NEWS IN GHANA

   Maize farm damaged by Striga    Improved technologies being promoted by the   Integrated Striga Management for Africa (ISMA) project have shown promise that   Striga —a parasitic weed that destroys cereal and legume fields—can be eradicated from Africa.   Infesting up to 4 million hectares of land under maize production in sub-Saharan Africa, Striga   causes farmers yield losses of up to 80% representing about US$1.2 billion, and affects approximately 100 million people in the continent. In the last three years, the ISMA project has deployed an integrated approach for managing Striga   while improving soil fertility and reducing the   Striga   seed bank for sustainable increases in crop yields in some selected communities in Nigeria and Kenya.      Specifically, these included cultural practices such as intercropping maize with legumes (soybean and groundnut); crop rotation of maize with soybean; a “push-pull” technology that involves intercropping cereals with   Striga

The negative consequences of climate change on agricultural production and productivity are with us and resolutions must be implemented to save West and Central Africa, said the Director General, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Dr Nteranya Sanginga. Addressing national and international researchers attending a conference on  Biotic stresses, climate change and agricultural production  in Cotonou, Bénin, on Monday, Dr Sanginga noted that the emergence of agricultural pests such as the papaya mealybug was closely linked to climate change, and stressed that there was the need to go beyond rhetoric to action. “Whatever recommendations we make at this meeting, let’s work towards implementing them,” he said. The Director General pinpointed to agricultural research and the capacity development of adequate human resources as the critical tools needed to tackle the challenges posed by climate change. He cited the example of cassava pests (cassava mealybug) in which past

A center of excellence for research and training to link climate change with biodiversity and biotic stresses was launched this week in the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) campus in the Republic of Benin. This follows a major conference on Biotic stresses, climate change and agricultural production in Cotonou, Bénin, held on 5-7 May.      The Center, which comes under the auspices of the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD) has IITA, the National Institute of Agricultural Research of Bénin (INRAB), AfricaRice, Bioversity, the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), and the University of Abomey Calavi (UAC) as partners but is also open to other national agricultural research systems in the West and Central African bloc.      The Center was inaugurated by the Republic of Bénin’s Minister of Agriculture, Madame Fatouma Amadou Djibril; CORAF/WECARD Director General, D