Report on the first virtual seminar for the course on the RTB Toolbox for Working with Root, Tuber and Banana Seed Systems. July 26, 28-29, 2021
This seminar launched the course on the RTB Toolbox for Working with Root, Tuber and
Banana Seed Systems, covering 12 tools for studying and documenting these systems
(https://tools4seedsystems.org/). The online seminar was held for two hours a day (26, 28
and 29 July 2021) and was attended by between 85 and 134 participants from 26 to 39
countries. The Toolbox originally included a set of 11 tools and a glossary, but in this seminar
an additional tool was also discussed (the Cassava Seed Unit Toolkit). The RTB crops are
important for food security, and they have unique, vegetative seed, which is challenging to
breed, trade, transport and store.
Each of the tools is presented briefly, with a link to the PowerPoint and to the video of the
recorded presentation. This report emphasizes the question-and-answer session that
followed each presentation. This seminar is the first of three phases in a practical course on
the Toolbox. Phase 2 is fieldwork using selected tools, and Phase 3 will be a seminar to present
the results of those studies.