Plant Health Archives - Page 3 of 15

Scientists discuss better ways to protect plant health

Every year, the Germplasm Health Units (GHUs) of the CGIAR Centers organize the “Phytosanitary Awareness Week”. This year, the event was themed, “Phytosanitary safety for the prevention of the transboundary spread of pests and pathogens,” and took place from 9 to 13 November to highlight the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH 2020). The CGIAR Centers set up the…

New publication tackles the major challenges facing banana production

Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing are delighted to announce the publication of their new title – Achieving sustainable cultivation of bananas – Volume 2: Germplasm and genetic improvement. The book offers an authoritative discussion on the progress of identifying and broadening the genetic base for Musa species and reviews current conventional and molecular breeding techniques for breeding new varieties of banana. This new…

Tanzania Agriculture PS acknowledges and lauds IITA research work

Study identifies banana varieties resistant to black Sigatoka and provides further insights into the disease pathogen

Black leaf Sigatoka, one of the most widespread and damaging banana diseases—causing yield losses of 20–50%—is widespread in Uganda and Tanzania, posing a challenge to banana production as bananas grown in East Africa are susceptible to the disease. However, the good news is that five hybrids of East African Highland banana hybrids named NARITA, after their…

Recent advances in breeding for Striga resistance in early and extra-early maturing maize for sub-Saharan Africa

A team of IITA scientists, molecular breeders, and geneticists, coordinated by the IITA early and extra-early Maize Program Lead, Baffour Badu-Apraku, recently made significant advances in the longstanding efforts of the IITA Maize Improvement Program (MIP) to develop genotypes with durable resistance to Striga parasitism using molecular markers. The major advances are: Identification of genomic regions significantly associated with indicator traits for Striga resistance under infestation in early maturing…

IITA paper on genome editing among most read Open Access journal

A paper by an IITA Principal Scientist, Leena Tripathi, on ‘CRISPR/Cas9 editing of endogenous banana streak virus in the B genome of Musa spp. overcomes a major challenge in banana breeding’ was the second most downloaded paper in Communications Biology, an open access (OA) journal. The paper has had more than 12,000 downloads to date,…

Stakeholders meet virtually to discuss shared plans for One Health Challenge

The CGIAR Two Degree Initiative for Food and Agriculture recently organized an online stakeholder consultation to articulate a shared vision, outcomes, and outputs around the One-Health collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach. The approach aims to work at the local, regional, national, and global levels to achieve optimal health outcomes while recognizing the interconnection between people,…

IITA trains partners on ODK tools for surveillance of new banana disease threat, Fusarium wilt (Foc TR4)

IITA recently conducted a two-day training for national partners from the agriculture plant health services and plant protection departments in Tanzania and Vietnam. The workshop focused on using the Open Data Kit (ODK) tool to facilitate real-time surveillance of invasive pests and diseases in the banana cropping system, including the recent soil-borne fungal disease threat,…

IITA gets biotechnology stewardship certification

After completing a three-year audit cycle, IITA has become a certified member of Excellence Through Stewardship (ETS). ETS is a global organization that promotes the adoption of product stewardship programs and quality management systems for the full life cycle of agricultural biotechnology products. IITA joined the ETS organization as a member in late 2016, marking…

“Breeding Better Bananas” project excels in developing new ‘Matooke’ hybrids

In October 2019, the “Breeding Better Bananas” project transitioned into Phase II—“Accelerated Breeding Better Bananas”—to further streamline the conventional breeding of banana in East Africa. This project brings together an international spectrum of partners to transform the national banana breeding programs in Uganda and Tanzania. This improved banana breeding pipeline has produced more than 231…

Project launched to enhance adoption of Conservation Agriculture in Southern Africa

A new project that aims to investigate the drivers and barriers to adoption of Conservation Agriculture (CA) in Southern Africa and to develop strategies for achieving adoption and impact at scale was recently launched virtually by CA stakeholders in the region. CA, a farming system that promotes minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, and diversification…