News

Scientists at CGIAR-IITA, working with the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) under the joint Nematology Unit, NemAfrica, housed at icipe’s campus in Nairobi, and their national and international partners, have been at the forefront of efforts to address a new emerging pest threat to the production of potato in the East Africa region, and in many other countries in the world.

Yield improvement of important African food crops will get a boost with the launch of a new project to be implemented by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in collaboration with Bayer.

As part of CGIAR’s Two Degree Initiative (2DI) for Food and Agriculture, CGIAR-IITA hosted a kick-off webinar on the “One-Health platform for climate-driven pests and diseases in West Africa” on 30 June. The One-Health platform is Regional Grand Challenge 1 (RGC1), one of eight grand challenges under the 2DI, which comes from a need to transform the food systems in the world.

CGIAR-IITA head of plant biotechnology Leena Tripathi has made an impassioned plea for genome editing and its potential. She made the call in a recently published paper titled, CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing of banana for disease resistance. Tripathi and her Kenya-based team are using gene editing to develop disease-resistant banana varieties.

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), through a new initiative known as the Start Them Early Program (STEP), is introducing agribusiness training in secondary schools in Oyo State.

On 25 June, IITA launched the second phase of the project Building an Economically Sustainable and Integrated Cassava Seed System (BASICS II). With a duration of 5 years, BASICS II will be led by Project Manager Lateef Oladimeji Sanni, former Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development), Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria.

CGIAR-IITA plant health scientist James Legg was a recent guest on Plantopia, a podcast series to mark the International Year of Plant Health, and interviewed by Cornell University’s David Gadoury.

Prevention, early detection and control make up the three-pronged approach that Africa is taking on to manage the menace of invasive species on the continent. As the climate continues to change, invasive species also continue to increase and spread globally.

On Tuesday, 30 June 2020, CGIAR-IITA will host a webinar on climate-driven pests and diseases in West Africa under the “One-Health platform for climate-driven pests and diseases in West Africa”.