AFRICANCROPS.NET

  A Website on Improvement of African Crops and Seed Systems

Browse Research Themes:  Biotechnology | Breeding | Seed Systems

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• African Agricultural Technology Foundation to develop drought-tolerant maize varieties for small-scale farmers in Africa (AAATF Website)

• Putting Biotechnology to Economic Use in Africa (Business Daily)

• US$5 million Grant from AGRA to the University of Ghana, Legon for a West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (Ghanaian Chronicle)

• "Benefits and Limits of an Important Biotech Tool", an Interview about Marker-Assisted Selection with Shivaji Pandey of FAO's Working Group on Biotechnology (FAO Newsrom)

• Kofi Annan, AGRA Leader Meets the Press and Roots for the Green Revolution (Daily Nation)

• AGRA Board Chair, Kofi Annan Meets Kenyan President and Farmers  (East African Standard)

• NERICA Contributes to Record Rice Harvest in Africa (WARDA)

• Scientists Develop Varieties Resistant to Cassava Brown Streak Disease (IITA)

• Conference on Improving African Crops and Seed Systems Gets Underway in Maputo. ICV3 info..

• Maize Seed Launched to Resist Striga (Bob Wayne Bell Jr., Business Daily). Additional Reading

• Commercial Release of Striga Resistant Maize in Kenya (ACNS)

• Public Breeding Produces New Maize Varieties for Kenyan Farmers (ACNS)

• IRRI’s Copyright Policy to Facilitate Free Exchange of Information (IRRI)

• Monsanto Fund Makes $15 million Gift to Danforth Centre (Danforth Centre website)

• Nematode Resistant Bananas Developed (GEN)

• Publications: Promising Crop Biotechnologies for Smallholder Farmers in East Africa (IFPRI)

• African Crops Newsletter: May-June 2006 Issue

• Researcher Reports New Cowpea Germplasm Screening Technique (Crop Biotech Update)

• An Effective Strategy for Increasing Carbohydrate Yields in Sink Tissues of Cassava (Ihemere et al., Plant Biotechnology Journal)

• Students Create Plant That Glows When Thirsty (Reuters)

• African Agricultural Capital in $7m Plan to Fund Seed Production in East Africa (AllAfrica.com)

• Researchers Develop Molecular Marker for GM Crop Improvement (CheckBiotech)

• Arabidopsis Made Salt Tolerant (ISAAA)

• Zimbabwe: Biotechnology Authority Bill Gazetted (The Herald)

• CIMMYT Announces 26 New I-R Maize Hybrids. See also Hybrid Data

• CIMMYT Ready to Deploy IR Maize Technology to Seed Producers

Online Resources Update | Archives

• Summary of the Ninth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (Earth Negotiations Bulletin)

• New open-access teaching modules for plant disease epidemiology

• Distribution Maps of Plant Diseases (CABI)

• The Role of Non-GM Biotechnology in Developing World Agriculture (Zephaniah Dhlamini)

• Progress in Developing the Biotechnology Sector in South Africa (Trends in Biotechnology)

• Atlas on Sorghum Production in Eastern Africa (INTSORMIL)

• Bibliographies on Sorghum biotechnology, pathology, breeding, etc. (INTSORMIL)

• Biotechnology in South Africa (USDA)

• Biotech Policy Progress in East Africa (Scidev)

• Engineering GM Crops with Multiple Mechanisms of Insect Resistance (Transgenic Research)

• Gene Switch Makes Crops Drought-Resistant When Needed (Agence France Presse)

• Biotechnology and bioinformatics software

• Publications: Promising Crop Biotechnologies for Smallholder Farmers in East Africa (IFPRI)

• UNEP-GEF draft National Biosafety Frameworks for 67 Countries (UNEP-GEF)

• Global Seed Market Valued at $17 Billion (Ag Weekly)

• Europeans and Biotechnology: Patterns and Trends (George Gaskell et al., 2005)

• South African GM Maize Adoption in 2006 (FoodNCropBio)

