banana breeding Archives

The Belgian Ambassador to Uganda commends IITA’s efforts to transform the agriculture sector

Belgian Ambassador commends IITA’s efforts to transform Ugandan agriculture sector

His Excellency Rudi Veestraeten, the Belgian Ambassador to Uganda, visited the IITA-Uganda substation at Sendusu on 30 October. The Ambassador was accompanied by the Deputy Head of Mission and Head of Belgian Development Cooperation, Mr Koen Van Acoleyen. The visit was on the invitation of Rony Swennen, IITA’s senior banana breeder. The Ambassador and his…

A field worker identifying the female parent plant before hand pollination.

Lessons from 21 years of breeding East Africa‘s popular cooking banana

As part of a review of a breeding program for the East Africa Highland Banana (EAHB) started by IITA and Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) in the mid-1990s, a team of scientists at IITA, NARO, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) assessed the progress and efficiency of this breeding program in the…

Picture of Moses Nyine (second from left), who received his PhD from Palacky University Olomouc in the Czech Republic, with his IITA supervisors

IITA capacity building on banana and cassava breeding helps three students graduate

Recently, three students supported by IITA’s breeding program graduated—two with the banana breeding program and one with cassava molecular breeding team.

Picture of Moses Nyine explaining his research in a banana field in Uganda.

R4D Special: Researchers use DNA prediction models to speed up banana breeding

An international team of scientists have for the first time demonstrated that it is possible to speed up banana breeding using genomic prediction models that accurately select banana hybrids with desired traits.

Ugandan journal says IITA’s breeding efforts to benefit no less than 15,000 farmers

Recently, the NEW VISION journal of Uganda, reported that IITA’s laudable efforts breeding banana with desirable characteristics will benefit at least 15,000 smallholder farmers in the country.

Picture of Rony Swennen explaining the hybrid breeding process that led to NARITA.

IITA-led project on breeding better banana surpasses major targets as it moves into its third year

A team of international banana experts have developed 48 hybrids of Matooke, a popular cooking banana in the highlands of Eastern Africa, that are now under field assessment in Uganda to select those with the highest yields and confirm resistance to four major pests and diseases.

Picture of Margaret Mangheni of Makerere University in Uganda and Hale Tufan of Cornell University co-lead the GREAT training course in Uganda. Photo by D. Torrington, Cornell.

Training agricultural researchers to be more gender-responsive

Peter Kulakow, IITA breeder and Elizabeth Parkes, HarvestPlus breeder are part of a 16-person training panel for 11 teams of 33 researchers from four continents participating in a training on “Gender Responsive Root, Tuber, and Banana Breeding,” 12-21 September in Kampala, Uganda.