banana Archives - Page 3 of 5

Survey identifies Black Sigatoka banana disease hotspots in Uganda and Tanzania

Survey also finds disease is well established and more widespread than previously thought Both Luwero District in Uganda and Mbarara District, Kagera Region in Tanzania have been identified as the areas most affected by the deadly banana disease, black Sigatoka which is caused by a fungus. The disease, which was found to be more severe…

IITA working on Africa’s first genome edited banana

The new frontier for agricultural innovation is genome editing and IITA is already leading the way by using the technology to improve several crops. Principal Scientist and Deputy Director of IITA East Africa Hub, Dr Leena Tripathi revealed this during the Third Africa Biennial Biosciences Communication Symposium (ABBC), which took place in Pretoria South Africa,…

Another PhD for the Breeding Better Banana project as Michael Batte successfully defends his thesis

Michael Batte successfully defended his PhD thesis titled Increasing efficiency of the breeding pipeline for East African highland bananas on 4 June at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) Alnarp campus. His studies were sponsored by the Breeding Better Banana project that is led by IITA as part of its capacity building program. This…

IITA scientists and partners screen up to 189 types of banana for provitamin A

R4D Special Scientists have finalized the mammoth task of screening up to 189 banana genotypes to identify those with high levels of provitamin A for integration into IITA’s banana improvement program as part of ongoing efforts to develop banana hybrids with enhanced vitamin A. The fat-soluble vitamin A is essential for vision, reproduction, growth, and…

Brigitte Uwimana, IITA Scientist planting a sucker.

Interview with Brigitte Uwimana, Banana Molecular Breeder

Brigitte Uwimana is IITA Banana Molecular Breeder from Rwandan based in Uganda. In this interview, she shares some of her experiences working as a researcher. Q: As an upcoming young female scientist at IITA, did you always want to do science? A: Science has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. I always…

Dr Leena Tripathi, IITA Principal Scientist observing her crop yield.

One on one with Dr Leena Tripathi, IITA’s Biotech superstar!

Dr Leena Tripathi is Principal Scientist and Deputy Director for IITA Eastern Africa Hub based in Nairobi, Kenya. She is also head of IITA’s Plant Transformation Research and, in this interview, reveals what makes her tick and her inspiration for being a scientist. Q: Tell us about how you were as a kid. A: (Laughing) I…