Unlike Southeast Asia and the Amazon regions, where large-scale agricultural operations play an important role, most of the deforestation in the Congo basin is attributed to smallholder agriculturalists using extensive slash-and-burn techniques. Improved rural livelihoods are the key to poverty reduction and sustainability of landscape mosaics at the forest-agriculture interface of the Congo basin region. The issue has become more complex with globalisation and the situation therefore calls for ...

The association among different traits and their direct and indirect influence on yield using path analysis were conducted with 30 broad-based and diverse cassava genotypes evaluated at four agroecological zones in Nigeria. Traits evaluated include reactions of the genotypes to prevalent pest and diseases, and shoot and root characteristics. The result showed that cassava mosaic disease (CMD) incidence and severity were significantly but negatively correlated (P<0.01) with root yield, with correlation ...

Some 96 accessions of cassava (Manihot esculenta) were evaluted for genetic diversity using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers. Ten out of 80 Primers were considered highly informative and were used to fingerprint all of the accessions. Amplification of genomic DNA with the primers revealed a total of 63 different banding positions ranging from 0.3 to 2.0 kb. The number of bands per primer ranged from five to nine. The RAPD patterns were highly reproducible. While no variation was ...

The shaded cocoa cropping system found throughout West Africa but particularly well represented in Cameroon and Nigeria is a sustainable agricultural land use system that provides relatively high values of environmental services. The paper describes and quantifies some of its non-cocoa economic and environmental values and examines the economic logic underlying smallholder management. Estimates of these values are developed from field surveys and on-farm research conducted with cocoa producers in ...

Sorghum Improvement Conference of North America, Lubbock, USA, International Sorghum and Millets Newsletter 45:66-69. This paper covers the results of studies on the genetic diversity of Magnaporthe grisea causing blast disease in finger millet (Eleusine coracana) in East Africa; pathogen aggressiveness and epidemiology; disease and socioeconomic surveys in Kenya; and finger millet varietal screening for blast resistance.

Host-plant resistance (HPR) to insect pests is considered one of the key tactics for insect control, particularly in developing countries where utilization of other control methods such as pesticides is often difficult or unwise. The search for more sustainable methods of pest control, make host-plant resistance more attractive every day. Additionally, the opportunity for utilizing new insect resistance genes and the ability to move these across plant species, through plant biotechnology, open new ...

Meristem-tip culture is being used to eliminate viruses from plants. The fact that some viruses are easier to eliminate than others has been utilized in thermotherapy and chemotherapy, along with meristem-tip culture, to increase the efficacy of disease elimination. Tissue culture materials are considered the most suitable form for international exchange of vegetative plant materials and the method is well accepted by national quarantine authorities. Clonal germplasm of cassava and sweet potato ...