Innovation platforms are fast becoming part of the mantra of agricultural research and development projects and programs. Their basic tenet is that stakeholders depend on one another to achieve agricultural development outcomes, and hence need a space where they can learn, negotiate, and coordinate to overcome challenges and capitalize on opportunities through a facilitated innovation process. However, research and development funding and implementation agencies need to think critically about when, ...

Plant pathogens are one of the dominating components which restrain crop productivity. Preliminary step headed for managing plant disease is to accurately recognize the pathogen under lab, glasshouse, and field conditions. Modern approach, such as culture-based, antibody-based rapid methods and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR), entrusts on multiple assays to precisely identify the specific plant pathogens which are further time-consuming and lack high sensitivity. Nanobiotechnology ...

Inadequate availability of disease-free planting materials remains a major constraint to yam production. The tissue culture technique has been used to regenerate disease-free plantlets from pre-formed, heattreated meristems followed by micropropagation. This procedure, however, has a low multiplication ratio with an average of 1: 4 every eight weeks. Embryo production from somatic cells (somatic embryogenesis, SE) is a system in which each somatic cell can regenerate a complete plantlet. ...

Data from the derived savanna zone in southern Benin indicated that some intensive cropping systems (maize/Cajanus and maize/Mucuna relays; maize/cotton with Senna siamea hedgerows) returned about 12 Mg DM ha-1 year-1 of plant biomass to the soil. This compared favorably with the 8 Mg DM ha-1 year-1 reported for current maize/cotton and maize/cowpea systems. Based on calculations with the Rothamsted carbon model, this extra biomass translates into an increase in the topsoil carbon content of 0.33% ...

A developed Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS) calibration equation was used for determining provitamin A carotenoids contents of different trials of fresh yellow root cassava genotypes using a total of 50 cassava genotypes scanned twice by NIRS from 400 nm to 2498 nm. The NIRS calibration equations were used to predict the β-cryptoxanthin, 13-cis β-carotene, trans β-carotene, 9-cis β -carotene, total β-carotene and total carotenoid concentrations of the samples. The predicted values ...

L'integration d'es Jigneuses et de cul-tures annuelles dans del systemes d'agriculture en couloirs peut promouvoir la durability de systemes de production comportant peu d'intrants sous les tropiques humides et semi-humides. L'agroforesterie est un sys, teme de protection qui presente des avantages socio-economiques fl court et long termes. Les systemes agro-foTestiers peuvent etre classes en fonction de leuT com-posante principale, de leur disposition structurelle, de leur attributs fonctionnels ...