Over two weeks in Cote d’Ivoire in February 2019, our team delivered more than 80 sessions to support researchers from the West African Virus Epidemiology (WAVE) programme with data analysis, statistics, research proposal and manuscripts. We also gave bilingual training to researchers from all seven country teams on scientific writing, programme management, and communications and advocacy.

During last month’s Ugandan pop-up office, our team spent one week giving project researchers focused, project-specific support. Together, the groups made significant progress on several research projects, from getting datasets cleaned and analysed to preparing manuscripts for publication. Thanks to all those who joined, from the African Cassava Whitefly Project, Common Bean Root Rot Resistance, Sweet Potato Virus Reversion Project, mCROPS, and WAVE.

For more information about the individualised support AgShare provides researchers on their projects please contact: e.moulding@agshare.today

The post A trio of successful pop-up offices provide direct support to researchers across Africa first appeared on AgShare.Today.

Cassava Post-Harvest Physiological Deterioration Project

The Cassava Post-Harvest Physiological Deterioration (CPPD) Project is examining carotenoid levels and post-harvest physiological deterioration (PPD) tolerance in cassava roots in Nigeria.

Find out more here >>>

mCROPS

mCROPS has been working to develop new tools to improve the diagnosis of viral cassava diseases in Uganda.

Find out more here >>>

Yam Nematodes Benin Project

The Yam Nematodes Benin (YANEB) Project is working to strengthen yam production in Benin by identifying and using local and improved nematode-resistant varieties of yam.

Find out more here >>>

To find out how your project can join AgShare contact m.millan@agshare.today

The post AgShare.Today welcomes three new projects to the platform first appeared on AgShare.Today.

AgShare’s scientific writing expert has already begun one-to-one sessions with AgShare members from projects based in Tanzania, such as the Banana Nematodes Baselines Project, Cassava Diagnostics Project and the African Cassava Whitefly Project. These training sessions will provide essential manuscript writing and editing support to help AgShare members to get their work published in journals and maximise the great potential of their work.

AgShare’s expert statistician will also be working from the pop-up office in Dar Es Salaam, offering AgShare members support in statistical analyses and training in the use of statistical software. This specialist in-person training is available exclusively at the AgShare pop-up offices to help members discover underlying patterns and trends in their data.

To find out how you can take advantage of the great services on offer at the AgShare pop-up office contact: e.moulding@agshare.today

The post ‘Pop-up’ office offers in-person support to AgShare.Today members in Tanzania first appeared on AgShare.Today.

Ideas that result in increased coverage of geographic area will be prioritized over ideas that increase diagnostic accuracy. Similarly, ideas that are applicable or adaptable to multiple crops and diseases/pests will be prioritized over ideas that are specific to only one crop or pathogen. Successful proposals will take into account small-scale, difficult-to-reach, intercropped farming systems with multiple pests and diseases. Preliminary data is not required, but proposals should clearly demonstrate how the idea is an innovative leap in progress from current practices with the potential to be transformative at scale. Successful proposals will address data requirements and plans for data acquisition.

In Phase I, awards of up to $100,000 USD are available. Phase I awardees will then have one opportunity to apply for a follow-on Phase II award of up to $1,000,000 USD. GCE is open to both foreign and domestic organizations, including non-profit organizations, for-profit companies, international organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions. Proposals must be submitted prior to the submission deadline of 11:30 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Sunday, November 14, 2018.

More information on the award, eligibility criteria and instructions on how to apply can be found on The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Grand Challenges website here.

The post The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation invites proposals for the 22nd round of Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) first appeared on AgShare.Today.

As well as allowing the programme to run for longer, the funding will also allow to provide member projects with the additional training courses and tools they’ve requested. These will include brand-new training courses in hands-on project management and advocacy; providing expert statistical analysis support; and helping projects use new technologies (like mobile sample-label printers linked to survey apps), to make surveys and data gathering more efficient.

Going forward, AgShare.Today will also be able to offer increased support to member projects in their home countries, with our first ‘pop-up office’ opening in Tanzania this October. These offices will open for short periods of time to provide a focused workspace with a reliable internet connection and a range of support tools in a specific country. This will allow us to provide scientists from different institutions in the region with access to one-to-one support from the AgShare team on subjects such as journal article writing, statistical analysis, managing data, and using key tools.

Finally, because we’re expanding, AgShare will also be offering its services to new projects! To find out how AgShare can support your project, please contact Sandy Williams at s.e.williams@agshare.today

The post Newly-secured funding for AgShare.Today will allow more in-depth support to member projects first appeared on AgShare.Today.

Kebbi State University of Science and Technology Aliero (KSUSTA) has received new federal funding aimed at increasing the capacity of its researchers and procuring advanced laboratory equipment. The laboratories at KSUSTA are home to two AgShare.Today partner projects that will benefit from this funding: the Cassava Viruses in Northern Nigeria Project (CVNNP) and the Yam Badnavirus Project (YBP).

AgShare team members from both of these projects will have access to the new equipment provided by this grant, including a UV spectrophotometer, a temperature-controlled centrifuge and a new PCR sequencer. This equipment will allow researchers from YBP and CVNNP to test their survey samples locally and give them access to more accurate levels of analysis. Thanks to this grant, scientists at KSUSTA will also receive training in using the new equipment to ensure that it is used to its maximum potential for testing and analysis.

