This week, University of Ghana plant geneticist Eric Yirenkyi Danquah won the 2018 World Agriculture Prize in Nanjing, China, to recognize his founding and leadership of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI). WAACI serves as an educational center for Ghana-based plant breeders and seed scientists, working in partnership …
In mid-October, the African Development Bank (AfDB) convened a gathering of agricultural experts and stakeholders in Nairobi, Kenya, to address the spread of the Fall armyworm in East Africa. In addition to representatives from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, the Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda, the Food and Agriculture …
The 16th of October marked this year’s World Food Day, the 73rd anniversary of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s founding, and its annual celebration focusing global attention on the issue of food security, calling on all nations to take action to end hunger. Its theme in 2018: “Our actions are our …
As B4FA went to press this week, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report issuing a stark warning: that the world’s governments have only 12 years to implement changes to energy, food and transport systems that will prevent more than a 1.5 ºC rise in global …
This week, for the first time, scientists from Brazil, the US and Germany used CRISPR-Cas9 to create a new crop from a wild plant within a single generation. Using a relative of the wild tomato from South America as the parent plant species, the researchers modified it so that the following plants …
The Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease (MLND) Screening Facility in Naivasha, Kenya, recently released 15 disease-resistant hybrid maize varieties to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Researchers found and – through molecular marker assisted breeding – transferred resistant genes into 30 maize varieties adapted for Africa, a process that took three years, in …
A recently released report titled State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has provided a current snapshot of the state of global food security. For the third year in a row, the report states, there has been …
Last weekend, the 2018 African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) concluded in Kigali, Rwanda. Besides the launch of a new consortium to fight the invasive Fall armyworm threatening African maize, sorghum and other crops, the three-day conference featured the announcement of a farmer-led irrigation initiative, the Irrigation for Smallholder Farming Enterprises, …
Scientists have made a genetic breakthrough in the fight against the globally devastating wheat stripe rust disease, isolating three rust resistance genes: Yr7, Yr5 and YrSP. The work of these researchers – a collaboration between the University of Sydney, CSIRO, the John Innes Centre, Limagrain UK and the National Institute …
At a two-day regional forum in Nairobi earlier this month, the East African Secretariat launched a set of policy briefs outlining recommendations to control aflatoxin contamination along East Africa’s food and feed value chains. The briefs contain key findings and recommendations of 11 multisectoral technical papers developed under the EAC Aflatoxin Prevention …
Sign up for our Week in Review
Get news alerts from our RSS Feed
Follow us on Twitter