IITA News no. 2556 Archives

Teamwork delivers results in addressing cassava virus diseases!

“If you want to go quickly, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.” The meaning of this African proverb is well manifested by the Virus Vector Ecology Group (VVEG) team at IITA’s Eastern Africa Hub as James Legg, IITA Plant Health Scientist and team lead, shared on its progress and successes towards…

Scaling readiness: An approach to enhance R4D impact

Research to improve society can go to waste if these interventions are not made available to the beneficiaries. Murat Sartas, Marc Schut, Claudio Prioietti, Graham Thiele, and Cees Leeuwi—in a published journal paper titled Scaling readiness: Science and practice of an approach to enhance impact of research for development—charged researchers who aim to implement R4D…

Genome editing is the future of plant breeding

“Genome editing is the future of plant breeding in terms of being more efficient and getting more genetic gains,” said Kingstone Mashingaidze, one of the speakers at the recently held CGIAR webinar on genome editing. CGIAR centers using genome editing recently started a webinar series that will investigate the practice, benefits, social acceptance, and regulation…

IITA and partners rename improved cassava varieties for the international market

The Federal Government of Nigeria recently approved new names for 10 improved cassava varieties as part of efforts to brand the root crop for easy identification, cultivation, and marketing of cassava stems. The renamed varieties comprise six released varieties and four yet-to be-released varieties. The released varieties and their new names are IBA961632 (Farmer’s Pride),…