Title
Biopesticides Registration and Pesticides Residue Monitoring Training Workshop
Description
IITA has pioneered the development of aflatoxin biocontrol technology in Africa but the biocontrol products need to be registered with national and regional regulatory agencies prior to large-scale use in farmers fields. It is also necessary to conduct residue monitoring trials to determine safety of conventional pesticides, particularly those as replacement for highly toxic ones. However, most countries have not approved harmonized protocols for biopesticides registration or pesticides residue monitoring due to lack of capacity in regulatory institutions. The aim of the training workshop was to discuss and agree on harmonized regulations and protocols to assist in the biopesticides and pesticides registration process.
CGIAR center
IITA
Category
Outreach and Events
Keywords
pesticide
monitoring
aflatoxin
contamination
biopesticide
policy
mycotoxin
Contact
Ranajit Bandyopadhyay
E-mail
r.bandyopadhyay@cgiar.org
Title
Reducing Impact of Mycotoxins in Tropical Agriculture with Emphasis on Health and Trade in Africa
Description
This international conference in Accra, Ghana on 13 - 16 September 2005 was co-organized by IITA under the auspices of EU's MycoGlobe project. The goal of the conference was to disseminate information on mycotoxins and recommend priority actions in the areas of technical, institutional and policy options for improving public health and trade through the management of mycotoxins from field to fork. The outcome of the conference was published as the following book: Leslie, J.F., Bandyopadhyay, R., and Visconti, A. 2008. Mycotoxins: Detection Methods, Management, Public Health and Agricultural Trade. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK.
more ...
CGIAR center
IITA
Category
Outreach and Events
Keywords
mycotoxin
policy
contamination
aflatoxin
Contact
Ranajit Bandyopadhyay
E-mail
r.bandyopadhyay@cgiar.org
Title
Agriculture and Health Research and Education Platform in Africa
Description
The Faculty of Medicine and Health of University of Leeds and IITA has initiated an Agriculture and Health Research and Education Platform to establish a long-term research and education partnership that would create significant synergisms between the two institutions. By using IITA as a preferred partner, Leeds expects significant benefits to accrue due to its enhanced capacity to mobilize/deliver its knowledge and technologies in sub-Saharan Africa. It is expected that significant benefits would also accrue for IITA. For example, IITA scientists will have enhanced access to up stream knowledge that can underpin our more applied research outputs. IITA will have easier access to a range of disciplinary expertise and laboratory facilities that it currently does not possess. Last but not least, in partnership with the University of Leeds, IITA will be able to tap into a range of nontraditional funding sources. Three initial foci of interest were identified: (1) Human nutrition in relation to food, antifeedants, food safety and packaging, (2) Plant Biotechnology and advanced plant sciences including a range of enabling technologies and molecular approaches that can underpin progress in crop-based research, and (3) Climate change, its consequences on cropping systems and impact on ecosystems at the landscape level and human health.
CGIAR center
IITA
Category
Initiatives and Networks
Keywords
nutrition
food safety
biotechnology
biofortification
climate change
Contact
Ranajit Bandyopadhyay
E-mail
r.bandyopadhyay@cgiar.org
Title
INSTAPA: EU's 7th Framework Program Project on Malnutrition in Developing Countries
Description
The European Union's 7th Framework Program recently approved the INSTAPA project: Novel Staple Food-Based Strategies to Improve Micronutrient Status for Better Health and Development in sub-Saharan Africa. This large, multi-partner, 5-year collaborative project is led by Wageningen University (the Netherlands). The project will contribute to improvement of the dietary quality of young children and their mothers living in resource poor areas of developing countries resulting in long-term health effects and a major step towards the Millennium Development Goals set for 2015. The focus of the project is on the improvement of millet-, sorghum-, maize-, and cassava-based foods for young children in sub-Saharan Africa to safely prevent deficiencies of iron, zinc, and vitamin A and to improve immune function and cognitive development. IITA is a key partner in the project and will be involved in providing high carotene content and poundable (mealy) yellow-fleshed cassava clones into tissue culture forfield efficacy trials in Kenya. In addition, IITA will be also involved in carrying out studies to determine the impact of these nutrient-rich cassavas on growth and development of children in school feeding trials.
CGIAR center
IITA
Category
Initiatives and Networks
Keywords
diet
child health
nutrition
millet
sorghum
maize
corn
cassava
iron
zinc
vitamin A
micronurtient
malnutrition
undernutrition
biofortification
Countries
Africa
Contact
Ranajit Bandyopadhyay
E-mail
r.bandyopadhyay@cgiar.org
Title
MycoRed: EU's 7th Framework Program Project on Mycotoxin Reduction
Description
The European Union's 7th Framework Program recently approved the MycoRed project: Novel Integrated Strategies for Worldwide Mycotoxin Reduction in Food and Feed Chains. This large, multi-partner, 4-year collaborative project is led by the Institute of Science of Food Production (National Research Council, Italy) with inception date April 2009. IITA is a key partner in the project and will be involved in the following workpackages: Biocontrol to reduce mycotoxins in cropping systems, Modeling and development of a Decision Support System, Novel post-harvest and storage handling practices, and Information, education & dissemination.