This new source of funding was awarded to KSUSTA in April through a local body of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund). TETFund has disbursed grants to researchers and universities across Nigeria, with scientists at KSUSTA being awarded over US$50,000 through the fund so far.

The AgShare.Today partner projects CVNNP and YBP are both working to characterise and diagnose root crop diseases in Northern Nigeria, focusing on cassava and yam respectively. To learn more about CVNNP or YBP contact e.moulding@agshare.today.

The post Kebbi State University, Nigeria, receives new funding for lab equipment and training first appeared on AgShare.Today.

The Sweet Potato Virus Reversion Project (SPVRP), led by Dr Peter Wasswa at Makerere University, Kampala, aims to investigate the causes and mechanism for ‘reversion’ of sweet potato virus infection. With the project moving towards its conclusion, in February 2018 the AgShare.Today team travelled to Makerere to help visualize and process the SPVRP team’s data and cement the project’s legacy. While they were there, the AgShare team had the chance to meet with Dr Wasswa and catch up on the progress of the project and the achievements he and his team have made.

Through their research, the SPVRP team have generated a great deal of knowledge about the genotypes of sweet potato varieties which show reversion, and those which do not. They also investigated the conditions in which reversion is most likely to occur. For example, they observed that reversion is seen more frequently at higher temperatures and in the presence of nitrogen-based fertilizers. Since the project began in 2014, a specialized virology lab has been constructed at Makerere. This lab is the first of its kind at the university, allowing researchers working on the SPVRP to use new techniques including ELISA tests, sample extractions and real-time PCR procedures. The lab also provides a modern space for the training of PhD and MSc students.

The project’s collaboration with international partners has also created the opportunity for one such student to conduct research at the Agricultural Research Organization Volcani Center in Israel. This partnership opens the doors for knowledge sharing and further collaborative progress at both institutions.

As the project continues, the SPVRP team aim to investigate the genes responsible for reversion in sweet potato. Finding the responsible genes would allow breeders to develop sweet potato cultivars which combine the traits of typically non-reverting varieties with the added reversion gene. This would have a significant impact on resilience of sweet potato crops to disease, improving food security and protecting the livelihoods of farmers.

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Dr Andrew Polaszek, ACWP scientist based at the London Natural History Museum, has collaborated with morphometrics expert Professor Norman MacLeod, agricultural entomologist Dr David Ouvrard and entomologist Roy Canty on a morphometric analysis of the developmental stages of the Bemisia tabaci species complex. Their morphometric analyses have proven statistically that Med. Uganda, SSA1-SG1, SSA1-SG3, SSA3-298 and Sud-S exhibit distinct patterns of morphological variation which are similar to what would be expected from different Bemisia species. 

ACWP is one of several projects working with AgShare.Today to speed up the sharing of data and results. Other ACWP scientists using crossing experiments and genetic assays have also detected differences that are consistent with expectations of species-level differentiation. 

The Natural History Museum team’s work focuses on identifying and defining the identities and nomenclature of the African cassava whitefly species associated with superabundance. Whiteflies are known to transmit diseases in staple food crops cassava and sweet potato. An in-depth understanding of the pest is key to preventing the further spread of these diseases, which cause stunted growth and rotting in crop roots and impact on Africa’s food security. The team’s recent discovery is yet to be published. 

You can watch this video to learn more about the Natural History Museum team’s work on Bemisia taxonomy.

The post Breakthrough in African cassava whitefly species identification first appeared on AgShare.Today.

During this visit the project’s Principal Investigator, Dr Richard Echodu, shared the many achievements of SPVDT. Over the course of their research, the project has conducted cross-sectional baseline surveys for sweet-potato viruses in 4 different countries, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania, and has successfully demonstrated a proof of concept for the use of paper-based assays in the field. The SPVDT project has also collaborated with Gulu University to build a new lab and provide training to MSc and BSc students.

Watch the full video below:

The post AgShare.Today supports the SPVDT project’s closing stages: New video with Dr Richard Echodu first appeared on AgShare.Today.

Since the project started, the editing team has worked on over 60 manuscripts across AgShare’s partner projects, delivering not only a professional editing service but also one-to-one mentorship for researchers. The mentoring process helps researchers develop their skills and see long-term improvement in the quality of their writing, and as such prepares them to produce quality manuscripts in the future. This mentorship is made possible by the expertise of AgShare’s editors, who have a strong understanding of the topics they are addressing (owing to their PhDs in agriculture-related subjects) and many years of teaching and editing experience.

One example of a scientist who has benefited from AgShare’s editing and mentorship is PhD researcher Esperance Munganyika from Rwanda. In October 2016 Esperance worked over Skype with an AgShare editor with expertise in plant pathology to edit her manuscript and improve her writing skills. Thanks to this collaboration, Esperance’s paper was accepted by the Wiley journal Plant Pathology in Autumn 2017, pushing her career to the next level as a published researcher.

Now in its third year, AgShare is continuing to support the publication of African crop research in high-impact, international journals, helping scientists in Africa launch their research on the world stage.

If you would like to know more about AgShare.Today, please email e.moulding@agshare.today.

The post AgShare.Today editing service helps researchers publish 10 articles in 2017 first appeared on AgShare.Today.