plant health Archives - Page 2 of 3

Science-based policies can unlock Africa’s access to genome-edited crop varieties

CGIAR-IITA head of plant biotechnology Leena Tripathi has made an impassioned plea for genome editing and its potential. She made the call in a recently published paper titled, CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing of banana for disease resistance. Tripathi and her Kenya-based team are using gene editing to develop disease-resistant banana varieties. “To boost the use of…

Production and distribution of Aflasafe KE01TM continue despite COVID-19 restrictions

As Kenya puts in place measures to protect the lives of its citizens from the devastating coronavirus disease, COVID-19, efforts to also protect lives by ensuring food is safe and free from the devastating aflatoxin have been going on. The team from the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and the International Institute of…

Nodumax production team before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nodumax set for full production despite the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting global food systems, disrupting regional agricultural value chains, and posing risks to household food security. It has created a heightened awareness of food safety among producers, businesses, governments, and consumers. The agricultural input production and supply industry is facing many challenges around production and logistics. This affected the unit at…

Meet CGIAR-IITA’s women fighting plant pests and diseases

The current COVID-19 pandemic is a heart-wrenching example of how viruses can quickly spread from one continent to the next. The way human diseases spread is not any different from how plant pests and diseases spread. Lava Kumar, a virologist and head of the Germplasm Health Unit (GHU) at IITA, says, “Humans are the number…

Publication showcases 50 years of IITA’s plant health research

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH), with the objective to raise global awareness on how protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect the environment, and boost economic development. IITA joins the rest of the world in commemorating this. In 2019, a new…

Why it’s essential to pay attention to plant health

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH). The objective of IYPH is to raise global awareness on how protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect the environment, and boost economic development. IITA joins the rest of the world in commemorating IYPH. Over the…

Why Plant Health?

Plant health delegation visits IITA Abuja in preparation for international conference

In preparation for a global event that will bring quarantine service practitioners from across the world to Nigeria to deliberate on curtailing the spread of pests and diseases across continents, a three-member delegation led by Mr John Obaje, Director of Plant Quarantine Planning, Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), visited IITA-Abuja Station on 14 February. The…

Publishing partner offers IITA discount across full range of publications

The recently published book by Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing, ‘Critical issues in plant health: 50 years of research in African agriculture’ is a collection summarizing 50 years of research on plant health by IITA to improve the health of crops in Africa. It is part of the rapidly expanding Burleigh Dodds Series in Agricultural Science,…

Beatrice Langwa in the lab at IITA-Tanzania.

Defying odds to pursue a science career in war-torn South Sudan: Beatrice Langwa, PhD

Although female representation in science careers is no longer a novelty, it is still a rarity to find women scientists from conflict zones such as war-torn South Sudan. Beatrice Langwa, a PhD student at the University of Juba in South Sudan, is challenging that narrative. She is undertaking her PhD with a scholarship from the…