This chapter focuses on the assessment of the cultivar output, adoption and change for cassava, cowpea, soyabean and yam for Africa south of Sahara and maize improvement in West and Central Africa. The evaluation of the performance of genetic improvement programmes in these crops are also discussed.

In the early 1980s, the ability to transform and regenerate plants opened the way for developing biotechnological strategies to control virus infections. This chapter focuses on how knowledge of RNA silencing has been applied successfully to confer virus resistance in principal crops, i.e....

This chapter takes a macro perspective of the state of the use of crop wild relatives (CWR) in crop improvement programmes under the auspices of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, with some supplementary perspectives from outside of the CG family where required. It asks, ...

This chapter focuses on the improved cultivar generation of various crops (maize, cassava, rice, bean, potato, cowpea, wheat, soyabean, sweet potato, yam, sorghum, groundnut, banana, chickpea, pigeon pea, barley, pearl millet, faba bean, lentil and pea) in Africa South of the Sahara. Information of ...

This chapter focuses on the adoption and turnover of cultivars of crops, such as soyabean, maize, pigeon pea, wheat, cassava, rice, potato, barley, yam, groundnut, bean, sorghum, cowpea, pearl millet, chickpea, faba bean, lentil, sweet potato, banana and pea, in Africa South of Sahara. The changes...

This introductory chapter discusses the objective of the book, underlying research in the previous book and presents the summary and underlying research of each of the chapters of the current book. It also discusses the overall methodology used in gathering data for the study and the core finding...

This chapter discusses the various ways the system of shifting cultivation has been modified to make it a more intensive system of agriculture. Attempts to modify shifting cultivation include the integration of trees into farmlands to form agroforestry systems, enrichment of fallow vegetation with...

Starch is a polysaccharide energy reserve synthesized in amyloplasts of higher plants. It is also the major energy source for humans and animals and is the second largest biomass produced on earth, next to cellulose. In this chapter, the general starch biosynthesis and granule development is...

This chapter investigates patterns in staple food prices, wage rates, and marketing margins for urban consumers in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia between the mid-1990s and 2009, with a special focus on the 2007/2008 food crisis, and discusses the implications of the empirical findings for...

Mycotoxin contamination of food systems is a major problem in many countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. Most diets in the region are maize based, but cassava, sorghum, millet and peanuts also are important. These food systems are susceptible to aflatoxins, fumonisin B₁, zearalenone and...