Wild coffee plants, Christmas trees and chocolate’s tree are surprisingly poorly protected

by Sean Mattson | Nov 21, 2018

Urgent action is needed to protect thousands of useful wild plants, according to new research; the data strongly suggest international conservation targets for 2020 will not be met — even for ‘commonplace’ wild plants. Headlines about threatened...

Future Seeds: all of us are guardians of crop diversity

by Maria Fernanda Mejia | Nov 15, 2018

It’s true: construction has started on “Future Seeds,” CIAT’s new germplasm bank, which will be the home for more than 67,000 varieties of beans, cassava, and tropical forages that CIAT currently safeguards (Read more…) And last Friday, all the HQ staff received an...

Tackling Cassava Mosaic Disease in Southeast Asia

by Maria Fernanda Mejia | Oct 25, 2018

Tackling Cassava Mosaic Disease in Southeast Asia ; In December 2015, a journal publication reported evidence of Sri Lankan cassava mosaic virus (SLCMV) in a single plantation in Ratanakiri province in northeast Cambodia. This was the first time that Cassava Mosaic...

This week is Open Access Week:Let’s celebrate!

by Sylvia Pineda | Oct 24, 2018

By: Simone Staiger, Head, Knowledge and Learning and Leroy Mwanzia,Chief Data Officer The theme for OA week this year is “Designing Equitable Foundations for Open Knowledge.” It incidentally falls on the same year when the five-year transition period for...

Forage technologies to reduce the environmental impact of Colombian livestock production

by Sylvia Pineda | Oct 23, 2018

Responding to the challenge of improving data collection and monitoring of tropical forages in Colombia, CIAT, in cooperation with the Universities of Glasgow, Bristol, Cauca, and Antioquia, developed working tools and methodologies for the collection, processing, and...

When immiscible becomes miscible

by Erika Eliana Mosquera | Oct 22, 2018

Photo credit: © inkeraabe / Pixabay  Linking efforts for reducing forest-based emissions with those for delivering peace is possible. We are examining under what conditions that is possible. Last year, scientists from the University of Edinburgh discovered that under...