News

Cameroonian Patrick Ngono, 35, is working as a PhD student in the FoodAfrica WP2 researching cattle breed productivity in Senegal. His objective is to identify the most suitable cattle breeds for Senegalese smallholders. Patrick Ngono is a doctoral student at the Inter-States School of Veterinary Medicine and Science in Dakar who is in partnership with ILRI as well as the University of Helsinki and MTT Agrifood Research Finland in the …

Magdalene Nguli, 27, is a Kenyan Master of Science student at the University of Nairobi. She is also one of the young scientists involved in the FoodAfrica programme work package 1. At the moment she is studying crop micronutrients in MTT Jokioinen in Finland. Magdalene Nguli is doing research in MTT headquarters in Jokioinen, Finland for altogether two months. Last week she got started on screening micronutrients from food crops. …

Sustainable dairy production in Senegal is the focus of FoodAfrica work package 2. The field work done in the work package involves 239 farming families and over 3000 dairy animals, and is progressing well, which is visualized in the following photo collection.

The World Agroforestry Centre together with the FoodAfrica programme launched a new plant environment facility to support screening of soils for crop micronutritional deficiencies. The initiative is a major innovation that could set a standard for conducting plant bioassays and linking plant responses to new spectral-based soil and plant tests. The approach is to assess plant response to different nutrient treatments by growing plants in test tubes using small amounts …

This year the FoodAfrica work package leaders held their annual meeting in connection to the supervisory board’s meeting at the end of January in Kampala, Uganda. It provided an opportunity for constructive discussions regarding the progress of the programme. During the meetings each work package leader presented the progress, possible challenges and results to date for the supervisory board. The supervisory board members and other FoodAfrica researchers had a chance …

The Kenyan farmer’s level of awareness of the risks of toxic substances produced by fungi, i.e. mycotoxins, varies. In areas where the problem of acute poisoning has already risen, people have a better understanding of the risks. In other areas people are in danger of exposure to the mycotoxins because they cannot make the connection between contaminated feed and aflatoxin in milk and its effects. Mycotoxins are formed in susceptible …

In January a group of FoodAfrica researchers from MTT Agrifood Research Finland visited two dairy farms in the Kenyan village called Mukuyuni. The farmers were impressively well aware of the risks of aflatoxins and the ways of avoiding them in maize. Mrs. Fidelis Mbithuka owns a dairy farm in Mukuyuni village in the Makueni district. She farms dairy cows and grows maize in an area of 10 acres. Her four …

On the 16th of January ISRA (Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and MTT Agrifood Research Finland organized a workshop on the impacts of and adaptation to climate change. The workshop was held at ISRA headquarters in Dakar, Sénégal. The goal of the event was to present preliminary results of the project and to discuss the next steps in the analysis. Besides FoodAfrica partners, the …

Abdub Galgallo, 27, is a Kenyan Master of Science student at the Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (INST), University of Nairobi. He is involved in the programme of FoodAfrica research for development through the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) where he has conducted research on his thesis on soil micronutrients. Building capacity by educating young scientists in the participating countries is one of the key activities in the programme. Abdub …

Marja Mutanen, Professor of Nutrition Physiology at the Department of Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki is studying Beninese child diet and feeding practices. Her research is a part of the FoodAfrica work package focusing on improving nutrition and food security by enhancing the usage of traditional foods in Benin. University of Helsinki is working together with Bioversity International, which is the leading institution in this work package. Bioversity …