Agrobiodiversity
Helping build sustainably productive farming systems through the work of the Asian Cassava Breeders, and Forage Legumes, Networks
Researchers from eight Asian countries – Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Vietnam – gathered on December 12-13, 2017 in Haikou City, China, to form the Asian Forage Legumes Network. This is in response to the increasing pressure for...
Partners for the Amazon
The Partners for the Amazon platform was launch was last December 6 and 7 in Manaus, Brazil. The platform will provide its members a space to share and learn from experiences in social and environmental corporate responsibility.
How Can Ugandan Farmers Ease South Sudan Hunger Crisis?
Together with Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO), CIAT and partners including the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), have been working together to supply farmers with high yielding, drought and disease resilient beans to boost production and improve nutrition among vulnerable refugees and communities in northern Uganda.
‘Preemptive’ breeding: More than a step ahead of crop disease outbreaks
CIAT is now developing breeding lines of beans that will have resistance to emerging and future devastating viruses.
The Eyes of a Drone, an agronomic revolution at CIAT
Last October, the CIAT Phenomics Platform Team from the Agrobiodiversity Area conducted the “Drones for Agriculture” course, with the purpose of training staff from different programs at the Center, who were interested in getting acquainted with the remote detection techniques that may be applied to agriculture through drones.
First Study Shows Eating High-Iron Beans Improves Memory and Attention Span in Female University Students in Rwanda
Eating beans bred to contain higher iron can boost memory and attention span in female university students in Rwanda, the study shows. Policy makers could consider including iron-biofortified beans as part of national strategies to overhaul food systems on the continent.
DNA fingerprinting uncovers exactly who and why farmers use improved cassava
A recently published study indicates the extent that farmers in Colombia’s Cauca Department use improved cassava varieties. The research has also led to a discovery of new varieties of this staple crop.
CIAT’s most distinguished ‘offspring’ in Latin America
Out of 857 rice varieties released in Latin America and the Caribbean in the last 50 years, 377 have CIAT DNA in their pedigree. They constitute an invaluable legacy that has enabled the region to be more competitive. Where does the lineage come from? This is an acknowledgement to the Rice Program at CIAT and the hundreds of researchers who have contributed to it.
Where in the world is there a cassava virus? This new app can show you.
PestDisPlace can serve as an early warning system for pests and diseases in crops.
Strength in diversity: How cassava intercropping benefits the crops, the farmer, and the environment
The just-published journal article, On-farm diversity offsets environmental pressures in tropical agro-ecosystems: A synthetic review for cassava-based systems, concludes that intercropping cassava with maize, other crops belonging to the grass family, grain legumes, or trees, provides largely positive effects on various key ecosystem services, and can help strike a balance between farm-level productivity, crop resilience, and environmental health.
About agrobiodiversity research at CIAT
CIAT develops more resilient and productive varieties of cassava and common bean, together with tropical forages for livestock. We also help improve rice production in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The superior crop varieties that result from our collaborative work offer many valuable traits, such as high yield and stress tolerance, which are vital for guaranteeing global food supplies in the face of rapidly rising demand, shifting disease and insect pressures, rampant environmental degradation, and the looming threat of climate change.
Contact
This CIAT Blog was launched in January 2016. For articles related to agrobiodiversity prior to this date, visit our former blog. Please note the old AgBio blog is no longer updated.