake seems to be constrained by factors both internal and external to the household and related to the policy and legislative environment. This paper examines the impact of these factors on farmers’ decisions to plant trees. Cameroon is used as a case to analyse whether existing policies and legislation governing trees support or discourage tree planting, using qualitative content analyses. Although their mission papers and statements suggest most national government policies in Cameroon address tree planting and agroforestry, actual legislation designed to follow up the policies mostly contradicts the poverty reduction goals. Often legislation and regulations are more conservation-oriented and do not provide a clear procedure to distinguish between products from trees found in the wild and those gathered from farmers’ fields.     

Overgrazing in the Montado? The need for monitoring grazing pressure at paddock scale

Montados are presently facing the threat of either abandonment or intensification, and livestock overgrazing has been suspected of contributing to reduced natural regeneration and biodiversity. However, reliable data are to our knowledge, lacking. To avoid potential risks of overgrazing, an adaptive and efficient management is essential. In the present paper we review the main sources of complexity for grazing management linked with interactions among pasture, livestock and human decisions. We describe the overgrazing risk in montados and favour grazing pressure over stocking rate, as a key indicator for monitoring changes and support management decisions. We suggest the use of presently available imaging and communication technologies for assessing pasture dynamics and livestock spatial location. This simple and effective tools used for monitoring the grazing pressure, could provide an efficient day-to-day aid for farm managers’ operational use and also for rangeland research through data collection and analysis.     

Characterization and evaluation of two genetic groups and value of intergroup hybrids of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cola nitida</Emphasis> (Vent.) Schott and Endlicher

The collection of Cola nitida in Côte d’Ivoire was previously classified, based on isozyme markers, into three groups named A, B and C, based on isozymic differences. In this study, morphological traits and several yield components as well as genotypic and phenotypic variabilities for vigour were investigated in groups A and B. We found that group A was characterized by a low vigour and high yield components. In contrast, group B expressed high vigour and low yield components. Intergroup hybrids were more vigorous and high yielder than intragroup hybrids. The vigour of intergroup hybrids was comparable to that of half sib commercial hybrids. Value of heterosis obtained for the yield of intergroup hybrids was 350%. It was concluded, based on our findings, that reciprocal recurrent selection in Cola nitida using plant materials of groups A and B should lead to significant improvement.     

Genetic diversity in red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) revealed by morphological and microsatellite (SSR) markers

The NPGS-USDA core collection with 85 accessions of red clover, an important forage species, is little described. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the diversity of a set of accessions from the core collection at the morphological and molecular level in order to extract some valuable accessions for Brazilian red clover breeding programs. Twenty-one morphological traits, collected in field and greenhouse in South Brazil, and seven SSR markers were used to describe 57 accessions from the U.S. core collection and one population cultivated in Southern Brazil. Variation between accessions was large for most of the 21 morphological traits. A cluster analysis based on the morphological traits revealed five distinct clusters that separated the populations according to flowering earliness, as already described, but also according to persistency, growth habit and dry matter productivity. Over seven SSR loci, the number of alleles averaged 11.1 alleles per locus. Genetic diversity measured with SSR markers was high, with a mean expected heterozygosity of 0.86. An analysis of molecular variance revealed that the largest proportion of variation (83.6%) resided at the within population level. Although the molecular markers also separated accessions into five clusters, there was no coincidence between the composition of groups found with morphological and molecular data. Use of genetic diversity in breeding programs requires to use the most promising populations, to combine positive traits such as persistency and forage yield, and probably to use within population variation to detect valuable genotypes that could be used as parents of synthetic varieties.     

滴灌施肥对红毛丹产量、品质及经济效益的影响

为探索有利于提升红毛丹产量和品质、提高水肥料利用效率的大田滴灌施肥有效模式,田间小区试验以海南保亭当地主栽的‘保研7号’红毛丹(BR-7)为对象,设3个处理,不施肥(CK)、常规施肥(FP)和滴灌施肥(DF),研究不同灌溉施肥方式对红毛丹产量、果实品质以及经济效益的影响。与常规施肥比较,滴灌施肥处理红毛丹产量可达到5570.4 kg/hm²,增产率达24.84%。果实内在品质得到提高,可溶性固形物、Vc、固酸比分别为21.7%、44.66 mg/100 g、68.49,比常规处理分别提高9.60%、25.20%、31.21%;可滴定酸为0.36%,较常规处理降低13.19%。纯收益比常规处理提高14362元/hm²,增加76.32%;VCR(vario-cost ratio)值由1.91上升到2.81。N、P₂O₅、K₂O分别节省44.57%、21.89%、9.63%。滴灌施肥技术具有提升产量和品质、节省肥料和人工及促进增收的优势,是一项适于在红毛丹大田生产中推广应用的新型灌溉施肥技术。     

