According to a statement, this first-of-its-kind
multi-country collaborative cassava breeding initiative in East and Southern
Africa is part of a major activity of the new cassava varieties and clean seed
to combat CBSD and CMD (5CP) project which is funded by the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation.
The
project is led by International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
working in collaboration with the national agricultural research systems of
Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where the trials are being
conducted.
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| Disease resistance trials |
The
project is in its final year of implementation.
Dr
Edward Kanju, IITA cassava breeder and coordinator of the 5CP project, said
that preliminary results of the trials have already shown that several of the
new varieties are virtually unaffected by CBSD and CMD, even in locations where
disease pressure is extremely high from infected fields surrounding the trials.
"Although in many of the countries the varieties are undergoing their
first year of trials, our initial results are already showing good promise.
We
will further validate the performance of these varieties by comparing them to
local ones that have been selected as checks," he explained. This landmark
regional initiative is aimed at speeding-up the breeding of cassava varieties
with dual resistance to CMD and CBSD in the five countries where the diseases
are of great concern. Each of the countries selected five of its best varieties
in terms of performance against CMD and CBSD and shared them for the
inter-country trials.
The
planting materials first underwent a rigorous clean-up exercise to ensure they
are virus-free before being distributed as tissue culture plantlets. This is
the first time that breeders in the five countries have freely shared their
best varieties in a concerted effort to tackle the two deadly diseases.
Dr
James Legg, IITA virologist, highlighted another objective of the 5CP Project,
which is the establishment of pilot clean seed distribution system in Tanzania,
which he is leading. "We are perfecting the cassava seed systems in
Tanzania through a three-step approach: Virus indexing, then rapid
multiplication at a research station and finally large-scale multiplication at
a clean site in an area with low disease pressure."
Dr
Legg said that they have established clean seed sites in Mtwopa (Mtwara), Mwele
(Tanga), Hombolo (Dodoma) and Nkenge (Kagera) in Tanzania's cassava-growing
heartland. He added that they are routinely monitored and carefully managed and
that he was happy to report that there have been very low incidences of CMD and
CBSD in these sites.
"Moreover,
the sites are now being used by the Tanzania Root and Tuber Research Programme
to produce quality planting material of new, popular and disease-resistant
varieties such as Mkuranga 1, Chereko, Kipusa and Kizimbani, as well as some of
the older favourites, such as Mkombozi, Kiroba and Mumba," added Dr Legg.
The
virus cleaning was carried out by the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) and the
Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate (KEPHIS).
The
material was forwarded to Genetics Technologies International Limited (GTIL), a
commercial tissue culture company, for mass multiplication. The plantlets were
then certified virus-free by the Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute
(MARI) and IITA.
Another
major development of the project is the establishment of rapid multiplication
systems for mini-plants derived from virus-indexed tissue culture plantlets.
By
using these rapid propagation techniques in screen houses, the team led by Dr
Kiddo Mtunda, cassava researcher and Officer-in-Charge of the Sugarcane
Research Institute (SRI) in Kibaha, Tanzania and her team have been able to
produce thousands of cassava plants in a matter of months. T
he
success of this project offers promise not just for cassava producers in the
target countries, but more widely to cassava producers throughout Africa.
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