WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – President Joe Biden on Tuesday (Oct. 24) awarded the National Medal of Science to Gebisa Ejeta, Distinguished Professor of Plant Breeding & Genetics and International Agriculture, executive director of the Purdue Center for Global Food Security and Purdue University Presidential Fellow for Food Security and Sustainable Global Development. The award is […]
We are delighted to announce the opening of the polls for the 2024 Executive Committee (EC) election, seeking community-approved individuals to fill the roles of Vice President, Secretary, and two Members at Large. These esteemed positions entail a four-year term, with the exception of the Vice President, who serves an eight-year commitment. This extended tenure […]
Promise II is a 5-year project coordinated by NIOO-KNAW and funded for two 5-year periods by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The project aims to engineer soil and plant microbiomes to minimize yield losses caused by Striga. In Sub-Saharan Africa, many farmers face challenges accessing affordable resources to protect crops against pests and diseases, and […]
Striga hermonthica, an obligate root parasitic weed, poses significant threat to cereal production in sub-Saharan Africa. Lowering Striga seed bank in infested soils is a promising strategy to mitigate infestation levels. The dependency of Striga seed germination on strigolactones opens up the possibility of a “suicidal germination” approach, where synthetic germination stimulants induce lethal germination […]
Striga is a flowering parasitic plant that can infect a broad range of crops including sorghum, maize and rice. The life cycle of Striga is intricately linked to its host, using host derived signals to initiate germination and attach to its host. Host susceptibility to Striga is thus directly correlated to the production and exudation […]
This open access book is a compilation of protocols developed through a Coordinated Research Project of the Joint FAO/IAEA Center of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, specifically focused on mutation breeding for resistance to Striga. The book consists of three sections; (i) a general introduction on Striga biology and impact and mutagenesis in cereal […]
Press release UC Davis Bacteria that could help one of Africa’s staple crops resist a major pest have been identified by researchers at the University of California, Davis. Their findings, published March 26 in Cell Reports, could improve yields of sorghum, a mainstay of food and drink in West and East African countries. About 20 […]
In the Open Access publication “Host interactions, pathology, economic impacts and management of the facultative parasitic weed Rhamphicarpa fistulosa” we review, discuss and interpret the past 10 years of research conducted on rice vampireweed, a fascinating but destructive parasitic plant:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cropro.2024.106688This review starts where the previous review, conducted in 2014, finished: https://doi.org/10.1111/wre.12129 Since that previous review we’ve […]
Emeline N. Dossa · Hussein Shimelis · Admire I. T. Shayanowako · Mark D. Laing https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-024-03309-2 Our study identifies tropical and sub-tropical maize varieties with dual resistance to Striga asiatica and S. hermonthica, prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This discovery is instrumental in breeding new maize cultivars with stable Striga resistance and enhanced grain yield, […]
https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcae031 (Open Access) In this study we demonstrate that nutrient availability decreases striga infection levels across host plant genotypes varying in striga tolerance levels. Macronutrients seem to be the main drivers of this observed reduction in striga infection. They improve the photosynthesis rates of striga infected sensitive genotype and even restore those of tolerant sorghum […]