The role of community engagement in the adoption of new agricultural biotechnologies by farmers: the case of the Africa harvest tissue-culture banana in Kenya.

Background: The tissue culture banana (TCB) is a biotechnological agricultural innovation that has been adopted widely in commercial banana production. In 2003, Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International (AH) initiated a TCB program that was explicitly developed for smallholder farmers in Kenya to help them adopt the TCB as a scalable agricultural business opportunity. At the heart of the challenge of encouraging more widespread adoption of the TCB is the question: what is the best way to introduce the TCB technology, and all its attendant practices and opportunities, to smallholder farmers.

Elevated vitamin E content improves all-trans β-carotene accumulation and stability in biofortified sorghum.

Micronutrient deficiencies are common in locales where people must rely upon sorghum as their staple diet. Sorghum grain is seriously deficient in provitamin A (β-carotene) and in the bioavailability of iron and zinc. Biofortification is a process to improve crops for one or more micronutrient deficiencies.

Is there a place for nutrition-sensitive agriculture?

The focus of the review paper is to discuss how biotechnological innovations are opening new frontiers to mitigate nutrition in key agricultural crops with potential for large-scale health impact to people in Africa. The general objective of the Africa Biofortified Sorghum (ABS) project is to develop and deploy sorghum with enhanced pro-vitamin A to farmers and end-users in Africa to alleviate vitamin A-related micronutrient deficiency diseases. To achieve this objective the project technology development team has developed several promising high pro-vitamin A sorghum events.

Development and transfer of genetically modified virus-resistant sweet potato for subsistence farmers in Kenya.

Up to 80% of the yield of sweet potato, the major root crop in East Africa, can be destroyed by crop diseases such as the sweet potato feathery mottle virus (SPFMV). A sweet potato that is resistant to SPFMV is being developed through the combined efforts of non-governmental agenices, biotechnology groups, and agricultural entities. Even small improvements in crop yield, owing to this new technology, will feed countless people in Africa.