As the coronavirus can quickly spread amongst the human population, the bacteria that causes Xanthomonas wilt of bananas (aka BXW) can disperse rapidly through a population of susceptible plants. BXW can have a devastating impact since not only will the infected plants succumb to the disease, but all edible cultivars in East Africa have been found to be susceptible. As
Under the AVISA project funded by the Gates Foundation and USAID, supported by CRP-GLDC ICRISAT’s Gender Research Program recently brought together breeders, value chain stakeholders and social scientists from Mali, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Nigeria to define priority traits of cultivars of sorghum, millet and groundnut during a 4-day workshop. Prior to the workshop, studies were carried out with the
What are Golden Eggs? The R4D “products” developed during 10 years of CGIAR’s Research Programs/Platform, including breakthrough tools, technologies, prototypes, practices, policy options, networks and methods that are at a stage of application are considered as the “Golden Eggs”. These are products emanating from decisive multi-partner, multi-level, multi-disciplinary R4D achievements that are ready to be translated into impactful technical, methodological,
This opinion piece published in Frontiers in Plant Science briefly presents the breeder’s equation and highlights the terms that can be manipulated to increase genetic gain per time and per dollar invested. The authors also present some guidelines recommended by the Excellence in Breeding (EiB) Platform to optimize the selection response in a classical breeding scheme to create an
There is a demand for high-oleic groundnut varieties particularly by the food processing industry for its enhanced shelf-life benefits and by consumers for health benefits. To contribute to the CGIAR sub-IDO “Increased availability of diverse nutrient-rich foods”, a collaborative genetics and variety development work was undertaken by ICRISAT, ICAR-Directorate of Groundnut Research, Junagadh Agricultural University in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu Agricultural
Looking ahead, food system researchers and national governments around the world are concerned about achieving Sustainable Development Goal #2 – Zero Hunger – by 2030. Moreover, they are apprehensive about our ability to achieve this goal without increasing agriculture’s impact on the environment. Improved crop breeding and seed delivery are two innovations that herald great promise for solving this challenge. This morning, in a virtual panel… The post Crops to End
Researchers identified a region of the Nile tilapia genome associated with viral resilience, which can be used to support the breeding of disease-resistant fish. Read more
Looking ahead to the next 50 years, potato researchers and farmers have significant concerns about producing enough food under the stressors of climate change. However, a potential solution exists within the potato “family.” Crop wild relatives of potatoes are genetically-related to potatoes that we grow and consume and they contain valuable traits that can be built into consumer varieties to help ensure reliable yields and high-quality potatoes for shoring up food and nutrition… The post Food system sustainability