• Acquisition and Use of CIMMYT Maize Open-Pollinated Varieties and Hybrids (CIMMYT)

• African Crops Website, Message Board and News Service Brochure

• GCP Project on Cassava Brings State-of-the-Art Technologies to Africa. Full story

• South African GM Maize Adoption, 2006. Full Story

• Inter-specific Populations and Identification of Resistant Lines to Drought under Rainfed Lowland Conditions in Mali. Read more

• A Forced Abrupt End to Food Dependency-Implications of High Oil Prices, Jonathan Gressel

• Technology Tip: Processing Large Images

• Download: Economic Impact of Transgenic Crops in Developing Countries (Current Opinion in Biotechnology)

• Download: Literature on Genetically Modified Crop Plants (Union of the German Academies)

• Maize streak Virus: Description and Control of Diseases Caused by the Virus (Molecular and Cell Biology Dept., University of Cape Town)

• A Manual of Online Molecular Biology Techniques (Molecular and Cell Biology Dept., UCT)

• The Role of Non-GM Biotechnology in Developing World Agriculture (SeedQuest)

• Molecular Marker Characterization Data from Maize Germplasm (CIMMYT)

African Crops of Interest

Banana. Opportunities for improvement include developing varieties resistant to weevils, disease and nematodes using transgenic and breeding strategies. 

Beans: Current research interventions include breeding for resistance against angular leaf spot, anthracnose, root rots, bruchids and bean stem maggot.

Cassava. Breeding programs are targeting resistance to cassava mosaic disease, green mites, bacterial blight and participatory variety selection

Cowpea. Breeding efforts are aimed at increasing resistance to bruchids, Maruca pod borers, thrips and aphid- borne mosaic potyvirus (CABMV)

Maize. Research efforts center around increasing resistant to foliar diseases, Striga, stem borers; tolerance to drought and breeding for early maturity. 

Sorghum. Millet and Sorghum suffers from attacks by Striga, downy mildew and head miners. Increases in yield are possible by developing adapted hybrid varieties. 

Genetic improvements aim at developing and deploying resistance to Striga and Anthracnose disease; and breeding adapted hybrid varieties

Rice. Breeding efforts target increasing drought tolerance by the Asiatic rice,   resistant to foliar diseases and insects. Field testing of Nerica rice is on-going.

Scientific Journal TOCs Update

Full Text Access - Current Issues

• Plant Physiology

• Electronic Journal of Biotechnology

• African Journal of Biotechnology

• The Plant Cell

• International Journal of Biological Sciences

TOCs and Abstracts Only

• Crop Protection

• Nature Biotechnology

• Cell Biology

• Plant Pathology Journal

• Journal of Biological Sciences

• Biotechnology

Research & Information Resources

• GCP Call for Proposals for Genotyping Support Service New

• African Scientists Fellowship Programme New

• Post-doctoral programme on molecular characterisation at Huazhang Agricultural University New 

• Institute for Genomic Diversity (IGD) conducts research and training in genetic diversity, plant genomics, biodiversity and food security

• Research Abstracts in Biotechnology, Breeding and Seed Systems for African Crops, 2005

• Free & Full Text Scientific Journals  

• AGORA: Free access to over 800 journals

• Biotechnology Book On-line  

• Genomics Quick Guide  

• Plant Virology in Sub-Saharan Africa  

• Plant Genomics: Articles from The Plant Cell

• Valuable CIAT e-Journal Collection  

• Crop-specific databases and information 

• Genomics, tools and literature search 

• Biotechnology laboratory protocols

• Scientific meetings and conferences

• Plant breeding resources

• The Science and Ethics of Cloning

Other Information Sources

• Career and research opportunities  

• African Biotech-related sites

• Funding sources for biotechnology

• Biotechnology news and information

• USA biotech laws, regulations and rules

• Educational and research centres

• National biotechnology regulators

• Daily Agricultural News from around Africa

• The Growing Connection links people & introduces food growing innovations using IT