The Banana Nematode Baseline Project (BNBP) has already achieved meaningful results in understanding the damage done by these destructive root parasites. These results were presented at the project’s second annual meeting in January 2017 in Morogoro, Tanzania.

The Tanzanian banana

As a first step, Tanzanian banana cultivars have been genotyped, providing new insight into the varieties being grown. It is now clear that the same genotype grown in different areas can be called by different common names, a finding which has important implications for breeding programmes. This is the first time such a genotyping study has been done in Tanzania, and is a valuable starting point for investigations of the nematode problem.

Know your nematodes

The project is also using molecular and morphometric techniques to identify and evaluate species of nematodes in root and soil samples. Early indications are that the most abundant species of concern belong to the genera Radophilus and Pratylenchus – which are known to cause lesions and necrosis within roots. Other nematode species such as Helicotylenchus and Melodoigyne may be less of a threat. Socio-economic data are also currently being evaluated and will be reported later this year.

Using the findings

Although much work remains to be done, the research by Dr Luambano’s team offers a range of benefits to agricultural scientists, nematologists, social scientists and policymakers:

• Knowing which plant varieties are most vulnerable to nematode attack means that more resistant varieties can be developed by crop scientists.
• Knowing which varieties are most vulnerable can also help growers decide what to plant so as to minimise their crop losses.
• Knowing what nematodes are most damaging can help to formulate focused or integrated pest-management strategies – phyto-sanitation, economic support and biological control – to reduce the impact of these organisms.
• Knowing the nematode distribution in the various areas of Tanzania will add to existing information about these organisms and benefit nematologists world-wide.

Project support

This project is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation under the Program for Emerging Agricultural Research Leaders (PEARL) and comprises biologists, trained technical staff and volunteers. It is based at the Sugarcane Research Institute, Kibaha, Tanzania. Here Dr Nessie Luambano has used her award to upgrade her laboratory with state-of-the-art equipment, fund the molecular training of her PhD student at the University of North Carolina, and pay for technical staff and volunteers. Dr Luambano has also formed collaborations with other Tanzanian institutions, such as Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute (MARI), to access resources not available at her laboratory.

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The start of 2017 brings good news to the West African Virus Epidemiology (WAVE) team as four of its students successfully defend their Masters theses. N’guessan Beugre, William Amoakon, Mariam Combala and Tatiana Boka will now further explore the epidemiological study of cassava viral diseases in Côte d’Ivoire as they progress further in their academic careers as PhD candidates.

Speaking to a member of the AgShare.Today team, N’guessan explains the wider implications of cassava viral diseases in the country, “I am interested in cassava because it is very important in Côte d’Ivoire […]. Cassava is important for food security because it is accessible for the whole population as it is not expensive to buy.”

The students are now keen to further explore the impact of viral diseases across all the regions of Côte d’Ivoire. Their work will contribute to the WAVE project’s overarching goal: to identify, characterise and manage the viruses that infect root crops across six West African countries.

The post Four WAVE students successfully defend their MSc theses first appeared on AgShare.Today.

Godfrey Wokorach has been presented with the AgSharer of the Year Award for 2016. Godfrey is a PhD student on the Sweet Potato Virus Detection Tool (SPVDT) project in Uganda.

The AgSharer of the Year Award recognises members who have made significant contributions to the AgShare.Today community and rewards them for their achievements.

Since Godfrey joined the AgShare.Today community, he has been highly engaged with AgShare.Today and has embraced the sharing culture that the project promotes. He has learned new skills in project management, IT and data visualisation and has gone on to willingly share these skills with other team members. He has also generously made a large amount of research available that will enrich the resources available to every member of the community.

In response to receiving the award, Godfrey told the AgShare.Today team, “I am extremely happy for this award. May I take this opportunity to humbly request all the members of AgShare.Today to embrace the culture of sharing ideas using AgShare.Today and Yammer platform. There are interesting things that you will learn and benefit you as individual and your research group.”

As was presented with a macro photography lens as an award his continued engagement. The lens will assist Godfrey in taking high-quality, close-up photos with his project’s tablet or mobile phone in the field or in the lab.

To find out more about Godfrey’s work, click here to read his article on the role of ICT in agriculture in Africa.

The post Godfrey Wokorach is the 2016 AgSharer of the Year! first appeared on AgShare.Today.

