Curated Content

Based on production and export data, groundnut has the potential to contribute to Malawi’s agricultural diversification agenda, for both food and export purposes. According to key informants interviewed, the main challenges faced in the groundnut value chain are high aflatoxin contamination, limited access to improved seed, and limited access to structured markets. Policy options should focus on addressing issues that limit productivity and strategies for mitigating aflatoxin contamination considering their threat to food and nutrition security, public health, and access to higher-value markets. Future research should focus on how to best alleviate the identified constraints and harness opportunities for contributing to the country's agricultural diversification agenda not only in the groundnut value chain but also for other crops.

A large share of Malawian households faces multiple shocks which affect their welfare. There is a need to develop programs that increase household resilience against the recurring weather-related disasters and adversities such as promotion of climate smart technologies and practices. As a coping mechanism, most households resort to using own savings, while a significant number of households do nothing.  Social safety nets and farm input subsidies play a significant role in cushioning households against shocks, but the current programmes are hampered by poor targeting hence not fully benefiting the intended poor households. The government and development partners should develop better ways of targeting of the existing social safety nets and input subsidy programmes so as to benefit the deserving and intended poor households.

Despite the adaptation and mitigation measures that have been put in place to counter the negative effects of climate change and food insecurity, more than 57.8 million people in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) population need food assistance in 2023 due to poor harvests (APA 2023). In Botswana, alone, close to 37,000 people need food assistance (FAO, 2022). This comes against the backdrop of declining agricultural productivity attributed to several factors including high cost of inputs, high incidence of pests and diseases, low input use and extreme weather conditions such as droughts, floods, and erratic rainfalls (FAO 2022).

The Food and Agricultural Research and Extension Institute, through its new variety introduction and evaluation programme, have identified a tomato variety Jupiter adapted to both humid and sub-humid regions of the island. Jupiter is a semideterminate cooking tomato variety with high-yielding potential and suitable for both fresh market and processing. The plant bears long oblong fruits which are preferred by growers and highly appreciated by consumers.

Onion 243 is a short-day yellow hybrid variety with high yield potential and is suitable for storage. Plants have a uniform fall over of leaves at maturity. Bulbs are globular, uniform, medium-sized, and firm. Yield is comparable to hybrid varieties which are commercially cultivated locally. The variety adapts well to onion-growing regions except in coastal areas having sandy soil.

Guidelines for Extraction of Tomato Seeds

Fluazifop-P-butyl 150 g/L is a systemic, post-emergence herbicide that can be used for the control of annual and perennial grasses. Trials carried out at the FAREI on the effect of fluazifop-P-butyl on these two types of grasses have shown that the herbicide is not phytotoxic to crops such as potato, onion, carrot, creepers, peanut, and banana, as well as non-gramineae ornamentals. Weeds turn yellow or red and weed control is usually completed within 3 to 5 weeks after application

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) is a valuable crop in the dry regions of the world, including Namibia. Due to the intensity and recurrence of drought and heat stress in the traditional sorghum growing areas, there is a need to breed and deploy new generation farmer-preferred and climate-smart cultivars to serve the diverse value chains. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to assess the present state of sorghum production in northern Namibia and document farmers’ perceived production constraints and trait preferences in new varieties to guide drought-tolerance breeding. A survey was conducted using a participatory rural appraisal in the following six selected sorghum-growing constituencies in Namibia: Kapako and Mpungu (Kavango West Region), Eenhana and Endola (Ohangwena Region), and Katima Mulilo Rural and Kongola (Zambezi Region). Data were collected using a structured questionnaire involving 198 farmers in 14 sampled villages across the regions. Results revealed variable trends in sorghum production among respondent farmers when disaggregated by gender, age, number of households, education level, cropping systems, types of varieties grown, and perceived production constraints. An equal proportion of male and female respondent farmers cultivate sorghum, suggesting the value of the crop to both genders in Namibia. Most respondent farmers (63.6%) were in productive age groups of <40 years old. In the study areas, low-yielding landrace varieties, namely Ekoko, Okambete, Makonga, Kamburo, Nkutji, Katoma, Fuba, Dommy, Kawumbe, and Okatombo, were widely cultivated, and most of the farmers did not use chemical fertilizers to cultivate sorghum. Farmers’ perceived sorghum production constraints in the study areas included recurrent drought, declining soil fertility, insect pest damage, high cost of production inputs, unavailability of improved seed, lack of alternative improved varieties with farmers’ preferred traits, lack of organic manure, limited access to market and limited extension service. The key farmers’ preferred traits in a new sorghum variety included high grain yield, early maturity, and tolerance to drought, in the field and storage insect pests. The study recommends genetic improvement and new variety deployment of sorghum with the described farmers-preferred traits to increase the sustainable production of the crop in Namibia.

The magnitude of genotype by environment interaction (GEI) is crucial for selecting high performing and adapted genotypes for targeted breeding. The aim of the study was to determine GEI of newly-developed mutant and traditional sorghum lines for grain yield and yield related traits for drought-prone areas of Namibia. Fifty sorghum genotypes were evaluated under feld conditions using a 10×5 alpha lattice design with three replications. The experiments were carried out in four environments with two growing seasons in Namibia. Data were collected on grain yield and related traits and subjected to the Additive Main Efects and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) model. The AMMI model showed that 93.9% of the total genetic variation was attributed to days to 50% fowering (DF), while 94.04% of the variation was due to plant height (PH), 86.52%  to panicle weight (PW), 70.67% to thousand-grain weight (TGW), and 90.68% to grain yield (GY). The larger variations attributed to genotypic efects for PL (36.3%), TGW (33.2%) and PH (20.7%) are useful for genotype selection for yield related traits. Based on a multi-trait biplot and Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUPs) analyses of the GEI data across all drought-prone testing environments, the medium maturity mutant line designated as L7P9-13 was selected as the best yielding (2 tons/ha) and recommended for drought-prone area of Namibia

Cultivated sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is an important food security crop in the semi-arid regions of the world including Asia and Africa. Its genetic diversity is contained mostly in traditional varieties and modern cultivars used by farmers. In this study, agro-morphological traits and molecular markers were used to assess genetic diversity in 22 accessions of cultivated sorghum from five countries (Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe) in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The study revealed a significant variation among 22 accessions in both qualitative and quantitative morphological traits, indicating the accessions’ promising potential as breeding material. For molecular analysis, 11 microsatellite primer-pairs were used, and generated a total of 70 alleles across 20 accessions. Analysis of molecular variance revealed a high level of genetic variation; 67 % among the accessions and 10 % among the five countries. The patterns of genetic diversity and the relationships observed in this study should provide insights for genetic resource conservation and utilization of sorghum germplasm in the SADC region.