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A virtual workshop sparks lively exchanges among members of the Africa Vegetable Breeding Consortium


September 10, 2020

Carefully planted and tended field trials of tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables at the World Vegetable Center West and Central Africa – Coastal & Humid Regions office in Cotonou, Benin fell prey to a virus—but not Tomato spotted wilt virus or Cucumber mosaic virus or Pepper mottle virus.

Instead, it was the threat of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that prevented seed company representatives from attending the annual the Africa Vegetable Breeding Consortium (AVBC) workshop and enjoying a good long look at trial plots showcasing World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) breeding lines.

Not to be daunted, the WorldVeg team hosted a virtual workshop for AVBC consortium members on 7 September 2020. Twelve participants from four seed companies joined the event, in which WorldVeg plant breeders emphasized the importance of research and development for Africa’s seed companies to thrive as market competition intensifies. Two representatives from the Africa Seed Trade Association (AFSTA), the joint partner in the consortium, also attended the workshop.

Tomato breeder Peter Hanson reviewed WorldVeg tomato product profiles, mentioning fresh market tomato lines with stronger bacterial wilt resistance, progress on insect resistance, and selected recombinant inbred lines (RILs) selected from heat-tolerant populations. “Heat tolerance will continue to be of major importance in our breeding pipeline,” Peter said. “We’re advancing a MAGIC population—Multiparent Advanced Generation Intercross—which involves eight parents, five of which have good heat tolerance.”

Diversity is the key to breeding pumpkin hybrids to attract new market segments, pumpkin breeder Narinder Dhillon told the participants. Consortium members have access to WorldVeg’s genetically diverse pumpkin breeding lines derived from global landraces; with this superior material, seed companies can develop quality F1 hybrids.

The discussion heated up when pepper breeder Derek Barchenger presented his work on the evaluation of habanero peppers, which are among the world’s hottest pepper varieties and widely consumed in sub-Saharan Africa. Derek also updated participants on efforts to breed for anthracnose resistance.

Legume breeder Ram Nair gave an overview of the five WorldVeg mungbean projects currently underway with African partners in Benin, Mali, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, as well as in Myanmar, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Australia. WorldVeg is developing heat-tolerant, shiny-seed coated lines with resistance to Mungbean yellow mosaic disease.

Allium breeder Jean-Baptiste Tignegre reviewed WorldVeg onion and shallot lines of interest to seed companies in West Africa and discussed the use of affordable tunnels to overcome the effect of heavy rain, intense sun, and harsh wind on onion growth.

Amaranth is a traditional vegetable that has been commercialized in Africa. “WorldVeg works on three types of amaranth: for use as a vegetable, for grain, and dual-purpose types,” said traditional vegetable breeder Fekadu Dinssa.  For vegetable amaranth, breeding aims to promote early growth vigor, especially for uprooting; rapid recovery from multiple cuttings; tolerance/resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses; and high nutrient content. Fekadu also briefed the group on results from farmer participatory selection of African eggplant in Tanzania.

Scientist for Traditional Vegetables Conservation and Utilization Sognigbe N’Danikou provided updates on the extensive holdings of the WorldVeg Genebank (where the world’s—and Africa’s—largest vegetable seed collections are stored) and WorldVeg seed distribution activities. Associate Agronomist Judith Honfoga and Manager – Private Sector Relations Mandy Lin presented exclusive breeding lines available to AVBC members. Teresa Liang, Frank Wang, and Tim Chen orchestrated the online programming from WorldVeg HQ in Taiwan.

During the live Q&A session, seed company participants presented overviews of their respective companies and listed priority challenges. Learnmore Mwadzingeni of SeedCo highlighted Tuta absoluta, bacterial wilt, foliar diseases on tomato, and begomoviruses, potyviruses, and bacterial wilt on pepper as major problems facing African farmers.

For Stephen Tembo of Kamano Seed, access to improved lines of a range of vegetables for testing in performance trials is a high priority. Samson Afolabi of Premier Seed Nigeria is looking for stress tolerant breeding lines of different vegetables adapted to the diverse agroecological zones in Nigeria, and also building capacity to produce more vegetable seeds locally rather than importing them from abroad.

Florine Poiroux and Morgane Raynal of Nova Genetics see vast market potential for improved varieties of African traditional vegetables such as amaranth, spider plant, African eggplant and others.

WorldVeg staff look forward to working with AVBC members to achieve their goals.

 



More news from: World Vegetable Center


Website: https://avrdc.org/

Published: September 10, 2020



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