CGIAR center
IITA
Category
Initiatives and Networks
Keywords
mycotoxin
contamination
aflatoxin
Contact
Ranajit Bandyopadhyay
E-mail
r.bandyopadhyay@cgiar.org
Title
System-wide Program on Integrated Pest Management (SP-IPM) and Food Safety
Description
The newly revamped SP-IPM, hosted by IITA on behalf of participating CGIAR centers, recently identified six emerging R4D themes that will be the main research thrusts through which the SP-IPM will endeavor to reduce rural and urban hunger, poverty and environmental degradation. Food safety/biosafety is one these thrust areas in which participating CGIAR centers would develop ways to mitigate mycotoxin contamination and pesticide residues to improve human health.
more ...
CGIAR center
IITA
Category
Initiatives and Networks
Keywords
hunger
poverty
food safety
pest management
mycotoxin
pesticide
aflatoxin
Contact
Ranajit Bandyopadhyay
E-mail
r.bandyopadhyay@cgiar.org
Title
HarvestPlus Challenge Program
Description
IITA is a collaborator with HarvestPlus, a global alliance of research institutions and implementing agencies that aims to reduce micronutrient malnutrition by biofortifying staple crops.
CGIAR center
IITA
Category
Initiatives and Networks
Keywords
biofortification
staple crop
staple food
micronutrient
malnutrition
nutrition
Contact
Ranajit Bandyopadhyay
E-mail
r.bandyopadhyay@cgiar.org
Title
Safe Vegetables
Description
The project's goal is to increase vegetable farmers' income and improve vegetable food quality for consumers through the diffusion of environmentally-sound integrated pest management practices. High value vegetable crops in West Africa are subject to intensive pesticide applications. The excessive use and misuse of chemical pesticides have raised serious concerns about health and environmental hazards, and increasingly strict maximum residue limits will be enforced for export markets impeding trade for countries lacking the capacity of diffusing food quality best practices. These constraints for vegetables are being addressed by the development and diffusion of effective and sustainable alternative pesticides, including biopesticides, clean seeds, botanical extracts, pheromone trap for optimal spraying times and capacity building of farmers and agents from private and public sectors, and NGOs in economically and ecologically-sound best practices.
CGIAR center
IITA
Category
Research Program
Keywords
food safety
pesticides
biopesticides
capacity building
Countries
West Africa
Contact
Ranajit Bandyopadhyay
E-mail
r.bandyopadhyay@cgiar.org
Title
Climate Change and Food Safety
Description
The occurrence of aflatoxin on crops is strongly influenced by weather during and after the growing season (including accumulation during storage). Thus, just as with climate and crop yields, aflatoxin contamination exhibits variability on a range of timescales. Climate change is likely to lead to an increase in hot and dry spells, which in turn will increase the risk of aflatoxin contamination. We plan to use expertise in human health and in climate and crop processes to combine predictive quantitative modeling of aflatoxin on crops with blood-based biomarkers of aflatoxin exposure. Taking this novel holistic approach will enable assessment of the seasonal predictability of human exposure to aflatoxin. Quantifying this increase in risk, and assessing its impacts, would be a powerful tool for focusing intervention strategies and thereby enabling longer-term adaptation.
The reported cases of food poisoning (konzo) and occasional deaths and paralysis of people in rural communities of Eastern and Southern Africa that rely on cassava during drought suggests that droughts and high temperatures induce accumulation of higher levels of cyanide in some of the local farmers varieties than under normal conditions. We plan to study the effect of climate variability (droughts) and change on the production of toxic cyanogens and mycotoxins in cassava foods and development of strategies to prevent public health disasters in rural communities in Eastern and Southern Africa.
CGIAR center
IITA
Category
Research Program
Keywords
climate change
global warming
food safety
aflatoxin
climate
contamination
cassava
mycotoxin
Contact
Ranajit Bandyopadhyay
E-mail
r.bandyopadhyay@cgiar.org
Title
Agriculture, HIV/AIDS and Malaria
Description
We examine diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, in order to understand the impact they have on agricultural productivity, food security, and livelihoods. Vulnerable populations such as women, children, and orphans are strongly emphasized in this program's research objectives. IITA contributes to the National programs on the control of HIV/AIDS by implementing in collaboration with these programs Farmer Welfare Schools (FWS). The FWS is inspired from farmer life school which is itself based on the farmer field school. It consists of the training of farmers through the non-formal education, learning by doing and discovery-based learning principles. The content of the training is under three main headings namely: Reducing vulnerability to HIV, promoting human good health, and preventing human diseases. Research efforts are also being directed towards controlling mosquito transmitted diseases with eco-friendly solutions either based on natural plant extracts, entomopathogens or viruses. Resistance of vectors towards conventional insecticides is being studied in the same program.
CGIAR center
IITA
Category
Research Program
Keywords
HIV/AIDS
malaria
food security
insecticides
mosquito
Countries
Africa
End date
r.bandyopadhyay@cgiar.org
Contact
Ranajit Bandyopadhyay