IITA news- meeting of expert on root starts today in dares salaam, tanzania

Meeting of experts on root crops starts today in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Dar es Salaam, 6 March 2017. Over 300 researchers, development partners, private sector practitioners, and farmers from all over the world start their week-long meeting, 6 – 10 March, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to discuss advances and new developments on root crops research and collaboration in Africa. This is at at the 13th Symposium of the International Society for Root and Tuber Crops – Africa Branch (ISTRC-AB).

The meeting will be opened by Her Excellency Samia Suluhu Hassan, Vice-President of the United Republic of Tanzaniawith the Hon. Dr. Charles John Tizeba (MP), the Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries. The theme of the meeting is “Expanding collaboration and catalyzing innovation of root crops for accelerating Africa’s economic growth.”

Root crops such as cassava, sweet potato, potato, and yams are very important in Tanzania and elsewhere in Africa – more than 240 million tons of root crops are produced annually on nearly 23 million hectares of land. The combined value of yam, cassava, potato, and sweet potato exceeds all other African staples, including cereal crops (on average 169 million tons of cereals are produced from 108 million ha of land).

The crops are not only cultivated for food but increasingly they are also becoming industrial crops through processing into high-value products. This in turn has seen a steady increase in the crop’s production across the continent. However, this has stemmed from expansion of land cultivated to the crop rather than an increase in yields, which are the lowest in the world.

‘Tanzania is indeed honored to be hosting this meeting that brings together experts from all over the world to discuss research and development on root and tuber crops. Many challenges faced by these crops include lack of access to and adoption of improved varieties, poor farming practices including low usage of inputs such as fertilizers among others, lack of organized markets and poor mechanization,” said Dr Hussein Mansoor, the Director for Research and Development in the Ministry of Agriculture, ahead of the meeting.

He said he therefore hoped the presentations and deliberations during the meeting would help the country and indeed the continent find practical and sustainable solutions to the challenges facing the smallholder producers of these important crops.

“This meeting brings together the world’s leading researchers on root and tuber crops to Tanzania. Notable researchers include the 2016 World Food Prize laureates from the International Potato Center, Drs Maria Andrade, Jan Low, and Robert Mwanga who will be sharing with us their research on orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP). OSFP are rich in beta-carotene (vitamin A) and therefore have great potential to improve health across Africa,” “said Prof Lateef Sanni, president of the ISTRC-AB and from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria.

“Together with yellow-fleshed cassava, these crops show how research can be used to find sustainable solutions to food and nutrition security across the continent,” he said.

Root and tuber crops are versatile staples that can enable Africa to meet its food and nutrition security as they produce more food per unit area of land than most crops. However, they also suffer from high postharvest losses – they spoil very easily and storage is a challenge.

“Addressing postharvest losses and markets cannot be overemphasized in the efforts to boost production of root and tuber crops in Africa. If not well addressed, then all the work done to increase production through development and adoption of improved varieties, and good agronomic practices will not realize the anticipated benefits. This is one of the areas the meeting will focus on including attracting investors,” said Dr Victor Manyong, IITA Director for Eastern Africa.

Other areas that the participants will deliberate on are efforts to control the major pests and diseases of roots and tubers such as cassava brown streak disease and cassava mosaic disease; and sweet potato virus disease and root rot, which significantly reduced the crop’s production nearly wiping it out from the country. These include breeding resistant varieties and establishing clean seed systems to reduce the spread of diseases as farmers share infected planting materials.

The organization of the meeting was led by Tanzania’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries. Other partners included IITA, CIP, Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) and Cassava Adding Value for Africa (CAVA) project that is led by the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre (TFNC). Tanzania was selected as the venue of its 13th Symposium at ISTRC-AB’s last meeting in Ghana in October 2013.

Agriculture around the world

(Brussels / Trondheim: 2nd June) Input-intensive crop monocultures and industrial-scale feedlots must be consigned to the past in order to put global food systems onto sustainable footing, according to the world’s foremost experts on food security, agro-ecosystems and nutrition.

The solution is to diversify agriculture and reorient it around ecological practices, whether the starting point is highly-industrialized agriculture or subsistence farming in the world’s poorest countries, the experts argued.

The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), led by Olivier De Schutter, former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, released its findings today in a reportentitled ‘From Uniformity to Diversity: A paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversified agroecological systems’.

De Schutter said: “Many of the problems in food systems are linked specifically to the uniformity at the heart of industrial agriculture, and its reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Simply tweaking industrial agriculture will not provide long-term solutions to the multiple problems it generates.”

He added: “It is not a lack of evidence holding back the agroecological alternative. It is the mismatch between its huge potential to improve outcomes across food systems, and its much smaller potential to generate profits for agribusiness firms.”

The report was presented today at the 8th Trondheim Biodiversity Conference (Norway) by lead author Emile Frison, former Director General of Bioversity International.

The report reviews the latest evidence on the outcomes of the different production models, and identifies eight key reasons why industrial agriculture is locked in place despite its negative outcomes. It also maps out a series of steps to break these cycles and shift the centre of gravity in food systems.

Frison explained that some of the key obstacles to change are about who has the power to set the agenda. “The way we define food security and the way we measure success in food systems tend to reflect what industrial agriculture is designed to deliver - not what really matters in terms of building sustainable food systems,” Frison stated.

