Commercial production of a simple biocontrol product called aflasafe™, developed by IITA and collaborators, may be the solution to the recalcitrant problem of aflatoxin contamination in important food products, such as maize and groundnuts.

Banana/Plantain Breeder Bi Irie Vroh explains how IITA produces clean planting materials of banana for distribution to partners.

Virologist James Legg discusses how IITA and partners have put in place a rigorous new system called Quality Management Protocol to assure the health of cassava planting material through seed systems.

Plant Physiologist Hidehiko Kikuno describes the new technology of producing yam seed tubers. The technology combines growing vine cuttings on carbonized rice husks and in vitro micropropagation (tissue culture). It is quick, cost-effective, and results in clean planting materials.

David Chikoye, IITA Director for R4D who manages the southern African hub and two programs—the Cereals and Legumes, and the Horticulture and Tree Crops Programs, gives an update on the status of the hub in Zambia.

The time is now
The quiet revolution
Anyone for cowpea?
Diversity: the spice of life
Cowpeas in Serbia
Enriching livestock diets
All about the bag
To conserve or not to conserve?
Fighting the pod borer
Conserving cowpea
Is mechanization the solution?

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For too long, a versatile crop that provides huge benefits for health and wealth stayed on the sidelines. Interest in this grain legume, however, has greatly increased; it is now gaining prominence in the fight against hunger and poverty. Cowpea is one crop that could influence the nutritional status in sub-Saharan Africa. IITA and partners should work together to advance this crop and to save Africa.

Ousmane Boukar, IITA’s cowpea breeder, has been with IITA since 2007. As a breeder, he mines IITA’s germplasm collection of cowpea to identify important additional sources of gene(s) of interest for resistance to both biotic and abiotic stresses, sources of consumers and producers’ preferred traits, etc. to broaden cowpea’s genetic diversity and contribute efficiently and significantly to cowpea genetic improvement.

James M. Lowenberg-Deboer of Purdue University talks about the importance of cowpea in Africa and his experiences working with African farmers.

Irvin E. Widders, Director of the Dry Grain Pulses CRSP, talks about the strengths and achievements of the program.