World Food Prize Selects Gender-Focused Plant Breeder as the Recipient of the 2019 Norman Borlaug Award For Field Research and Application
Aug 15, 2019 rtbcomms
On behalf of the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas and the Gender and Breeding Initiative, we would like to congratulate Hale Ann Tufan for being the 2019 recipient of the Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application. Collaboration with Hale first began with the NextGen Cassava project and evolved to work […]
Guiding farmers to safer use of pesticides in Rwanda and Burundi
Aug 8, 2019 rtbcomms
It’s hard to overstate the importance of root, tuber, and banana (RTB crops) for smallholder farmers in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa. Thousands of farming households here depend on orange-fleshed sweetpotato, yellow cassava, east African cooking banana and table potato for their daily meals. These families also rely on the cash generated from […]
On farm: exploring the genetic diversity of RTB hotspots
Jul 24, 2019 rtbcomms
This June, scientists from all over the world convened in the south of France for a unique conference. Held every ten years or so since 1997, the Harlan Symposium showcases research on the origins of agriculture, crop domestication & evolution, and the diversity and utilization of genetic resources. Named after Jack Harlan, professor of plant […]
Climate change and rising population put pressure on essential crops in low-income regions
Jul 22, 2019 rtbcomms
Crops such as bananas, potatoes, and cassava are essential to food security in the world’s poorest regions. By 2050, their importance will increase, but climate change and population growth will put unprecedented pressure on production Climate change and population growth are increasing concerns for global food security. Modeling future agricultural trends that account for these […]
How RTB researchers try to develop the potential of RTB seed systems
Jul 18, 2019 rtbcomms
Roots, tubers and bananas share one characteristic that unites them in the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tuber and Bananas (RTB): farmers multiply them vegetatively, rather than as true seeds produced by sexual reproduction. Of course, they are also extremely important for the food security, nutrition and livelihoods of the most resource-poor farmers on Earth. […]
Africa and Asia will propel the world’s population towards 10 billion – but are their food systems ready?
Aug 7, 2019 rtbcomms
Improving access to other key inputs like water and fertilizer, as well as wider technical services such as agricultural machinery, would help to boost resources, but change needs to happen fast Talk of the global population reaching 10 billion by 2050 has been around for some time. Yet, this statistic actually hides the real source of this […]
FoodSTART+ featured in the latest iMPACT magazine issue
Apr 22, 2019 rtbcomms
FoodSTART+ Principal Investigator, Diego Naziri, and CIAT Market Access Specialist, Brice Even shared how the partnership between grant projects and investment projects can facilitate taking innovations to scale. From the experience of FoodSTART+, the success of the project highly depends on the outcome of the partnership with investment projects — who are the primary drivers […]
University of Florida Researchers Develop Model to Help Keep Crop Seeds Healthy
Apr 11, 2019 rtbcomms
Working with international researchers, University of Florida scientists have developed a model that will help protect good seeds, which are necessary to plant healthy crops and determine what areas are at higher risk for unhealthy seeds. In many parts of the world, people lack adequate access to nutritious food because there aren’t enough quality seeds […]