The Cassava Diagnostics Project (CDP) annual meeting was held from 10-12th October 2016. Team members from the seven CDP countries and members of partner projects attended the event in Lusaka, Zambia.

The annual meeting proved to be an excellent opportunity for team members and partners to present updates on their work to date. Project team

members from Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia attended the meeting, along with partners travelling from Australia, the UK and the USA.

AgShare.Today works with CDP students to publish their work

The week before the annual meeting, the AgShare.Today team delivered a week-long scientific writing course to CDP Master’s and PhD students, with a focus on journal article writing.

A pre-requisite of attending the course was that participants had written at least one almost-complete journal article. This  meant that the AgShare.Today team delivering the course were able to offer one-to-one support to participants to help them improve their articles. The team has since provided further support remotely to the course participants.

AgShare.Today runs a project management tools workshop

Following the CDP annual meeting, the AgShare.Today team ran a workshop to demonstrate CDP’s new project management tool to country team leaders. Together, they used the tool to define activities and allocate them to the right members of the team. In turn, the nominated team members provided a status update for each of the activities.

The exercise provided good insight into what CDP has achieved so far and the team will continue to use the tool to update their progress on a regular basis.

The post Sharing knowledge at the Cassava Diagnostics Project Annual Meeting 2016 first appeared on AgShare.Today.

On 5^th October 2016, the Cassava Diagnostics Project (CDP) unveiled a new laboratory and greenhouse facility at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. Scientists and researchers will use the new facilities to carry out vital diagnostic research viruses badly affecting cassava crops across Sub-Saharan Africa. The two most prolific of these are Cassava Mosaic Virus and Cassava Brown Steak Virus.

Speaking to a member of the Agshare.Today team at the CDP Annual Meeting, Kenya Team Leader for CDP Professor Elijah Ateka expressed the importance of the new facilities: “We are very privileged to have this facility because we now have a dedicated lab for plant virus diagnostics and we hope we will be able to support other researchers, students and farmers through indexing and production of disease-free planting materials.”

The laboratory was opened on 5^th October 2016 by Dr Moses Rugut, Director General of the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI), Kenya.

The post New diagnostics laboratory unveiled at Jomo Kenyatta University in Kenya first appeared on AgShare.Today.

From the 16^th – 20^th May 2016, the AgShare.Today team delivered a scientific writing course to agricultural research scientists at Kebbi State University in Aliero. 30 members of the Cassava Viruses in Northern Nigeria Project (CVNNP)and the Yam Badnavirus Project (YBP)teams attended the five-day course in order to improve their scientific writing.

Dr. Ibrahim Wawata of Kebbi State University said, “The training was rich and greatly improved my writing skills.”

Both cassava and yam are staple food sources in Africa and are currently affected by the spread of diseases in the northern Nigeria.

The Cassava Viruses in Northern Nigeria Project aims to build human capacity by training farmers and extension workers, as well as scientists. The team is also in the process of setting up virus diagnostic laboratory to carry out surveillance, diagnosis and the characterisation of viruses affecting cassava in northern Nigeria. The Yam Badnavirus Project is working to identify the badnaviruses and insect vectors limiting yam production in northern Nigeria. Through the project, the team aims to help maximise crop production in the long-term.

The AgShare.Today team will be visiting Kebbi State to work with the teams again in May 2017.

The post AgShare.Today team delivers scientific writing course at Kebbi State University first appeared on AgShare.Today.

Every year in January, genetic scientists from over 50 countries gather in San Diego for the Plant and Animal Genome conference. This huge gathering offers the AgShare.Today team the perfect opportunity to meet researchers from our partner projects. Attending the meeting also allows us to discuss current work and update partners on the latest tools for data and knowledge management available through the AgShare platform.

This year, three members of the AgShare.Today team delivered a seminar to 22 donor representatives, research scientists and project team leaders. The seminar showcased a set of tools available free to AgShare members to help them to capture and analyse clean, validated data.

Used together, these tools seek to combine research methodologies and sampling protocols, with mobile apps., well-managed databases and data visualisation technologies. The ultimate aim is to ensure that clean data is both efficiently gathered and fully explored.

“This is important,” said one audience member, “because it helps us to better handle both quantitative and qualitative data” in order to explore both “farmer perceptions and crop performance”.

For more information on the AgShare.Today project and its work, please contact l.ulanowski@agshare.today

The post AgShare.Today gives seminar to top scientists on new options for data management and visualisation (Jan 2017) first appeared on AgShare.Today.