中棉所48的SSR数字指纹图谱的构建

利用25对核心引物对中棉所48及其亲本进行多态性检测,共有16对引物在2个亲本间具有多态性,其中,有14对引物在两亲本间扩增出大小不同的带,且这些标记位点在F1中均表现为杂合带,为共显性标记;另外2个引物的F1带型与母本或父本一致,为显性标记。以这25对引物在不同材料间扩增得到的01(二进制)数据转换成十进制数据,构建了中棉所48的数字指纹图谱,为杂交种的真伪鉴定和纯度检测提供了方法。为了构建准确、稳定和实用的棉花DNA指纹图谱,指出了需要规范分子标记类型和数量,DNA、Taq酶等试剂数量和质量,统一PCR反应,电泳和染色条件,统一提供标准品种和标准DNA,标准化电泳条带的识别、数据处理方式和编码方式。     

不同灌溉模式对小麦‘烟农5158’光合特性及产量的影响

为了明确在胶东地区气候条件下‘烟农5158’适宜的灌溉模式,笔者在大田条件下研究了不同灌溉模式对‘烟农5158’生理特性、产量及产量三因素的影响。结果表明：随着灌溉次数的增加,‘烟农5158’旗叶相对含水量、旗叶最大光化学效率(Fv/Fm)、光合速率提高。‘烟农5158’叶片相对含水量、实际羧化效率和光合速率高于‘鲁麦21’,说明‘烟农5158’的抗旱性强于‘鲁麦21’。干旱显著降低‘烟农5158’和‘鲁麦21’的产量,‘烟农5158’的产量显著高于‘鲁麦21’。3个灌溉处理相比较,春灌2水处理（拔节水和开花水）处理的小麦产量较高。     

国外粮食安全保障机制及其对中国的启示

分别对粮食出口国（如美国、加拿大、澳大利亚、欧盟）和粮食进口国（如日本、印度）的粮食安全状况及保障系统的运作机制和模式进行了概述,并提出对中国粮食安全保障系统建设的一些启示,主要包括：（1）健全粮食价格保护政策;（2）保护和提高粮食综合生产能力;（3）建立高效的粮食储备机制;（4）加强粮食国际贸易;（5）建立粮食安全预警系统。     

Development of genic molecular markers linked to a rust resistance gene in cultivated groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

Development of molecular markers for different economically important traits in cultivated groundnut has progressed at slow pace. Although many genomic SSR markers were developed in both the wild and cultivated groundnut, the genetic linkage map in the species is still not saturated. Availability of a large number of ESTs in GenBank opened up the possibility of integrating new markers and to identify markers closely linked to agronomic traits. EST-SSR markers are also considered as genic molecular markers. In this study, 259 EST-SSR markers were developed by mining 5,184 Arachis hypogaea ESTs from NCBI database. These EST-SSRs and 34 resistance gene candidate markers were used for association and genetic mapping of rust resistance in cultivated groundnut. From these, Cer2, SSR_GO340445, SSR_HO115759, SSR_GO341324 and RGC 2 had a significant association with rust resistance based on locus-by-locus AMOVA and/or Kruskal?CWallis ANOVA. Some of these associated markers also had protein activity related to biotic stress responses. Through genetic mapping, EST-SSR markers SSR_GO340445 and SSR_HO115759 were found closely linked to a rust resistance gene at 1.9 and 3.8?cM distances, respectively. These markers are thus suitable candidates for marker assisted selection in groundnut. The tight linkage of SSR_GO340445 would be helpful to screen BAC clones and to isolate rust resistance gene in groundnut.     

Population structure and association mapping of traits related to reproductive development in field pea

Field pea (Pisum sativum) is an important pulse crop globally for human consumption and livestock feed. A panel of 92 diverse pea cultivars was evaluated across nine environments and genotyped using 1536 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) arranged in a GoldenGate array. Population structure analysis revealed three subpopulations roughly consistent with the cultivar origin. Phenotyping included days to flowering (DTF), duration of flowering (DOF), number of reproductive nodes, number of pods on the main stem, percentage of pods set, percentage of pods retained with seed and pollen germination reduction due to heat stress. Association analyses identified a total of 60 SNPs significantly associated (?log₁₀ p ≥ 4.3) with these seven reproductive development-related traits. Among these 60 marker-trait associations, 33 SNPs were associated with the onset of flowering, 8 SNPs with pod development and 19 SNPs with the number of reproductive nodes. No SNP marker was significantly associated with in vitro pollen germination reduction caused by high temperature stress. We found that 12 SNPs associated with DTF and 2 SNPs associated with DOF overlapped with the SNP markers associated with the number of reproductive nodes. Genomic regions associated with variation for reproductive development-related traits identified in this study provide grounds for future genetic improvement in pea.