Agricultural Research and Development: Hardier sweet potatoes

Crop scientists at Uganda’s National Crop Resources Research Institute (NACRRI) in Namulonge have released sweet potato varieties that are resistant to diseases and weevils, both of which take a heavy toll on yields. Kawogo, Naspot 1, Naspot 90 and Kakamega were developed using conventional methods, tissue culture, biotechnology and computerised marker-assisted selection.

“We are crossing indigenous species as well as species from the Agricultural Potato Centre in Peru to get resistance”, said agronomist Charles Niringiye. The annual output of sweet potato in Uganda is 2.6 million MT, making it the country’s third most popular food crop after bananas and cassavas.

Source: Spore No 154. See also: spore.cta.int

New Online Forum: "Challenges and Opportunities for Capturing Impact in ICT initiatives in Agriculture"

From 25 September to 6 October 2011 Katalyst and e-Agriculture will organize a new online forum to discuss the challenges of linking impact with the use of ICTs in agriculture.

This forum will discuss the present practices and critical issues (regarding both implementation and monitoring) of ICT initiatives in agriculture.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an emerging area focusing on the enhancement of the agricultural and rural development. Many farmers and rural entrepreneurs generally lack access to accurate and timely information on markets, production processes, crops and livestock disease; as well as access to services such as land registrations, permits, government regulation forms, and internet.

In the past few years, ICT initiatives in agriculture have proliferated and the resources devoted to ICT in development portfolios have expanded in the hope that ICT can help developing countries reach the Millennium Development Goals. Yet, rigorous field-tested knowledge about "what works and why" have been relatively scarce, as well as a deeper understanding of the enabling conditions and success factors in ICT for development initiatives.

As a result, there is a growing consensus in the development community that ICT will only become an effective and mainstream tool of poverty reduction and sustainable development if the proponents of ICT for development can provide more rigorous evidence, strategies, benchmarks, indicators, and good practices that are directly relevant to the core poverty-reduction and development priorities of developing countries and their international partners.

Subject Matter Experts leading the discussions include:

 Shahid Uddin Akbar, Chief Executive Officer - BIID (Bangladesh Institute for ICT for Development)

 Jenny C. Aker, Assistant Professor of Economics - (Economics Department and Fletcher School, Tufts University)

 Jim Tanburn, Coordinator - DCED (Donor Committee for Enterprise Development)

 John Zoltner, Director for Latin America and the Caribbean - Datadyne

All e-Agriculture members are invited to participate during the two weeks online discussion! If you have not registered to e-Agriculture yet, you may do so here and stay up to date about this event and upcoming activities.
 

Source: e-Agriculture

Youth in agricultural Extension – Challenges and opportunities

Agricultural extension and I

For the past 3 years, I have been studying agriculture with specialization in agricultural extension at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Mauritius. During my work-based placement, I have worked at the Agricultural Research and Extension Unit (AREU), where I have got the opportunity to get some work experience in agricultural extension and I have also done my dissertation on the subject. Being involved in agricultural extension, I have seen that youth, as well as experienced professionals are facing several challenges in agricultural extension.

Agricultural Extension in Mauritius

Youth involvement in agricultural extension 

Presently, finding youth involved in agriculture is rare in Mauritius, since their main focus are on subjects related to management and engineering. This is so, because the image of agriculture does not appear “attractive” to youth and for many of them, agriculture is not even an option (Read more on attractiveness of agriculture to youth HERE). However, according to the annual report 2009/1010 of the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Mauritius,. However, according to the annual report 2009/1010 of the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Mauritius, each year, there about 120 students who enrol for courses related to agricultural sciences for their undergraduate degree. This also implies that every year, there are about 120 graduates from the Faculty of Agriculture. But how many of these graduates are involved in extension? Probably not many because of 2 main reasons; (a) there are not many job opportunities in agricultural extension in Mauritius and (b) extension involves working in the field with farmers, requires several skills and it is a challenging job.

Challenges

When considering the challenges faced by youth in agricultural extension, there are 2 ways in which it can be seen; (a) Challenges faced by young graduates and (b) challenges faced by young professionals.


Read more and looking forward to have your contribution HERE.