Based on a review of the latest evidence, the expert panel identified industrial agriculture as a key contributor to the most urgent problems in food systems:

Food systems contribute around 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions;

Around 20% of land on earth is now degraded;

More than 50% of human plant-derived foods now depend on three crops (rice, maize and wheat); 20% of livestock breeds are at risk of extinction;

The extinction of wild species and the application of insecticides threaten the 35% of global crops dependent on pollination;

Around 2 billion people suffer from micronutrient deficiencies; current food systems produce an abundance of energy-rich, nutrient-poor crops.

The experts concluded that a fundamental shift towards diversified agroecological farming* can deliver simultaneous benefits for productivity, the environment and society.

A growing body of evidence shows that diversified agroecological systems deliver strong and stable yields by building healthy ecosystems where different plants and species interact in ways that improve soil fertility and water retention. They perform particularly well under environmental stress and deliver production increases in the places where additional food is most needed.

Diversified agroecological systems have also shown major potential to keep carbon in the ground, increase resource efficiency and restore degraded land, turning agriculture into one of the key solutions to climate change.

Diversifed agriculture also holds the key to increasing dietary diversity at the local level, as well as reducing the multiple health risks from industrial agriculture (e.g. pesticide exposure, antibiotic resistance).

Some of the key findings:

Average organic yields equivalent to conventional agriculture, and 30% higher in drought years (30-year study);

Total outputs in diversified grassland systems 15%-79% higher than in monocultures;

2-4x higher resource efficiency on small-scale agroecological farms;

30% more species and 50% higher abundance of biodiversity on organic farms;

Around 50% more beneficial omega-3 fatty acids in organic meat and milk.

The experts identified major promise in the burgeoning initiatives now forming around alternative food and farming systems, from new forms of political cooperation to the development of new market relationships that bypass conventional retail circuits.

“The challenge is to join up these initiatives,” Frison urged. “Farmers can only be expected to transform their practices when they are certain that they will find markets. And consumers will only shift towards healthy, sustainable food when it is accessible and affordable to them. These changes must lock each other in, just as current dynamics conspire to lock them out.”

De Schutter added: “We must change the way we set political priorities. The steps towards diversified agroecological farming are steps to democratize decision-making and to rebalance power in food systems.”

Most industrious woman farmer in lagos

https://youtu.be/9snesKG00tE

Barely

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Barley, a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 13,000 years ago. Wikipedia

Nutrition Facts

Barley, hulledBarley, pearledBarley, pearled, cookedBarley, hulled

Amount Per 100 grams1 cup (184 g)100 grams

Calories 354

Black seed

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Nigella sativa, often called black cumin, is an annual flowering plant in the family Ranunculaceae, native to south and southwest Asia. Nigella sativa grows to 20–30 cm tall, with finely divided, linear leaves. Wikipedia

Nutrition Facts

FennelFennel

Amount Per 1 tsp, whole (2 g)1 tbsp, whole (5.8 g)100 grams100 grams

Calories 345

Horticulture around the world

The International Symposium on "Horticulture in Developing Countries and World Food Production" was held in Brisbane, Australia in 2014 as part of the International Horticultural Congress (IHC2014).

The three-day symposium will include three invited speakers, sessions of oral presentations and a poster session. There will be a linked workshop focusing on the experiences of PARDI - ACIAR's Pacific Agribusiness Research-for-Development Initiative.

The sponsor of this symposium (ACIAR), supports research in support of agricultural development in numerous countries across Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Partners in these projects are actively encouraged to participate in the symposium and report on their findings, and there will be a particular focus on ACIAR-funded projects with several sessions targeting this area. Participants from ACIAR-funded programs are especially invited to submit abstracts.

Horticulture has traditionally provided food security and a way of life for millions of smallholders in developing countries. Resource-poor communities are increasingly using their skills in horticulture as a means to increase cash incomes and more broadly to improve their livelihoods by supplying fruits and vegetables, fresh or processed, to high-value local, urban and international markets. The international research-and-development community has also identified supporting this process as a promising entry point for efforts to improve the livelihoods of resource-poor people.

The world’s population is projected to increase by 1 billion people by 2025 to reach 8 billion. In addition to the challenge of feeding a growing population, poor lifestyles and diets now sees the number of overweight adults (>1.4 billion) exceeding the number suffering from hunger (<1 billion), with the total number experiencing some form of malnutrition estimated to be over 3 billion. While the historical approach to alleviate hunger has been to foster increased production and supply of a small number of staple crop species to regions in need, the rise in non-communicable diseases and malnutrition in these regions, and in the developed regions of the world, has seen a growing recognition of the importance of including a diverse range of nutritious horticultural produce as a component of a healthy diet.

The rising demand for horticultural produce creates opportunities for income generating activities for small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs in rural and peri-urban and urban settings. Horticultural production not only improves food and nutrition security, but also provides livelihoods to producers and all parties involved in the associated value chains, contributing towards economic growth and development.

Scientists working with developing countries, or on projects related to the broader topic of world food production are invited to submit abstracts for either oral or posters sessions, and lets together make this an essential symposium for workers in this vital area of horticulture.

In this symposium, we invite participants to share their research/experience in oral or poster presentations on the following themes:

Enhancing food security in developing countries ACIAR-funded projects in the Asia-pacific regions and AfricaFruit and vegetable production, marketing and postharvest management
Value chains in developing countriesAdaptations to climate change in developing counties
Global trends in horticultural production and food security
Research for development case studies
Emergency relief and horticultural production
Enabling environment for improving livelihoods (including policy, access to resources and overcoming social and cultural barriers)