CBSD Archives - IITA News

State Minister of Agriculture, Honorable Jean Chrisostome Ngabitsinze, giving a speech.

Rwandan farmers name new cassava varieties during the Cassava Week

An association of farmers in Rwanda, the Ingabo Syndicate, in collaboration with the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB) and their partners, held Cassava Week 2020 from 17 to 19 November. The State Minister of Agriculture, Honorable Jean Chrisostome Ngabitsinze, officially kicked off the event at the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources….

Project’s screen house at Rubona station

New disease-resistant cassava varieties introduced in Rwanda

Rwandan farmers have lacked improved cassava varieties resistant to the main cassava diseases, namely Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) and Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD). The diseases have since 2014/15 affected cassava productivity, hence threatening the incomes and food security of many people in the country. “There are two main diseases that attack cassava in Rwanda…

IITA scientist develops a cheaper and faster tool for identifying whiteflies

A CGIAR-IITA scientist has developed a more cost and time effective molecular diagnostic tool that can accurately identify different subgroups of cassava whiteflies, Bemisia tabaci. The tool can be used in local laboratories in Africa that often lack expensive sequencing technologies. This innovation marks a major milestone in efforts to accurately characterize whiteflies, which transmit viruses that…

Strengthening cassava virus diagnostic capacity in DR Congo

A training workshop on “Application Molecular Diagnostics for Cassava Virus Surveillance” took place 2 to 6 March, at IITA-Kalambo, Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This course is part of the USAID-funded project on “Actions to Control Cassava Brown Streak Disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo”. Twenty-three participants attended the workshop including six female…

DRC-CBSD project holds activity planning workshop for 2019–2020

The IITA Actions to control Cassava Brown Streak Disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) project (DRC-CBSD Project), held its fourth workshop and final planning for year 2019–2020 activities. The annual meeting took place in the city of Mbanza-Ngungu in Kongo-Central, DRC, from 17 to 19 September. Representatives of the United States Agency for…

IITA joins call for a global surveillance system to detect and halt the spread of crop disease

A team of researchers has argued in Science that as nations collaborate to detect and stop human pandemics, a global surveillance system for crop diseases is needed to safeguard agricultural trade and food security. How crop diseases affect people Since 2004, millions of farmers growing cassava in the Great Lakes region of East and Central Africa have…

CBSD-DRC project trains extension agents in communication and sensitization about cassava brown streak disease

The IITA project to combat Cassava brown streak disease in DR Congo (CBSD-DRC) organized a training workshop for the National Extension Service [in French: Service National de Vulgarisation (SNV)] on Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD), 28-29 May. The training focused on communication and sensitization about CBSD and the collaboration between SNV and IITA. SNV is…

Dr Saethre interacting with scientists at one of the soybean fields in Malawi, Chitedze Research Station.

DDG-R4D visits IITA’s field research activities in Southern Africa Hub locations

From 23 to 31 March, IITA Deputy Director General-Research for Development (DDG-R4D), May-Guri Saethre, had a successful field visit to Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia in the Southern Africa Hub to appreciate the advancement of new research and technologies. She appealed to scientists to take a more vigorous approach to deal with pests and diseases particularly…

Agriculture extension officers learning how to inspect cassava seeds in the field.

MEDA, IITA, and Tanzania’s seed certification agency train extension workers on cassava seed inspection

The Building an Economically-Sustainable Seed System in Tanzania for Cassava (BEST Cassava) project has trained over 70 Agricultural extension officers on cassava seed inspection and certification to become certified cassava seed inspectors. This is part of the project’s efforts to ensure farmers in Tanzania have access to high quality planting materials of high-yielding, disease-resistant, improved…

Picture of participants at the CBSD Workshop, DR Congo.

IITA hosts workshop on CBSD

The project tagged “Preventive actions against the propagation and expansion of Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) in the Democratic Republic of Congo”, has successfully organized a work plan development workshop on 20—21 April, at Mbanza-Ngungu, 150 km West of Kinshasa.