The national release of high oleic groundnut varieties Girnar 4 (ICGV 15083) and Girnar 5 (ICGV 15090) in India in 2020 generated interest among public and private seed producing agencies, leading to its quick uptake. To ensure production of seed with the highest genetic purity, especially for confectionery industries, actors across the commodity value chain were oriented on procedures and
High-yielding sorghum with grain yield between 1.8 to 2 t/ha and dry fodder yield of 7 to 12t/ha and biofortified pearl millet with yield potential of up to 1.2 to 1.5 t/ha captured the attention of farmers and seed producers from six villages at a farmers’ field day held at Wakoro village in Dioïla region of Mali. These early-maturing varieties
Improved varieties are helping increase groundnut production, farm incomes, improving lives and empowering women in Mali’s major groundnut producing hubs of Kayes and Sikasso, where lack of access to such varieties had contributed to low yields of less than 1 ton/ha, well below the global average of 1.6 ton/ha. Over the last three years, ICRISAT has been coordinating the Upscaling
BY BJORN VAN CAMPENHOUT,ELS LECOUTERE AND DAVID SPIELMAN During the past several years, we have been working intently on a field experiment with smallholder farmers in Uganda randomly assigned to get access to information in the form of short engaging videos. Because women and men are both involved in farming in the typical Ugandan farm household, we took a particular interest in the gender
Soybean diseases such as soybean rust, red leaf blotch (RLB), and frogeye leaf spot (FELS) are major threats to the crop’s yield and production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). IITA is working with Soybean Innovation Lab (SIL) to identify the most resistant or tolerant soybean varieties to major diseases threatening production. In the 2020–2021 season, the Institute set up monitoring plots, called
A transformative approach under IRRI’s Product Development and Varietal Replacement Strategy Swati Nayak * Mosharaf Hossain ** Kuntal Das *** Innovation Credit: AGGRi (Accelerated Genetic Gain in Rice) and One Rice Breeding A country like India has a strong history of rice breeding programs that led to the development of thousands of varieties targeting different rice ecosystems released by the
The African Cassava Agronomy Initiative (ACAI) visited Ghana to integrate AKILIMO in the country. Through the Ghana Cassava Centre of Excellence (GCCE), ACAI linked up with existing private, non-profit, and government institutions and international NGOs that can integrate AKILIMO into their operations. Discussions have been progressing since 2020 via virtual meetings; physical meetings could not be held because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
To assist smallholder, mixed-crop and livestock farmers in processing crop residues, USAID, through its Feed the Future Nigeria Integrated Agriculture Activity (IAA) being implemented by IITA and partner, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), is training these farmers to use the Crop Residue Utilization Machine or Stover Crusher. In November 2021 alone, 1,470 farmers and herders (including 544 females)