Agrobiodiversity
María Elker Montoya, champion creator of method to fight Rice Hoja Blanca Virus
María, who started her career as a Research Assistant at the Latin American Fund for Irrigated Rice (FLAR, its Spanish initials) and is currently a member of the Phenotyping Platform team at CIAT, developed a method to establish different stages of infection in plants, and thus meet the increasing challenge faced by producers, caused by an outbreak of the Rice Hoja Blanca Virus (RHBV) that has been observed in recent years in rice plantations from different countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The new version of Tropical Forages selection tool is almost done!
Experts in tropical forages meet in Konigstein, Germany to discuss, test functions and design the new Tropical Forages Selection Tool v.2 on a revamped website page and new mobile app.
Celebrating women in science
Join us in celebrating the International Day of Women and Girls in Science! On this occasion Bioversity International and CIAT feature some of our very own women scientists working to promote and safeguard agrobiodiversity, and improve food systems.
Inter-institutional team tackles Honduras’s water crisis
More than 300 actors, including technicians and decision makers from six departments in western Honduras (Copán, Intibucá, Lempira, La Paz, Ocotepeque, and Santa Bárbara), have benefited from the Honduras Water platform [Agua de Honduras], co-developed by CIAT’s Agroecosystems and Sustainable Landscapes (ASL) and Decision and Policy Analysis (DAPA) research areas.
Cattle urine’s planet-warming power can be curtailed with land restoration
When cow urine falls on degraded land, it releases far more nitrous oxide – a potent greenhouse gas – than when absorbed by healthy pasture. The findings show additional benefits of landscape restoration and conservation.
Using genome diversity for the environment, livelihoods and tropical grasslands
Our project is designed to supplement and accelerate breeding by exploiting wide biodiversity and the latest cost-efficient, genomic technologies, leading via improvements in forage grasses, to increased food security, reduction of rural poverty, and efficient, sustainable use of land as pasture.
CLEANED training take two: Kenya
The second CLEANED training occurred Nov. 21-23. Similar to the previous training in Rwanda, the participants were personnel from the livestock sectors, this time from Ethiopia and Kenya.
CLEANED training kicked off in Kigali Rwanda
A training on the CLEANED tool was conducted in Rwanda to strengthen technical capacity for agriculture stakeholders and for them to use this tool for improved decision making in the agriculture development sector with a focus on livestock systems.
Future Seeds: all of us are guardians of crop diversity
It’s true: construction has started on “Seeds of the Future,” CIAT’s new germplasm bank, and last Friday, all the HQ staff received an invitation that promised to turn us into the “guardians of crop diversity.” The expectations were great and so was the attendance at the event. Kellogg auditorium was filled to capacity.
Echo from the 18th Triennial Symposium of the International Society for Tropical Root Crops (ISTRC)
A total of 200 participants, 70 oral presentations, 170 scientific posters on display, two culinary demonstrations, more than a dozen specialized sessions, visits to laboratories and field trials from the cassava program at CIAT, a new president of the ISTRC, and a touching award ceremony. These are some of the figures that show how intense and productive were those four days of work in the 18th Triennial Symposium of the International Society for Tropical Root Crops (ISTRC), that was held from October 22 to 25 at CIAT’s headquarters.
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.