Background: Iron and zinc deficiency are common public health problems in low-income countries largely due to poor consumption of iron and zinc rich foods. It has previously been observed that 57% of school aged children (SAC) in Tanzania suffer from anemia. In addition, estimates indicate that over 25% of the population have inadequate zinc intake. Pearlmillet is an example of a nutrient dense, resilient cereal crop, that can be promoted to diversify diets and combat iron and zinc deficiency. ...

Legumes form part of an ecological-based solution to intensification in areas with limited access to external inputs. Despite a number of decades of intervention, uptake of legumes has been slow within smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa. We explore the drivers behind the adoption of legumes by developing an indicator of household legume cultivation (HLC) from a bespoke survey of small-scale farm households in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A beta regression framework ...

Aphids cause considerable damage to numerous crops all over the world and insecticides are the main means of controlling them, despite their detrimental impacts on human and environmental health. This study assessed the effectiveness of the parasitoid Aphidius colemani Viereck (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a mixture of predatory ladybird beetles, Hippodamia variegata Goeze, Chilocorus calvus Chiccl, and Cheilomenes propinqua Mulsant (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), and an entomopathogenic strain of ...

The backslopped cassava mash (BCM) produced by pre-fermenting grated cassava for 96 h was mixed with fresh cassava mash from the same variety using different blend ratios and processed to backslopped fermented gari (BFG). Another batch of the same variety was fermented for 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, and 96 h to get spontaneous fermented gari (SFG). Standard methods were used to analyze the chemical composition and sensory properties of the samples. Results showed that the moisture, fat, and CNP contents, ...

Maize is consumed in different traditional diets as a source of macro- and micro-nutrients across Africa. Significant investment has thus been made to develop maize with high provitamin A content to complement other interventions for alleviating vitamin A deficiencies. The current breeding focus on increasing β-carotene levels to develop biofortified maize may affect the synthesis of other beneficial carotenoids. The changes in carotenoid profiles, which are commonly affected by environmental ...

The oriental fruit fly Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae) is a major pest of fruit and vegetable production systems on several continents. The pest has invaded many countries, causing considerable impact on fruit production systems and commercialization. In this study we determined the relationship between temperature and development, survival and reproductive parameters of B. dorsalis on an artificial diet under laboratory conditions under 7 constant temperatures (10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 33 ...

L’article interroge en quoi le concept de Système Sectoriel d’Innovation (SSI) permet de comprendre et d’organiser des choix de politiques publiques sur la filière cacao au Cameroun. Cette production centrale dans l’économie agricole du pays, a fait l’objet depuis 2002 de multiple « plans de relance » visant à accroitre significativement les rendements et la production de cacao grâce au transfert des connaissances scientifiques et techniques. A partir d’entretiens ouverts et de collecte de données ...

In this contribution, we have analysed the “dynamics and diversity of innovation support services, especially networking, facilitation and brokerage service situations as key for influencing successful outcome of innovation processes”?. Results indicate that service activities linked with “enhancing access to resources” and “offering capacity building, stand out as dominant across all three phases of innovation processes for the four innovation cases studied. This implies, support actors and ...