Lessons from 21 years of breeding Eastern Africa‘s popular cooking bananas
Apr 16, 2019 rtbcomms
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) started a breeding program for the East Africa Highland Bananas (EAHB) in the mid-1990s that has delivered exciting results including the first-ever hybrids, dubbed NARITAs. A team of scientists at IITA, NARO, and SLU reviewed the progress and efficiency of this breeding program in the past 21 years at […]
Safeguarding the future of banana against changing climates, pests and diseases
Apr 11, 2019 rtbcomms
KU Leuven and Bioversity International today sign a landmark agreement to safeguard the future of the world’s favourite fruit. Professor Rony Swennen is a world authority in banana science having researched bananas for more than 40 years. “Bananas are facing major challenges,” he says. “The world population is growing and banana yields need to increase. Banana plantations usually […]
Malawian entrepreneur creates nutritious products and a new market for farmers
Apr 4, 2019 rtbcomms
After six years of helping others add value to their businesses, Malawian food technologist Jean Pankuku was so convinced of the nutritional merits and commercial prospects of orange-fleshed-sweetpotato (OFSP) breads and other baked products that she opened her own business – the Tehilah Bakery and Value Addition Centre. It’s hardly a surprise that the Chicago-based […]
Scaling Triple S through collaborating with Damongo Agricultural College, Ghana
Mar 28, 2019 rtbcomms
In July 2018 Issahaq Suleman, CIP’s Triple S scaling champion in Ghana, paid a visit to Damongo Agricultural College in the West Gonja district of Northern Ghana, with the goal of advocating for practical training on farming improved varieties of orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP). He also wanted to introduce the college to the use of Triple […]
Capturing stories of women through the Most Significant Change Approach
Mar 26, 2019 rtbcomms
Story-telling is a powerful communication tool as it is useful to captivate people’s interest. The Food Resilience through Root and Tuber Crops in Upland and Coastal Communities of the Asia Pacific (FoodSTART+) uses the Most Significant Change (MSC) approach to gauge the impact of the Farmers Business School (FBS) interventions and showcase the outcomes brought […]
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 […]
Calling On Nature To Combat Insect Pests In Vietnam’s Cassava Crop
Jun 7, 2018 RTB
“Good bugs, huh?” –farmers and homeowners alike all too often give a blank stare when questioned about the beneficial insects that occur on their respective farm, backyard or flower patch. Though insects abound within natural and agricultural ecosystems across the globe, and a fair share of them provide vital services to humanity, we as human […]