This study was embarked upon to stack two key but inversely associated sweetpotato traits (dry matter and beta-carotene content) through conventional breeding methods. Thirty-seven elite sweetpotato genotypes were evaluated for both traits, and 15 parents comprising five orange-, five yellow- and five white-fleshed genotypes were selected from the 37 for hybridization. Using bi-parental mating fashion, an F1 progeny population for both traits was developed. Of the 13 families developed, eight ...

Legumes are a critical component of many agricultural systems and a major contributor to global food systems. Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is the most widely grown legume crop in Ethiopia. It is an important source of food, income, and soil fertility management in southwestern (SW) and northeastern (NE) Ethiopia, and used as medicine, fodder, and honeybee forage in the NE. Diversity and use of farmers’ varieties of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) bean were investigated in five administrative ...

To support the roll-out of the Stepwise approach a Smartphone application was developed as a tool for use by impact partner extension workers. IITA partnered with Mango Tree, an educational, communication and design company based in Uganda (https://mangotreeuganda.org/) combining research and technical knowledge with creative expertise to develop an appealing and innovative application. IITA impact partners, Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung and Olam contributed insight on information delivery and field-based ...

Scaling Readiness is an approach that can support organizations, projects, and programs in achieving their ambitions to scale innovations and achieve impact. Scaling Readiness encourages critical reflection on how ready innovations are for scaling, and what appropriate actions could accelerate or enhance scaling.

Roots, tubers, and bananas (RTB) are vital staples for food security in the world's poorest nations. A major constraint to current RTB breeding programmes is limited knowledge on the available diversity due to lack of efficient germplasm characterization and structure. In recent years large‐scale efforts have begun to elucidate the genetic and phenotypic diversity of germplasm collections and populations and, yet, biochemical measurements have often been overlooked despite metabolite composition ...

The fruit physiology of banana cultivars other than Cavendish is poorly understood. To study the ripening process, samples were taken daily from plantain and Cavendish bananas and the ripening stages were determined. We present data from the green to the fully mature stage. By analyzing the protein abundances during ripening we provide some new insights into the ripening process and how plantains fruits are different. Multivariate analysis of the proteins was performed correlated to the starch ...

Sub-Saharan regions are exceptional ecosystems in which crop plants suffer from dual impairment of low soil fertility and gate crasher phytopathogens. Worldwide common practice of intensive agriculture with the use of agrochemical inputs is ground lacking truth for the small holder farmers of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) that are entirely committed on agriculture for their livelihoods. Considering economically and feasibility terms of food security for small holder farmers, an urgent switching on ...

This study uses the social relations framework to explore gender norms and relations surrounding banana production and banana bunchy top disease (BBTD) containment in six pilot communities in Cameroon and Nigeria. The objective of the study is to understand how gender norms and relations shape and influence access to information and benefit-sharing of productive resources among men and women banana farmers and implications for banana production recovery in the BBTD-affected regions and disease ...

This study employed a choice model to examine the factors influencing the choice of post-harvest technologies in cassava starch processing, using a sample of five hundred and seventy (570) processors in the forest and guinea savanna zones of Nigeria. In addition, the profitability of various post-harvest technologies in the study area was assessed using the budgetary technique while the impact of improved post-harvest technology on processors’ revenue and output was analysed using the average ...