The Pan-Africa Soybean Variety Trials (PAVT) were established in 10 sites in Zambia in the 2020 growing season. In March 2020, evaluation for disease and insect pests was conducted at 2 sites managed by Syngenta in Lusaka (Lusaka site 1 and 2), a sit...
Pathogens and pests that attack seeds can cause severe yield losses in the filed or during storage and transport (Figure 1). These infections reduce seed quality and viability and risk introducing novel pathogens and pests into new production areas....
The Pan-African Soybean Variety Trials (PAVTs) were established in Kenya to evaluate the incidence and severity of soybean diseases and pests in the 2019 and 2020 growing season. The PAVTs were established at Kibwezi in eastern, Kiambu in central, Bu...
The Soybean Innovation Lab developed the Guide to African Soybean Seedborne Diseases and Pests for use by seed companies, seed multipliers, research institutions, and soybean processors, whose operations demand high-quality seed. Identifying the caus...
Nigeria’s economic development is at a turning point. The Federal Government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan will run out next year, the United Nations has projected that the country’s population will double by 2050 to 410 million, the Africa C...
Developing agriculture policy, let alone implementing, is deceptively simple, especially for countries layered with challenges such as poor-quality inputs, fragmented land and high cost of credit for agriculture. Nigeria is one of such countries wi...
Tanzania accounts for about 1.4% of the global cattle population and 11% of African cattle population (FAO 2014). Tanzania has about 30.5 million cattle, 18.8 million goats and 5.3 million sheep. Other livestock include; 1.9 million pigs, 38.2 mill...
Value chain development is increasingly perceived as an important approach for agricultural development in developing countries. This paper uses a Rural Investment and Policy Analysis (RIAPA) model for the mainland Tanzania economy to identify the...
In developing countries, where agriculture is a major economic sector, value-chain development is expected to contribute to high-level outcomes. In this paper, we aim at quantitatively assessing the value-chains which will be the most effective at...
Agricultural transformation is a decades-long process which involves modernization of on-farm production, shifting production towards more value addition.
Eighty-three percent of the population depends directly on agriculture for their livelihoods, while many others depend on agriculture-related cottage industries such as textiles, leather, and food oil processing. Agriculture contributes 46.3 perce...