Abstract: Food security, at national and household levels, is on the decline because traditional capital (physical, natural, human and financial) has not fully led to its improvement. There is an increasing shift of attention to social capital as an element that explains household food security, but there is a lack of adequately documented information on this. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of social capital on food security, using data collected on a cross-section of 775 cassava ...

Declining soil fertility is one of the major problems facing producers of field crops in most dryland areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. In response to the declining soil fertility, extensive participatory research has been undertaken by the World Agroforestry (ICRAF) and smallholder farmers in Dodoma region, Tanzania. The research has, amongst others, led to the development of Gliricidia agroforestry technology. The positive impact of Gliricidia intercropping on crop yields has been established. However, ...

Development of high yielding and stable cultivars of various crops across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states is in line with the recently enacted SADC’s seed harmonisation act. This study, therefore, focused on evaluating soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] lines developed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) for yield and stability across SADC test environments using the additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) analysis. ...

We evaluated, in a laboratory experiment, the susceptibility of 10 tomato cultivars to the attack by the tomato red spider mite Tetranychus evansi, an invasive pest of this crop in Benin. Among the 10 cultivars tested, six were imported (i.e. Roma VF, Tima, Rio Grande, Buffalo, Petomech, and TLCV15) and four local (i.e. Akikon, Tounvi, TomL4, and Kèkèfo). Leaf disks (2.5 cm diameter) excised from leaves of tested cultivars, and placed upper side down on top of water-soaked cotton wool laying in ...

The whiteflies belonging to the species group Bemisia tabaci transmit viruses that are the greatest constraint to the production of cassava, Africa’s most important food security crop. We studied the life history of an endemic African population of B. tabaci SSA-ESA at six constant temperatures (16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36 °C) in controlled environment chambers, and for 10 generations in the field. Oviposition occurred between 20 and 28 °C, with highest fecundity (114.5 ± 88.2) eggs per female at 20 ...

This study aimed to establish the quality characteristics of raw and boiled yam by involving stakeholders along the food chain using a methodology that includes a state of knowledge review, focus group discussion and individual interviews, participatory processing diagnosis with processors and consumer testing. Predictive characteristics of yam for producing a high‐ and low‐quality boiled yam were related to morphological or physicochemical characteristics: peeled yam discoloration and mucilage ...

Background The long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) and indoor residual spraying of insecticide (IRS) are major malaria vector control strategies in Mali. The success of control strategies depends on a better understanding of the status of malaria vectors with respect to the insecticides used. In this study we evaluate the level of resistance of Anopheles gambiae (sensu lato) to bendiocarb and the molecular mechanism that underlies it. Methods Larvae of An. gambiae (s.l.) were collected ...