This year, we undertook studies to further understand the dynamics of the relationships among factors affecting banana and plantain production in Africa and establish some of the underlying causes why it is as it is. This would help us plot a more effective course for our Musa R4D efforts in Africa.

Further to our work on developing a biocontrol product against aflatoxin contamination in food crops, we also developed six new aflatoxin-resistant maize inbred lines with our US-based partners. These maize lines, which have been released to farmers, are also well-adapted to the lowlands.

This year, a soybean variety resistant to the disease that we developed was approved for release by the Nigerian National Variety Release Committee (NNVRC). The rust-resistant soybean is the first of its kind to be made available for cultivation not only in Nigeria but also in West and Central Africa.

As the effects of the global economic and food price crises of 2008 rippled strongly during most of 2009, these provided us with terrific opportunities to demonstrate the effectiveness of our R4D strategy in mitigating their impact especially on African farmers and help them cope with the ever-changing agricultural landscape.

The successes recorded by the five-year run of the PROSAB project that we coordinated proved the effectiveness of our R4D approach in tackling not only livelihoods and food security but also social empowerment and gender equality.

This year, our Sustainable Tree Crops Program (STCP) was tapped to be part of a multi-sector consortium to implement the US$40 million, 5-year Cocoa Livelihoods Program (CLP) that aims to improve the livelihoods of approximately 200,000 cocoa farmers in Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Liberia.

In consultation with partners across West Africa, we developed the Planting, Replanting and Diversification (PRD) Manual – a cocoa production training document designed to help sharpen the skills and knowledge of farmers in carrying out best practices to rehabilitate old farms and/or start new ones. We also developed an accompanying guidebook to help users make most out of the manual.

A study on the impact of agricultural research on productivity and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) that we completed this year has shown that agricultural research has a direct positive impact on poverty, reducing the number of poor people in the region by as much as 2.3 million annually.

This year, we moved closer to developing cassava with dual resistance to Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) and Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) – the most devastating diseases of the crop in Eastern and Central Africa and affecting more than 200 million people.

We developed an innovative yam propagation technique using vine cuttings that promises cheaper, safer, and faster multiplication of planting materials, translating to better profits for growers.