Browse Feed the Future Peanut Lab Stories - Page 4

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Kaitlin Fischer, a PhD student in rural sociology at Pennsylvania State University working on a Peanut Innovation Lab project has won a Fulbright Scholarship to travel to Ghana and study peanut value chain interventions. CAES News
Fulbright Scholar
Women around the world play an important role in producing peanut, but how those nuts get to market is a complicated and critical part of the value chain. Kaitlin Fischer, a graduate student working with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to compare interventions to see how two types of commercialization schemes impact peanut farmers, especially women.
Scientists working collaboratively in global research projects have grown accustomed to meeting on Zoom. As the ability to travel safely becomes a reality, the Innovation Lab will hold on to some of the communication habits and tools that proved useful. CAES News
Digital tech bringing teams together
The innovation lab held its second annual research meeting in a digital format in June, incorporating many of the lessons learned over the past year about how to make the most out of technology for long-distance meetings. To make the most of the ability to meet online, the management entity and many project teams in the Peanut Innovation Lab have shifted the way they get together.
Groundnut Academy logo CAES News
Groundnut Academy
Students are on a break in many parts of the world, but learning can happen at any time on a new platform created by the Peanut Innovation Lab. Called the “Groundnut Academy,” the digital learning platform is a place to learn about all things groundnut, beginning with the plant itself. As courses are added, learners can explore the nutrition of the nut, safe post-harvest practices and topics related to groundnut research.
Professor David Bertioli and senior research scientist Soraya Leal-Bertioli work together with peanut plants in their greenhouses at the Center for Applied Genetic Technologies. CAES News
Best of Both Worlds
The wild relatives of modern peanut plants have the ability to withstand disease in ways that modern peanut plants can’t. The genetic diversity of these wild relatives means that they can shrug off the diseases that kill farmers’ peanut crops, but they also produce tiny nuts that are difficult to harvest because they burrow deep in the soil.
An innovative small-scale sheller can be adjusted to shell various sizes of nuts grown in different geographies. By replacing the sheller basket of the machine and passing unshelled nuts through twice, a user speed up the monotonous task with few broken or split nuts. (Photo by Allison Floyd) CAES News
Small peanut shellers
The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut is deploying several innovative small-scale shellers and grading tables to assist groundnut breeding teams in Africa. The equipment will help collaborators in Senegal, Uganda, Ghana, Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique in their quest to release drought- and disease-resistant high-yielding varieties that smallholder farmers need.
Sean Posey CAES News
Student Profile: Sean Posey
Sean Posey didn’t see how agricultural economics would feed his love of math, but a decade into his grad school journey, he’s using those skills and interests to help improve farming practices in Africa. From information communication technologies to gender roles in information-sharing and incentivization programs that will improve groundnut health, Posey has been focused on improving agricultural practices and public safety for the past four years. At the University of Georgia completing his PhD, Posey is working on a research project led by professor Nick Magnan through the Peanut Innovation Lab
The Peanut Innovation Lab has posted the second in a pair of animations giving farmers valuable advice on growing groundnut. This edition focuses on late-season information related to harvest and storage, and might be shown together with the first animation or separately. CAES News
Groundnut animation
The Peanut Innovation Lab has posted the second in a pair of animations giving farmers valuable advice on growing groundnut. This edition focuses on late-season information related to harvest and storage, and might be shown together with the first animation or separately. The animations, produced by Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO), relay to smallholder farmers proven methods to protect and improve yield. The message of the videos was shaped through interviews and surveys with partners in Africa to ensure that the information is prioritized to have the most impact.
Danielle Essandoh, a master’s student at Makerere University in Uganda, grew out 376 lines of plants derived from peanut ancestors and looked for resistance to modern diseases. The project, headed by Soraya Leal-Bertioli at the University of Georgia, could result in new varieties that allow African farmers to fight plant diseases that can decimate a crop. CAES News
Student Profile: Danielle Essandoh
Danielle Essandoh always liked plants, but as she prepares to defend her master’s thesis for a degree in plant breeding from Makerere University in Uganda, she sees how her love of plants grew into a passion for helping people. Specifically, the work could lead to improved varieties that can withstand two particular diseases that can destroy groundnut crops in eastern Africa – groundnut rosette disease and late leaf spot.
Ivan Chapu has worked with hand-held sensors in groundnut test plots in Uganda as past of a three-country project to use the technology for high-throughput phenotyping. Now that he’s completeing a master’s degree from Makerere University, he hopes to continue on to a PhD. (Photo by Allison Floyd) CAES News
Student Profile: Ivan Chapu
Ugandan graduate student Ivan Chapu has dedicated himself to adapting handheld sensors to help groundnut breeders generate resilient varieties that will help farmers to succeed. His passion for new technology led him in an unexpected direction – into a peanut field – where the Makerere University master’s student also discovered a love for research.