August 25, 2020
At the WorldVeg field trials in Cotonou (left to right): Herbaud Zohoungbogbo, Judith Honfoga, Aimé Wotto, Hervé Sodogandji, Amen Elegbe, Azoma Komla, Roland Sossa, Prosper Gnaho.
WorldVeg staff at the West and Central Africa Coastal & Humid Regions office in Cotonou, Benin eagerly anticipated the honor of hosting the 2020 Africa Vegetable Breeding Consortium (AVBC) workshop on 7 September 2020—and were understandably disappointed when they learned the workshop will go virtual due to COVID-19 and travel restrictions.
Not to be daunted, Herbaud Zohoungbogbo, Judith Honfoga, and their field team diligently cultivated field trials featuring new WorldVeg breeding lines. Their painstaking effort has paid off handsomely. The trials showcase vegetable crops important in Africa such as tomato, chili pepper, habanero, sweet pepper, onion, pumpkin, okra, African eggplant (Solanum macrocarpon), amaranth, and mungbean. Special trials were planted to evaluate bacterial wilt-resistant tomato and pepper, sources of pepper potyvirus resistance, and a tomato grafting trial.
Work in the trial plots will intensify in the coming weeks as yields are measured, important horticultural traits such as fruit size, shape, and leaf color are carefully observed, and data on disease severity are taken. Results will be summarized and provided to AVBC members.
AVBC, a joint initiative of the World Vegetable Center and the Africa Seed Trade Association (AFSTA) aims to promote the development of a strong vegetable seed sector in Africa. The AVBC supports companies of all sizes—small, regional and international. Established in 2018, the AVBC helps companies obtain improved breeding material (i.e., varieties, inbred lines, and hybrids) to enhance their cultivar catalogs and learn about the latest developments in vegetable breeding research from the WorldVeg team of internationally renowned plant breeders. The AVBC workshop provides a platform for members to share experiences with other vegetable seed companies operating in Africa.
Not wishing to let the AVBC trials pass quietly into history, on 19 August Regional Director Victor Afari-sefa and his team presented the trials to Benin’s Minister of Agriculture, the Honorable Gaston Dossouhoui. The minister watched a grafting demonstration and received an update on WorldVeg regional activities along with International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) station head Manuel Tamu. WorldVeg and IITA seek to design technologies to benefit farmers and consumers in Benin and other African countries.
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