This week, the African Orphan Crops Consortium has announced that it will map the genomes of 100 orphan crops, many of which are crucial to food security in Africa. Baobab will be the first crop to have its genome sequenced.  See Prof. Diran Makinde’s new essay on the B4FA web site for a more in-depth perspective.

According to Dr. Robert Fraley, World Food Prize Laureate and Chief Technology Officer at Monsanto,herbicide tolerant wheat is making good progress.  Biotech wheat is not currently commercially available.

The John Innes Centre in the UK will host a discussion about Golden Rice on 29 January; it will also be available online via this page.

The B4FA Media Fellows have published/broadcast a number of interesting stories this week, including radio broadcasts on striga and a new maize disease in eastern Uganda, new ways of growing yams in Nigeria, radio broadcasts in Swahili on GM crop trials in Uganda andnew varieties of maize in Tanzania, boosting maize production in Nigeria and more.

This week, B4FA has launched audio versions of our ‘Insights’ essays . If you are a broadcast journalist, please feel welcome to download the file and use in your programme.

In addition, we have published a new ‘Insight’ essay online this week by Prof. Diran Makinde on orphan crops- this essay focuses on the same orphan crop project mentioned above and provides deeper insight into the importance of orphan crops for 250 million African households.  Please see all our online essays here and the original Insights essay collection.

Lastly, we have published a new video interview with B4FA Journalism Mentor, Sharon Schmickle, in which she reflects on her experience collaborating with African journalists.  Together with fellow journalist and B4FA Journalism Mentor Julia Vitullo-Martin, Sharon has traveled throughout Africa to discuss reporting on plant science with B4FA’s fellows. Julia and Sharon are currently holding master classes with small groups of B4FA Media Fellows in our four focus countries – stay tuned for brief essays on these master classes in the coming weeks.

If you have any questions/comments about our ‘Week in Review’ or would like to share articles, please contact Molly Hurley-Depret at [email protected]

Biosciences and Plant Genetics

Ghana

Passage of Plant breeders bill generates disagreement
Ghana News Agency, by B4FA Media Fellow Audrey Dekalu

Plant breeders say Ghana’s non-traditional export wont be affected after GMO introduction
Ghana Business News

Nigeria

Boosting maize production via drought-tolerant seedlings
Sunday Trust, by Ifeanyi Nwoko

IITA scientists discover new ways of growing yams
AfricaSTI, by Abah Anthony John

AUDIO: Women farmers call for rival seed companies -Part I, Part II; Script
News Agency of Nigeria Radio, by B4FA Media Fellow Kate Obande

Telling the difference between seeds and grains
News Agency of Nigeria, by B4FA Media Fellow Salimat Garba

Tanzania

Tanzania sasa yagundua mbegu mpya ya mahindi (“Tanzania discovers new varieties of maize”)
Teknolojia ya GMO katika kilimo: Tujifunze kutoka Uganda (“GMO technology in agriculture: Learn from Uganda”)
Mwananchi, by B4FA Media Fellow Leon Bahati

Tanzania gets $100m for agricultural venture
Sub-Saharan Africa Growth Rate Pegged At 5.3 Percent
East African Business Week, by B4FA Media Fellow Leonard Magomba

What do new `baby seeds` mean for Tanzanian farmers?
IPP Media

Uganda

AUDIO: Striga, a notorious weed causes losses to farmers in eastern Uganda; Transcript
AUDIO: A new maize disease causing havoc in eastern Uganda; Transcript
UBC Radio, by B4FA Media Fellow Sarah Mawerere