RTB and Agrilinks team up to showcase root, tuber and banana contribution to food and nutrition security

During May 2021, the importance of root, tuber and banana crops was highlighted by Agrilinks, an online hub where agriculture, food security and development professionals connect, share and learn. Agrilinks is part of the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future initiative, developed by USAID, that addresses the root causes of hunger, poverty and undernutrition, and establishes a lasting foundation for change. The site has 13,000 members and is the go-to source for the latest information that is furthering resilience, food security and poverty reduction. Agrilinks teamed up with the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) to develop and share blogs and organize a webinar.

The RTB month kicked off with a post explaining the importance of RTB crops for a sustainable food future followed by a post about our innovative legacy products we call golden eggs. After that, during the month more and more blogs from the wider RTB community were published showing the range of our crops, scientific achievements and research activities in different regions of the world. The complete listing of all published blogs can be found here. “It was a wonderful opportunity for research groups and partners to highlight RTB work and reach a wider and different audience.  The topics covered all the RTB crops and ranged from climate resilience, ITC solutions for pest and disease management, designing and improving seed systems to impacts on gender.” Michael Saltz, Communications and Outreach Specialist, Agrilinks.

Our month on Agrilinks concluded with a webinar that was attended by almost 200 participants from all over the world. Presenters included Graham Thiele – Director of RTB, James Legg – Scientist, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, and Margaret McEwan – Senior Scientist, International Potato Center’s Regional Office for Africa. “Important changes are underway in the delivery of humanitarian food aid and now is an opportune time for making new connections with local food systems, including the utilization of biofortified crops.” explains presenter Frederick Grant – Public Health Nutrition Epidemiologist, International Potato Center. The presentation and video recording is available in case you missed it.

“It was great working with the Agrilinks team, as they were supportive with all the posts. We managed to get seventeen of them published! The webinar was well organized, and many people told us later how much they enjoyed watching it. We at RTB are appreciative of this opportunity and hope interested parties are still looking up the posts and the webinar from the theme month.” Michael Friedmann, Senior Science Officer, RTB