Cocoyam, a generic term for both Xanthosoma and Colocasia, is a traditional staple root crop in many developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Despite its nutritional qualities and its importance to the livelihoods of many smallholder farmers, this crop has received little attention in research. To tap into it potential, RTB has recently […]
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The bacterial disease Banana Xanthomonas wilt (better known as BXW) has caused significant losses in banana production in East and Central Africa over the past decade. It continues to spread, devastating farms planted with the local banana varieties that many Africans depend on as staple food and income source. Single Diseased Stem Removal (SDSR) is a […]
Read More… from Controlling Banana Xanthomonas Wilt with the single diseased stem removal technique
Scientists from international agricultural research centers and African national and regional institutions met in Saint-Pierre, La Réunion from June 10 to 13 to contribute to a war on cassava pests and diseases that threaten the food security and livelihoods of millions of Africans. The meeting resulted in the establishment of a Pan-African Cassava Surveillance Network […]
Read More… from International meeting results in Pan-African cassava disease network
GreenPhylDB is a comparative genomics platform which has been developed since 2006 by Bioversity International with support from CIRAD and Syngenta. The new version 4, which is now available on line, was promoted during the Biocuration Conference held in Canada last April. Comparative genomics is a field of biological research in which the genomic features […]
Read More… from New online tool allows exchange of knowledge on plant gene families
Cassava is the second most important staple in Africa and is regularly consumed by more than 700 million people around the world, in everything from tapioca to starch. Yet in Africa, the vital crop is threatened by diseases that could greatly increase hunger if they continue to spread unchecked. To confront this threat, international experts […]
The Natural Resources Institute (NRI) of the University of Greenwich recently organised and hosted a Review and Planning Workshop for the project “Driving livelihood improvements through demand-oriented interventions for competitive production and processing of Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTBs)“. The workshop was held at the main campus of the University of Greenwich, London, from 28th […]
The CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) started in 2012 as a cross-center and cross-cutting initiative, with the purpose to tap the underutilized potential of root, tuber and banana crops for improving nutrition and food security in the poorest regions of the world. Over the past two years the RTB team has […]
Read More… from Looking Ahead: RTB Extension Request for 2015-2016
The Food Security Journal has just published the Bellagio Conference Roadmap, an action plan developed last year for fighting the most destructive cassava diseases: cassava mosaic disease, which is now found across Africa, and the cassava brown streak disease, which is spreading quickly across central and western Africa, causing significant crop losses. “We went from […]
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Le Food Security Journal vient de publier la feuille de route de la Conférence de Bellagio contre les maladies du manioc, le document-outil élaboré l’année dernière pour lutter contre la maladie de la mosaïque et celle de la striure brune, la première étant présente dans toute l’Afrique et la seconde se propageant rapidement notamment vers […]
Read More… from Publication du plan d’action pour combattre les maladies du manioc
RTB can now count on its Program Advisory Committee (PAC) to help optimize the impact of its research for development. The PAC will guide RTB’s overall program development and partnering strategies. It is made up of six independent scientists and development experts who are appointed by the RTB Steering Committee with RTB Director Graham Thiele […]
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Sara Thomas-Sharma, a post-doctoral researcher at Kansas State University, was hired in 2013 to work on an RTB project to model seed degeneration – the build-up of pathogens in planting material. She received an NSF-BREAD Idea Challenge Award, which allowed her to travel to India and Tanzania and address some of the knowledge gaps on […]
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Fifteen researchers from four RTB centers (Bioversity, CIAT, CIP and IITA) have gathered in Entebbe, Uganda this week to share lessons learned from value chain interventions and to develop tools to make them more gender equitable and effective. According to Sarah Mayanja, a Research Associate with CIP and one of the organizers of the RTB […]
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